Whispering_Jack

I think the AFL will have to look at the rules relating to player availability for medical testing in drafts. It seems ridiculous that the system enables clubs to have ready access to medical tests for young draftees but someone like Ball is able to avoid having to make himself available. As to the rest of his conduct and that of his manager, there are many similarities between Ball's case and those in previous years when players were found to have tampered with the draft. Ball didn't say he wouldn't play with another club but comments attributed to his manager and his conduct came close to at least meriting an investigation. Of course, the AFL will look askance as it does with issues raised with the salary cap when players earn fortunes outside the cap for being ambassadors for companies controlled by supporters. As far as Ball is concerned, I think it's now a dead issue except for the player and his new club. If Ball fails, particularly due to his physical condition, there is likely to be a lot of pressure on him, on Malthouse and on the Collingwood administration. But hey, that's their problem.

Vale George Bickford The Melbourne Football Club lost a treasured part of its heritage on the weekend, with the passing of 1948 premiership player and 150 Hero, George Bickford who was one of Melbourne’s best in the historic replay win over Essendon in 1948. His son, Stephen, also played for Melbourne, and served as a director. Sincere condolences to the entire Bickford family.

That would be a heavy weight to carry for someone whose already the # 1 draft pick IMO.

I was reading his draft profile on AFL Draft Info and it says he was the 2009 Vic Metro vice-captain. Scully was captain. We should have some fantastic contenders for our leadership group in a few year's time.

I suspect that with the exception of a small corner of SE Queensland, next year's draft selection meeting isn't going to rate it's socks off and that Melbourne's involvement will be minimal. GC17 has already taken 12 of the best players from the 2010 pool and has a suitcase load of first round picks to play with. There will no doubt be a few trades done of these early picks but, other than those, the pickings will generally be slim. Hopefully, we might be able to fill part of the void with a couple of rookie promotions but otherwise, the draft circus is over for a few seasons and tanking will be no more than a distant memory.

I've seen Tapscott playing for SA as well as for North Adelaide in the SANFL and I've also been impressed by this kid who is a real goer, strong bodied and hard at it. If there is an issue with him it's probably the same one that some people had this time last year with Daniel Rich. He is physically a kid in a man's body so he might not have as much room for improvement in him as Scully, Trengove or Gysberts. Needless to say, it didn't worry Brisbane and it didn't harm Rich this year. He looks very strong in the legs (they're like tree trunks and his calves are big) and it's no wonder he's a prodigious kick. If I were to compare him to an AFL player I'd liken him to Stewie Dew so he may have to work hard in future years to keep the weight down (perhaps Mrs. Tapscott could be imported to cook for Cale Morton). I'm sure he'll be given a training programme appropriate to developing his physique and ensuring that the club can get the best out of him. What I really did like about Tapscott as an 18 year old playing in the finals against men is his composure - very much like his Prince Alfred College school mate Jack Trengove. I wouldn't even be surprised if Tapscott became the first of the 2009 draftees to make an AFL debut. I've seen him commit to situations with great bravery and it's because of his courage that I would, without hesitation, give Tapscott the same number he wore this year at North Adelaide - 31.

I think the HUN ratings reflect the position of each club's draft picks. Collingwood drafted Luke Ball with 30 and the rest of it's selections were post 60. As a result the Pies were given an A rating. If they chose those four players with a normal distribution of picks up to, say 45, their drafting would have been looked at far differently.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/refl...91127-jwzt.html The continuation of an inspirational story for the Melbourne Football Club

The key words were "at this level". I think if you had a club which had, as one of its main criteria, the need to put a side on the field that would be competive in the VFL, then you couldn't go past Newton. He's better than many of the potential KPPs selected in the second half of the draft are ever going to be and you know exactly what you're going to get with him. As the first member of the Juice Newton fan club (I was there the day he kicked 9 in the Sandy ressies at Windy Hill in 2006 - 6 in the third quarter and later on the day he kicked 4 against Casey seniors with limited game time) I think he still has within him the capacity to do a lot better. Unfortunately, his time might have run out with us.

Too right! As coach of the team, I can confirm that just because he's first pick in the ND it means Jack Squat with me. He has to earn his place along with any other player. He needs to be disciplined, give up the smokes ... and the drink ... er, um ok. Tell him to turn up and we'll see what we can do.

Viewers of Hutchy's TAC Cup programme on Channel 9 this year would be no strangers to Gysberts. He was a favourite of the programme from the very first show when it was revealed that his folks were huge Magpie fans and that he was most likely conceived on the night the Pies won the 1990 flag. There were plenty of Jordan Gysberts highlights on the programme during the year and he really can play a bit. A student of the Yarra Valley school and schoolmate of Sam Blease, I seem to remember something about him being nearby on the infamous day when Sam broke his foot. As for placings in Phantom Drafts put out by people in the media, people like Burgo and Emma Quayle get a fair bit of their information from talking to people involved at the coalface in drafting. BP apparently keeps his cards close to his chest. Had he dropped the hint to someone in the media a week ago that he was keen on drafting Gysberts, then the kid might, in all likelihood, have become a favourite to go at # 11. Would that have made some people happy? And on the subject of reuniting classmates what about Prince Alfred College pair Jack Trengove and Luke Tapscott. Now, that could be one of the best examples of inspired teaming ever!

Yesterday's draft selections represented a tremendous victory for common sense and consistency in recruiting strategy. A better club is emerging and I'm expecting some rapid strides to be made in the next few years.

My own reflection is that we are developing a pattern of recruiting solid characters with lots of grounding at the elite end of the sport. We now have eight players at the club born in 1991 and here's a common thread that links most of them: Jack Watts - wins Larke Medal for b & f under 18 champs as a bottom aged player (i.e had another year at this age level had he not been drafted); Sam Blease - played with Watts in Vic Metro under 18 champs also bottom aged; Tom Scully - played two years with Vic Metro under 18s; Jordan Gysberts - played two years with Vic Metro under 18s; Jack Fitzpatrick - played two years with Vic Metro under 18s. That's 5 players from the Victoria Metro under 18 championships all bottom aged and now together at the one AFL club. But that's not all! Luke Tapscott - played two years with SA under 18s and kicked a bag of 5 goals as a bottom aged player in a championship game; and Jack Trengove - SA under 18 captain this year but who didn't play in the champs as a bottom ager. However, it seems he would have been selected but for the fact that he was on a tour to England as an elite cricketer; and Max Gawn - didn't represent Vic Metro in either year but was on track this year before doing his ACL. The odd man out but I'm prepared to make concessions for 208cm ruckmen! That elite thread in our recruiting should come to the fore in the next two or three years. The MFC is becoming a very attractive proposition for the future.

There could be more to come because the AFL clubs still have a further list lodgement date. I assume that if a club now wants to grab one of the players out there and not picked they could still do it. I think Meesen is fairly safely still a Demon but Juice might still be picked up by a club, possibly even Gold Coast with one of their five rookie selections at the start of the rookie draft. It was explained to me recently that one purpose of these selections is to bolster GC17's young side as it steps up into the VFL in 2010. They will need some experienced bodies to ensure that the team remains competitive. With Newton's talents and experience at this level, he's got to be a chance. They would also need mature bodied ruckman so Meesen isn't out of the picture either.

Having spent the evening at ground zero - the MoM meeting - I would have to say that all of Melbourne's wishes came true this evening. Chris Connolly ran the evening as only CC can - with lots of humour mixed in with some very incisive and informative discussion relating to the draft. First off he made it clear that our first two picks in order were Scully and Trengove - no surprise there. Then he indicated that with pick 11 it was unlikely that the club was going to take a KPP. The club's recruiters were simply not impressed, with the feeling that John Butcher was the pick of this group but he had some problems with his kicking for goal and field kicking. The club felt Butcher was likely to go to Port Adelaide. He nominated Jordan Gysberts, Jake Melksham and Kane Lucas as the likely selection. He favoured Gysberts and said that the club was very impressed by him and keen to pick him up at this stage of the draft. Then came one of the highlights of the evening from my point of view. In answer to whether the club would be picking Luke Ball, CC made it very clear that Ball wasn't in the club's plans - there was no place at the club for him. The club had constantly used Ball to highlight the fact that he might have been a leader of the club's extremely young list but it was more with the purpose of ensuring that the public was made aware of how good our youth were. Ball wasn't really a contender. So who to take at 18? CC came right out with Luke Tapscott. It was either him or Max Gawn. Both were taken by the club, the latter at 34. Even at this stage CC was prepares to suggest the club wanted Jake Fitzgerald at 50 - and it came to pass!

OK - one more try 1 Trengove 2 Scully 11 Talia 18 Vardy 34 Grimes 50 Thorp 66 Pass PSD Joel Macdonald

That rules your mob out because they laid down back in 2005 with the result that they ended up with a priority draft pick and Pendelbury and Thomas.

I don't know about anyone else but with four days to go I've hit the wall with saturation coverage of this stuff. I've already banned watching any You Tube material (most of it is misleading anyway because it packages a player's highlights and doesn't show much of what he's doing for the remaining 95% or so of a game) and I think I'll lock myself away from this for a few days. Still, can't wait for the real thing though!

Yeah ... well, given that most of the pundits are suggesting that up to 9 out of the first 10 to be selected on Thursday night will be midfield types it really is hardly surprising. But can we possibly guess which two he has in mind?

Here's an interesting interview featuring the Lightning Bolt and his containing a quote from the Warlpiri Warrior: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/11/20/2749391.htm Just to bring everybody up to date, here's a paragraph from today's NT News from a report on yesterday's Wanderers v Darwin game won by Liam's team which lifted them back into the top 5: If we end up drafting him, I'm tipping he'll get the number 48.

Any news on how Liam Patrick went on his return or whether he actually played? I noticed in the NT News that his team lost and he wasn't named in the goalkickers or best players.

The problem with the PSD in recent years has been that changes in AFL rules have watered down its effectiveness. Many of the out of contract players who now can nominate in the National Draft were previously confined to the PSD. The inevitable result has to be a weaker PSD pool. The AFL isn't helping either by ignoring some of the deals done pre PSD which leave clubs like Sydney bragging they had "secured" Darren Bradshaw even though they don't have first pick. The impression being given by the AFL is that it doesn't give two hoots about the integrity of the draft system anyway. They've ignored the conduct of Luke Ball and his manager as described by Craig Hutchison which, if proven, would surely have to be prejudicial to the draft. Perhaps next year we might hear the manager of the number one draft prospect coming out and saying his client doesn't want to move from Perth to Gold Coast. I wonder if the AFL might act then?

I believe that his manager might have issued that threat some time in the past.

The man was exceedingly well paid but Chris Judd also went to a club that had been down for several years and when he went there he spoke about the challenge of lifting that club. At the time, Carlton had Fevola, Nick Stevens and a handful of early draft picks. Two years later they made the finals and should have done better than 7th. They can already smell something after two years. What's wrong with that?

Lots of people do things because they present a challenge in life so what's wrong with accepting the challenge of helping to lift a club that's been travelling poorly for a few years up the ladder? Then again, perhaps the easy option would be to take a gig at a place like Collingwood where the livin' is easy and people without much hunger for achievement can have a good time for a few years, get well paid and drift aimlessly through what's left of their career.