Its Time Again

The term "kill the fatted calves" comes to mind. Calves to the slaughter.

For anyone like me who is just wondering a bit about him being 171cm. Anthony McDonald Tipungwuti is also 171cm. He seems to go alright. Just in case you, like me, incorrectly thought Kozzie should be categorized as a "small" forward just because he is only 171cm. Here's an interesting quote by Jay Clark on 171cm AMT, in his article today about Brown being selected. "Essendon’s forward line is already stacked with gun mid-sized goal kickers including Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.........."

There's no restriction anymore. They can play whenever and as often as you want them to.

Out of interest can anyone explain why we didn't pick him in the Rookie draft where we had several picks and didn't use them and then just a few days later pick him through the SSP as a rookie. On the face of it a bit strange. I thought the point of the SSP was to have players train through the whole summer so you could make a decision on them on 6 March.

Haven’t changed my favourite players on here for a few years. Just did an addition. I’m having visions of Cyril in attack and Byron in defence. Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be back in a little while.

Seriously hope you’ll still be giggling in 4 years time and we’re all very happy campers.

Nah he's coming to us not from us. Mind you Steven Armstrong got dumped by us and went to Eagles and played in the Premiership winning team in his first year there. There's a few others better left unsaid.

I wonder how the salary works in a situation like this. If he survives till the deadline on 6 March and Dees decide to take him as a rookie knowing that he might not even play in 2020 or a large part of it, wonder if there are any salary cap concessions. Like there are with players who go on the long term injury list except in this case he's coming in on the long term injury list.

Just listened to SEN for a couple of minutes. Someone on from Saints. Pretty sure it was their Head of List Manager James Gallagher, Gossige asked him if Saints had pick 3 who would they pick. He said unprompted, Jackson then mentioned Aish. Probably snakes and ladders but still that's what he said.

Haven't heard this before. Pray tell.

Big stretch to blame go home factor on the Club. Something wrong with Hawthorn and Geelong? Franklin (wasn’t even go home factor) and Kelly.

Marty's very busy. Spargo Trac Langdon Yeh, yeh I know who it is.

I assume on the basis of Saty's previous observations that this was Marty Hore at work again. Slowly working his way through the list.

The rule says "directly". I assume that means you can't trade it to a club and directly trade it back from the same club. I believe if it comes back having been through another club it would be ok.

I've only seen a handful of players who aren't natural forwards turned into effective key position forwards. There's so much that goes into the position. Knowing how to read all the play down the field, knowing where to run to on a lead coupled with the skills to have running patterns to lose key backs, then kicking and marking skills. Massive risk to take someone on for this if they don't have a background in it. I have absolutely no idea about Jackson with any of this, there's just not enough footage. It's just got gamble written all over it.

Serious question. How do you know this. There's so little footage I can't get a handle on him at all. I'd say t's not possible to get that idea without seeing him.

Buckenara rates him at 18 in his phantom draft. Seems to have gamble written all over it. Drafting for unexposed potential. Hopefully will develop into a forward, hopefully will learn to kick, hopefully will grow a few centimetres, hopefully won't go home. Hope they've done serious homework on the last point. Having watched the finals I would have said the standout trait we need is elite skill. Clearly not addressing that weakness here. Gotta trust Taylor I guess. Buckenara has Pickett at 35. Fair to say our picks would be looking very different if he was our recruiting boss.

Stats are interesting aren't they. They're only as good as how they're used. There's only been 2 ruckman picked in the top 10 since 2006. One a success, one a failure. I'd have a pretty educated guess that most ruckman are taken on as project players quite late in the draft. So that stat may not be that surprising or significant in picking Jackson if he's a freak like Nick Nat. I haven't seen or read anything that puts him in that category but Taylor and team have earnt my trust so if they pick him I will have to bare knuckled trust their judgement.

One of my concerns is lack of height, however, this chart on afl.com.au on the height of current ruckman is an interesting one. If he grows a bit more he won't be that far off the current crop. CLUB PLAYER HEIGHT Adelaide Reilly O'Brien 202cm Brisbane Stefan Martin 199cm Carlton Matthew Kreuzer 200cm Collingwood Brodie Grundy 203cm Essendon Tom Bellchambers 202cm Fremantle Rory Lobb 206cm Geelong Rhys Stanley 200cm Gold Coast Jarrod Witts 209cm GWS Giants Shane Mumford 198cm Hawthorn Ben McEvoy 200cm Melbourne Max Gawn 208cm North Melbourne Todd Goldstein 201cm Richmond Ivan Soldo 204cm St Kilda Rowan Marshall 201cm Sydney Callum Sinclair 200cm West Coast Tom Hickey 201cm Western Bulldogs Tim English 205cm

Seriously rjay who's going to read anything you write when they have to get past your avatar first. What a gatekeeper.

Primary list can be just 38. Bennell and Brown can go onto rookie list from SSD so we have 6 rookies. Healthy salary cap next year.

Some pre draft experts last year were of the opinion he has the best potential X factor of all players in last year's draft. Look forward to seeing it in 2020 and beyond.

This deal can't happen. We can't trade pick 22 back as we traded it to Freo. Rule 9.7(a) A Club may exchange a Draft selection which it has received from another Club, provided that the selection is not traded directly back to that Club. Any deal with Freo would require them to trade in another pick for 22 from somewhere else as well as their pick 10. That's possible but they better get on with it. The clocks ticking. At this stage we have no other picks to offer this year or next year other than this year's 8.

What's people's view about Green v Young. I have read some opinions that Green is right up there with the first 2 and then there's a drop off to anyone else. Would Green therefore be a better option than Young or Jackson even though he's an inside mid.

From the Club website. “We’ve got a new Head of Sports Science in David Regan, who’s been involved with the New York Mets and the Miami Dolphins. “Previously, he’s also been a teacher, so he brings a good balance of the data knowledge, but also an understanding of the best way to communicate it. “The other appointment we have made is Robert Younger, in the role of Performance Data Scientist. “That role is going to sit across the performance team, coaching, list management and recruiting.” “Decisions have been made on the back of 12 months of gathering information on where our program can get better, but also looking across other clubs and across the world about the trends in sporting departments,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations about data, and like any business or any sport, there is so much data available to everyone. “The key parts we’re looking at are that we’re capturing the right data, analysing it properly and then utilising it in the right way.” The specialised approach will see the club streamline its collection methods, before efficiently applying the information to assist with decision making. With two dedicated staff members joining the sports science team, the Demons will rely heavily on personnel to oversee and manage the success of the concept, across several areas of the club. “We think there are some real opportunities within this area, and those opportunities have been created by bringing in some different people with different skillsets, who can analyse data in a different way,” Mahoney said.