Its Time for Another

Surely that's all in keeping with being a Dr Gonzo. Not relevant.

Turner compares him most directly with Joel Selwood who is 182cm. 181cm would be even more effective at doing that Joel Selwood arm raise to get the highest high tackle count in the league. Mind you Parish is 13kg's lighter.

If he gets picked at 3 it's because they believe he'll be able to produce his best consistently enough to be worth it. Frankly who has a clue this year other than professionals who have watched them over a number of years. I trust in Taylor & Co. The more I read the less clear I am. Our picks are a lottery this year. Any of a number of players could end up being the best in this draft and others could be dudds. We won't know for about 3-4 years. Big bodies like Oliver and Curnow might impact early while we might have to wait a few years for Parish. Actually that sounds a hell of a lot like Toumpas. Aaahhh! I rest my case. Who knows.

Any idea how accurate he has been in the past couple of drafts. His choices are interesting. Not sure I agree with them but frankly who knows in this draft. You'd have to have watched them personally to have an idea. I trust in our recruiters. Seems nearly all of them have question marks. Gotta trust in Taylor & Co to work out who to gamble on. Seems to me Parish, other than being small, is the least gamble in the 3-10 range of the non Academy boys.

That's my one fear about him. Sounds just like all the reports of the Toump as a junior. I remember seeing him sitting on the bench in the Darwin game year before last in tears. He just couldn't get into the game. Something didn't look right then. I reckon he was very hard on himself and destroyed his own confidence with pressure of being no. 4 pick and it's importance to MFC. He'll probably come good with that monkey off his back. That outstanding talent as a junior doesn't disappear. Anyway try again with Parish and hope he can bulk up enough to be competitive as a senior. I figure the fact he's got pace which we need so desperately will put him ahead of any others at 3.

Given the crazy money that's starting to be thrown around for teams to trade in Key Forwards. Think Boyd & now Dixon, who is an ok but not outstanding player yet & the play for McCarthy you'd think if Weideman was there we'd probably take him to set us up for the future as at some point we're going to have to get another key forward.

Don't think it will make a difference in the end. Either pick would have been used for Bugg. We wouldn't have had either left over.

Of course the irony here is that those of us who were hoping the players got the book thrown at them will now be hoping they get a slap and are available for round 1. I can't get my head around how we seem to have paid full value for him and got no discount for the fact that he has a real risk of a 12 mth or 2yr ban.

Good points Bing. Hadn't thought about the previous provisional 6mths. Would be mad not tn take it again straight after last round. I have same thoughts about ban plus I reckon they'll take into account exceptional delays. So they could well be ready by start of the season. Taking the provisional now is a bizarre one as it counts as ban time although apparently they can still train with the club. Didn't they do that last summer. So no real loss. Just can't compete

Still don't understand why we are taking the risk for a player like him. Ryder & Carlisle even Crameri are very good players probably worth the risk. He's not in that class

I don't think that advice is possible. I know a few involved on the legal side and they aren't saying that anything that would suggest anything other than the hearing will decide that.

How are we going to be feeling if he gets rubbed out for a year or possibly 2. I can't understand why a team in our state would choose to take a gamble like that. Even with him being paid by his old team while he's suspended we have given up a pick, will be a player down and then have a player who hasn't played for 1-2 years. Can't understand why this makes sense for us. On a side note I know the view of their lawyer is there is no new evidence from the original trial and therefore completely confident that they will get off. Says there just isn't the evidence to find them guilty. Personally I don't agree. But either way, why gamble when there is definitely a risk there. We are doing the Dons a favour by reducing the number of players they might lose if they are all suspended. They should bloody be giving us a pick.

I spoke to Miller about him over the pre season. He had him in the forwards group. He said he reminded him most of Dustin Martin. Very strong, strong overhead mark, good goal kicker, pack buster. He thought he might be a bit inconsistent like Martin. The biggest knock on him is his lack of a tank. He's already been running for about a month and is already building into speed and agility running and its August. How much running will he have done before the pre season even starts. The amount of running his going to have done before the pre season even starts might end up being a blessing in disguise for an extra dose of tank building.

Instructive about where the Club's at now compared to the past. PJ came in and his first comment was what a lack of experience there was in all areas of the Club. Neeld put together a bunch of raw coaches many of whom hadn't even been in the AFL system. That means in turn none of them had a broad network of contacts. PJ brings in Roosy, he has a massive network of contacts himself. He brings in experienced people around him, including George Stone who's been around as long as anyone and obviously has a huge network of contacts that stretches to this scenario. Those contacts contact George, he tells the Club, the rest is history. Another example is Dane Rampe at the Swans. Couldn't get picked in any Junior NSW Rep teams, went to Melbourne played with Williamstown, Dogs said they liked him but didnt' pick him. Went back to Sydney, gave up on the dream, played at UNSW. Roosy's son was playing in the same team, he sees him, tells the Swans and bingo they get another unbelievable recruit because of the network. Clubs like the Hawks have these networks and have been using them for years. We are just starting to get ours and its starting to reap rewards already.

Actually I read or saw an interview with him and he said his Ainslee Coach was friends with Georgie Stone and rang him and told him to come and have a look. It would probably have been Kelly O'Donnell or someone else in the Dept that did the actual looking. Georgie was a bit busy doing something else. ie Coaching the midfield.

Ha! I love it. Don't worry I looked for all the reasons we didn't want him either in case we didn't get him and I have to say you've done a better job than me and on the other side spent time finding all the reasons we did want him if we did get him. I also couldn't be happier. Petracca is definitely a safer bet than Paddy. Paddy could end up being a Roughead and if he does good luck to a fellow cellar dweller team. But we could well have the next Dangerfield without getting Dangerfield. And have the money to get Jeremy Cameron next year who there's obviously no comparison with big Paddy. So could be a triple win.

Make that 3. 2012 draft wasn't too shabby either. Hogan Toumpas (Still think he is going to be a gun. You don't lose the skills you came in with. You just battle injuries, bad coaching, loss of confidence. Roosy will fix him) Dawes Pedersen (Who would have thought. I admit I was having fits over this choice) Jack Viney Dean Kent (Starting to look like he's going to be a really good player) Matt Jones ( Has done his job until decent players arrived. Don't see him getting a great deal of game time anymore) The rest including Terlich were junk picks so didn't cost anything to go in and to go out.

Don't you just love this time of year. It's our Grand Final. It's all downhill after today. Everyone on here is buzzing away, happy, optimistic and even being nice to each other. I've had a couple of belly laughs reading some of this stuff today.

There you go. I would have spelt it with an "e" on the end. Bugger I'm not going to get drafted. My 16yr old got knocked out in a game this year and had a month worth of concussion tests which include these two gems. If they do the same tests they also have to go through the 12mths backwards. I was going to check myself in because I was having as much trouble as he was. Didn't realise you had to be a genius to know how to play footy. I understand Buddy has a bat or two flying around the bellfree and it hasn't done him any harm.

I wouldn't worry, I think you're copyright is very safe.

Agree. Brayshaw and McCartinnnnnnn!!!! That would be Merry Xmas as well. Club clearly stuffed up this year by not getting picks 1,2 & 3. So SNS I gather you would take the P man over McC. I guess if I had the choice I would take him as well but in the long term if McCartin turns into a Roughead then we may well have got the bookends with Frost of a 10yr spine that you can fill in a team around. If we end up with Petracca then we still have to find a key forward. Midfielders are a lot easier to find than key forwards. Having said that I'd salivate at the thought of a midfield with Petracca and Brayshaw. Then we get Jeremy Cameron next year and we're set. I wonder if the Saints are eyeing off possibly getting Cameron next year and deciding on Petracca with that in mind.

It's a bit of a strange one and shows how badly the AFL have invested in the northern markets. Basically the AFL want to address the fact that there are a fraction of players on AFL lists from the biggest state in the country and from Qld. I believe last year there were no players recruited from NSW. I guess it also addresses the go home factor. So for some bizarre reason the AFL has put it on the Northern Clubs to spend their own money to develop junior players throughout Qld and NSW. In return for this significant investment and risk they get access to the players they develop through a father/son bidding system. The problem with the system as I see it is that the AFL should be running the Academies not the teams. But as long as the teams are then they should be entitled to first bid at the players. Sydney have spent millions over about 5 or 6 years investing in their Academy. About 6 years ago they started inviting every Junior footy player in NSW to come in for screenings and have around 500 junior players coming up through the Academy each year. After all that investment and all those players they are about to get the first player, Heeney, and the Eddie McGuires of this world then go beserk about the unfair advantage.

Dom's going to be something special but that was expected. Vince and Cross's output was expected. You could argue Giorgiou, although he had a well known reputation in the SANFL so people had an idea of what to expect. Michie is shaping up very nicely but also had a great season in the WAFL last season so there were expectations. I don't think you could call any of these a "Find". To me a "Find" is a player no one knew about and you find them when you didn't know you had them. Surely on that basis JKH is the find so far. By the end of next year it might well be Jayden Hunt.

afl.com.au article today saying compo picks are staying. So at least if he does go we'll get a very good compo pick. Unless we pick up a free agent but not sure any available would suit us. Mundy is a bit old for our purposes.

There's a lot of talk about compo picks being scrapped for Free Agents and RFA. Knowing our luck that will come in just in time to lose a player like Chip.