jabberwocky

And we can discount the Howe rumours too I suppose.

He Is From Darwin A city with a population of 138,000 people

Yes I do wonder.

Maybe players like this would be a reason why ND53 is important to us?

Are you Picket fence? Waiting for player X to be a bust so you can come back and do the whole "I told you so" routine.

He will be but I will reserve judgement on whether his exit was a good or bad thing for us till 2016 at least. It's also very dependent on how the Frost trade works out.

Geez, primary school has sure made some advances since I was there.

He means what Sylvia could have become....if he could have got through a pre-season.

i suppose it depends on your definition of success too. For some it is a new car, giving your kids a private education, investment properties, international travel. For others it is defined differently.

No use throwing good money after bad, his heart wasn't in it. He has done us a favour, he could have milked us further for cash and wasted another year on our list. He has timed it as well as he possibly could so as not to hurt the club. People need to get some perspective. Players don't exist only for our entertainment.

I think you are probably right but I can't see the point persisting with Tapscott. As you have mentioned earlier having the 12 month rookie contract gives us more flexibility than the primary list 2 year contract.

I think we can agree to disagree even though I see some merits in raising the draft age by a year and spending an extra year in the TAC. We are the poster boy for being a poor club that recruits poorly, and there are others like Port Adelaide have shown what can be done. I don't think raising the draft age is necessarily going to assist equalisation.

It's all fun and games being a recruiter. In that one game Cockatoo treats his opposition with contempt, out-muscling them and out running them, he clearly had physical dominance over them. So a recruiter has to decide how much of that was due to the age difference and how much of that will transfer to AFL level in time. It's why anyone who says we must take this player or that player can't be taken seriously. There are so many factors to consider when selecting these kids. Unlike RPFC though I don't necessarily see the inexact science of recruiting of 18 year olds as a massive problem The intrigue of it all adds something to the game for me. Clubs have shown that if you recruit and develop well you can rise quickly. We just haven't done it well in recent times. We can whinge about the system or get better at it. A lot of people wil beg to differ with me, but the team who makes the recruiting decisions make or break the club. Bailey and Neeld as coaches never stood a chance. If you were ordering a player purely on a MFC needs basis then Cockatoo is the type. Line breaking mid who uses pace and strength to clear the contest is what we lack. That said we still take best available. Over to you Jason.

Bearing in mind that the game was against an U17 team albeit the best ones in the land.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/35377-michael-evans-in-2014/?hl=%2Bmichael+%2Bevans Most were upbeat about Evans at the end of 2013, some even labelling him a future star. He was as I mentioned earlier a player who was actually travelling on the right trajectory and looked as if he could be regular best 22. If you were going to criticise MFC list management decision there would be many more I would have in front of the Pickles contract. It is a cheap shot with the benefit of hindsight, unless of course you were incredibly intuitive and criticised the decision to re-contract him at the time. 2014 was a really bad year for him. In reality regardless of whether he remains on our list or not he is pushing it uphill and will need a resurrection of Jetta proportions to be on any AFL list after next year.

Revisionist^^ At the time Evans was showing very good signs and was a player that was actually tracking well increasing his possession count and hitting targets more often than others.

Unlike old Jack I did it completely and utterly on porpoise. There will come a time, not too far away I fear that like old Jack I will be oblivious to the ever increasing faux pas.

It's a 2 minute highlight package but you just get that feeling with this bloke don't you. Shows that he has all the physical attributes.

Makes more sense than pigeon holing a kid as a defender because he played there as a bottom ager in the Tac cup. Who's to say that it wasn't an apprenticeship to playing as a mid this year before injury ruined those plans, it seems likely that it was. Where did Bontempelli play as a 17 year old? You just have to take the best player available, and yes that is all relative but we pay a full time recruiting expert to make these judgments. If we end up with a star defender rather than a middle of the road mid I can't see anyone complaining.

Pick 3 is a career defining one for Jason Taylor. I suppose they all are but this pick in particular stands to be the most difficult and contentious. Whoever he takes his little boys are on the line. The draft isn't what it was ten years ago, the top boys are hard to pick. He will earn every cent of his wage if he nails this one pick.

You must be in possession of a lot more info that the average Demonlander to make such "outright" judgements. And your ability to foresee the future must come in very handy.

Can you quote these "people"?

How many games have you seen Lever or McCartin play? Are you personally aware of his prognosis? I assume that you must have some expert opinion and inside knowledge to be able to form such outright opinions on a draftee.

I don't think they should be discounted and poo pooed entirely, they are useful in giving an idea of the strengths of a player, as long as the viewer makes judgements in context.

The older crew will get it.