drdrake

That is something that stood out with all our 4 picks, each have had to overcome something to get drafted. To me it shows that they had the hunger to work hard to get themselves in a position to get onto an AFL list

To me he moves and plays like Dane Swan, has that strength and step plus good over head, when I saw the footage of him this is who I think he plays like

Looking at our team we still have holes but getting close. I would like following trades, to start Howe and 4th round pick to GWS for Hampton and GWS 2nd round pick That GWS second Round pick to Gold coast for Zac Smith and their 4th round pick This gives us first 2 picks to offer around for a mid or keep them and get Danger as a free agent but I reckon Hawthorn might have him. Also would try to get Tabenar from Fremantle or the ruck they stole from us.

Why are St Kilda a big winner? They get an oval they can't access for 6 months a year. Every club has moved or moved the cricket clubs off there ovals.

Our midfield, we finally look like we are heading in the right direction. We are quick to forget some quality players on our list, I see most mention Tyson, Viney, Salem, JKH and then throw up Riley and Michie, don't forget about Toumpas he is class and Trengove, this foot injury may be the best thing to happen to him. All these blokes are young under 23 years old, add in Kent that once he gets he increases his running capacity is a ideal wing man

2011 just finished off an unbelievable period of trading and drafting blunders.

He is the type of defender we need a quick hbf type that can kick run and carry defensive side got better this year and will most likely over time push onto a wing. Don't be so sure on the return to wa

I find it funny that people are starting to question our forward line and where Watts fits. To me it is simple, he is a half forward flack and that is the position that Jack Watts is best suited to at this stage of his physical development. I see him and Howe rotating of HFF/wing and pushing deep forward for a spell. The only tall forward we have that is that traditional tall forward is Chris Dawes, you look at Watts, Clark, Hogan and even Fitzpatrick they are agile and good at ground level. I get exited seeing Paul Roos at our club and I'm sure he is exited to have a foward line lining up Kent Clark Hogan Howe Dawes Watts Would love a defensive small forward Kent is our best option at the moment

It would be interesting to know how many posters on this site actual attend matches on a regular basis, more importantly over the past 6-8 weeks. I'm lucky to sit on the second teir at the MCG and on the weekend, this enables you to see certain things that you can't see at ground level. One thing Toumpas does is run to the right spots, same as Watts same as Sylvia, we just don't have the courage to hit them, these three players run to damaging positions, our players are scared to kick there because if they miss the target the turnover will kill us, but the reward if they do it is we will most likely score. Jimmy runs to where we should be kicking the footy, the problem is our players have been coached over the past 18mths to not take risks use the boundary line, don't come up the middle out of defense, switch at all costs, everytime we got the footy in our defensive 50m arc we look across for the switch we are predictable, North just left players out there and we kicked it to them. Dunn and McDonald stare at the switch they don't do it fast it is slow. I have no concerns that this bloke will be a gun and a lot sooner than we expect, next year with the right coach we will show us what he can do.

Small forwards we have Davey, Jetta, Tapscott, Byrnes, Kent, Bail, Blease, before we draft any small forwards we need to get rid of the 8 on our list. You will find once we start contolling the footy more, have more inside 50m our small forwards will be at the feet of our tall forwards. At the moment they are working to far up the ground and are usually the ones delivering into our forward 50m arc. You get a midfield that can transit the ball effectively the small forward can stay where they need to be.

Toumpas is going to be a good footballer, we need to stop comparing him, Toumpas has come into the worst midfield in the AFL, we have 1 consistant AFL standard midfielder in Jones, we have 1 midfielder averaging over 20 touches a game Jones, we haven't seen Viney and Grimes much this year, Sylvia is getting better but still hasn't had an outstanding game consistant which is good but we haven't seen the Col blinder that he usually plays once or twice a year. What I love about Toumpas is his skill, we will see a couple of games over the next 9 weeks when he has full confidence that he is a good AFL player where he picks up 20+ touches and kicks a couple of goals. I have to say the kicking skills of our draft picks are very good, Toumpas elite, Kent kicks like Rich from Bne low hard and longer than most expect, Terlich, M Jones and Clisby, Viney is also good. Our tall forwards will be looking forward thinking thank god we have players that can kick to their advantage.

You don't need to be the coach to know what our team needed to improve on just read the game day posts for the past season. Every game we lost we talked about structure and fitness. I have post this before funnyhow James Hird and Bomber Thompson made the same statements about Essendon last year, most of our conditioning staff over the past 2 seasons were ex Essendon.