Blistering

A very thought provoking look at how the trades and drafts tie in with each other. I like the sound of Cotchin. Is he the player whose father was upset about him going to WA and getting involved in the Eagles culture?

I remember his form was poor late in the season but wouldn't go one one game alone because every player has a poor patch. I wonder if a trade of McMahon for Jamar or Miller with a minor adjustment of draft picks would be on the cards?

Why, it's only 3 sleeps and two exams.

Wrong about that at this very moment. Later in the week!

A Phanton Draft (first round) from a poster on the Tigers' site who has conceded the #1 pick to Carlton: 1 - Carlton - Matthew Kreuzer 199cm 91kg Northern Knights - Young ruckman who is quite fast and good at ground level. Also likes to chase and tackle. Would be a perfect fit for the Blues if the end up with pick 1. Can play forward also. 2 - Richmond - Trent Cotchin 184cm 81kg Essendon Grammar - 1 or 2 players that could go at pick 2. But I've chosen Cotchin even though he wasn't great at the champs. He is your Joel Selwood type midfielder, but with more pace. Very strong through the body and works hard. Good prospect and could step straight into senior footy. Underage player. 3 - Carlton - Cale Morton 192cm 75kg Claremont - Would have had him around pick 5-10 before the champs, but he was dominant and won the Larke Medal. Moves brilliantly and is an outside HBF or wingman. Very classy and tall. 4 - Melbourne - Alex Rance 194cm 87kg Swan Districts WA - Stocks have risen a little after the champs. Your typical Full Back player, and will fill an important position at the Dees with Carroll seemingly under-sized on occasion. Will definitely go early. 5 - Bulldogs - Lachlan Henderson 196cm 90kg Geelong Falcons - Could go earlier, but if he is available the Dogs will snap him up. Big powerful forward with very good skill, and is quite mobile. Is a monty for the dogs if available. 6 - Essendon - Rhys Palmer 180cm 76kg East Fremantle - The bolter of the draft, and is now infront of team mate Chris Masten. He will be valuable for the Dons as he breaks the lines and has a lot of pace. His foot skills are deadly. Probably the best player at the champs really. 7 - Fremantle - Chris Masten 179cm 78kg East Fremantle - If available the Dockers won't look past the hometown boy. Inside and outside type player. Can win the hard footy, but can also break lines although pace isn't huge. Prolific ball winner. 8 - Brisbane - Tom Collier 192cm 86kg Tasmania - Wouldn't be surprised if Brisbane go for the Tassie boy. Key Defender who can also play in the middle. Has a massive influence on games. A real likely type who will succeed. 9 - St. Kilda - Ben McEvoy 199cm 90kg Murray Bushrangers - Second best ruckman in the draft, and can go forward, but likely to be developed as a ruckman, as he doesn't have the brain to play forward. None the less he is very likely and works hard around the ground. Will be a good player. 10 - Adelaide - Brad Ebert 187cm 86kg Port Magpies - If he last this long Adelaide will pick him quicker then you can blink. SA boy who is an inside midfielder, moves beautifully and kicks the ball well. Has dropped a little after an ordinary champs, but will go around top 10-15. 11 - Sydney - Dave Gourdis 193cm 88kg Subiaco - May go earlier, but a really good prospect. The typical leading CHF who makes his way to the wings and demands the footy. The type of player the Swans will look for with an aging forward-line. 12 - Collingwood - Scott Selwood 184cm 81kg Bendigo Pioneers - Not quite as good as Joel, but better than Adam and Troy. A bull of a player, who plays it hard in the midfield and crashed through players. An absolute grunt player who plays like Daniel Harris. 13 - Kangaroos - Steven Gaertner 196cm 83kg Dandenong Stingrays - The absolute wildcard of the draft. Could be anything, and may go lower or higher. His kicking isn't great, but he is a freakish athlete like Jared Brennan. Who ever selects him may have a champion on their hands. 14 - Hawthorn - Tayte Pears 192cm 90kg East Perth - The type of player the Hawks would like in their defence. Bottom aged player who needs to work on his positioning, but spoils very very well. Will be groomed for CHB. 15 - West Coast - Cyril Rioli 178cm 74kg St. Marys - First NT boy to go in the draft. Lightning fast player that can play as a midfielder or crumbing forward. I'd expect WCE to jump on a crumber like Rioli with Sampi unlikely to return and they need this type of player. 16 - Port Adelaide - David Myers 190cm 85kg Perth - Running defender. Very athletic and good foot skills. Would be likened to Jason Gram but taller with more potential to play in the midfield. 17 - Geelong - Pat Veszpremi 181cm 83kg Northern Knights - Scott Selwood type who crashes packs and runs hard. His pace isn't great, but he is a very good young player. One of my favourites in this draft. Next best Jack Grimes - Midfielder VIC Tom Bellchambers - Ruck VIC Robbie Tarrant FF VIC Steve Browne Defender WA

The discussion isn't really about whether or not our list has or has not been overrated but why we seem to have problems in developing and improving our players. I look at Thomas and Pendelbery at Collingwood and ask why Sylvia and McLean don't have the same influence on their team and they've been around two years longer!

Beg to differ. Surely we are going to learn more about the club in its time of adversity. There should be a widespread review of the season to determine what went wrong and how to avoid or minimise it in the future.

I believe that Melbourne once had Darryl Baldock signed up and Doug Wade came down to train with us before he went to Geelong and became a champion full forward.

I tried one - I think there' some pineapple in there. Not bad.

I was alerted to this by a Collingwood supporter at work who approached me and asked why Melbourne wasn't playing Michael Newton. I asked him how he knew about Newton and he said he read this in the Inside Football VFL section:- "Sandringham - Comment The best team in comp is stronger for the emergence of young Demon Michael Newton. He's exciting." What do we do to hide him now?

Thoroughly enjoyed my first function and Clint Bartram was an excellent ambassador for the club. Pity we lost the game afterwards but I have a feeling that the result might have been different with our sponsored player and a few other injured players in the team.

Teddy got Millane? He deserves a life membership for that!

David Smorgon just said on Foxtel that the Doggies passed 27,000 today. How far behind that are we right now?

Getting back to the football and the subjet of this thread, I think Hawthorn has more problems than Melbourne and we will turn it around tomorrow. I just have that feeling. Go Dees!

Shmekel

I was reading an interesting article by Chris McDermott on the Adelaide Crows and the fact that they have the oldest list in the competiiton:- http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...0-21543,00.html Mc Dermott doesn't think age will be a problem for Adelaide in its campaign to stay in the top four. I think however, that you can sometimes be too old and the Crows might have missed their window of opportunity to win a flag. On the other hand, I think the Demons have got it just right at the moment with a mature team but with quite a few young prospects ready to make an impact. We're probably a couple of players away from making a real challenge to the Eagles and Swans provided some of those young players stand up and improve this year.

One player who won't suffer is David Neitz who always fights hard for front position and is often pushed in the back with no reward from the umpires. I think the rule will result in higher scores overall because forwards will benefit from it.

Thanks to WJ and Toad33 for your excellent coverage of training. Please continue to keep us informed and also let us know when and where the next training sessions take place. Are the clubs being affected in ground selection by the drought?

IMO those things might help you to become a good AFL footballer but you need haps more to become a superstar. Let's not put pressure on the kid before he's even played a single game but handing out what might well be an unrealistic label.

A couple of the games every week will clash so 6 games per weekend will do me.

The skipper tonight dining at Aromas in Ormond Road, Elwood with a few mates. Looked very trim indeed. I think he's getting ready for a big year!