Pepe Dee Pew

I think we will see Bailey try a few players. He can afford a real crap year in his first year. The heat gets turned up second and subsequent years. Bails is just being smart. W

I agree about Cousins. He would add some class and grunt to the midfield - and his diosposal is good. Can we pick him up at No. 1 IN THE PRESEASON draft???? If we do not pick him up someone else will andwe will have plenty of room in the CAP. We are running out of 'guns'. Remember when Neitz was double or tripple teamed and Ooze was really magic. Those days are gone so we are rebuilding..

If you have to pick between a tall and mid of comparable abilities for their respective positions always better to go for the tall. There seems to be heaps more mids for the picking in drafts but not as many rucks/KPP's in comparison. If Natanui develops further this year and is still the standout at draft time we have to pick him up if he is available at our pick (probably 1). We also seem to have plenty of mids/HBF types at the moment. Whether he develops into a KPP is another thing but for now i would settle for a gun ruckman who runs and plays like a mid on the ground and flys like a ruckman in the air. It will be interesting to see how he perfporms in the U 18 Championships this year, WAFL and the draft camp.

Yes, but you really need at least 2 years of good draft picks in a row to make a big difference - and of course use them well.

I think he is improving and by the end of this year he will be regarded as a good player. A lot of footballers take 4 or 5 years to really become good players. I hope Dunn is in the 4 to 5 year category and starts to show a lot by the end of this year as well. So we cannot expect to much from players like Garland and Frawley for a while. Players who show a bit early such as Jones, McLean and even Morton are the exception rather than the rule. We had a good run for a while with early developing players which helped us considerably a while ago, Rivers, Davey, Bruce, Green, Whelan, Wheatley.

What we are seeing at the moment is the draft system at work. In terms of playing finals we have been one of the more successful Victorian teams of the past 15 - 20 years, albeit no premiership and a loss of draft picks around 1999 (forget the exact year). What is happening now was always going to happen just a matter of time. Sooner or later the better players slow up and unless you have real luck with drafting with inferior picks you eventually hit the bottom. Whether it is good management or good luck we appear to have bottomed at the right time - so it was wise to delist our depth players rather than hang on and get a few wins and inferior draft picks - we just have to be patient. Three top 20 picks in 2007 (TJ traded), Should get another 3 top 20 this year and perhaps another reasonable pick in 2009 before the new teams soak up all the good kids. We look like getting Natanui who is tipped to be a beauty and with luck we may get a few who turn out A grade. So if we get our drafting right we should be pretty good by 2011. We already have some talented young players on our list so the upcoming draft(s) should be interesting.

After seeing the clip and reading a few articles Naitanui looks the goods. If he takes another big step this year then he is a cert for No1. We already know he can leap tall buildings in a single bound now they tell us he can smash through the lines and hit the ball on the ground like a mid.

There is a lot of merit in what you say. We have not had a super star since G Lyon. Rich by the sounds of it may turn out to be a real gun and you cannot win a premiership without a gun midfield. Also we have had a habit of stuffing up early picks so the sure thing may be the way to go.

If we get first in both national and pre season draft who we pick number one may be influenced by who we can lure for the pre season draft.

My money is on the tiges and blues winning 5 or more games. Tiges will romp it in. On current form we will get pick 1 unless Port tanks against us. I also think we will get a priority. So that means 3 top 20 picks again. Lets hope we use them wisely. An earlier post alluded to the new teams soaking up the good picks so that makes it all the more important to pick well. No trading out picks - just using them on kids.

Pick 1 looks a cert.

P

Three of us there. I could not believe the basic turnovers. Even more perplexing was the failure of players to run to present a targwt. Its chicken and egg stuff. Failure to present = turnover or turnovers = failure to run (ie players know that disposal will be crap so do not waste time presenting)!!!

A top 3 pick should produce a very good player this coming draft. Rich, Hurley for example. This is a season that DB can afford to be poor. It is his first year and a couple of good picks at the end of this year should hopefully set us up going forward. Given this and a few games under young players belts this year and we sgould be on the road to a better 2009. CC said if this season was dead after round 6 then they would assess the list going forward and platy young players. We do not have any guns but Morton could be one. Lets hope we can pick up another one or two like him.

Lets hope Jack Grimes becomes a very, very good player for us. He seems to have the drive and appetite for hard work. Wonder if Hurley will be in the mix around our pick. f he maintains hid development this year he should go early. Plus he is a KPP.

No doubt we have to percerve with Newton. He can take a grab and is ok on the lead. We have put much time in to trade him now. Hopefully as he matures his concentration will improve and he will cease 'downtime' during games. DB has hopes he will be a FF in time.

Miller showed a bit of presence at times today.

Totally agree and the Hawks traded Hay and Thomson as well. So we will need a little luck with drafting. So much depends on Sylvia, McLEAN, Bate, Newton, Dunn, Frawley, Jones and the 2007 draftees coming good.

Sounds like crap to me. When things go wrong everyone sticks the boots in. It is easy to put the boots in when you are down - and that is what Thomas is doing. IMO Green is a good footballer and has plenty of experience which we cannot afford to lose at the moment. Sylvia has been a disappointment to date but he has had a good pre season. I think the team will improve immeasurably when Bate, Dunn, Whelan, Rivers and Moloney have a few games under their belts - and i think then we will see the best of Col and Brock.

I think it is a bit early to make a call on Garland and the other kids. JC would not have got a touch yesterday. Poor team form is poor team form and the kids get killed. Clearly the kids need more time to develop. Bring back Moloney and Holland - maybe Wheels and Rivers and Bate.

If AFL is about 1 percenters then we are way behind without a permanent base. It is much harder to develop players to the required level without a permanent base. Thank God this has been addressed and we will get that base in the next couple of years - plus a base at Casey (soon). In the meantime it will take a while for Rivers, Bartram, Whelan to get back to form after missing a lot of footy. So lets not expect to much for the next few weeks. Questions we are asking. Will Sylvia and McLean live up to their 3 and 5 draft picks - so much hinges on that. Will PJ take up from White when he eventually goes in the next year or 2. Will Meeson come on. Will Garland, Frawley, Dunn and Newton and Petterd develop? Nothing to worry about regarding Bate, Jones, Morton - will be guns. Well we just have to hang in there and hope for some good draft picks this year - and use them well.

At this stage we will have to move on some of the older players: Yze, Holland and Neitz (will be 34 next year?). Junior may move on as well. But we cannot push all our experience out the door in the one year. Certainly next year will be watershed for Sylvia, McLean, Bate, Dunn and Newton. Jones has already shown he has got it. Frawley and Garland may take anothere couple of years. Morton will be a gun.

Players voted on the leadership group. I am not sure how much say the coaches had. If a leader is not performing then they should suffer the same fate as other players. In past years we have drafted to supplement our older players now we are recruiting to replace them.We are at the stage where we should be getting games into the younger players. And lets just hope some of them become real stars.

Rivers, Whelan and Bartram have missed so much AFL that it may take time to recapture past form.

I think every player who got a touch turned it over on sunday. Buckley was no Robinson Crusoe in that department.