Demon Disciple

If Chip leaves and we get Band 1 compo, i'd like to see us bring in a replacement for him. Seeing how there would be so few quality young, ready made KPD we could trade for, it wouldn't be the end of the world if we brought in Durdin with that pick. Use our first rounder on a Petracca or bringing in another good young mid, coz we clearly need to improve the midfield more.

Rising Star nominations and even the overall winner means stuff all, imo.

JCB does pretty well most times. He was red hot on wanting to bring in Talia a long way out from the draft, back in 2009 (he told me he wanted Talia very early in the '09 season). But i will say this though John. Saying that Conglio is not up to it (whilst entitled to your opinion) is not one i agree with. I wouldn't call you a fool though.

We do this and we leave ourselves without a quality KPD (dangerous game to play). If we were to go down that path, then i'd take one of Petracca/Brayshaw and try and bring in another young afl experienced mid with some pace and skill (like a Shiel or Coniglio). But i'd prefer to try and bring in both a tall and a small with whatever picks we end up having.

Of course i'd have him over Dawson. McDonald does very well one-on-one. He well and truly deserves his spot on the list and in the back-line, but as far as his disposal and decision making is concerned, he simply cannot be the one who brings it out of defence (nor should he be the cornerstone of our defence). Many of the oppositions goals results directly from our turnovers in the back-line and that is hardly surprising. How many of our defenders can be said to have good disposal? Very, very few and it is a pressing need.

Tom McDonald is not a long-term solution to play as a KPD. The reason for this is because 1) his disposal is sh!thouse and 2) his decision making is even worse. People try and create excuses for him saying that he will improve with time and experience. However i disagree. To become a quality player (or even just a player you can rely on) they need to display at least some natural ability when it comes to skills and decision-making. McDonald has neither. When you are working with 0 you end up with 0. If a club can improve a player by 'X' %, 'X' % of zero is still zero. McDonald is more of a 3rd option (not tall) when it comes to getting the ball out of the back-line, in that he is neither the first or second choice to have the ball in hand. Luckily Dunn has come in this year and held up one of these positions. But we are still a player or tall KPD short without Frawley (i see Garland as a third tall defender). Should Frawley move on come end of year, it is imperative we bring in a quality tall defender by way of trade or the draft. That leaves the other early pick to bring in another young mid via the draft or trade period. Dream scenario would be bringing in one of Shiel or Coniglio with the compo pick, and Durdin falling through to our first rounder (but that's even more of as pipe dream than landing Roos). Long story short, i wouldn't be relying on McDonald to be the cornerstone of our defence.

Ok, so Roos has come out wanting some more classy midfielders. Looking at this upcoming draft, the 2 mids making the biggest noise would be Brayshaw from the hype and Petracca on his hot form. Classy isn't the first thought that comes to mind with these 2. Grunt and Power respectively. So it seems like yet again, we will try and bring in an up and coming mid with our first rounder as the bait. It worked the first time, let's load up again!

Agree that Coniglio is not a pure inside mid. He can play outside just as well as inside. Capable of gaining clearances, but also has very good disposal and is quick. Definitely wouldn't hurt having him line up in our midfield.

Not doubting you at all Mousey, but how would this happen? I thought he signed a contract extension at the end of last year with a bunch of others, tying him to the club for at least 3 more years. Doubt GWS will part with him.

The hell we should. Would love to get Brayshaw into our club. Unless they offered something ridiculous like 13 + Goldstein.

We did with Scott Selwood. Wouldn't mind him.

The way he is going, i'm thinking we may have to give up our 2nd rounder for Billy Stretch.

Surely if they do qualify for a PP at year's end, it would be for an end of first round PP and not a pre first round PP right away.

It's quite clear, that the recruiting manager who wished to go unnamed was Barry Prendergast.

Yep, they are calling out for their next big KPF. He fits the bill big time for them.

186 cm, 81kgs. So will get physically bigger/stronger. Just wait until he tips the scales at 86kgs.

Tonnes of man love for him. Great pick up, will be our best player before too long. Done more in his first 8 games with us, than his #12 predecessor ever did (and it pains me to say that, as i was a huge Sylvia fan).

Honestly, i'd rather A win tomorrow..................today, whatever. Go Dees!!!!

Aside from Chip, we have no hulking KPD to tackle the big forwards, plus it will take a good 3-4 years for that player to be trained up and ready to take over from Chip. Our rucks are pretty thin. Spencer is basically the only one able to get on the park, Gawn is too busy talking in to a microphone and seems to be perpetually injured, whilst Jamar is almost a pensioner. Given that Clark has also retired, we are another KPF short. Again, they will need to take a couple of years to be physically ready to play the game on a consistent basis. As for our mids, well we need many more good one's coming in, but they are generally quicker to mature and the good ones are a dime a dozen compared to drafting quality talls. I'd try and bring in quality talls this draft, sign Chip so as to not be in a situation where we would want to maximise compensation, and try and bring in a quality mid via FA.

Yep all mentally weak. At the first sign of adversity, they'd go to water. The good thing is they are off our list, the bad thing is, many more need to go. Give me players' that give a [censored] about the results rather than whether or not their bank payments made it through on time. Well given Demetriou gave the reason that our senior players that were injured would see us rise, and they haven't even got on the park yet, whilst also using that same excuse with our u18 selection in Hogan, who also hasn't got on the park. I feel that not only should they owe us last years PP (end of first round PP), they need to give us one for this year (before first round PP). That would leave us with picks 1(PP), 2, 22ish (PP - factoring in other compo picks) and pick 23 (2nd round pick). Fantastic isn't it, talking draft picks at April! Though i did predict this cycle of pre-season excitement followed by reality setting in again early, followed by months of talking draft and trade. Don't know the depth of this years draft, but do know the quality of talls might make some clubs desperate to trade for them. Would rather make similar Dom Tyson type trades like last year, as opposed to going down the all draft route (ala 2009). Bring in as much quality as we can for next year, not 2018ish (we might not be around then). Keep one of pick 1 or 2 for the draft, unless a really good deal comes up, then try and bring in quality young kids from other sides like we did with Tyson with the rest of our picks. No club is going to trade for our scraps.

Top 2 pick! Who are we going to finish above? As for all those who say that Toumpas over Wines was the biggest mistake we made in years, come back to reality. A mistake, yeah probably. But had we drafted Wines over Toumpas, i'd dare say you'd be saying the same thing, just the other way around. Wines would be nothing like he is now, if he were drafted by the MFC. It's amazing how good a player develops when in a proper team, as opposed to a club that just sucks the life out of the young players'. Picking the right talent is half the battle, development is the other half. Development would be even greater (60/40) with picking the right talent, because a lot of players around pick 4 clearly have talent. It's how that talent is developed which results in their on-field status.

i like what we did in the Tyson trade. We didn't bring in an absolute new kid, but one that had a couple of seasons under his belt, so he could go just about straight away.

Wow, what a finish!!!

That he has. Every innings he has played this Ashes series, he's gotten no lower than 50 runs. A timely century from Smith, he needed to put in a good innings. Rogers needs some good form with the bat and soon. So too Bailey. As for Watson, looks like Tarzan............plays like Jane.

A swap of Watts for Prestia is one i would seriously entertain. Midfield grunt that can kick the ball a mile. Sounds like Moloney only with a bit more athleticism.