RalphiusMaximus

Very nicely done WJ. I have no idea how you picked it. Can the guy actually play?

I agree on all of those names. We've made a habit of taking young players with huge potential rather than the more ready-made types for the last few drafts. Indications are that this mentality is changing and Neeld plans to take more guys who can have an immediate impact. I'm not sure he would be that interested in taking on a long-term project like Manson given the way he's been doing things so far. I'd expect him to be looking at players in their early twenties who've shown a bit in the second-tier competitions.

I'd still love to see Aaron Hall as a rookie. While we don't know how well his game would stand up to AFL level opposition, he has electrifying speed and he can kick goals. He would fit right in as a small forward.

Honestly, I'm not overly happy. Yes, we had some pretty poor picks to use, but I don't think we addressed any of the critical needs with these selections. I maintain that our greatest current holes are in the forward and back pockets and yet we drafted two big-bodied mid/HBF style players and a general purpose tall. Obviously Neeld wants stronger bodies all over the ground, and with Collingwood he's had a lot of experience getting the best out of these sorts of players, but I would have loved to have seen the real weaknesses addressed.

When was the last flag again? OF course I'd take it. I'd take one flag in the next decade. I just want to see Melbourne lifting the cup.

Our greatest weakness is our lack of quality smalls at either end of the ground. We are a very top-heavy side at the moment. We desperately need at least one really good crumbing forward and a back pocket. Our midfield needs a little more class as well, but next year's draft will help with that.

LJ is a bit in the Aussie boat. He needs to decide whether he wants to be an AFL footballer or a talented guy who almost made it. If he really wants this then he has to suck it up and do the hard work so he can do more than the odd inspirational act on game day.

OK, so that's the mature aged player Neeld was asking about at the draft meeting. I was hoping for Hall.

The have pick 51 though.

Does anyone know who this guy is? Was he even on the radar? THe AFL site doesn't even have a picture of him.

OK, I admit it. I was wrong on this issue. It's becoming more and more obvious that Tom had, if not signed, then made the decision to change teams before this season had started. I backed him in all year on the assumption that someone with his reported good character would not be capable of playing such a dishonest game. To those who called it, my apologies and well done on picking it early.

Bear in mind that pretty well every time Cale has gone in hard it's turned out badly. Even discounting the fact that when he finally committed his body and went back into a pack he missed half a season, his first game this year saw him go in hard for a ball and get pinged for a non-existent free kick. It must be hard to get yourself up for that sort of thing when you've had so many negative results from doing so.

What if the coach and the program had been vetted by the club? I would assume that he'd run it by our coaches before he did something like that.

Honestly, the highlight reel makes me less interested. He's not overly fast by the looks of that footage, and those easy goals where he wheeled around and snapped were just too slow to work at AFL level. He'd be nailed every time he tried it. Likewise, his pack marks were a case of better judgement which is good, but nobody put any body pressure on him. He's not going to get away with that sort of play at the top level. It's good that he's kicking so many goals, but that footage raises a whole lot of questions in my mind.

Oddly, I love watching Zac Dawson play. Not Melbourne of course, but everything he does seems to verge on Slapstick. A classic example occurred late this season when he jumped into a pack to spoil. The ball went straight up in the air. Zac made a few rapid rotations on the spot trying to find it before it came down right on his head. You can't teach comic timing like that.

It seems that 36 may be cursed.

Honestly, the club has done everything they could have for Aussie. I love the guy, but he has never acted like a professional footballer and he's been given more chances than most to step up. If he was serious about being an AFL player he's had more than enough chances to show it. If another club wants to take him on, then good luck to him and to them, but I think he'll find life a lot harder than he did with us. I honestly hope that we don't take him back, even as a rookie. As I was once told by a review board at Uni, it's a privilege being here, and there are hundreds of people who want the opportunity if you don't. He's never shown us that he wants the opportunity we gave him, so let it go and give a chance to one of the multitude who would give their right leg for a chance.

Why would they be able to do that? Next year they'll only have the regulation number of picks plus any compensation picks they have managed to trade for. They'll almost certainly have pick one and if they have any mid-first round compo picks that would give them pick 2 as well, but they can't bank their picks from this years draft and carry them over.

If you read through the articles earlier in the thread you'll see that there is strong interest from Port Adelaide as well. They have one pick in the top 10 then nothing until the 40's so it's a question for them of whether he's worth their only high pick. If he's still there in the 40's they'll take him.

Maybe they're looking at Blair and thinking he could be similar?

I look at the big picture and wonder why the AFL has thrown so much money at this project. Why on earth would you put a team in the worst possible location to build a fan base? Yes, if they manage to get an AFL team in Western Sydney with a Collingwood-like fan base it's a massive win, but far more likely is that the team will ever amount to much off the field and will continue to drain resources from the other clubs without contributing much to the economic well-being of the competition. Rather than putting the 18th team in Tasmania where they would have had a ready-made membership base and a solid state league to draw players from, they have dropped it in a city with a high migrant population who already fanatically follow either Soccer or Rugby. In many cases they are following teams that don't even play in this country. How does the AFL expect to convert these fanatical fans into revenue?

Maybe he hurt himself in the crash? They hit that pole pretty hard.

Because Collingwood has always played so clean and above-board in the trading/drafting game, right? Sorry Ed, you'll have to do better than that to make anyone care.

I've said it before, but I think a big part of it was that our previous coaching panel just didn't know how far behind the field they were. I couldn't believe how unprofessional our training sessions were. The biggest bonus to Neeld coaching us is that he's come from Collingwood, which is probably the most professional outfit in the game. He brings in the knowledge of how a high quality team functions and with luck can get it to stick with a playing group that has been coddled for the last few years.

That's where I was going as well. In particular the one that would have had us in front. :D