leucopogon

I'm over State of Origin. That branch of the code is dead and buried as far as i'm concerned. NAB Under 18's comp is the new state of origin.

If you stare at it long enough that clash jumper looks like an all-in-one netball dress (not yours nugget, the one at the start of the thread) Wonder what colour the shorts and socks are?

When asked to explain MFC's draft strategy CAC replied: "We'll take the best red-head that's available at the time" B) I thought we were meant to be the Redlegs not the Red-heads? Just joking, best of luck to the boy. Hope he turns out to be a decent smoky pick.

Here's my list of players to watch out for in the rookie draft: Bellchambers, Bongetti, Bowden, Ellard, Garlett, Gourdis, Grima, Kangars, McGinnity, Salter, L. Sampey, Sandilands. Any of these would be worth a spot on the rookie list for sure. Go to AFLs draft tracker for the lowdown on these boys. As for the PSD, I guess we're picking up Sampi for the last spot on the senior list. What do people think?

Yeah but that pick will be the one they get in exchange for Brad Ebert when he demands to go home. ahhahah

in this day and age of computers, the fact that somebody even has to read out a number seems ridiculous to me. why can't they just pick the name from a list on a laptop in front of them and say the name of the player?

Interesting we didn't take any KPP (except the smokey McNamara). Bailey must have faith in what most of us would have to say is a fairly average and quite old crop of talls at our club. Wonder what the thinking is for the succession plan. I'm guessing that he sees Bate as our CHF of the future, Newton as FF and Frawley as our FB. We're still well short in other areas (notably CHB)

Dave Gourdis, Patrick McGinnity???

Jack Grimes-187cm,76kg,Northern Knights- Is not quick and his skills are not outstanding but he is hard at it and reads the play very well. He is always in the game trying to block or shepherd or tackle and shows some leadership skills in the way he gets around to pump up his team mates. He doesn’t let up and gives what looks like his best all day long. He is pretty clean with his ball handling and doesn’t fumble . Has played at half back / half forward and in the middle. Pick 20 to 50. Hope CAC and team know what they're doing with this pick (sounds like a middling type going by this summary of him), surprised we took him at 14. Wish we would have picked up Rance or even Harry Taylor rather than this bloke.

yeah theres supposed to be live streaming video on the AFL website but I'll be stuffed if I can find a link. I hate afl.com!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://bigpondvideo.com/footytv//0/?0_103=& Here we go Dazzle, found it You'd think there'd be an obvious link on the AFL homepage, what a bunch of idiots who run that webpage!!!

beyond pick 4 i wouldn't even hazard a guess what the real order will be, hats off for giving it a go. I wouldn't be super happy with Palmer, Grimes and Bellchambers though, that would leave me a little sour

Good (about Dangerfield declaring he wont play in 08), I think I'd rather have Rioli anyway.

just browsing for some more stuff about Morton and came across the Claremont FC website where Cale played a few games this year. Turns out the lad is a goalkicker as well. Booting 5.0 in the colts prelim final vs South Freo (all kicked from CHF when he was switched there from the midfield) 1.0 in a colts semifinal loss to Swans 4.0 in a colts h&away round game against East Perth (playing as a roving midfielder) 4.0 and BOG performance in a colts game 100point thrashing of Perth (playing on the wing and at CHF) The only blot on his otherwise exemplary copybook 1.5 in a colts match against West Perth (the lad still picked up 20 kicks, 6 effective handballs and 12 marks in a near BOG performance!!!) His only other colts game was his debut against Subiaco. He booted only 0.1 off a wing but picked up 25 kicks, 4 effective handballs and 10 marks!! In his league debut against Peel Thunder he booted 3.0 taking his goalkicking tally for the season to 18.6 from 7 games (6colts, 1 league). Mighty impressive. This kid will be a star for us I reckon. Edit: Just realised he actually got shut out of the Colts GF against Swans, no goals. so that should be 18.6 from 8 games (7colts & 1 league) P.S. one of Morton's Claremont Colts teammates Patrick McGinnity could turn out to be a decent chance of a late smokey pick for us. He didn't even manage to squeeze into Burgan's phantom draft. He's a hard working defensive type, apparently this is the guy who shut down Cotchin at the U18 carnival, ideal long term replacement for Godfrey on our list I would think. The true mr consistency for the Claremont colts team was a boy by the name of Matt DeBoer who didn't nominate for this years draft. He's bottom age and could be a likely 1st rounder for next years draft. You may have seen a few clips of his off the bigfooty link on another thread with the draft prospect footage. His blistering run and 4 bounce effort down the guts was a real standout against SA.

Harry Taylor? Who? Where did this guy come from he'll be 22 year old next year? If this is turns out to be true CAC/Bailey must be looking for a ready-made key defender/forward. He's a good size 193 90kg and quick by the sounds of it. But why is this 21 year old not already in the AFL system? I'll be stoked with Morton (you don't win the Larke medal unless you're good, this boy is), much more so than Masten or Palmer. Dangerfield is one player I had on my shortlist so he'd be welcome. I reckon Rioli might be better though. Maric sounds good but he'll probably get called out between our picks unfortunately. Am really hoping that Rance slides to 14.

Yeah, but I'm almost 100% certain based on the news story I saw that he'll be busting to play for the west coast. We'd be foolish to draft him and I'm sure CAC and the WA recruiting scouts have sussed the boys mindset out and won't go for him based on being burned once already by the S. Thompson affair. Why would we draft the kid, develop him for 2 years and then have him go off and be a star for West coast. We're not a feeder club for other AFL teams! They mentioned Judd in the news story as well, although I didn't get the connection because I tuned in halfway through it. I think it was something about the fact Judd was a number 3 pick and the Eagles might use their pick 3 to get Masten. I have a hunch that being a one-eyed Eagle, Masten will be looking at the events surrounding the Judd returning to Victoria fiasco and be thinking if I get drafted by anyone other than the Eagles, I'll do the same thing to them and get some revenge on behalf of the team I supported growing up. Just my intuition though, completely unsubstantiated of course.

Yeah probably not as lucrative as the AFL's big bucks offer, but I admire Brayshaw and his team for having the guts to try and keep his team where its roots are and not up and relocate at the AFL's whims.

Sounds like a good plan, good on Brayshaw for pulling this deal together if it happens. The $10 mill is not really a loan per-se, more an annual revenue generating investment account. It just sits there generating hundreds of thousands of bucks for them to use each year to service their clubs bottom line. Like a retirement cash account. As long as the markets in which the money is invested don't go haywire it seems like a good strategy. We should look at trying to set up something similar with our "wealthy" supporters and members.

A little off topic, but bear with me: Saw a piece on Channel 7 news last night about Masten. He looks the goods for sure but he is a ravid Eagles fan, apparently his hero was Mainy. The impression I got was that if there was anyone who would ever pull a Judd/Thompson style go-home move at the end of their first contract this is the guy that will do it. We shouldn't touch him for that reason. I think he's a dead cert to go the Eagles with their pick 3 now. That means there's a 50/50 chance we're going to get Cotchin depending on how Richmond play their cards at the draft table. So its either Cotchin or Morton for us at pick 4. Dunno who I prefer. I reckon Morton sounds excellent (like a Cam Bruce but with skill). Cotchin, by all reports is brilliant too, but the fact he was tagged out of the game against WA worries me, still he's young he'll only get better you'd think. Who knows how its going to pan out. Can't wait for Saturday. Draft in the morning, election in the evening!!

I reckon Rance will be picked up by the Bullies. Reckon we'll get Masten with pick 4.

Unfortunately I've got a feeling of impending disappointment about this draft. We have a number of high picks but none really high enough to be guarenteed of getting what we want/need. Pick 4 will be a compromise pick. Ideally, we'd probably want Cotchin but will probably end up with Masten or Palmer. Pick 14 we're probably looking for the best available KPP (Rance or Henderson). Who knows what we'll end up with here but I reckon both Rance and Henderson will be long gone by this stage of the draft. Maybe we'll settle for Tate Pears? Pick 21 we're looking for a smoky here I guess, its certainly not a high enough pick to be really confident about. If things turn out the way I'd like heres a shortlist of players I'd be really keen to play for the Dees: Cotchin, Myers, Rance, Morton, (smoky Dangerfield)

Y_M reminds me of the "boy who cried wolf" only instead of yelling out false warnings all the time, he yells out false positives. So he's the bizarro world's "boy who cried wolf" I guess B)

Exactly what I was thinking. Y_M: Why can't you just keep your mouth shut or come out with a thread "Melbourne guaranteed to finish bottom next season", nothing you ever predict comes to pass as far as I can tell.

I thought the Junction oval was too small to do full field practice and now I see we're moving into a soccer stadium???? How's that going to help?, I guess it will teach us to use the corridor.

Cotchin sounds good, but I reckon Richmond will get him. I'm not buying into this theory about Richmond getting Morton just because they traded for his older brother. I think most of the top talent are Western Australians, if we draft 2 or 3 of them they might just adjust to life in Victoria a little better which will go a ways towards avoiding a Judd/Thompson scenario. Any of these would do me: Palmer, Rance, Myers, Gourdis, Pears, McGinnity, Brown, Masten (although OP scares the crap out of me). Get 2 or 3 of these guys and we can have a slice of WA right in the heart of Melbourne.

Undoubtedly its a huge gamble. One that I hope blows up in their face.