Adam The God

I have as much clue about Stephens as you mate and probably being slightly provocative, but he appears to be a soft outsider with neat skills. I don't see the love for him and his SANFL stats of basically 18 touches a game doesn't do much for me. I'm probably a bit burnt by Trengove and Toumpas, whose experience in the SANFL failed to translate to the top level. Once again, if our guys rate him, I'll trust them, but he doesn't seem like a 'Melbourne' player to me.

If Kemp is gone by 10 and it leaves the Ben Newton clone in Stephens, I'd split with Geelong for their two late first rounders and try for Gould and Pickett or another small forward we rate highly.

I reckon it's more likely a strategic falsity being planted by our recruiting team and FD to enable us to take our real target in Green. Mere speculation though at this stage. Will be interesting to see who we go with.

Particularly as we'll most likely have a plug and play in Green or Jackson at 3. It enables us to select best available at 10.

You managed to judge his character by watching him basketball on YouTube? Come on. I'll back whoever we pick but it seems relatively safe to say we'll be picking out of Green and Jackson. The post that said they'd prefer Jackson running it out of the stoppage because Green is a handball king, the ball travels a lot quicker when you kick or handball rather than run and carry. If Green is an Oliver clone and we can get him, that's an A grade midfield for the next 10 years. That's how you build a dynasty. We want sustained success and it's all built from the midfield. I'd also add Kemp if possible to that midfield in a few years time.

This has been said multiple times recently but in the age of future picks, trades should rarely be looked at in a vacuum. This seems like an okay trade to me and let's see how the next two drafts play out. I just hope we haven't handed Freo Robertson and Henry. I don't have an opinion on Henry, but Robertson seems like an interesting type at 10. And then there's Kemp.

I'd play Petty back if we got Jackson to fill a KPF role. And of course you don't draft a Cox at pick 3 @DeeSpencer. I'm talking about the idea of Jackson saying forward in his first year or so and what that could mean for our forward structure in 2020. We'd want Jackson to eventually replace Max and possibly play as even a mid.

Completely agree. Having seen Jackson's recruitment in a new way (via Mach's post in the Jackson thread), I'm coming around to the idea of Jackson as a tall target forward and a tackler inside forward 50 with his mobility.

Interesting post this, mate. Collingwood's forwardline has functioned around Cox's height and merely competing for the better part of two seasons now. Cox is a good kick, but not as mobile as Jackson. I don't mind the idea of deploying Jackson in our forwardline in a similar way. It enables, as you imply, Tmac to play up the ground and Weideman to play second or third fiddle, whilst also play a few smalls around them. Jackson just has to compete and ensure the opposition can't run it out of our forward 50 easily. His mobility will help here.

I take it this means you wouldn't bid on Green and would prefer Jackson, mate?

I assumed Green was off the table. If not, that would be delicious. Oliver and Green. ?

I don't think it matters a great deal, but he comes across as a really good bloke in that video. I have had a question over his ball use (even referred to him as a butcher in the past), but I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays for us. I hope that with another pre season under his belt and more kms in the legs, he'll be less impacted by lactic acid induced by gut running, and as a result improve his ball use.

I like this idea, mate. Mostly because I think Kemp could be a star and if he's the second player we pick, the risk is lessened.

Well, now you've blown it, mate. They're bound to read Demonland very carefully and will now be on the look out for a Galifianakis look-a-like, who uses a [censored] excuse. Anyone else who can actually attend and who lives in the state of Victoria, could you please let us know how tomorrow night goes, as I can't make it? Thank you, kindly.

Quite a few posters I respect are on the Jackson train now. Group-think or is there something in that? I see the Nik-Nat comparisons at ground level in amidst a stoppage and I like how he gets involved (it's very Nik-Nat), but I haven't seen the footy IQ some speak of, it seems more like very good spacial awareness (the basketball background). This could translate to footy IQ, but only time will tell. I'm a Jason Taylor fan and with our increased resources in the scouting team, I'm confident to back in Taylor and co to make the right calls. I still really like Kemp and Robertson's grown on me. If we could somehow split our pick 8, I wonder if there's a chance we could land them both, along with Jackson at pick 3? Not long to wait now.

It seems the draft pundits have started talking about him a bit more as of late. Was mentioned today on the AFL website as a future leader. A guy who averages 30 touches in the carnival has to be in with a top 5 chance. His stats are better than Walsh's at the same level. Seems to be a case of WA hiding their top end talent again. When you win the Larke Medal though, it makes it tougher to hide a player. Be fascinated to see if we go him. Any of our WA watchers know if we've spoken to him? Surely.

No different from celebrity endorsements of any products, ever. The advertising industry's been working for a while now. That said, as usual, mate, I presume you're joking.

Yep, that said, you could also argue the trading of Jesse could have given us King instead of May. If May can put together 22 games in 2020, we might be level.

There's a couple of hit up passes in this footage. He's a decent kick, but sometimes rushes his disposal when he's at full pelt.

I didn't talk about balance at all. I called it a tidbit.

Bring him back to his real home I reckon. It seems we have a respected medical team now that could woo perennially injured players. It'd be funny if we nicked him back from Freo in a year or two for a second rounder.

If we end up with Young and Murray as a DFA, we'll have stocked up on left footers. Of the likely left footers for Round 1, we'd have: May, Hibberd, Salem, Young, Murray, Fritsch, Viney, Hannan and maybe even Hore as well. 9 in your 22 is unusually high. The Bulldogs could argue they could have 10 in their best 22, otherwise really only North, St Kilda and Collingwood are anywhere near that number - they could probably field 6-8 players in their best 22 who are left footers. Does this mean anything? Probably not, but a tidbit nevertheless.

You can understand why, with the Pies cap-squeeze, they've decided not to persevere with Murray. They have many of his type on their list, but he'd be a handy acquisition for us. He's another that would release Salem to play further up the field, but also give us some handy rebound and run and carry from defence, without absolute brainfades (ala Frost).

It's on the website. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-11-04/bennell-to-train-with-melbourne

I reckon it's closer to 6.7 times out of 10.