Akum

Good get!

Struggle to work out why SA smashed the carnival and so few of their players were rated. Yeah, I know they were "well-coached", but it must be more than that. ANB sounds the sort of mid that brings others into the game.

Is his disposal any better than Tom's? Can he play forward? Don't get me wrong, I'm really stoked, but just interested to know.

Seems that #1 is settled as far as the Saints are concerned. Just that nobody else can predict them with any degree of certainty.

I find that hard to believe. Only 65?????

No, it's more trying to work out their overall strategy. "If we're going to pick McCartin, let's surround him with some more solid mature bodies, at least for the next 2-3 years while he develops" Or, "We can go with Petracca if we beef up our forward line in another way" (hoping that either McKernan or one of their young talls can shoulder the load when Roo retires).

Can't help but think there's gotta be some significance that Saints are looking at McKernan & Petrenko. Trouble is, does this make them more likely or less likely to take McCartin at #1?

What? You mean they won't debut on QB?? It could be twice the hoopla!

Our mids don't combine anywhere near as well another midfields.We have "mids", everyone else has "midfields". How much our midfield improves in 2015 has less to do with individual improvement, and more to do with how well they combine. Or not.

Used to run a youth group and had to drive them all home in my Morris 1100. The most we got in it at the one time was 12. Tho' that included one in the boot.

The thing with Watts is that if he's going to play as a running mid, he needs to build his tank. If he's going to play forward, he needs to bulk up. He seemed to spend a lot of last year plugging gaps (mainly because of injuries to forwards, of course). He needs to settle into one or the other.

The point with Blease (and Evans, for that matter) is that at this stage we can't afford players who run only one way. Geelong might be able to (they got a lot out of players like Varcoe).

I thought it was good. King was trying hard to be constructive not critical, and to ask questions while avoiding making assumptions and taking the analysis too far. Cos "taking the analysis too far" is basically our job! It may be that if you don't have the ball a lot of the time, a largely defensive game plan will exhaust players over the course of a game and/or a season. It's much more tiring to chase than it is to make the play. I know for sure that Roos was trying to get them to be more attacking when we had the ball at the end of the season, but players were hesitant to take the risk to hit up the first option. As we heard, they worked hard on ball movement at training, but it was hard for them to do it in games. This was the basis for the remarks about "scars" from previous seasons, when if they took an attacking risk they got flayed, even if it came off. I think it's right that we need to see some improvement in this in 2015 - a better balance between attacking & defensive. If Roos can't get the players to deliver this in 2015 ... then who can? I think he can, but it won't be good if we're here in a year's time and there's been no significant improvement.

Chunk has much better balance in his tatts this season!

On the other hand, we didn't hear too much about Lever until Pick 12 became a possibility.

WJ, is it safe to assume that if the Saints did revert to flaky & take Mc.Cartin that we'd take Petracca & Brayshaw? And did they have any concerns about Lever's knee? And whether they see as a rebounding defender or as a potential mid? How do they see his prospects as a mid? Like ChaserJ, I'd be happy with any two of these four too. They all offer us a great deal.

But Lyon, Neitz & Schwarz played to effective midfields. We have the most ineffective midfield in the comp, even despite the gains we made last season. I'm sure they haven't ruled out Mc.Cartin at this stage. But we've got to find another 2 or 3 B-grade-or-better mids from somewhere, and the top of the draft is one of our best chances.

Again, I don't think there's a problem as long as it's not taken to be more than it is. Even if it's the gospel truth, it's just a summary - and one person's view - of one stage of a much larger ongoing discussion about pro's & con's of certain choices. As long as it doesn't get over-interpreted as "De Goey's a lock for 3" or "Mc.Cartin & Lever are right out of contention". It's certainly not the final decision, and I imagine that preferences will go back and forth until the day. I'd be disappointed if they were all in agreement at this stage and it needed no further discussion. If indeed Wright & Laverde have been ruled out, even that wouldn't be a surprise to most of us. And it's interesting that they've had such a good look at De Goey & Cockatoo. And perhaps too they're so sure that Petracca will be Pick 1 that they're not even mentioning him. It doesn't bother me that insiders are talking. We have very little chance to influence Pick 1, and there's nothing to be lost if other teams know our thinking about Picks 2 & 3.

Should be called "the Jetta move".

This is a fair enough question. I'd say it's better to report it (cos it's what makes this time of the year interesting) but take care not to overstate it. If your golf buddy says the club is really into Lever, then that's all it means. And IIRC that's what you reported. That doesn't mean that 2-3 weeks out from the draft the final decision has been made that we're definitely taking Lever, or we've crossed X or Y off the list. Others may have sources that we're really looking hard at De Goey, or Duggan, or whoever. There's no way a decision would be made on #3 at this stage, and we'll be narrowing down the list, so really checking out our top few preferences. There are bound to be a number of people at the club involved in the discussion, who may well have different preferences. In other words, you'd expect that reliable inside sources may not report the same story. It's just one person's opinion. It only creates problems when either the original poster overstates what they were told (though I reckon most posters with credible inside sources do take care not to overstate), or when other posters think that because an inside source said we're really into Lever, it means we must have crossed off whoever they want. In other words, it's other posters who make the original information out to be more than it is.

Was going great up to ... ... Who he can become? I see De Goey developing into something similar to Colin Sylvia as a damaging forward who can push into the midfield. ...

Any reasons why?

Perhaps the issue with Evans is whether he's a bit like Blease in that he's fine if all he has to do is attack, but is lacking in the defensive side of his game. I didn't watch him closely enough last year to be sure of this, but it could well be the problem. That's an area where Tappy would be ahead of him.

Sorry to state the obvious, but they've prob got a list of potential sliders,and if one's still there are 40, it's hold the Pickles.

Oh the indignity!!!