Radar Detector

Watts Frawley Scully Grimes Morton Jurrah Trengove Gysberts Petterd Garland McKenzie Blease Tapscott Gawn Fitzpatrick Bail Bennell Wonaeamirri Spencer Strauss Jetta Maric McNamara Incredibly tough exercise, not least because of the varying degrees of development in some players with similar body types, for example talls like Frawley vs Watts. Had to make a call based on where I would see them all at the same age.

Surprised he was able to hold down FF given he was well short of 192cms... But there is no doubt he was a star. My favourite player to go and watch as a young kid by a long way.

Don't think they've announced their player movements yet. How he is still on a list is well beyond me.

I see your Jordan McMahon and raise you Jarad Oakley-Nicholls.

Difference here though is that a more accurate comparison is be between two BMWs, one with GPS and one without. The difference in quality between all players the FD is seriously considering for pick 12 will be minimal and I gravely doubt they will pick an inferior player if something obviously better is available. However I strongly believe that clubs form their respective views as to "best available" with an eye for what their specific needs are. Either way, it's likely we'll get a quality player with our first pick.

I heard the deal clincher was a shiny new Mike's Hard Lemonade t-shirt.

I must've been following the wrong SpyandSource on twitter. Can't recall a single thing he got right except stuff reported after the fact. If he was spot on all month, we would've seen Essendon land a big fish, a big name Eagle head to a Vic club, Jack Anthony to Sydney, Josh Hill to us etc. etc. Am I missing something?

Although I cannot stand the sight of Travis Cloke, there is no doubt he would be a valuable asset to our team and is in the right age bracket. The point is moot however. The trade period has passed and there is no way he would slip to number 12. At a minimum, Gold Coast will nab him with one of the seven picks they have before ours. The one key hole in their list is a big bodied key forward. Aside from that, I think that any of WCE, Essendon, Richmond and probably even Brisbane would also take him before us. Time to move on.

Quite the opposite. I hope the FD ignores all the crap that we're all talking and get on with the job they're paid to do. I'd be far more concerned if the FD do listen to the opinions on this forum in relation to drafting and trading as that would indicate to me they don't really have confidence in the decisions they're making. Btw I would guess that nobody, including the FD, ever want to overspend on any player. Different people just have different perceptions around what overspend means in relation to different players.

No need to repeat, but thanks. I am not disputing the fact that Cam is overseas, just that his contract negotiations have been at a stalemate for some time and he has been overeas for at most a few days. There are clearly other issues involved.

Fair obsrvation. I tend to agree with all of it. No, they gave up their Bock compensation pick (end of first round) AND a third rounder.

Sylvia - Arguably our most talented player and can tear games apart Davey - See comment for Sylvia. Toss a coin as to which is better Russian - Super important and will be a crucial to our surge up the ladder Frawley - Defence wins premierships and he is the key to our backline Green - Likely captain, reigning B&F and still our best (and most reliable) scoring option Grimes - Future leader and provides class of half back. Massively important. Apologies to: Jurrah - Could kick 50+ in a season if he gets a run and is the x-factor every team craves Scully - Expect to see him starting to win games off his own boot in 2011. Super talent Trengove - See Scully although slightly less upside IMO. Watts - Doubt there's anyone more important to our premiership aspirations

I don't know, and I agree he is not worth anything like pick 12 straight up. My only question (and it is just that, a question) is whether there is truly a large difference between picks 12 and 17 or we just perceive there to be one. After all we're all pretty excited about Blease and Tapscott who were 17 and 18 respectively.

Exactly. Hale is behind Macintosh and Goldstein in North's pecking order but both those guys would stroll straight into our best 22. Just because Hale isn't in front of those two doesn't mean he's no good or won't considerably improve our side.

Maybe, but we wouldn't be giving up the pick, just moving back a couple of spots in the order. The question I posed above is whether pick 17 is really that much worse than 12? But for a few extra points against Collingwood and the Dogs we would've had pick 17 odd anyway... Would that really have screwed us and handed GC a massive edge? I'm not sure but I doubt it.

This is all true but Hale, while rumored to prefer Melbourne, is also not averse to a move elsewhere. And Gold Coast have reportedly offered pick 26 and have plenty of salary cap room. The result is that North are in a much better bargaining position than you suggest. Incidentally, while I don't necessarily believe the credibility of the propsed trade, I ran it past an impartial and very knowledgeable Bombers supporter mate and he thought it was about right. And thinking further, the difference between picks we are talking about is (for example) from Gysberts to Tapscott... Are we sure there's enough in that to really jump up and down? My initial reaction was that this would be a crap trade for us but now I'm not certain.

I saw Cam in Melbourne last week so I doubt the hold-up has been him being overseas. Really hope the club holds firm on a one year deal - we don't want a scenario like Brad Johnson (or David Neitz for that matter). I realise he's concerned about being shipped off for being too old but if he deserves a contract after next year, I'm sure the club will offer him one (especially given his veteran status). If he doesn't then one year was a fair call anyway. No benefit to offering two IMO.

Just for a bit of context, those pondering whether Hale is worth a second or third round choice (me included) should probably bear in mind the following. In 2008 our third round pick (Jamie Bennell) was pick 35 and in 2009 Max Gawn was pick 34. This year, our second round pick is 31. If we really think Hale is worth a "third rounder", unfortunately our second pick is probably about right. Will be interesting to see if we can fill that hole with any additional player-for-pick swaps if we do go down that path.

So Fev and Pavlich don't play as traditional talls? It's a myth that you have to be 195cms plus to play key forward, you just need to be able to present well and take a grab in a contest. His height is fine for key forward, the question is whether or not he's a good enough player.

Tend to agree with this logic - especially as Hale had his best game of the year with Warnock as his direct opponent. Pretty sure Warnock only played one more game this year than Hale so the comparison is fair. Personally, I would prefer a third rounder for Hale and a second rounder for Warnock but not sure of the likelihood.

In the words of John McEnroe "You cannot be serious!" Laycock is one of the softest, most injury-prone and incompetent spuds in the AFL. I don't even know a single Essendon supporter that rates him.

Could not agree more with this post. Not saying that we shouldn't trade for experience at some stage, just not yet. Of course, if we could get a gun youngster with 8-10 years in front of them that would be different but that is a pipe dream. Not sure there's anyone who's been discussed that I think would be an appropriate use of pick 12, especially given the strength of this year's draft.

Darling is actually 2cm taller than Fev and only 1cm shorter than Pav so not sure height will be an issue with him... That said, he was apparently a loose cannon with a poor attitude and may now be facing some psychological issues as you suggested. On Mundy, I'm with your original call. I think he is a quality player but has only really produced the one outstanding season and, at 25, we run the risk of throwing a little bit too much at him in an over-inflated marketplace. If it was Swan or Ablett, sure, but I think we have more pressing needs and his price is likely to end up over the odds. I'd be happier to spec the first pick on a tall forward prospect and back in our emerging midfield, especially seeing as we are still one or two years away (at least) from being a genuine threat.

I'm not sure that this is necessarily true. Dane Swan was a very similar player to Jones at the same stage of his career with many of the same knocks - one-paced, average disposal, one-dimensional - but he has really come on over the past three years to be the best player in the comp this year. If Jones wants to go elsewhere to get opportunities, that's one thing, but to seek to trade him for a pick would be a strange decision IMO. We get a bit carried away on here expecting all the high draft picks we select to become champions of the game but many of them become nothing better than serviceable. Some of our higher draft picks in recent years have included Bell, Bate, Dunn, Maric, Strauss and Jones himself. And those drafts weren't compromised. Sometimes a bird in the hand...

Correct. The difference between pre-paying contracts and front-loading contracts is that front-loading contractually binds the club to pay a certain amount in a particular year (e.g. pay $400k in year one, $200k in year 2). This will be agreed at the time the contract is signed. Prepaying contracts may arise where someone has signed a contract for $300k in year 1 and 2 but because there is excess room in the salary cap in year 1, they agree with the player to pay a portion of the contract early (e.g pay $400k in year one, $200k in year 2). So the result is the same, but the contractual treatments are different. It is all about freeing up room in future. This does not encourage salary cap cheating as suggested by another poster as at no time can you pay more than 100% of the cap in TPP in a given year (unless you're Carlton). It only works for clubs like Melbourne who, despite front-loading a portion of our contracts, may still have residual room in the cap in a given year. Hope that helps!