DeeSpencer

Tapscott and Gysberts were terrible picks. The first had a body that was never going to work at AFL. The second didn't have the heart for it. And both came to the wrong culture to really end their chances. That said, the issue wasn't really the 09 draft alone, it was that it came on the back of the 07 and 08 drafts walking in to the same under funded, under prepared and downright terrible footy club. We weren't complaining about the draft class at the time, nor were we at the end of 2010 when we thought we were on the right track. But whilst things looked good on field we were going further down the dunny behind the scenes. We ruined most of these guys careers before they already started and Gawn might be the only one to survive it because he was rehabbing his knees and otherwise kept away from the slop fest.

What I've heard from Essendon supporters is they would've taken Oliver if we took Parish. What I'm not hearing is who they would've picked if they had the choice between the two of them, or if they would've taken both and not Francis. Given Watson was a bit of a pioneer in the big bodied midfielder type and is now the wrong side of 30 (as is Goddard) I wouldn't at all be surprised if they wanted Oliver more. Either way. Maybe the more important question is had we have taken Oliver this year at pick 6 could we get a player better than Weideman with our first pick next year? I doubt it. Unless the answer is a confident yes then we've done well to bring both kids in now and can get a head start on development.

Nah. They might've gone a year early on moving Cross on but they didn't need him this year or next. The problem the Dogs have currently is that Morris, Murphy and Boyd are all 32/33. Having another player of that age in Cross would be pointless. Having just turned 30 Adcock might provide coverage for a year or two after those 3 finish up which could be pretty soon. It's also our great hope for jumping ahead of the Dogs. Take the 3 mature players off the list, out of their leadership group and out of the same backline at any time and you're going to need to have recruited and developed well to cover them. Libba and Jordan Roughead are their young leaders and Libba won't be next year and Roughead isn't really all that good. So it might fall to Dahlhaus, Wallis and Bont to lead a pretty young group. Interesting times at the Dogs. Adcock makes sense for them but he'll need to lift on some of his form from last year at Brisbane. He'd all but given up for a lot of the season.

The number of guys establishing themselves as best 22 combined with the ladder position in a few years time. With our last recruiter it became very clear that very few of his picks were shaping up as long term prospects. No doubt injury played a role. But by 2012 it was clear that the guys from the 2008-2010 drafts Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Gysberts, Tapscott, Cook and Davis (those last two didn't look very likely in the VFL) just weren't shaping up. Watts did (and still does) have some potential. Blease and Strauss had career altering injuries, Tapscott as well. And obviously with more time Jetta turned it around and Bennell might've been a handy depth player to keep as he is at West Coast. And of course the team wasn't lifting after 2010 and due to all the failures they went from lifting in 2010 as Bailey got the best of a group that Daniher left behind with guys like Green, Moloney, Jamar, Davey to getting worse because those guys were never the right age or talent level to sustain a side. Add in the restricted drafts and Mitch Clark's injuries/illnesses and you see why we ended in such a mess. Under Taylor we've recruited a bunch of guys who look up to AFL and perform well at VFL early in their careers. We've found talent deep (which is something we did well at under BP). We've found high end talent from the picks. That said with the 3 talls and the raw midfielder this is JT's gutsiest draft. If we get 1 A grader (be it Weideman or Oliver) and 2 consistent starters from this draft we will have had a huge draft. The next challenge for this group of recruiters is adding some more speed and skill, but I'd be shocked if we've haven't go the base of consistent performers right. If we haven't assembled enough talent to produce a decent midfield with some competitive talls then I'd be really disappointed.

Just a guess but the clap might have been for Petracca entering the main training group for the first time (even if just for patches). Is anyone else worried about Gus or know what's up for him? We cooked him too much down the stretch last year. Hope it's just a small thing that comes good soon and he can get back in to full training.

Both. I recall seeing a mention of Weideman replacing Petracca last year as the go to man in Eastern Ranges forward line as Tracc moved in to the midfield. Not to mention they must know each other from school and presumably would've played with each other at some stage.

The wing for a slow, below average fitness midfielder who isn't a great kick? Don't think the wing is his go. He'll be in with a shot for round 1, but will need a long term injury to play and unfortunately for Viv's sake I hope we don't have one. We do have 4 rookies now who must all be in with a chance to play, none of them are super raw projects. So we must have liked Hulett in the national draft otherwise having 5 rookies would've given us more freedom to play them.

Jason Taylor was the NSW Scholarship program scout for the Pies as one of his jobs there, they also have had a pretty good run of drafting Queenslanders, so he would know Northern state talent pretty well. Not at all surprised we looked that way again when the best juniors and state league players from the VFL, WAFL and SANFL were largely taken.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/love-of-the-game-wagner-family-grassroots-greats-in-aussie-rules/news-story/32ea24ca3b1070c7a07e433b76dfa61e?sv=18b13c69b7fb9e3a8843b27ff3c9b795 You wonder if the academies had been around earlier if Josh Wagner as well as Vanders and others would've been picked as 18 year olds. There's no way the talent could be so much better in a matter of a couple of years in QLD and NSW, it's mainly the development that has changed to see so many academy kids picked up, including Josh's brother Corey going to the Roos.

Hopefully some time in the system can improve his speed and repeat speed, but if you can create space for yourself and kick then you don't need to be all that fast to play half back. A nice pick up for a spot we don't have a lot of depth in and a solid enough beep test that indicates he might be able to play wing as well. In a shallow draft seems a reasonable call.

Yep I watched the same. Tackling probably the weakness right now, he let a couple slip. It did look a bit like he was playing on Tom Fields, who was 1 and done at Carlton despite being able to roost the ball 75m reliably which is a bit of a worry. But still a more developed body and in what looked like a pretty competitive game.

Nope once father sons have gone passed the national draft they go straight on to the rookie list (effectively taking the last rookie pick). He's a bomber now.Murray played for Wodonga, can only presume he lives on the side of the river, surely they only get the boys in their state. But who knows. The reality is if we wanted him we could've taken him in the main draft. No one even wants a PSD pick tomorrow, so the desire for these kids is low across the board. Sounds harsh but largely clubs are just filling out spots they have to use for the year and hoping to find a diamond.

The turn around for the Chicago D has been amazing. Quality coaching in the NFL makes all the difference. Need an impact player in the secondary and a bit more talent on the D Line and we'll be rolling. It's funny because I think John Fox is a bit short sighted with his game plan and having poor relations with the local media and so on but he obviously understand locker room culture and he hires very good coordinators and puts them in a position to succeed. It seems less is often more with NFL head coaches. Way too often teams hire the quality coordinator instead of picking a guy to be head coach who can then delegate. I think Roosy would be an awesome NFL head coach. He'd just keep the players happy, hire the best coordinators, make sure to always play competitive and tough football and go from there.

Vikings Cards Pats Upset alert for Carolina who I didn't tip and NE who I did. No doubt they'll contain and make life very hard for Osweiler but they might struggle to score on Denver as well. Could be a 13-9 type game.

So the ability to view highlights from the AFL draft machine has disappeared. That's great. Just wondering if we really want speed and outside run if we'd consider nabbing St Kilda's Josh Saunders. Just an outside the box thought.

Yep I'm not a huge fan but it seems logical after losing Howe and Cross and going for the 2 first round picks now to bring in a mature player. North have just made consecutive prelims with a team of competitors and Harvey, Dal Santo and Higgins being the only real class players, the last two being picked up via free agency in the last two years. Our plan is to hopefully bring a core group of competitors through and we can always add class on the fringes later but unless we have enough senior players to lead the way and set standards on field then we won't ever get out of the bottom 10.

If we were shite last year then we must have a lot of ordinary players towards the bottom of our 22, no? We gave up a decent pick for Melksham and plan to play him at half back. The coaches believe in him and even if it's blind faith in some regards we have to as well. He's probably getting the first month in the side regardless of performance. Bugg is in competition with the likes of Grimes and Lumumba (2 players who have seen better days) for a spot at half back. His top line endurance and decent speed makes him our best option to shut down a dangerous half forward flanker. We've lost 2 regular senior players in Howe and Cross and these are the 2 we brought in to replace them.

I assume a lot from Petracca and Kent but they are great talents. I also think Melksham will get a long crack at half back and is a decent shot of locking it down. Also that Garland will bounce back and unless we are playing a team with 3 monster forwards I think he and Dunn have the edge on Frost. So: FB: Jetta Dunn Garland HB: Salem McDonald Melksham C: xxx1xxx Jones xxx2xxxx HF: Kent Hogan Brayshaw FF: Garlett xxxx3xxx Petracca Foll: Gawn Vince Viney Int: Tyson Vanders xxx4xxxx xxx5xxxx 1. Wing: Think we need at least 1 pure wingman. Stretch would be my favourite. He's best suited to fill the role and will make others in the team better by being a natural in the position 2. Wing/fwd rotation: Here is where we need either the next best midfielder or a forward who can spend some time on the wing. Newton, Watts, JKH, ANB, Kennedy under consideration 3. Fwd/ruck: Dawes v Pedersen v Frost v Max King v Weideman (unlikely) 4. 7th defender/wing. Either Grimes, Bugg or Lumumba to provide top level endurance, spend some time defending and up on a wing. Alternatively Mitch White an option with Melksham/Salem taking the wing minutes 5. Forward/best option: Be it another tall forward or 2nd ruck, Watts as a medium forward, getting Oliver in, Harmes, or any of those listed under spot 2. Jayden Hunt an option. I'd go with Stretch, Watts, Pedersen, Bugg and Harmes. The first two provide run and kicking that we need between the arcs. The next 3 are the best options to play competitive tough footy. But if we do have a fit list I think there will be a lot of debate during the NAB challenge about these spots.

He has speed and is the right age to take a big step up from last year to this year. He has to be in consideration for a half forward spot along with the likes of Kent, JKH and Watts and there isn't all that much between that group.

Darcy Moore is doing well at Collingwood, so is Joe Daniher at Essendon. Every young key forward with or without a famous surname has a lot of pressure on them to perform. Some do, some don't. Who knows if the pressure is a factor. Certainly developing alongside a gun key forward is a good advantage and Weideman will have that, but I doubt it's an AFL conspiracy. They are busy enough.

No real change. Oliver is another for the midfield/resting forward rotation but doesn't really make a change for the need for some pace and skill on the wing and flanks. Weideman is a while off and whether we can fit a 2nd ruck (Max King?) plus Hogan and Weideman long term in an interesting debate. If we can that puts pressure on Watts as a taller goal kicking forward, but he's never played that way anyway. Weideman (2nd ruck), Hogan, Hulett is another combination but that's even further down the track. We still lack wingman and the competition for a spot as a pacy half forward remains mainly Kent, JKH, Kennedy. Decent options, but not impossible for Watts to keep them out. As usual the ball is in Watts' court.

A calf injury? Dawes is fit. Beep test would hurt him though with all the acceleration/deceleration. 2 or 3km time trial is a better guide for an AFL tall in their prime. In the repeat 300m's a select group were running the other day Dawes was leading whilst Hogan was spotting him 10m. It's not a race, they are more just trying to run consistent times, but Dawes when healthy does have a high motor. He can repeat lead and get back and apply forward pressure. It's the when healthy that's key.

Punishment for the Melksham trade too early costing us points in the GWS deal. That said, I would've only wanted Bonner and to a lesser extent Balic. Mathieson we don't need. I think we might've liked Brandon White. And Blake Hardwick to have been there for our second pick in the 40's. Picking a ruckman prior to North's pick was probably a consideration for doing it first.

It's best to forget anything that happened between 2007 and the end of 2013 besides the 2012 draft/trade period. We've just had our 4th trade and draft period and will be entering our 3rd year of a proper rebuild. We need to see results on field but it's way too early to panic in to try and pick every draft pick to fill holes.

Neither Brayshaw nor Petracca were that fit last year. Petracca certainly wasn't, he had more weight (mainly in muscle) than Oliver does and Brayshaw had done an ankle and had been off legs for a while after the end of his season. I think it's well and truly time for us to stash some draftees and let them develop more in the VFL but it wouldn't shock me if we have a few injuries and Oliver sneaks in to a forward pocket. Brayshaw wasn't meant to debut in round 1, they held him out of the NAB challege after a concussion but he was just too good for VFL footy.