DeeSpencer

Disagree. Have to give clubs time to do their research, check medicals, have a look at the draft crop and due to the restricted nature of AFL there's no later period of trading available so it has to be done all at once. Maybe it could start a week later officially but still give clubs that time after finals to do their leg work.

Come on Ben that's the kind of comment that make people think you are a tool and then disregard the rest of your comments. I don't want to go when Blease, Watts, Davey and Bail are in the same forward line but I'm happy to go with McKenzie playing because I know he'll have a crack.

He rated Kirk, Ben Mathews, Crouch, Amon Buchanan, Luke Ablett and Paul Bevan enough that with a decent chunk of talent around them they became premiership players. McKenzie might not be Kirk or have any Ablett genes but I'm a believer in him.

Could've got to 25 with more regular midfield time and consistent VFL appearances whilst building his fitness post the early injury. I expect Michie to be better than Evans and Matt Jones as well but he's not yet, let's see what happens if we even get him! I think you are wrong on McKenzie. I'm hoping he's over the achilles trouble that plagued his preseason last year. I know he can't hit the side of the barn kicking but I think his tagging and clearance work and mental strength make him very important. Late season he did great jobs on Ablett, Dangerfield and Griffen and I think Roos will be keen for a tagger.

Steady on. Sam Blease can average 25 touches in the VFL which is better than the WAFL. But they way this guy plays indicates he should make the step up. Still wouldn't put him passed Jones, Viney even McKenzie or Trengove but he'd sit comfortably on that next level with guys like Toumpas, Matt Jones and Evans. Would be a very good get.

If he wants to break a contract so badly GWS will tell him he can only go to the club with the best offer. Pick 2 will probably be the best offer, they can then work out how to on trade the damn thing for some mature players.

Yeah next years team will feature Cross, Chapman, Savage, Docherty, Pods, Thomas and a whole bunch of others at this rate. Probably want to add a ruckman after getting Hampson go. Wonder if they'll get Jolly as well.

2009: Pick 2 - Trengove, Pick 3 dusty Pick 10 - Melksham, 11 Gysberts, 12 Lucas 2008: Pick 3 or 4 - Hill or Hartlett. Pick 9 - Ziebell, 11 - Sidebottom 2007: Pick 2 - Cotchin, pick 3 - Masten. Pick 10 Dangerfield then Vespremi, Rioli, Ebert, Grimes 2006 (pic 2-4 talls) 5- Boak, 9 Armitage, 15 Dan O'Keefe, 18 L. Jetta -- the year of amazing talls Seems like a risky strategy. Would've paid off big time in 2008 and 2007 if you got the right names but the other 2 years might have been a bust (some pretty good talls in 2006 could've got N. Brown and Frawley over Lachie Hansen or Gumbleton). I'd say take the best player at pick 2 and hope one of the others you like slips to the second round is safer.

They've got some really good mids to use out of their backline and forward. But also some guys who I think will take a long time to develop inside game as mentioned. And Whitfield is another that will probably take time to really start winning the ball inside as well as using it beautifully on the outside. Some of their more highly rated guys - Dom Tyson, Coniglio and Greene really struggled last year. Greene is one that needs to get his head right and improve his kicking otherwise he'll be on that scrap heap next to Rhys Palmer. My point is despite the impressive numbers depth will only get you so far. And Shiel has been their clear second best midfielder behind Callan Ward since they started. With his second half of 2013 Taylor Adams maybe started to pull ahead of Treloar and Greene for 3rd best and he's going. They'll get improvement across the park when more guys can run out games and but they really need to keep the guys they already have going well. Gold Coast really improved this year on the back of consistent performance from Prestia and O'Meara to complement GAJ. And the occasional cameo from Bennell usually against Melbourne. I certainly think they'd entertain Tyson, Coniglio or Greene for pick 2 although the preference would be to keep them as they have a mid first round pick and will get either a pick or player for Adams already. Don't think we are any chance at Shiel unless he throws an almighty fit about getting back to Victoria. Hate to say this but it would help if he had a reason to come home ie. family tragedy or needs to be with his baby mumma like Dyl Roberton.

Played something like 18 WAFL games this year averaging 25 disposals per game. Just wasn't seen as ready for the Ross Lyon system where he only plays 1 or 2 kids under the age of 24 usually. Missed the first 2 years with foot injuries but I think a lot of that was them being very cautious with him. Not sure it's of much long term consequence.

Yeah but there is not necessarily a direct correlation between that and size. Look at Tom McDonald, skinny tall, but has desire for the contest and work load and has proven to play early. Same goes for Fyfe who impacted plenty of games early despite how skinny he was. No doubt more of the midfielders with bigger builds can influence early but if you can't run a 14+ or more beep test you wont get through preseason and get on the park and play early. Nathan Jones had a huge body when he was 18 and was super fit but it took him a long time to adapt to AFL. Look at last years draft. Bulldogs took Stringer who's a huge, strong inside mid in the making but doesn't have near the tank to be much more than a forward. Wines who's still a monster for 18 but not as big was able to be managed through the season to contribute early. Jack Viney who's a little shorter but solid had a few injury issues that stopped him playing a whole season influenced some games but not most really. Give me the best footballer, of which winning the ball and using the ball are probably still the most important attributes and I'll be happy. I don't care if he weighs 75kg or 85kg.

No doubt if he can regularly find the ball out in space he'll use it well. But I don't really see the inside game stacking up against the best mids and then does have he have the fitness and speed to play outside mid? Or the marking at his height to play high half forward? That said I'd rather him in the side even if he's not that great an athlete or ball winner because he will use it well, unlike someone like Rohan Bail who will turn it over.

Was glad we drafted Gysberts and not Lucas. 4 seasons later and I still am. Lucas can't kick and is a pea heart. He also brought the super out on the full back in to fashion. If Mick Malthouse doesn't want him then neither should we.

Promising news I hope it's accurate. Sylvia leaving to take Michie's spot in the Freo best 22 should be the card we play to convince him Freo wont give him the opportunities he needs right now. As for the trade I'd say our third round pick - 40 ish. But it looks like Freo could be in the race for Elliot Yeo more than they let on but can't match West Coast second round pick, if we swap second round picks we put them in that race. Could be an opportunity for us to trade our second and fourth round picks for Freo's second and third round picks and Michie. Ie. pick 21 and 60 for Michie and pick 33 and 55 or whatever it will be. That would allow us to pick Michie up and get our 4th pick in the draft within top 60 range. Considering everyone is saying this is a shallow draft it might be worth downgrading a touch early to get the later picks in and keep our third rounder. Of course if we end up trading pick 2 we probably want to keep the second round pick as low as possible as it will be more important to get one of the best quality young guys.

Maybe timing makes sense as there are no more games to watch and much less players to interview and data to crunch. If you like a guys work rate but don't really rate his judgement then it could be the time to move him on.

According to Jay Clark on twitter He's one of 2 National recruiting officers who work under Jason Taylor. Most interesting thing is the timing so close to the draft. Not sure what kind of contract he had etc but you'd think recruiters would work calendar year and you wouldn't let one go no matter how much you agreed with his ideas until after the draft.

Ok: - Wrong board - Wrong title - Already have treads on Savage and Sewell - Pretty sure we are overpaying considering Sewell probably isn't exactly what we want and I wouldn't touch Ellis.

On Walsh - not concerned. Happy he's back at North. We've got smart operators in Roos, Viney, Jason Taylor and Misson. I think Mahoney with Peter Jackson's guidance can be a good administrator. On Tudor - Seems he missed out on the Essendon job, as well as the West Coast and Brisbane gigs. Not sure why he moved on from Sydney and I'm not sure where he was for our senior assistant job - we could've missed out on him or he might not have been the right man for us. I'm more worried about who we get for the senior assistant job. Not overly worried if we missed Burns or Tudor at this stage.

Only because we are Melbourne. If he was at Sydney or Hawthorn you wouldn't hear about him for 3 years and then he'd burst on the scene as the next big thing. I like that he's on this trip and I like that he made some ground with his football throughout the year. Positive signs. Again I hope more than expert but that's ok

Exactly. Now the buddy deal is through the Pies might make headway with Jessie White (while Sydney would've been occupied previously) but they wont want to do too much until Taylor Adams is sorted and then they can think about Karnezis and they have to get picks to get all of those deals done. And they factor in Heath Shaw Same with cats where Adams would be priority number 1 but they would also have a hand in other things. That's just some examples of why these deals take so long. Our pick 2 is our number 1 priority I'd say but for other clubs its a consideration but they have to work out a bunch of other things first. And no club wants to link players for trade and then not trade them. We saw what happened to Rischitelli and Daniel Bradshaw at Brisbane when they were mentioned in the Fev deal then ended up quitting the club. One club we've heard about is Sydney having some discussions. But they had to get Buddy all cleared and now have to trade Mumford, White and maybe Everitt to even get under the salary cap. So we sit and wait.

Couldn't agree more. Except if Longer did lob in the draft Brisbane get nothing so the clubs aren't all that powerful. The AFL have made things very much in the players favour at the moment. A few players should go look at the NFL with no guaranteed contracts and players able to be traded whenever and wherever and see how good they want it. If Longer so desperately wants to move back to Melbourne then he should be willing to play for any of the 10 clubs.

Yeah but the only place a player wants to be less is Melbourne (and GWS). Dyl Roberton left Freo and looked great at St Kilda as well, those kind of things influence team mates. Personally I think we should be able to sell Michie on a locked up spot in our best 22 and Paul Roos and some stability where as the saints could have a new coach before Michie is even signed his contract. Also I know he was an Oakleigh kid and Wesley boy so I presume his family is suburban Eastern suburbs in which case training and living close to AAMI park with the odd trip to Casey sounds better than training at Seaford regularly.

Seems we'll get a preview of Dom Barry 2014 as he's in the Indigenous Squad to take on the Irish along with Davey. No nifty Nev Jetta but good luck to Dom, hope he does us proud.

Probably way against AFL rules but Sydney would do it if it was in their best interest. Trading for coaches in an accepted practice in the NFL. The Jon Gruden trade being the biggest one, look it up on wikipedia.

Of course we stink right now. Port was the same 12 months ago. I'd be more worried about it if it's the same in 12 months time. Hopefully by then we are competitive in a heap more games and on the up. If we don't trade pick 2 it's not a bad thing. We'll still have a decent pick next year and can trade that. I'm more worried about not keeping our own guys and not developing them.