DirtyDees DDC

BP's resignation may give us a hint of the club's intentions in this years draft. We could have three first round draft picks, but if our regular pick is used for Viney, and the two compensation picks are used to catch an established star (Pendlebury?) then it's going to be a quiet year for the recruiters. Their first pick may not pop up till the 30's if other clubs get priority picks. As for Darling - yes I would have grabbed him asap. I couldn't believe he slipped to 12 in the draft because of some off-field publicity and a failure to grow to > 192 cms. Howe is a similar height, but when we had pick 12, Darling was available, and there was no guarantee we would get Howe with our next pick at 33. They should have used pick 12 to get Darling, the best available player.

It may be unfair to praise or criticise BP for all of our draft choices since he became Recruiting Manager in 2008. For example at least one of the recruiting team was very keen on picking Zaharakis instead of Strauss in the 2008 draft, but Bailey wanted a guy who could hit targets out of the backline. In hindsight Zaharakis would have been a better choice. I read somewhere that Collingwood had two prerequisites when choosing their recruits; they must be big bodied (not necessarily big - someone like Beams or Sidebottom) and be able to kick the ball. They would probably not have recruited the skinnies in Cook or Gysberts or Fitzpatrick. So for 3.9 years we've been looking for a certain type of player. Then within weeks of the draft the new coach advises the recruiting team to radically change their focus, and look for ready-made players who could be more competitive. Not only that, the new coach takes a more hands-on approach in selections. BP decides after 4 years to have a career change. 10 of of 10 to the Master for predicting these issues in November. Was PB successful? It would have been a very brave football club to pick Martin and Trengove over Scully in the 2009 draft. It's possible that of all of our 9 top 20 picks since 2008, only one or two might become A grade, and 2 or 3 might not play more than 50 games. That would be a bit disappointing, but I'm willing to give BP a pass mark if one of his lower picks becomes a star. That could just happen with one Jeremy Howe.

What a comedy of errors from the Saints. 3 turnovers in the first quarter. The 49s are hitting them very hard.

I'm rapt to see Nicholson and Tommy Mac do so well. It's a pity we can't also get Tapscott, Sylvia and McKenzie in the main group atm. WJ you've previously identified a possible weakness in our midfield, and they are all part of our midfield group. Tommy Mac is an interesting case. I believe he did a lot of basketball as a kid, so he could have flown under the radar of the recruiters.

So we have 46 players on our list; we are are just 7 weeks away from our first NAB cup match, and we only have 25 footballers who can currently take part in a 3k time trial? Taking away the long term injury to Max Gawn, that leaves 20 guys who are still having a limited or interrupted pre-season.

I was sitting near some West Coast supporters at the Etihad match last year, and they kept asking - 'who is no. 38?'. It wasn't just the speccy marks; it was all the other little things he does on the ground - the tap-ons to someone in a better position, or getting a finger to the ball so it doesn't go out on the full. He's also had a very full pre-season. Fingers crossed.

That's a fair comment. Let's assume it's correct and all the comments are written by the coach of their assigned position (backs, mids, forwards). It looks like Bartram and Bennell are fighting for the back pocket position; Bate and Bail are contesting a spot in midfield (possibly commencing on the wing); Blease and Davey are competing for the forward pocket; and Lyndon Dunn could be the replacement power forward for Clarke, Watts and Howe (possibly coming off the bench). In the past, these guys have played all over the ground. Now they can settle into a certain role each week. If they don't perform then there is a ready-made replacement.

I thought his kicking was OK too and he seemed comfortable in the short passing drills. He often gets teamed up with Clark so he should be used to handling big KPFs. He is also one of the 22 remaining senior list players who aren't in rehab!! That makes him almost a certain starter for round one.

I saw a problem with Davey at Monday's training. It was the final session - there was 4 against 4 in a short kicking drill, where the kicker had to hit a target from 20-30 metres away. Failure to hit the target meant 5 push-ups. This should be an easy drill for Davey - arguably the best kick in the team. Instead he kept missing targets and was doing push-ups. Lynden Dunn was quite good and the rookies were ok. It's a mystery that Davey did the full session on Monday but didn't front up yesterday. He wasn't even in our growing rehab group. I was impressed by Blease yesterday. He's showing the benefit of his best pre-season so far. His kicking for goal was good, he nailed Howe with a tackle, and his run and carry with the ball was terrific. His pace could be a real weapon next year; all we have to do is work out where to play him.

Just a correction here. The player to step up and replace Sylvia for round one will be McKenzie. He was tied with Bartram. Howe is next cab of the rank and he will replace Jurrah if Liam fails to recover from his injury in time for round one. Hardtack made a good point about the minimum 10 games condition - how will a Tom McDonald achieve the minimum 10 games to qualify if they can't get picked? I've named 24 players. We tend to use at least 30 in a typical season, so injuries and form will create vacancies throughout the year. Also i believe we will follow Geelong's model and rest everyone at least once throughout the season. The average weight and height of this line-up is 189cms and a big 89kgs. That's above the league average in both categories.

Garland only got there because Lethal Leigh Williams hasn't played enough games!

Yes i agree it's a bit lacking in the speed category, but none of the new recruits are noted for their speed. MN wants strong bodies, who can kick - the same parameters used by the recruiting team at Collingwood. I also don't have their speed results, and i wanted the selection to be as objective as possible. The guy at No 23 is Howe. He will step into the round one side for the suspended Sylvia.

Our draft and rookie selections this year indicate a new and clear direction from the club. Gone are the days when we picked skilful skinny players such as Blease, Gysberts and Jurrah. Instead we have landed two big key position footballers from the main draft, plus a big bodied 18yo in Taggart, and another 3 strong bodies in the rookie draft. There is no sign of us planning for ‘development years’; Neeld stated today they picked recruits who are ready to go. With this in mind, I thought I’d go through the list and pick our biggest ‘ready to go’ team. I used the official stats on the MFC website and measured the players across 3 categories: weight, height, and AFL games experience. We have a total of 46 players; 39 footballers on our senior list and 7 on the rookie list. I went through each of the 3 categories and simply gave them a number from one (highest) to 46 (lowest). If they had the same weight or height or number of games, they got the same score (EG; Watts, Cook and Sellar are all listed as 196cm so they all came in 7th in height). I then added their scores in each of the three categories and ended up with a team of 22. B: Rivers, Frawley, J MacDonald HB: Davis, Sellar, T McDonald C: Garland, Sylvia, Morton HF: Watts, Williams, Dunn F: Martin, Clark, Green R: Jamar, Bate, Moloney IC: Petterd, Fitzpatrick, Gawn, Sub. Spencer. You have to admit – it’s a BIG team; a good choice for NBL or NFL; maybe not for AFL. So I have to introduce another condition – that they must have played at least 10 games of AFL. This will remove Davis, T McDonald, Williams, Fitzpatrick, Gawn and Spencer. This team now looks like this: B: Rivers, Frawley, J Macdonald HB: Grimes, Sellar, Trengove C: Garland, Sylvia, Morton HF: Watts, Dunn, Jurrah F: Martin, Clark, Green R: Jamar, Bate, Moloney IC: Petterd, Jones, Gysberts, Sub. Bartram Bartram and McKenzie are both listed as 82kgs and finished with the same total score, so I picked Bartram because of his experience. I picked Garland on the wing in the hope that at least one Demonlander would like my side. The most valuable player – Jamar, and second is Clark. No wonder the club made a big move for him in the draft. Is this the team that will make Melbourne the hardest team to play against in the AFL?

According to the Big Blue Book, there were 2 hit versions of 'The Hucklebuck' in Melbourne in the '60s. Chubby Checker's version went to No 4 in the Summer of 60/61. The legendary Brendon Bowyer did a cover in 1965 that got to No 7. I'm too young to remember the Chubby Checker version.

It was good to see them assign a 'personal trainer' to Grimes. They did a lot of agility work, handballs and sprints. He was away from the main group but still worked out for about 2 1/2 hours. Gysberts. I think they matched him with Blease in the sprints. Gysberts wears a t.shirt under the footy top, so it's hard to get a full look at his arms, but he still has the same thin build as draft night in 2009. At least Blease has bulked up a bit, but Gysberts - gee - just not enough meat on him. And compare him to Nicholson who is cut like a snake. Maybe they should get him to live with Mrs Tapscott for a while.

I finally got there!! First time i've seen the training this year. I arrived at 9.30 and they were just finishing their warm-up laps - getting ready for a series of 150m sprints, broken up by single 300m runs to build up the lactic acid in the players. This was the torture test and it showed on their faces when they ran. There were 34 players in this group (including 3-4 invitees) and they paired off with Bate and Morton first up, followed by Trengove and Jones, then Tom Mac and Nicholson, Joel Mac and Martin, Moloney and Bennell, and Watts and Green....then the rest. Bate was very impressive; I'm not sure if he's lighter than last year but he really seemed to excell at the 150 metre sprints and was always ahead of Morton who was pushing him hard. Clutterbuck was there, and another Invitee in 'Lethal' Leigh Williams took part in all the training. Mr Williams is a big unit. There was no sign of Evans; Tapscott was just running laps, and Cook left early with a slight twinge. After the sprints they went through a series of kicking drills, gameplays, handball games, 3/4 field roleplays, and smaller team stuff, and were still on the ground when i left at noon. That's a much longer session than previous years. The new boy Clarke was a frequent target on the forward line. He led wide, marked cleanly and seems to be OK at kicking the ball short or long. He's a leaner, taller version of the 3 big Collingwood forwards and because of his mobility he may be used to draw his defender away from the key forward position. This could open up the forward line for Howe, Watts, Jurrah and maybe Tom Mac as an extra key forward. It seemed much easier for the middies to execute their kicking skills when they have that target up forward. There was about 30-40 people there; men in suits, bikers, young and old fans. There was even one person there who was telling anyone who would listen that Garland should move to the wing! Can you believe that?! They are training this Wednesday arvo at Casey Fields. We were advised that the players will commence training at 3, an hour before the official commencement at 4pm. If you live near Casey, try and get to see them. They are working very hard.

'The Sunday Age' this morning reports that Melbourne is interested in signing ex-hawk Travis Tuck as a rookie in this Tuesday's draft. Tuck registered 3 strikes under the AFL's illicit code policy. The report indicates that our forward development coach - Paul Satterley - is a fan of Tuck. 25 yo former Demon Shane Valenti may also get rookied by Essendon. There's a thread on the Trengove Draft site.

I believe it takes years to build up an effective working relationship with a chinese company. They also place a premium on the trust they develop with the individual, rather than the company or club. Maybe this is why we sent Scully home early from China last year.

This is a new coach and a new coaching group. Past reputations mean nothing. Based on training reports from the fans, and media interviews by MN, It is possible that Bate could be selected before Watts in our best 22 atm.

Emma Quayle has an article in todays 'Age' ranking the value picks in the draft. None of our selections get a guernsey. We've also picked 3 right footers - damn! And none of our selections are tagged as 'super quick'. We've put a lot of our eggs into Mitch Clark's basket, but If we had not traded for Clark, we could have wasted our number 12 pick as there was a real shortage of good quality tall men in this draft. No 12 went to Sam Docherty - a 185cm 83kg defender. The next player over 190 cm selected in the draft was Henry Schade - a 196cm 81kg defender way down at pick 24. I don't believe we could could have selected a player of comparable quality to Clark at pick 12; nor one who immediately fills our needs. If any of our four selections can go on to play >150 games for the MFC, I'll be rapt. i just hope it is Mitch Clark.

Has Tom made a freudian slip here? It appears he is trying to say 'he was unaware his father had been offered the job at GWS until he officially joined the club (in Sep 2011). This flies in the face of the evidence Phil was offered the contract in Nov 2010. However he then states 'It was after I was signed to the Giants that he was offered a deal'. If this is true then Tom signed with GWS sometime before Nov 2010. All I can say is 'i believe in Tom'.

I liked this bit from CS - "Our business has gone from $25 million to $40 million in a few years and we are looking OK for finishing in the black this year.' We are spending a lot more - which we had to do - but we aren't going into debt. I wonder if any of this is due to financial support from our mystery philanthropist members - as hinted in other threads on Demonland.

So the guy they were really after was Phil!! Now i get it. GWS offered Tom $6m to come to the club, so they could hire his dad as a recruiter. I hope Phil has 2 good knees.

I like the 'Skull-duggery' in the headline. i wonder if they have any more 'sculletons' in the closet. Maybe we should re-name GWS as 'the Pirates'.

He's only been at the club for 2 months, and already he hates our fitness levels. Jeeeeeees!! Wait till he sees our footy skills!!!!