Slartibartfast

On drafting: Moneyball selection, very good depth and can play competent AFL footy. I support it. On training: He seemed mainly to be at the other end to me and by the end of training looked spent. Look he's the player he was at Essendon and will be the same for us. Good luck to him but I suspect if he plays the FD will be disappointed that Weed or TMac haven't kept him out (injury or form).

I could say autocorrect but I’d be lying. Jackson of course with apologies to the man himself. Perhaps I should change my name to Old Baghdad Bob.

I arrived at about 9.15 with things well underway. I won't repeat what Demonland has said about rehab and missing players only to confirm that TMac was doing gentle agility runs and small kicks in rehab when I arrived but didn't look in any trouble at all. The missing as far as I could tell were Jones, KK, AVB, Spargo. The drills included the "handball game" where you had to handball to a teammate and run the ball down the "ground" for a goal. A missed handball or a "touched" player with ball was a turnover. They did this at full steam for about 30 minutes and looked exhausted at the end of it. Then onto the ground sims and I'm not surprised some of the skills were off. The was gentle contact in the drills but no physical pressure. On the sidelines were a rotating group with a heavy emphasis on tackling technique with a coach I didn't know. There was wrestling and some exhausting looking drills one which included diving under a person's leg and then bunny hopping back over them. They seemed to do about 20 of these. The new boys were involved in all these but didn't do the match sim stuff. They finished with running. Most were doing 100 metre run throughs but Gawn, Preuss, Trac, JJ, Dunkley, Sparrow, Langdon and Brayshaw were doing repeat 300 metre runs around the boundary. JJ won each one in about 50 seconds. They did about 6 with somewhere between 20 seconds and two minutes intervals. I left when the footy's were put away shortly after. Some player observations: Trac. It's been said before but he looks in ripping condition and just looks a cut above everyone else with his speed, ball handling, kicking and agility. He stood out like dogs testicles. Joel Smith - trained well I thought particularly in the handball games. No sign of any residual physical issues from last season. JJordan - looks in really good shape. He doesn't look quick in a straight line but had no trouble in the handball drills finding space and executing. His running is great. Neita - first time I'd really seen him. Not what I thought. He's a half back flank/wing runner. Not a big body but found a lot of space in the sims although his kicking was a bit off. He wasn't the only one. ANB - boy, can this bloke run. Was in everything but no noticeable improvement in execution. Hibberd - how can someone with such a nice kicking action miss so many targets? He looks to have taken off some weight over the off season. Jackson - reports about his poor kicking have been grossly overstated. Kossi - will be a fan favourite. Didn't see much of him today as the young kids clearly being managed. Rivers - moved nicely and not shy. All he did today was good but I didn't see him under any pressure. Hunt - looks good but struggles to get involved. Sparrow - second in the runs behind JJ and was involved. Chandler - did some really nice things. Has pace, was sure with the ball and clean. Impressive Dunkley - the invisible man. Probably got heaps but just seems to be one of those players you don't notice. It was windy today and by the time they did the sims they'd gone hard for about 90 minutes. I'm not surprised they were a bit scrappy. But if Trac stays fit - get excited.

If AVB is fit he’ll be one of the first selected. You can take that to the bank.

What type of player is Sokol. Who would he replace in the best 22? How much coverage for the Sokol position do we have and how much coverage for the Brown position do we have. I think it's more about list balance than anything.

In my view this is a very overplayed issue for us. It's easy to forget that in 2018 we were the highest scoring team in the comp but some margin. You don't do that unless you've got skill, move the ball quickly and know what you're doing. There was a lot made of the "chaos" ball but again that was overplayed. Last year we weren't fit, hadn't practiced and had around 15 injured most weeks. That led to our lack of speed and poise. I'm very excited about Jackson and Pickett. I think we've drafted well and safely over the last 5 years but we've lacked flair, particularly once Garlett faded. Now we have two very high octane X factor players, we have Bennell in the wings and we're fit for this time of year. It's all pretty positive as far as I can see. I don't get excited over highlight tapes usually, but these guys really do have some tricks.

So in a nutshell you say we should bid on Green to deny GWS an additional pick even if we rate Jackson higher. I say we should just take who we want and let the cards fall. There are 16 other clubs as well as GWS Rusty, we need to be the best we can be, not sacrifice outselves for the whole competition. Anyway I've had my say.

Rusty we want Jackson (by all accounts). If we select him it's because we want him. If we want Green we'll bid on him. Our primary objective is to get the best player (by our judgement). We are not going to bid on Green just to stop GWS getting one more player. One more good player to GWS is like coals to Newcastle. Playing games with you're draft picks and bidding will find you out. If Green is as good as you say some will bid on him early. If not he's not rated by others as he is here.

Why wouldn't other clubs pick Green if he was best available at the spot. It means GWS will have to use more of their picks for points and if they don't match the bid the other club gets Green who is best available. It's a no lose situation for the bidding club. We won't bid on Green because we want Jackson and we suspect GWS won't match. Sure we deny them a pick but we miss the player we want. That's just dumb.

Rusty you've spent a lot of time looking a vision but you are missing something if you think we are solely drafting a ruckman. He's a high possession winning tall who Taylor believes will play forward. We aren't drafting a ruckman. It's frustrating that there is a lack of vision of him playing forward but Taylor has seen him do this multiple times. You're flying blind, he isn't. Again I haven't seen Green play but I see in two phantom drafts now that predict he is unlikely to be bid on until later in the top 10. These guys are professional recruiters, they want to keep their job so they do as well as they can. If the first (say) 8 clubs don't bid on Green then how silly would we be to do it. This draft speculation is lots of fun but we are amateurs with only part of the information and vision the recruiters have. Time to trust their judgement.

Hey @Axis of Bob how did we do? What did you think of our strategy and were you surprised at the draft order. While you're at it, tatts numbers please!!

Well Demonland has a lot to answer for in that case: 2019 AFL draft First round: 7pm - 9.30pm Wednesday November 27 Second round onwards: 7pm - 9.30pm Thursday November 28

What!!!! I'm due to go out!!! Ahhhh..........................................................

I'm not sure why I'm responding to this because the first bit of information is but a click away and the second point just rot. Cameron was in the rookie draft and Betts was in the PSD. Neither have been in premiership teams. Either was Robbie Flower but perhaps you're not a fan of his either. Teams win premierships not players. Have a think about that and a lot might fall into place for you.

Too many here are evaluating Jackson on the basis he is only a ruckman. If that were the case I'd agree it's a silly pick. But Jason Taylor said that towards the end of the season he saw Jackson play forward and was impressed. I imagine he was impressed because as a "ruckman" he kept getting the ball as a forward and having an impact both in the air and at ground level as the good tall forwards do. IMO we are looking at Jackson more as a forward than as a ruckman. We might think he will go into the ruck when needed or when Gawn retires (many years yet) but we are planning for him to be a forward first. The lack of vision of his forward work is frustrating. Many here have seen him play ruck (either live or through replay) but none have really seen him play much forward (with apologies to Chaser and Pennent), so the negativity is really based on a wrong premise or lack of knowledge. Jackson is a forward come midfielder (I know he's not a midfielder but he follows up and gets the ball at ground level) come ruckman for mine. In other words he could be anything but is very likely to be something. Too many clubs are interested for this to be a misplaced pick. I'm loving this draft. We look like getting some really interesting and potentially exciting players and having said all that we still don't know what picks we'll have with the genuine possibility we'll trade pick 10. What a great nights entertainment tomorrow.

I can understand the concern at taking someone like Pickett at pick 10 but perhaps we are just a bit ahead of the curve. Charlie Cameron and Eddie Betts are two of the most influential small X factor forwards of recent times and neither were taken in the National Draft. Small forwards, in a lot of cases, have been taken late because of the reasons mentioned here. But good ones are match winners. If the Betts and Cameron drafts were done retrospectively they'd both be in the top 10, perhaps top 5. If we take Pickett it's because we believe he can have the same impact as other elite small forwards. If we are right we've got a bargain, if not we'll be one of many clubs that have a miss with a pick in that vacinity. Personally I hope we take him unless someone we really rate slides. I believe we have a good list, as Mahoney said our list is pretty much set. We don't want for a lot as long as our (the FD) evaluation of players is correct (Weid and Petty succeeding for example). The other thing is that many here overrate pick 10. It can throw up some guns but it can also throw up some duds. All pick 10's are guns when drafted but there are a lot of duds amoungst them. We have been crying out for X factor for years. Many here have lamented we don't have it and now as we look like getting it many have gone all gun shy.

Thanks for the reports Scoop, much appreciated. Vanders? Joel Smith?

Did Vanders, Smith or Oscar Baker train? Thanks DS for the reports.

Even when you don’t try, you’re trouble!?

I wondered down to training today and can only commend Kev's comments as they are accurate and cover all that I saw. On Bedford, I can't believe that you can take anything out of his performance other than how good he did, not how bad others are. He beat blokes like TMac and finished second behind ANB who really looked like he'd been out for a Sunday stroll. He is a beast of an athlete and Bedford's performance was terrific. Well done Toby. One who I was impressed with was Jayden Hunt. He was well up in the 3 km trial and was very involved in all the drills. We all know the areas he needs to improve but I've not noticed him being so good at the distance running. A combination of his speed plus endurance is a great combination. Others to impress me today were Trac who was really sharp and I liked a couple of things James Jordon did. May also impressed. Big, strong and fit. But what I did notice from last year: Oliver, Harmes, Petracca, Viney, TMac, OMac, Lever, Brayshaw, Melksham and AVB were all in training rather than rehab. How good is that.

Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere but someone mentioned there had been discussion in the media that Anderson was not a lock at 2 and might fall to us as GCS will nominate Green at 2 and GWS won't match. Has anyone else heard this?

Nobody minds the opinion Dazzle, it's the way it's expressed. You've got some great views and insights, you do a terrific job bringing our notice to articles in the media and you clearly know your footy. But the way you express yourself towards others is unnecessarily putrid at times.

Do you know what his unofficial measurement was?

That's a useful and insightful post Dazzle! Hope you don't let everything like this upset you. Second worst in the league in 2019 and best in 2018. Who would have thought that half seasons from McDonald, Weideman, Hannan and Melksham (number 1 for goal assists in 2018) would impact our forward half. Fritsch having to cover down back, McDonald, Petracca, Hannan and Melksham having significantly interrupted preseasons (Weid as well?) and a compromised back half meaning the midfielders had to cover down there (as well as Gawn). With a full complement on the field I can't see why we can't get back to close to our 2018 output. And if Bennell comes good........