Good Times Grimes

It seems that most MFC supporters knew that we had a serious player on our hands from the moment he touched the MCG turf in his first match. His skills, hardness and composure really do make him the perfect package. Hopefully his injuries can be kept under control, as I think he was ready to take his game to another level in 2015.

I'm sure that Taylor & Viney will be picking based on the opinions of who shouts the loudest on an internet forum

I think the main reason that he's struggling is that our first pick will shape the draft, and it seems as though we aren't leaking. It's a nice change.

Exactly. Nothing wrong with having multiple leaders.

I agree with you in that King and O Mac need time, but I think Frost is ready (provided he's fit). The issue that I see is that two of these players seem to be better backs, while the jury is still out on whether King will make it, and if he does, what he'll be. I don't think that our KPP stocks are deep enough at the moment, and picking a high-quality tall in this draft is a surefire way to fix them. If we do pick a KPP early on... Worst case scenario: None of our KPP prospects come good and we have to rely on Hogan going solo or trade in a partner for him. Likely scenario: A couple of these players make it, we find a solid partner to work in tandem with Hogan, everyone's happy. Best case scenario: All of our KPP prospects come good and set the world on fire. We trade the excess out, and as we all know, KPPs have an inflated value in the trade market.

Here's a guide to Free Agency. Players can be OOC (out of contract) without being Free Agents. This means that they need to either be traded, delisted or enter the draft in order to switch clubs. It seems that OOC players hold almost as much power as free agents do, given that they almost always reach their nominated "club of choice" through trade.

He is. If he wants to come to us, we'll find a way to get it done.

We essentially traded our first pick next year for a first rounder this year. That means that we've just moved our pick up a year, meaning that this time next year we'll have an extra young-gun with a year's experience, rather than bringing in a teenager. The football department have been very calculated in their trades to ensure we've selected a lot of high-end talent over the past few seasons, and now is the time that we will start to see it pay dividends. Have faith.

I think that the difference between the depth in our mids and forwards is that we have a bunch of very promising midfield prospects. Besides Hogan, the same can't be said about our KPPs in the forward line.

Selecting a top 10 KPP and a top 10 midfielder will address two problems. We have a lot of decent midfield prospects and some impressive older players in there at the moment, but our forward line really begins and ends with Hogan. Think of how much better Hogan would be with another good key forward to share the 50 with. Think of how bad it would be if Hogan went down for a significant period of time and our only option to replace him was Dawes. Think about how well a young KPP prospect could develop with Hogan as a role model, taking the best defender every single week. To me, it's an absolute no brainer. Also, I believe Melksham has been earmarked for a role predominantly off half back..

Not sure of your point, Olisik. Lynden Dunn is not a tall forward. If you're trying to say that he can play as our second tall forward, he'll be 29 in May and surely won't have too many years left after that. He's not a long-term solution to our problem. We need to draft a forward with one of these picks. This draft could make or break whether we become a legitimate contender or another also-ran.

Like many on here, my opinion is formed by reading profiles, phantoms drafts/guides, and watching YouTube clips. It seems that in recent weeks Parish has slipped from being the best available mid (Hopper/Mills don't count) to being on par with a group of other mids, which includes players like Oliver, Balic and Milera. That being said, it's not the point that I was trying to make. I was trying to illustrate the importance of drafting a tall with one of our early picks. Happy to select a mid with the other.

I would hardly call drafting a tall random panic. It seems as though the mids available in this draft are also relatively speculative with no clear standouts other than a couple that we don't have access to. It's known that talls take longer to develop, so now may be the time to draft a highly rated one so that by the time we're competitive he's ready to step in and play a role for us. We all know how expensive it is to try and lure a good tall via free agency or trade, and I think we'll have to develop our own if we're going to afford to keep all the young guns that we currently have. We really don't have too many tall forward prospects. King is very speculative. Same goes for OMac, and it seems he'll continue as a defender. Not sure what the vision is for Frost, but I think he's a defender as well. As has already been illustrated on here, the best KPPs go early in the draft. We've already given up our first rounder for next season, and hopefully by the time we're drafting in 2017 our pick won't be high. I see now as our chance to get a partner for Hogan to form a dominant tandem for the next decade.

It's rare to find a KPP prospect that will have the impact that Hogan did for us this year, but we really do need to prepare our list with an eye to the future. We need to have options other than Hogan in the forward line. Right now, that's the biggest deficiency that I see. Dawes is not the answer, neither is Pedersen. I really hope to see us go for Weideman with one of our early selections.

In this unlikely hypothetical, I can't see the Lions going with anyone other than Schache. A gun KPP prospect that WANTS to play for Brisbane is something that they won't pass up on. I'll take Weitering, thanks!

Interesting. Maybe, despite being from a footy family and in draft calculations for a long time, he doesn't Lovett as much as he loves horticulture. Or maybe he's no good at footy and wants to follow in his father's footsteps of raising spuds.

Based on Taylor's interview from the combine, the recruiting staff seem pretty confident of getting some decent talent at these picks. I'm not sure whether that means that they have a couple of clearly identified targets that they believe will still be available, whether they rate this year's draft class much more highly than others do, or whether it's all just smoke and mirrors. I've been very impressed with Viney and Taylor's track record with late picks, so I'm guessing that it's the former. Here's our record since Viney joined the recruiting team (2012) and Taylor took charge (2013): 2012: Jesse Hogan (Mini-Draft 2), Toumpas (4), Jack Viney (26FS), Kent (48), M. Jones (52), Terlich (68), Stark (RD3), Clisby (RD19) 2013: Salem (9), Kennedy-Harris (40), Hunt (57), Harmes (RD2), King (RD19), Georgiou (RD35), Jetta (RD50) 2014: Petracca (2), Brayshaw (3), Neal-Bullen (40), Stretch (42FS), McDonald (53), vandenBerg (RD2), White (RD20) Out of that group, I'd argue that at this stage the only misses are Toumpas, Stark & Clisby. Of the other players that may be argued as misses (M. Jones, Terlich, Hunt, King, Georgiou), 4 are still on the list. Georgiou played an important role for us in 2014 as our backline moved away from being Frawley-centric, Terlich & Jones have both finished top 5 in the Bluey, and the jury's still out on Hunt and King, but both still have a fair bit of upside. I think that Viney & Taylor have proven that they know what they're doing. Every recruiter has some misses, with Toumpas being our only catastrophic one despite being rated as the second best player in the draft by most experts. I'm looking forward to seeing who we pick up early on, but I'm also very excited to see what direction we go with 46 & 50, as well as in the rookie draft. In Taylor I trust.

He does sound like an interesting prospect, but I don't think that we'll take a punt on him with either of our first 2 picks due to his injury.

Stuff the tapes, stats and recruiters opinions, that's all I need!

If we're going to make finals, we're going to need a few surprise packets. I think Kent will really solidify his place as one of the team's most important players, but I can't say that I'll be surprised if that happens as I thought he was going to do that this year before his injury. I'll go with Melksham as the surprise packet for 2016. Provided he doesn't get slapped with a long ban, I think he'll make quite a few posters on here eat their words. Don't be surprised to see him finish top 10 in the Bluey. I also think that Hunt, barring injury, will earn a few senior appearances this season.

Seems to be a fair bit different than any of the others I've seen. What do you think of it, Chaser?

Inserting his sort of talent into your midfield is not something that you pass up, regardless of who you've already got.

I'm not sure I agree with locking players in for a certain length of time based on where they're picked in the draft. I do think that the issue of players nominating which club they want to be traded to is absolutely ridiculous, though. I think the way to fix it is for clubs to be allowed to trade players based on what's the best deal for the club, rather than for the player. Introduce an offer-sheet type system whereby if a club signs an RFA, they have to directly compensate the team RFA came from with high draft picks. This encourages young players to remain at their club until they become a UFA, otherwise they could end up somewhere less desirable than they already are. It also helps maintain stability in the competition by ensuring that clubs have to give something up in order to sign an RFA.

He is one of the best recruits that we've had in a long time. He kicked 40.31 this year, which, as you said,is an incredibly high number of scoring shots for a small forward in a poor team. Compare that to some of the best small forwards in the competition during the season (no finals): Jeff Garlett: 40.31=71 scoring shots Chad Wingard: 53.27 = 80 scoring shots Eddie Betts: 58.24 = 82 scoring shots Hayden Ballantyne: 15.13 (only 15 games, but with that average over 22 games he would've kicked 22.19) = 41 scoring shots Luke Breust: 45.17= 62 scoring shots Mark LeCras: 41.25= 66 scoring shots When you factor in the Inside50 stats for each of these teams, it only makes Garlett's stats more impressive. If he can sort out his accuracy, he's got the potential to be the most productive small forward in the game.