Ouch!

Even the basket case that St Kilda appears to be at the moment IMO traded and drafted pretty well. So to pencil in wins against them as a given is a bit premature. Getting Richardson as coach is also potentially a very good move (thinking Hinkley last year at Port.) GWS I think has traded in some handy players, and now into their third season they will be looking to improve in a similar fashion to the Gold Coast. Everything is relative.... I am excited by our recruiting, Roos, Stone and our coaching staff, and PJ is doing a good job off field. But at the same time each of the other clubs are feeling optimistic and excited about what 2014 will bring. I have no idea how we will go next year, I beleve we will improve and be competitive with most clubs outside of the top 4-6, snagging a few suprise wins. But also I think we will get the odd 10 goal loss to go with it. I will be happy if we can say Clark, Grimes, Dawes and Trengove are fit for the season opener with a good preseason behind them. Add Vince, Michie and Tyson to the midfield to help Jones, and improvement from Toumpas and Viney, then of course our team looks a lot stronger.

I am not 100% convinced by any of our current ruck stocks, so yeah I am happy to have someone as a project player. Rookie listed players are speculative, you almost seem to think that these players should be ready made for AFL now... By the time Max King is ready to play, I suspect Jamar will have retired, leaving us with Spencer and Gawn both who have deficiencies in their game (Kicking as one example) and Fitzy who is still a project in the making.

His hair is similar to Dyson Heppell's... that has to count for something? As an armchair expert I have no idea about our rookies, but I am not displeased that Jetta got another go, and I like that we picked up a defender and a ruckman/forward..

What about Allan Christiensen's brother?

Scharenberg if he slipped, otherwise I have a hunch like RobbieF that Acres, Dunstan or a similar player's name will get called out. Jason Taylor seems very comfortable that he will get his man... Roos is backing him too. A few months back the top 10 seemed pretty settled, now it seems as though outside of the top 4-5 and Luke McDonald @ 8 there appears to be are a group of 10-14 players that you can throw a blanket over.... Lewis Taylor, Patrick Cripps, Ben Lennon, Zac Jones, Blake Acres, Luke Dunstan, Dom Sheed, Cam Mcarthy, Billy Hartung, Matt Crouch... there doesn't seem to be a lot between these guys and Freeman, Salem, and even Bomtempelli... I reckon the MFC has one last ace up their sleeve. Looking forward to who is named, then looking at the reaction here afterwards!!

Normally I would agree. I don't think left field in the context that most people are using here means crazy or unsubstantiated, it's more that each clubs needs/priority/ranking in terms of players appears to be a little more different than I can recall. Tell me the last draft you can recall where so many positions in the top 10 were undecided? not for several years I'd suggest have basically 7 of the top 10 picks remained 'up in the air' to the degree it has in this draft in terms of order. There are perhaps 14-15 players that can conceivably go in the top 10 let alone outside of the top 20 where no one seems to have a clue! All of the players being discussed here are very much with profiles and on all of the phantom drafts.

Yeah I agree with you there, that would be the reasoning behind us requesting another medical scan from the AFL on his feet,.. Don't reckon the recruiters thought there would be any chance Scharenberg would slip to us. ... that said we gave up pick 2 which was a certainty to secure him if we chose to... but obviously Dom Tyson and whoever @ 9 was viewed as trumping just Scharenberg... (Dom and Scharenberg on the other hand might be too good to be true)

I get the feeling that MFC will go for someone like Blake Acres or Luke Dunstan, they seemed pretty damn confident that the player they wanted @ 9 would still be there, and to me that suggests that it's a player who hasn't been in the spotlight as much as others have been. First time in years that most people don't really have a clue of the order for this draft. Boyd @ 1, Kelly @ 2 and McDonald @ 8 seem to be the only definites... every other one still has a fair amount of speculation... BTW, I have no idea and have no sauces etc... but it feels like they have planned offloading pick 2 for a player (Dom Tyson in this case) and dropping down to a later pick has been orchestrated very carefully. MFC for the first time in a long time give me a sense that everything is being carefully planned. I don't think Jason Taylor or Viney are expecting to be suprised on Draft day.

Possibly not the most appropriate thread for this, but the article I read about this (Herald) this morning about the sponsorship announcement also has a comment from Paul Roos regarding the senior assistant and that it's not out of the question that it could come from current assistants... Along with Roos mentioning that he is giving Jade Rawlings extra responsibilities this year, I get a distinct feeling that Rawlings internally is viewed as a candidate to become the Senior Assistant / Coach after Roos. I wouldn't be displeased by this, it allows the club to view external candidates for the rest of this year, whilst trialling Rawlings through this year, it also gives Roos more time to work with Rawlings (2-3 years) to groom him if he is the best candidate.

I know a lot of people still rate Jamar, but I'm not one of them... but for two reasons. The first is that he just hasn't played enough with injuries since his AA form... The second reason and perhaps more important reason is that the game... and more specifically the game rules have passed him by. The ability for ruckmen to not engage before throw ins etc... has taken away on of the main strengths Jamar had... which is his strength. The other rule (came in a couple of years back) was that one that required rucks to effectively come from the opposing sides of the centre bounce with a limited amount of room to run in. (Sorry for the non technical definition here) Both these changes have a made Jamar more ineffectual due to the fact that: a) he is not big in terms of ruckmen... 198cm-ish and b) he is not athletic and a big jumping ruckman, he is a bullocking strength type of player, but without the ability to engage the opponent ruck prior to the bounce/throw in,... you basically have to be Sandilands or Andre the Giant to employ such a strategy and get away with it... Edit: Sorry forgot to add that Gawn needs an engine upgrade before he is considered our best ruck, and Spencil too has deficiencies. I actually agree with whoever said it earlier that we would be a good chance to pick a ruck up as a rookie this year... Just have a hunch that these three we have now... won't be all there at the end of the season...

I think regardless, the Saints have had a fair trade period, 3 top 20 picks, out with McEvoy and Dal Santo, in with Savage, Delaney, Longer... McEvoy apparently has the worst tap to advantage record in the AFL, and Hickey is probably their number 1 ruck, so getting Longer isn't a bad move by any stretch.

Aish might fall a spot or two, but I still see him going top 5 with what people seem to be saying (Media and forums). Only reason for him to slide, that I can tell, is that he might need a bit more time to develop and is a slight build. No good point me commenting on who is best or who my pref might be, only to say that we are lacking out and out midfield type players, and I hope we look at a bigger body that might be ready for AFL football.

Whilst true, it was also from these older players that Sydney managed to form the team culture. Will that be the same thing here with our boys? or is the fact that we have put a bunch of younger boys in charge (possibly before their time) mean that Roos has to get the players to build culture from a different source...

Nup, I actually rate his efforts so far. PJ and Roos have faith in him, time for you to believe also JR!

I also have heard that the pies are into Bomtempelli in a big way, and I think he is their target that they want to secure.

Actually thats the interesting bit Nasher. I think the key targets that we wanted to bring into the club might be done until draft day, I wonder whether we have leaving the club in the next week. I would not be surprised (But I would be extremely disappointed) about Frawley, given Roos comments about players being drafted out prior to becoming free agents. But a couple of players like Tapscott, Blease etc, might be shopped about...

Sounds like Mahoney gave it away in some of the interviews today, they traded in pick 9 and reckon that the player that they would have pulled the trigger on @ pick 2 should hopefully still be available for pick 9, suggests they were going to pick a bit of a smokey with 2... Liking the sound of players like Freeman, Crouch, Sheed, Bontempelli...

Can't give the full thing (as I was on hold on a phone call) But he mentioned something about expecting the player that they would have chosen at 2, should still be there at pick 9. Which interested people... Means that the MFC have not had their eye on Kelly, Aish or Scharenberg, but the Freeman, Crouch type of players...

I may be wrong, and I only heard the end of the discussion between Wallace and Gromit on trade radio, but Barrett said '...so you don't think this is the difference between North making the grand final Terry' in terms of the Dal Santo trade. I mean seriously?

Well one did. Delidio was their first pick, but the other 4 were fails

I heard him the other day saying that when he was at Richmond, they had 5 picks in the top 20, and now there is only 1 of those there, but rather than him taking part of the blame, he kinda made the call that 'Your list management doesn't always get it right'

The [censored] Barrett just said that he can't work out what MFC are doing with Pick 2 going to GWS for Tyson etc, and that Dom wasn't the type of player that we were trying to lure with pick 2. Thinks it's a huge win for the GWS, but not so for us. I think it's a win win.... Wallace (for what his opinion is worth) reckons that if Tyson was in this draft he would be right up the top again. So we have traded 2 for a player that would probably be worth the same in this draft (but with a couple of years worth of preseason) we upgraded 20 to 9, and the other upgrade for loose change. How did we lose exactly? Both clubs would like this trade for different reasons!

I get a sense that the club (and it's supporters) are a little gun shy about pick 2. It's almost as if it's scared to make a mistake with keeping pick 2... so lets trade it out, and get some more balance in the players that come into the midfield rather than a single star. Not sure if scared is the right word, it's just what fit when I was thinking about this. Pick 9 holds some very interesting players, Crouch, Bontempelli, Freeman, Kolodjashnij... we need these sorts of players more than a player such as Aish (At this point in our clubs development process)

I was thinking the same thing. If he is RFA, and other clubs throw a large amount of coin at him to land him as we would expect them to do. The MFC might be the first AFL club to block the move, and match the offer by other clubs. If I recall that also means matching the term of the contract and so if they offer 3-5 years, we secure him for that period...

When?