poita

Yes, how hard is it to have a couple of forwards blocking for each other and then leading in different directions. It was the number one reason I wanted to keep Pedersen - he did so much work off the ball that went unnoticed, but you'd look up and suddenly McDonald or Hogan was three metres clear of his opponent. Our forward line coaching was abysmal last year - even with Weideman having no impact and McDonald struggling, there is enough talent in there to kick a competitive score.

I don't have a view either way on Jackson or Pickett and I hope they are both 200+ game players for the club. The highlights packages are encouraging, but I could come up with a decent highlights package for my 9 year old son after 2 years of football too. Rivers addresses a key need with Hibberd declining fast. It is a risk taking interstate players, particularly at the top end of the draft. That said, I am firmly of the view that ruckmen don't win premierships, and I'm not convinced that small forwards do either, so I am not thrilled with these choices. It has now been four years since we have taken either a genuine midfielder or key position player with a top 25 pick. That is not only dumb, it is bordering on being negligent. We have no depth in these parts of the ground and we are in a world of trouble if the likes of McDonald, May or Oliver are injured at any stage of this season. We painted ourselves into a corner by resigning a bunch of C graders in September, which limited our options in the lead up to the draft. I would have loved to have split pick 12 into 2 later picks, but we didn't have the list spots to make use of them. Other clubs were able to make use of live trading to get the players they wanted. I find it hard to believe that Pickett wouldn't have been available later on, and perhaps we could have had a crack at Robertson or Kemp as well. And for a club who supposedly doesn't leak any more, our trade and draft priorities have been widely known well ahead of time. If we didn't broadcast to the world that we wanted Pickett, perhaps he would have still been available in the 20s where he was originally rated. Other clubs are much better at keeping their cards close to their chests.

"We just weren't prepared for what the game was going to demand". That is inexcusable on so many levels.

It sounds like the bloke we took in the second round two years ago, and how's that working out? I know he's a much different player to Spargo, but the stats don't lie. If we are desperate for a small forward I'm sure we can find one at 28.

Seems a much better prospect at pick 10 than any small forward - I'll be disappointed if we overlook he or Kemp to take Pickett.

Key position players should be the number one priority in the first round, but ruckmen are not key position players. The issue with all of Cook, Weideman and Watts is/was the lack of hunger for the contest. Weideman in particular with his size should be crashing packs and knocking blokes over, but he plays like he has the build of Fritsch or Hannan. He was simply a poor selection given the other key forwards in that draft. Back on Jackson, I'll be bitterly disappointed if we select him. There is little chance we can develop him as a ruckman with Gawn and Preuss dominating game time at both AFL and VFL level, unless we have injuries. There is very little evidence that he can play as a genuine key forward and any thought of him playing as a midfielder is pure speculation. Ruckmen are inconsequential to building a premiership team, hence why only one ruck taken with a first round draft pick in the past 20 years has played in a premiership. Key position players and genuine midfielders should be our only thoughts in the first round of the draft. That is what premiership teams are built on.

Remind me again where Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron were drafted. And, more importantly in the context of this conversation, how many premierships each has won. Small forwards are great if you can get one cheap, but they don't win you premierships (with the obvious exception of Cyril Rioli who is considerably more than just a small forward).

Our drafting has been largely woeful (with a few obvious exceptions) for more than a decade, so people are right to be concerned. The criticisms are generally not of the players, but of highly paid recruiting staff who make poor decisions on draft night.

That would be an absolute, unmitigated disaster that will set this club back years and years. It breaks every drafting rule in the book.

How dare anyone invest their time and effort and money supporting the club over many years, and then be disappointed when the team fails to perform at an acceptable standard. Clearly the club would be better off if these people stopped caring and spent their weekends pottering around in the garden instead of worrying about a football team.

This all feels like the club is trying to be too clever for its own good. Trading away future picks, splitting picks and then splitting them again, etc. We can't afford to take risks in this draft. Just pick the best player/s with the picks we have and move on. Stop trying to outsmart everyone else for minimal gains.

May has never played 20 games in a season, let alone the 25 required to win a premiership. His best football is fantastic, but he is always a good chance to get injured or belt someone at the worst possible time.

Completely agree. Not sure whether it is he or Mahoney or Goodwin driving our draft strategies, but they have been poor from the Weideman pick onwards. This is absolutely not the draft to be taking punts on ruckmen and small forwards with high picks. Premierships are won by midfielders and key position players - everything else is secondary.

Needs to get significantly fitter and stronger so that he can impact games for longer. Currently seems to go hard for a couple of contests and then disappear for long periods whilst he recovers. Good news is that he has two years to work on this.

You appear always to bag other posters without putting forth an opinion of your own. Back on topic, Martin clearly doesn't want to play for Melbourne, so time to move on and focus on players who want to be here.

Either GWS come to us with a deal for pick 3 or we put in a bid for Green at that pick. It is just that simple. You can never have enough quality midfielders, and our midfield depth is non-existent behind the big 4.

Taking a ruckman with a top ten pick would be almost as stupid as taking a midget with a top ten pick. Have a look at where the likes of Nankervis and Lycett, the most recent premiership ruckmen, were taken in the draft, to say nothing of all the decent ruckmen changing clubs for third and fourth round picks in trade week. The chances of finding a top class ruckman in the draft are miniscule - we have simply have to find two 200 game players with our top ten picks.

Our lack of mid-sized defensive depth made it inevitable that Wagner would be retained, but he is a deeply flawed player who was dropped four times this season. If he is playing even semi-regularly in 2020 there is a fair chance we will be bottom 4 again.

I'm not sure why people let these sort of opinions bother them so much, but I guess that goes for most things in life.

I'm not sure what part of "national competition" it is that people don't get. There are 17 other teams in the competition, 8 interstate, 8 Melbourne + Geelong. We play 11 away games, so it reasonable to assume that 5 or 6 will be interstate each year. Our 7th interstate game is our own doing, so can hardly complain about that. If the Geelong game is tiring out the players then there really is no hope for them. Conversely we play 10 home games in Melbourne, so assume that roughly 5 will be against interstate teams each year. We've had home games against both Richmond and Collingwood in consecutive years so can hardly complain about not getting Essendon and Hawthorn as well. It seems as though some people don't want to play the interstate teams away due to the travel factor AND don't want to play them home due to the poor crowds. Short of going back to an amateur, Victorian-only competition, I'd love to hear how this can be avoided.

I'm not quite sold on Lockhart yet, but clearly a full pre season will be crucial. I'm amazed the club kept playing him each week as he hit the wall late in the year - he should have been given the McDonald / Spargo mini pre-season to reset. There is no point him being part of the revolving door half forward brigade - he needs to offer a point of difference as a crumbing forward pocket or a lock down defender. The fact that he can potentially do both is a massive boost to his chances of becoming a long term player.

I'm not sure Oliver is a genuine A grader in terms of being a match winner and dragging a team along with him, but he is a very good player nevertheless. Hard to disagree with anything else in that analysis. I think McDonald is still potentially an A grader, but he needs a lot more support in the forward line.

Corey proved himself to be decent depth this year and I am happy to retain him on the basis. He is fine as the 22nd player on the team sheet coming in to perform a specific role. The problem is when injuries hit and suddenly he is the 15th player on the team sheet, as happened several times this year.

The club's mismanagement of Neville Jetta during the 2019 season was as bad as I have seen in all my years of watching sport. He had an interrupted pre season and was thrown into the round 1 side on the back of limited training and match play. He then hobbled through the first three rounds before he was given round 4 off. Upon returning to the side in round 5 he hobbled around with little influence before suffering a supposedly unrelated knee injury which cost him the next three months. Inexplicably back in the side in round 17 of a dead season, again off limited VFL time, he hobbled through three more games before the pin was finally pulled on his season. Neville is a very good player and an important part of the team, so why we are taking unnecessary risks with such players is totally beyond me. I'm sure, as with the Viney debacle of previous seasons, at least part of the blame is with the player, but we have medical staff who are paid big money to make the right decisions. They need to put their big boy pants on and make the best call for the club long term.

The only hope Spargo has of making it as an AFL player is as Jetta's replacement. If he is smart he would ask his coaches to train with the defenders all summer. Lockhart is more likely though.