Arsene Wenger

Basically, the way it seems to me, is that under the Bailey regime we drafted for ability and looked to instill the mental side of things in the players. It would seem that this was done poorly to boot. Under the new regime, and going by what I know of the Collingwood model, it appears to me, that the aim is to find kids with ability but there is a greater emphasis on them having the requisite confidence, hunger and attitude to succeed, as well as the body to maintain this. Its something our more maligned players seem to lack - underdeveloped bodies and not enough of the desire and attack on the footy. It's marginal, but I think the difference is there.

Sucked in by the media circus, and you call others fools...

The above list doesn't take into account needs in terms of list make-up. It also doesn't allow for future development and the potential for players to pass others. And I question some of the "preferred options". It's an exercise in hindsight, and lacks foresight. I only think it works if you'd today do a straight up trade, and even then it doesn't allow for future development. - would you really prefer Yarran to Watts? Even NicNat and Hurley I have my doubts. None of them are the finished article. Hurley was a FB with question marks on pace and going forward, plus his attack on the ball is great, but beyond that he is heavily overrated. - Harry Taylor or Callan Ward over Grimes? You can't predict the injuries. - Ballantyne, Zaharakis or Redden over Blease? We're yet to see the best of any of them, but Blease we've seen least of to date. Bottom-age and held back by injuries, remember. - Ash Smith over Bennell?? Really? - Butcher over Scully? Even Martin over Trengove? - Bastinac over Gysberts?? Now you've gotta be joking. - Reid or Christensen over Gawn is way too early when we've not seen enough of Gawn and we needed a ruck. He was a great prospect. Reid's kicking is still iffy and Christensen was bloody lucky to land in a great program.

2007 Cale Morton - Jury still out. No-brainer selection at the time, as was Tambling. Always a long term development prospect - still needs time, but would have liked to have seen more to date. Undoubted offensive talent. Injuries have been cruel. Jack Grimes - Very good selection. Captain at 22. Has suffered from injuries. Addam Maric - Poor selection. Has great disposal, but small tank, defensive light-weight, lacks toughness and doesn't win his own ball. Kyle Cheney - Average selection at this stage. KPD in a HBF body. Disposal wasn't great. We upgraded through trade. Tom McNamara - Speculative selection that failed. Bottom-age medium-tall 3rd defender who eventually developed the capacity to play on-ball. Didn't develop as hoped. Became a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. Possibly one lost due to lightweight football dept spending at the time. Stefan Martin - Good selection. Ruck project. Paying dividends considering his selection. Athletically gifted - just needs to learn the game. Poor man's NicNat? Trent Zomer ® - Failed late pick. Austin Wonaeamirri ® - Was a win for a while. Shame. Jake Spencer ® - So far an average selection. Looks like we could get value out of him yet. Shane Valenti ® - Failed late pick. Has talent, but just not good enough at AFL level. 2008 Jack Watts - Good pick. Bottom-age player. Has a lot of elite qualities that you look for in a player. Attacking the ball or man with vigour is not yet one of them. No reason why he shouldn't become a very very good AFL player. Still developing physically and learning the game. Lack of a decent KPF to show him the way may have hampered his development. Sam Blease - good pick. Bottom-age player held back by injuries. When he has played, has displayed elite qualities. Still developing. Would have a lot of value if we wanted to trade him, so that should be a sign. James Strauss - good-average pick. Athletically gifted. Heavily under-rated. Injuries have held him back to date, but has developed well physically. Took some time adjusting to AFL level, but is beginning to look a lot more comfortable there. Could have elite skills. Not enough exposed form to properly judge. Jamie Bennell - good pick. Unfairly maligned, but has had a passable output to date. Needs a lot more consistency, but it isn't beyond him. Some players chosen after him have done much better, but he has shown some special things. It's all upstairs for Jamie. Neville Jetta - average pick. Toughness, good at maintaining possession. Not as athletic as you'd like. Not much exposed form to date. Injuries have hurt. Rohan Bail - good late pick. Runs all day. Liam Jurrah - great value pick. Jordie McKenzie ® - great value pick. Rhys Healey ® - failed pick. Daniel Hughes ® - failed pick. 2009 Tom Scully - good selection. No way anyone could foresee him leaving. Disposal comes under criticism, but has enough elite qualities to justify the selection. We may have lost him, but the compensation seems more than fair. Jack Trengove - great selection. Co-captain already and when comparisons are sought, names like Hird, Bartel and Hoge come out. Don't need to say much more. Jordan Gysberts - great pick. Developing nicely and looks like being a very good player. Luke Tapscott - good pick so far. Tough as nail and looks like he'll be an elite kick. Needs to be able to cover more ground, hopefully play in the middle. Not enough exposed form. Max Gawn - good pick. For a young underdeveloped ruckman he has performed well at AFL level. Fingers crossed on injuries. Needed a ruck. Jack Fitzpatrick - looks an average pick. Skills look like they'll hold him back. Athletically gifted for his size. Considering we needed a tall, not many other options worth taking in his place. Joel Macdonald - has been reasonable value. Not much else on offer, and is still capable of getting a game. Leads by example in terms of toughness.

Butcher must get 6-10 weeks for this. Didn't see the incident, but even the enormously biased commentators "couldn't confirm if Butcher's eyes were on the footy" and they said he arrived late. Have a nice holiday John. Although Port's defence may be "but it was Colin Sylvia!" Seemed to work for Josh Kennedy.

If winning a practice match is your aim. Not 100% sure about Neeld, but personally I think we should ignore the result and focus on practicing things that will help us win our first REAL game.

That stringent play along the boundary is hurting us moving the ball forward too, with the NAB cup out of bounds rule. Often when we'd be able to progress to a new stoppage and set-up our structure for another push forward, instead the ball is given back to the opposition because of a mickey mouse trial rule.

Good post. It's for this reason I think Gysberts will be a top 10 AFL player one day.

I don't think Rendell is stupid enough to say to Mifsud what the media would have us believe. Not in that context anyway. It'd be incredibly offensive to an indigenous person who is a friend and former teammate. I think Mifsud chose to use Rendell's words anonymously in a certain way to make a point, not expecting an intense AFL and media witch-hunt. It went beyond the point of no return, and cost Rendell his job. He's a smart guy and a good operator - I hope he ends up at MFC in the near future.

Me too actually, but it's very fashionable to lay the blame on him for Richmond's poor recruiting. Not sure how he had the time to appraise all those kids while coaching an AFL club.

Not really. Probably depends on how unrealistic your expectations were to begin with. We are a young side that were horrible a lot of the time last year, are bereft of decent senior leadership, and lost to a team by 186 points. That doesn't swing around in a preseason and a few practice matches. Change. Will. Take. Time. On top of that, our players are learning an entirely new system and game style. These are the early days of learning to implement it. It should not be surprising that we are not yet doing it well. And lastly, we had some pretty green players out there. Yes, Port did too. And it's not an excuse. It's another reason for our performance. All these reasons add up to us being pretty damn horrible right now, and potentially a lot better in the near-medium term future. This year WILL NOT be the year we are shaking things up in the AFL (depending on your interpretation of the term). There are no shortcuts. I see this as a development year for a lot of our players - even those who are quite old. They are developing the ability to play tough defensive footy, which no one on the list has done to date, as far as I'm concerned.

I just think what the reception would be if Collingwood or Essendon did this - why should we be any different? Because of ignorant stereotypes?

What I think may work in our favour, is that GWS hold so many of the compensation picks. As they have so many young players on their list already, the value of a kid now would appear less than one they can get in 3 or 4 years time. Current value vs future value. GWS may decide they are better off making sure they have a high end talent injection in a few years time, rather than just a few months.

I didn't think this thread had the capacity to make me laugh so hard!

I thought Maric was good at times when he played for us, but he's an "icing on the cake" type player. He'd be handy in a good team that could hide his deficiencies, but I don't think he was right for MFC.

How Jamison is above Frawley is way beyond me........

The media and football cognoscenti have short memories. Last season the media began to acknowledge that Watts looked likely to be a better prospect than Natanui, who couldn't find the footy. It's all media chestbeating, and if anyone falls for it at this early stage of the PREseason, I feel sorry for them.

Andrew Gaff or Andrew Daff?

As others have said, a long bow to draw when you'd think their priority would be keeping Jurrah out of jail, not getting him to a new club.

It all seems relatively harmless now, but what happens if an interpreter is brought in an the prosecution discovers Liam said something incriminating in his native tongue? Such a poor idea for that interview to go ahead. In any case, this minor controversy is being used masterfully to create a diversion from the allegations.

On what authority do you claim it's a fallacy? And since when has depth of talent meant that draft picks must have an instant impact? 2 clearly different concepts.

Forgetting all that, anyone watch the show in its entirety? It actually had less substance than a copy of the herald sun. No wonder Eddie was willing to go to such lengths for a scrap of anything that looked like a story.

Whilst I'm not sure any of us are in the position to criticise, not knowing the full facts, I am quite confused by what they thought they were trying to achieve with that interview. I'm sure it would go against both the club's advice and wishes, and that of his legal team. Perplexing really, and yeah, it does unfortunately lead to questions of self-serving agendas...

Eddie only mentioned Collingwood 7,000 times. You wouldn't even know Jurrah played for Melbourne.

Great post. Nothing at all to add to that.