Lucifers Hero

2 - Matthew Hammelman - one of the best tall forwards 20 - Tyler Roos - after getting Billy Stretch and Oscar McD, I like the romance of continuing the 'family' affair of this draft.

Another midfielder (somewhat unknown): Neal-Bullen Damaging medium midfielder, particularly around stoppages. Uses his quick, clean hands to great effect. Key player for South Australia in NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, averaging 19 possessions, five clearances and four tackles in six matches. Courageous player with elite endurance. Played nine games for Glenelg in the SANFL, averaging 20 disposals. Third in 3km time trial (9:54) and equal-fifth in beep test (15.2) at NAB AFL Draft Combine. Think we need to trust the club, they did ok with JKH # 40 last year!

Well Done Emma! She got the first 9 order right! She got 19 of the first 20 players and wasn't far off with the order...the player she missed was Carlton's Boekhurst and Mckenzie dropped out of her top 20 (only to 22) Fantastic performance by the premier Draft guru!

Glad they are smiling!!

Go back to that post, place the cursor on any part of the text you put in and you will see 'edit' and 'delete' buttons appear in the bottom right corner of your post. Choose whichever you prefer.

Except that he recently had ankle surgery and can't get into training till after Xmas. Same ole, same ole for poor Col.

Emma Q's notes from her 'Draft Combine Harvest' series: Matthew Hammelmann (Morningside) Born 8.3.1996, 197cm, 88kg AFL biography: Tall Forward with strong hands in front, on the lead and overhead. Has good pace off the mark to get separation on his opponent. Can also play in defence. Showed promise in the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, averaging 10.3 disposals, 7.3 marks and 2.3 goals in his three matches. Brisbane Lions Academy player. Adrian Fletcher, AFL Queensland: "Matty keeps building his game. He's a mobile forward who can get up on a wing, he has that ability to come at the kicker when they need him, then he can slide to the goal square and take marks down there. He's got to keep improving his contested stuff but that will get better as he gets stronger and builds more upper body strength. He's very mobile and really just that modern, hard-running forwrad who can help you coming out of defence." He is the 2nd tallest in her list of tall forwards (tallest is F/S pick Darcy Moore). A few cm taller than Jessie and 4 cm taller than Dawes...Matt would fit our forward line nicely. Would be a good get in terms of team structure and developing an excellent 'spine': Spine in 3-4 years: Frost, McDonald, Petracca/Brayshaw/Tyson, Hogan, Hammelman. A lot to like about that...only thing missing is a ruckman to match that talented spine. Either one of ours comes good or we will trade one in.

According to Demoneyes a few pages back there is some 'dispute' between our coaching and recruiting staffs as to who we take at pick 3. From Demoneyes' other posts Lever seemed to be the go at 3 as the coaches pick. I'm guessing that the recruiters want Petracca or McCartin. We will see tomorrow night which group 'won' the pick 3 battle. Whoever we take I hope it is who the recruiters want.

Can't find where I read it but I recall that the way the Dees are doing this diet thing is to follow a low-carb (note it is not no-carb) diet most of the time as the high protein helps build/keep muscle mass. However, the players would eat up on carbs before a game to give them the energy to play it out. This would be a small but significant difference to the typical low/no-carb diet. It times the carb intake to when the players need the energy. I just hope that they don't lose so much weight that it affects their body mass and strength.

If so it may affect our choice for pick 40/53. For one of those we may 'reach' for a forward, as apparently there aren't many in the drafts over the next few years. Here is Emma Quayle's Draft Combine for Tall Forwards: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-draft-combine-harvester-tall-forwards-20141002-10pi7w.html%C2'> Only Lamb, McCartin & Peter Wright are in her Top 30 so there is a good chance a good Forward will slide to pick 40. Will study her form guide before I put a name up for pick 40.

I think the way it works is if Ess win they get zero points but if their opponents win eg Hawkes, then the Hawkes get the 4 pts. So it shouldn't affect the ladder position or % (Except that Ess end up on the bottom). This would work as long as their draft position for 2015 is based on their 'unpenalised' ladder position. Ie a 'shadow' ladder is kept showing where Ess would be if they were playing for points/%'age. This way they do not get the #1 draft pick in 2015.

Bruce, Ytze, Neitz and of course we should include Fagan as Manager. Love Neita. Wish him well. But a little part of me cried inside. A bit like the way it did when Junior went to GWS. I like to think Neita will be like Barassi - strayed for a while but eventually came home to where he belongs Good luck Neita and enjoy. Edit: Oops. forgot to add Clarkson to the list!

An interesting Freudian slip!

Thanks TDI. I don't have twitter to see your pics. Find that I can see twitter pics when the link is in a post. BTW any news about how Jack Watts has been training so far? From club website pics he looks the same size...not necessarily a bad thing. I'm desperate for him to have a great year. His sake as well as ours.

I assume that means 'good' surprised as in impressed? How did they impress you?

From Fos Footy: "RICHMOND has signalled plans to lock captain and free agent Trent Cotchin away on a monster long-term deal...and Cotchin would fetch as much as $1 million a year to remain at Richmond" While I rank Jones equivalent to Griffen I don't think he is as accomplished or as valuable as Cotchin. So if Cotchin is to get $m pa on a long term deal to sstay at Richmond, IMO the schedule I put above which gives Jones an average of $720 pa over 5 years looks reasonable. Hope the club are thinking along the same lines and we hear soon.

The Age is reporting that the Bulldogs will pay $800,00 of Griffin's 2015 salary (yes, even tho he no longer plays for them). This is of interest because it shows what he was being paid as captain of a bottom 4 club and may be a good indicator of what other club captains get and perhaps what Jones should get. I posted this earlier in this thread as a good option for MFC: I know year 1 looks crazy but think of it over a 4/5 year period: Post # 37: Yr 1 - $1.250m Yr 2 - $750K Yr 3 - $750K Yr 4 - $600K Yr 5 - $250K So $3.6m over 5 years. Averages @ $840K over 4 years and @ $720 over 5 years so may not be enough. Why is my suggested year 1 so high you ask: - we have the salary cap, - it gives us the sal cap in 2016 to go after an FA, - if Jones can't play out year 5 risk is quite small (this can be protected further by making it a 4 +1 contract) and - Jones' sal scales back as our young guns are looking for more. Knowing what Griffen was getting this type of schedule doesn't look too far fetched. From the Age: "He will earn close to $1million next season and about $1.5million over 2016, '17 and '18. He seems to have been on $1m for 2014 so that is $3.5m over 4 years. I doubt there is anyone who would say that Griffen to the Bulldogs is worth more (in $ and non-$ vaules) than Jones to the Dees.

Same problem with Curran delisted from North: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-11-17/curran-not-giving-up?utm_medium=RSS%C2'> Seems to becoming an increasing problem. Eerily similar to Jack Trengove - 3 ops, screw problem and finally a bone graft which is what Jack just had. Wishing for a total recover but fear it will be tough for him to play footy again.

Closed training session today but here are some pics on club website http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-11-17/photo-gallery-monday-november-17 Looks like hard work, a few smiles (among the coaches!) and WOW check out the pic of Billy Stretch!! Jordie is looking good too.

The thing that worries me is if we are seen to 'stuff Jones around' and ask him to take one for the team, then pay a 'silly' amount for an FA ($1m was rumoured for Dangerfield) our credibility with players will take a hit (hypocritical?) - won't help club morale/culture either. We may need to pay our club champions that are integral to our culture a premium (doesn't have to be 'silly') from time time. I think they will work it out but the longer it takes the more worried I become about 'silly' offers from other clubs.

Just wondering, why an offer of $750k to Jones (or anyone) by Richmond/Carlton vs the Demons offer of $x is different to $750K by a franchise club? Club shouldn't matter: Silly is silly... 'Silly' offers are being made all the time: Swans/Buddy, Bulldogs/Boyd, GWS/Scully, Lions/Beams, Demons/Dangerfield (based on rumours). 'Silly' offers are part of the new world. Don't like it. I'm tipping the club will make the right offers to players the club needs to take us upward and onward.

So, you want him paid the same as Grimes...3 B & F's, good brownlow polling, hardly ever missed a game thru injury? Really? Really? Nothing against Grimes but they aren't in the same salary bracket, IMO. $10m & 40+ players = average $230 - 240k each. Obviously a lot of young players on less (there always will be) allows other players to be paid more. You do the maths on what we can afford. (Especially if we heavily front-end his contract into 2015 when we have heaps of salary cap available). GC would be circling for a replacement for Ablett as their seniour midfielder. They will give him 5 years and top $. Jonesy should be paid whatever it takes to stop him even thinking about a FA offer.

Good point, going on her extra 12 there is a fair chance Oscar McD might slip to us!

The players want a closed hearing! Well of course they do! To stop the dirty laundry being aired. This annoys be as no-one stopped to think twice about airing Jack Trengrove's name and trashing his reputation. Player Agent Jess: "Every player and every player manager has to take a considered view if there is any loss or damage, then they have to quantify it. "In this case, there would be high-profile players who would have suffered significant loss and damage." http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-players-want-closed-antidoping-tribunal-hearing-20141115-11nexm.html Oh dear: Players get off - ASADA/WADA probably appeal. Players don't get off - players sue for damages. Far from over, folks...groan.

Emma Quayle has nominated her top 30 in her usual very well reasoned way. Her top 5 on performance (not necessarily pick order): 1 Heeney (head and shoulders above the rest) (N.A. Academy pick) 2 Wright 3 Petracca 4 McCartin 5 Moore (NA. F/S pick) She does say it is a very close race between 2 to 5. Brayshaw is at 6. Also mentions hard for a team to use a high pick on a player like Lever who hasn't played all year and has him at 11. All credit to her for not focusing on who has which pick and simply ranked the players as she sees it. One of the few unbiased journos around! AFL draft a level playing field for recruiters