Ted Lasso

We didn't draft wines, we have Jimmy Toumpas, he has bucket loads of ability, so let's not throw this kid to the sharks because he hasn't got ten best on grounds in his first ten games.

Is it really so hard to understand the kid is 18, trying to find his way at AFL level in possibly the worst team of all time? give the kid a break and how about we judge him in a couple of years time when we actually have some idea?

Are you serious? the kids played 10 games, on average it takes about three years so that's 66 games before a player really feels comfortable at AFL level, and he is playing in a team that is struggling big time, the idea that anyone can make an accurate judgement of any of our young players is abit silly. Watch the replay of the game against Geelong like i just did, you will feel much better about us drafting this young man.

He has shown patches of absolute class, for a ten game player in such a poor midfield he is showing quite abit in his better games imo, very confident he will be a player in the future

I would pay a fully fit lecras 600k a year, i wouldn't pay betts that based on anything i have ever seen, betts is flashy and a good small forward, Lecras can do all betts can do, but can also play at an elite level in the midfield, he is exactly what we need right now, only issue being there is no way in the world he would a: want to come and play for mfc in it's current state b: just re-signed with wce long term.

give the 600 k to mitch robinson and kane lucas and you might be onto something.

get dayle garlett in the draft and use the 600 k on a mid

he wants 600k a year, no thanks

i reckon our own Jack Viney might be the closest thing to selwood in the draft, wines might be more like a brock mclean yet, we really don't know how the kids are going to develop. Assuming our development problems are finally in order i think jimmy will be abit like a joey montagna, just my personal opinion but i can see some similarities

Agree mate, but i think that's the case with half our list, blease, strauss, and co aren't worth much if we can't get the ball in the first place

In two years time when Toumpas is delivering lace out passes to clark, dawes and hogan opinions might be different, and we already had Viney a more highly rated inside midfielder so i can see why some don't agree with the decision, i don't think it's as bad as say the decision to recruit, gillies, byrnes, rodan and pederson.

It's a balancing act, while i agree we need to make sure we get the total club re-build correct in terms of new culture, new structure, and so on, we need to see a measure of on field success to stop the fall in membership rates each year, to get us to be a more attractive option to televise and play against and become a self sustaining club in our own right. Having said that i think drafting Toumpas will prove to be the right decision, we can afford to build for our future, sure Wines would have been better right now, how much better is hard to say because we don't have a boak or wingard around to support him, Toumpas has played some good patches, his skills are amazing and will be huge in terms of building the sort of list we are working at and will be a jet of a player for alot of years.

i have absolute confidence jimmy will be worth the wait.

if jack viney played at geelong he would be dominating, dont underestimate the difference better support makes

viney is pretty much wines with pace, better skills and a desire to play for mfc

aish, watts and toumpas kicking the ball in to our very good forward line excites me, if dunstan slips to pick 20 and we sign a daniel cross and taylor adams things wont be so dull

i can see the reason behind it though, toumpas is a classy leader and something different, plus we got viney already, i think toumpas skills will be a huge asset for us in terms of kicking to our tall forwards advantage, although you are right, wines is better right now.

i wonder what our chances are of luring ollie back to play with jack? id give up watts or pick 2 for him, just that bit more help for jones would go a long way

wines has a strong midfield supporting him, toumpas does not.

He is getting better and better as the year went on, at this point i am comfortable with the decision to draft him instead of Wines.

The thing that i have found interesting is that this year a point was made by coaches and people out of the club that we were not going to have any expectations over our draft picks and just let them play, for some reason we have this weird idea that Toumpas who has played what 8? games should be able to do what he did against Geelong week in week out, we know his best game this year was very good, so even if he doesn't play that well for the rest of the season, he has shown me enough that i am convinced he is going to be a very VERY good player for us.

i think.basically everyone rated toumpas higher, most had him top two all year and wines from 5-10

you can kinda look at the pro's list and i think that makes the decision pretty easy Toumpas: *quick *elite skills *leader *already played senior footy *balanced out drafting viney well *considered by many to be nearly on par with whitfield *huge upside *Big game player ( just about best on in the SANFL gf the year before drafted ) Wines *tough inside mid *solid skills ( not fantastic by any measure *leader *ready to go * already had a more highly rated inside mid in Viney, plus N.jones *hard to judge the upside of these blokes, he is already good but he might not get drastically better. in summery imo we made the correct call, i think wines will be a very good player, but i think toumpas will be a better player in time, keep in mind wines is doing well in a much better midfield group, toumpas is in possibly the worst AFL team of all time so it's really unfair to say they are on level footing on that alone, but i would say the game toumpas played against Geelong was as good or better than anything Wines has produced this year. anyways just my opinion

Yeah, it's not the end of the world, i'd be tempted to leave him in though, noone is beating down the door to get in and as long as craig sits him down and says it's okay, some very good players have done the same thing before i think he will be fine.

Poor game but give the young man the benefit of the doubt, he played very well against Geelong in horrid conditions not a week ago, and he looked pretty crook on the bench, weren't we talking at the start of the year about managing expectations on our young players? haha