Deecisive

i doubt their is any leaking, I think that after all the results from the season and looking at players profiles the phantom drafters have started to look more closely at a couple of those they thought would be taken earlier. Every years there is speculation on who is going to go up in the draft early and who is going to slide as players are more closely examined. Oliver has obviously played well in the later half of the season and has shown enough to win a medal and impress. He also fits the melbourne big bodied midfielder model. The fact that Melbourne and Essendon have both probably talked to his family may have also increased speculation. Only two more sleeps until we find out...

Take the best mid at 3 to me that is oliver, and then the best tall at 7/10 then use our picks in the 40'sh to get some talent up back and forward, possibly ruck. We have a lot of mids we need to ensure that we get at least one quality tall, but I don't think we should be using pick 3 as we should have at least one good tall/forward option available at 7/10.

i really like olivers attitude and approach to the game, I think a good preseason and fitness coaches could do wonders to take him up to an even higher level. I would take him at 3 and then a tall at 7/10.

oliver won the morish medal is just over half a season of football so he has to have a fair bit of skill. he is certain in the mix in my mind.

seems pretty harsh to be dumping a talented kid because of a stupid incident. yes he stuffed up, what we need to figure out is whether he is the best player for us at our 3rd or 7th pick if he is available. With schoolies coming along a lot more of these kids will be doing stupid things before they play with the seniors. All in all I suspect Carlton would gladly take him at 12 as they would consider themselves paying well under for him. And he can ride share with his brother to training, etc...

we need at least one tall forward so if its going to be used on our number 3 pick then Weiderman is the most likely candidate, if its our number 10 then probably McKay. That would mean our number 3 used on a mid would possibly be parish or Curnow, or taking a mid with our no 10 pick would be Curnow or oliver. I would be happy with any of those combinations.

Seems strange that you cannot keep picking after all you have to take the player if the bidding side does not want to match it, so no one is going to be throwing around picks on players they don't actually want. Only being able to select one academy player would mean that you only have one shot at picking one of the top 4 or 5 academy players but can choose any other available players.

I certainly agree with oliver, he looks the goods, just because a lot of other sides are touting Parish as the best does not mean that would actually pick him. A would expect a lot of disinformation from those who have picks behind us hoping we will take the obvious pick, the one they all agree is good, well good for us not them. Parish looks too thin and may find the step up into AFL will test him, as Jimmy and other have been found wanting. I would use our other pick for a tall, someone to help out in the ruck and up forward. Max needs help so does Hogan.

looked at a couple of our wins from the year, both the geelong and collingwood games and Jack played pretty well. I think the problem we all have is that Jack has been seen as having great potential and expectations on him are far greater than on most other players therefore his performance is judged a lot harsher than others. I would rather have jack in the team that a lot of others as he usually does well enough to earn his keep, it may not be up to the standard that people are wishing but occasionally he can also turn it on.

I think take the best tall at 3 kp/ruck option and oliver at 7. Oliver looks to be more like wines an in and under player but with a bit more body. love his attitude.

I like it, the move it gives us another pick in the draft and gives viv a chance to try to get himself right next year.

Hmm I would like to see us clear out another one or two players and take a chance on picking up another one or two in the draft of the PSD. we know the limitations on some of our bottom ranked players and clearly they are not likely to make the grade, so why persist with them.

another year older and stronger, what are his odds on next years rising star?

As I understand it the GC will have quite a few early picks in next years draft, if so then swapping for early picks in the following years draft maybe attractive to them to spread their player ages and pick up some of the best in each draft. As for parish, he looks good but I do like to look of oliver, he is a bit of a brute, still gets rid of the ball even when tackled and only played half a season and won the morish medal. What would he have done with a full season,

The club obviously knows who they want and why, while we have all sorts of people saying Parish is one of the top 3, we have heard that far too often about top 10 picks we have taken that have failed. While some will say we did not develop them I say that maybe part of the problem but picking the right players means they come in straight away and have an impact not sitting in the 2's learning what they should already know or trying to bulk up, run faster or improve eisewhere. We need players who can come in quickly and start having an impact. Parish is a lot leaner than I think Roos and co want they may not want to take a chance, cause the step up to AFL will test him. If we have our eye on a specific player there is obviously a chance that others would have too, so getting the 3rd pick locks us to get him. Pick seven is a bit more open but I think most agree we need more tall forwards to help Hoges, if none measure up to the standard we want then we will probably go for another mid/half forward. All in all I am pretty damn happy with this years drafting and expect to be even happier when all said and done. Looking forward (as always at this time of year) to watching the dees next year.

if he deserves a spot then he will get a spot, the same for every other spot in the team, hopefully no passengers or people getting picked to make up the numbers because of a lack of depth going forward. Real competition to get a game is what we all want to see.

well worth a punt.

This is such a farce, essendon to their credit have delayed this for so long that they have significantly reduced the damage to the club. Any sanctions against 30+ players is now 11 or so players. They have cleaned out their list to reduce the number of player who could get penalised. They have also seem to think if there is any penalty this should be for the time served, i.e. provisional suspension in the off season counts in my book counts for nothing. The thing that pisses me off the most is that the players will take the fall and the club will continue on their merry way, no sanctions against the board and others who have kept this farce going for so long.

Everything is negotiable until the fat lady sings. Roos and co will look at everyone and though we may have said we are not looking to take a DFA we would have to have rocks in our head to pass on one that we thought could give us some benefit. Yes he is 28 but still has a few years in him of good football. He is obviously better than some of our second string players one of who probably needs to go to make room for him, keep all our draft picks and if another good prospect comes along you shuffle the deck again and get rid of the one least needed to get him.

So many things to make a great or even good footballer, to think a couple of tests on one day of the year is enough to define you is a little silly, this draft camp is for show for the public, the recruiters have already done their homework, the only thing draft camp does that may change the order is the player interviews. And you have to even take those chats with a grain of salt because players talking to lower placed clubs may not be doing their best to impress. Its all still a crap shoot, a lot of players no matter where they are drawn will fail. and a few late picks may excel. We can only hope luck and the skill of our recruiting teams can detect the smokies that will give us an edge.

RIP, used to love watching that man drop kick the ball out, it went a proverbial country mile. a great man and a great skill lost.

out of 17 other teams in the competition 5 had their worst loss against us. coincidence would be one or two not just under a third. , and some of these may not have been pretty but we took the points. the writer needed to give credit where credit was due

oliver does look pretty good in the clips shown, I loved the fact that no matter what happened to him he disposed of the ball pretty well to a team mate. would not be disappointed if we took him.

no side perhaps other than the GWS can field a best side with only round 1 draft picks, every side needs to dig into 2nd and 3rd round players to make a team. So just because they are 2nd round means nothing. How they played before is an indication of capability, playing with the dees may take them forward or may take them backward, hopefully the former. as for matt jones and others I would love to see him play if he is able to raise himself up and earn that spot, not because it is given to him because he is the best of a bad bunch. All the players on our list have strengths and weaknesses that could be improved that could make any of them much better players and deserving of a top 22 place. Lets hope our development of old and new players can raise some of these to the heights they need to achieve for us to play finals again.

why are we so hard on our new recruits, they are coming onboard and deserve a chance to prove themselves, they need to earn a spot like all the other players, we will have injuries that will give all players a chance throughout the year. Our new recruits form will determine who will get a senior game. I like the fact that we are taking players with more grunt, speed and aggression. I am tired of seeing players running in some cases jogging after their opposition player who has the ball. I want to see more mongrel, if the opposition has it tackle them and tackle them hard. it will put pressure on them and will result in them making mistakes. that is the only way you can beat them more skilful sides is to put them off their game with physical presence.