Earl Hood

Well we can tell Mark ( I make it up as I go so who needs rules) Evans that the "black dog" has decimated our forward line. So we need special assistance espeially with no one in the top 40 and no rising stars to boot!!

On the positive side this just adds more credence to our request to the AFL for special assistance, doesn't it?

Macca good post and I am sure someone should develop an equation to measure the $ loss we are actually taking each year in the interests of maximising the TV income from the compromised FIXture for the AFL family. And we should be demanding that sort of compo for the Shyte scheduling we get instead of the few dollars of equalisation we get at the moment.

Off we go back to Iraq hopefully to finally do some good. Operation "unscramble the egg?" can I suggest? In that what we did in 2004 is to unleash forces we can hardly now put back in their box. Sadam Hussein was no ones favourite uncle and basically a nasty piece of work but that was why he was there, to be a ruthless overlord over these differing ethnic and religious groupings. I am expecting to see Tony front the cameras wearing a leather military jacket some time soon. It will suit him!

Doctor I agree with your argument in general but I still say the draft is a lottery because the fact is there is no one who can predict that pick 1 will be a 10% better player than pick 2 who will be a measurable better player than pick 3 and 3 will be better than 4 etc, etc. It does not work that way at all yet the industry acts as if they can predict the order of talent. That is understandable as the recruiters earn big bucks based on this belief. No different by the way than financial investment fund managers charging us excessive fees on the myth that they can consistently beat the market. All that we do know is that on average there is likely to be more talent in the first round than the second round but you don't really know exactly for sure where the real gun players are, just that will likely be earlier rather than later. So being a lottery there is a chance a top side can still pick the best draftee at say pick 17 or 18. It has happened before.

Sorry I don't see the link between Sylvia walking out last year and us off loading Martin for pick 53 which we used for Matt Jones in 2012 And I didn't like the decision at the time as everytime he got fit and had a crack as the No 1 ruck he played well.

True, if we got lucky and pulled 3 or 4 A graders out the lottery it would turn us around but that is the problem. The draft is a lottery, FA isn't, you know well and truly what you are buying by the time they have played 8 to 10 seasons. I don't know about cycles but I get the feeling we have gone full circle back to the 70's and 80's where the top clubs just bought themselves premierships by raiding the SANFL and WAFL. I remember watching the state games vs SA or WA and everytime you saw some young gun playing out of his skin the commentators would mention that he had already signed with the Hawks or Carlton to come across the following year. Right through the 70's and 80's the finals were played out by the Tiges, Blues, Hawks, Bombers with the 10 year rule giving North a crack. I read somewhere that Norm Smith predicted our demise in the mid 1960's for just that reason that MCC would not allow the MFC to pay the money to bring in the talent from interstate. Norm as usual was spot on! I believe we have recreated the same environment through FA, the state based AFL academies and the increased abilityof any player out of contract to take a better offer. The tools supposed to equalise things, the draft order and salary caps just won't do the job.

Steph another lazy 31 possessions and a goal on the weekend playing a ruck rover role!! That hurts. Smart move by Leper because this allows him exploit his strengths, he is big and he is quick and he is agile. No wonder he had to go!

Nasher we don't need this sort of logic at this time of the season! I would rather go on a rant about Watts and co. I do not need facts to get in the way of my rant!

Interesting PJ emphasised that we did not ask for a priority pick but for special consideration for compensation given our circumstances. Hutchy wanted to make the usual dig that we as tankers had called for a priority pick, just like every other media outlet and that we had stuffed every other pick up so why do we deserve any more help etc, etc, and so on and so on. We may be seeking second round picks. We have heard it all before, absolute incoherent, illogical argument as usual. You don't deserve help because you are stuffed, you made mistakes and the early draft picks didn't work like we thought they might. That is why the hawks were rewarded for failure in 2004, 2005 and so on, that led to their current success.

I would also nominate Jack Watts for best performer in a " non contact, slippery surface'" role!

Fair call Luna but how about Riley for best debutant in a "non kicking" role?

Can I nominate Kent for the "outstanding late season performance in a minor role" category

I was going to sit near the cheer squad but the entire bottom level seemed to be ticketed? I got in on my 15 membership and so sat up in the bleaches where there was a smattering of diehards

If Roos has any say we won't be taking Wright early, it will be a mid unless we trade for experienced mids early and look to pick some talls later in the draft or thru a trade.

Looks like we will be in the market for an experienced ruckman at trade time. King is raw, Jamar perhaps a year left, Spencer marginal at best injury wise and talent wise.

From a goal after the siren!

I was saying something similar Biff but am more diplomatic about the Harmichael.

No rjay I would say early second rounder for the Harmichael at least!

He needs to hit the scoreboard more often to really hurt opposition teams to be A grade I think, but the game plan makes this very difficult.

Interesting to me is the three examples you picked all had issues above the shoulders. Watts has everything, height, skills, all except as someone said recently, the passion and will to reach his potential. Morton had ample ability but he had fragile confidence and there is evidence I believe that we didn't do him any favours as a club. He needed nurturing to build his confidence but didnt get it. In his first season he was great but it was downhill from there. Maric said himself that he wasn't mature enough for AFL demands. So much rides on temperament, confidence, aggression and a burning ambition to succeed. Can recruiters test for this? I would have thought so myself but you would have to do your homework.

Good to hear Roosey's thoughts on the draft lottery and although we already knew talls are a bigger risk than mids in the first round I hadn't heard those reasons put up by PR about the TAC rules. Hopefully we keep pick 2 to get the best mid available and use the other Chip pick to trade

Didn't Gil say that the bottom six would be playing for draft positions or somthing similar and then realised his faux par? Not tanking surely? And as for the mid season draft, how will that work? One of the top six clubs decides they need to fill a gap down back so they draft Chip to fill a gap. So MFC is left one player short for the final games? How is it all going to work fairly I mean.

Interesting article, no talk of player development in there, just the luck of the draft lottery. I dont agree with bringing in Shifter Sheehan, the top 20 draftees are generally sorted by all the "experts" before the draft and the the clubs tend to choose pretty closely to the agreed pre-draft order. That is largely what we have done with our first rounders, picked the kids on offer at the time with a few disastrous exceptions. It is still a lottery no matter how many kids you watch play

Not sure it was Bailey wanting to clean out the older players back then. Wasn't it the Connelly and Schwab blue print for success to draft as many young kids in as possible and sit back and wait for success to just happen, with the odd sponsor paid, free [censored] up in Shanghai to boot? Anyway it looks like a few of the young draftees from that period might be gonski at the end of the season.