First New Draftee to Debut in 2016?

[bulldogtragic]

So who gets to be head of the class from the 2015 draftees?

Collins, Dunkley, Adams or Williams?

[Ghost Dog]

Adams, Collins, lock in.

[F'scary]

Adams because he is "mature aged" and apparently can play forward or back.

[LostDoggy]

Adams, Collins, lock in.

Lock em both in thanks Eddie ;)

[Bulldog Joe]

I would expect Adams to be first to debut, but we need to get the NAB Challenge series done to see who really puts their case to be selected.

[Go_Dogs]

If we take a cautious approach with Libba, Bont and Jong, then I suspect Dunkely may be first.

The Specimen is also a good bet, particularly if Roberts is eased into the season.

[Greystache]

I'll go with Dunkley. I'd think Adams would need to be pretty impressive in the nab cup to be in with a chance for early selection.

[bulldogtragic]

Since I haven't got my underdog to back anymore, I'll go with Williams.

[bornadog]

Dunkley will be the first to debut. Doing well in the preseason.

[merantau]

If Adams s as big and STRONG, as all the talk says he is, then, he is the type of defender we need to deal with forwards like Roughead, Hawkins and Walker. I really hope he can play and that controlled aggression is part of his armoury. I think we need a bit of that.

[Ozza]

Given that we don't play against teams with particularly big forwards in the first few rounds, I would say Hamling and Roberts will get first crack at the KPD spots early in the season. So I'll go with Dunkley to debut first.

[LostDoggy]

So who gets to be head of the class from the 2015 draftees?

Collins, Dunkley, Adams or Williams?

Rookies count? I'd reckon Adcock would be in the mix.

[ledge]

Good point why would you sign up Adcock at his age if you aren't going to play him, he is our Crameri replacement.

[Twodogs]

Good point why would you sign up Adcock at his age if you aren't going to play him, he is our Crameri replacement.

He can cover at both ends of the ground. I think he will play quite a few games this year

[merantau]

He can cover at both ends of the ground. I think he will play quite a few games this year
Agree. If we can get as much out of him as we did from someone like Bruce Duperouzel then we are in for a good year. Duper was terrific for us and played a number of roles. Adcock can do same.

[G-Mo77]

Rookies count? I'd reckon Adcock would be in the mix.

Dead set certainty but I'm not going to count him.

I'll go with Colins or Dunkley

[Cyberdoggie]

Adcock will play round 1 most likely.

Haven't seen Dunkley yet but i'm guessing he might be first from all reports.
Adams and Collins won't get ahead of Morris, Cordy, Fletcher, Hamling etc so early.

I think they will take a while to debut, maybe later in the year.

[Remi Moses]

Gotta say Dunkley on what I've read.

[LostDoggy]

Could be a long bow to draw but will say Bradley ( The Executioner ) Lynch ;) could be sneaky chance to debut first.
Wiry type that could give us a bit of outside pace and that unpredictable X-Factor explosiveness.
Looks a lot like a recent delisting of ours.(Sorry Spindle) :(

[LostDoggy]

If it's NAB cup-then all of them.

[azabob]

Could be a long bow to draw but will say Bradley ( The Executioner ) Lynch ;) could be sneaky chance to debut first.
Wiry type that could give us a bit of outside pace and that unpredictable X-Factor explosiveness.
Looks a lot like a recent delisting of ours.(Sorry Spindle) :(

Isnt he a rookie?

[hujsh]

Isnt he a rookie?

We still have 2 LTIs

Adcock will take one spot but the other's available if they want to pick him

[Sedat]

Don't Funk with the Dunk

[Mofra]

I'm not sure who will debut first (aside from Adcock who doesn't really count), but I'd be very surprised is this crop of draftees gets anywhere near the opportunities of the 2014 draftees.

Bevo was clearly experimenting at times last year (Ayce Cordy played dummy ruckman against Fremantle in the second half!) before letting the side become much more settled as the season wore on.
This year I expect less experimenting as the gameplan becomes more settled and he understands the players and the list much better.

We also have to take into account after the exodus pre-Bevo we have amore settled list, and the fact that the 2014 draftees (Hamilton aside) are all capable at the highest level and as depth would be picked ahead of the 2015 guys.

Libba & Stevens coming back provide enough grunt to potentially make Dunkley wait for his chances, Hamling is best 22 when fit, I still think Fletch is our best bet at FB (and it is hard for tall kids to come into the system even if relatively physically developed - see Tom Boyd, Hawkins, etc).
We have a range of HB options that can run through the middle that are fringe (Biggs, Webb, etc) and who all sit behind AA nominees + JJ, Suckling will play everywhere so Bailey Williams will have to wait.

I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing - when guys the caliber of Webb, Dale, Caleb Daniel, Biggs, Honey & Hrovat look set to miss round 1 (I think McLean will sneak in) our list is in pretty good shape.

[F'scary]

There will be heaps of opportunities. Every club needs to go deep into its list to field a team each week over 22 home and away rounds. Last year, in terms of number of games played for the season, Bulldog players ranked 23 to 38 averaged around 7 games each!

It was a big surprise last year how deep our list suddenly ran. We kept bringing in new players as spots in the first 22 opened up, be it through injury or form, and just about all of them performed really well. Think of Hunter, Biggs, Redpath, Hamling, Roberts, the 2014 draftees.

It would seem our list is even stronger again this year. But there will be opportunities - for a young player or a fringe player to get 7 games under their belt is a successful season, it is not a season languishing in the VFL.

Perhaps when the wise ones say your team is only as good as the last half dozen picked, they are referring to players 33 to 38!

[Greystache]

There will be heaps of opportunities. Every club needs to go deep into its list to field a team each week over 22 home and away rounds. Last year, in terms of number of games played for the season, Bulldog players ranked 23 to 38 averaged around 7 games each!

It was a big surprise last year how deep our list suddenly ran. We kept bringing in new players as spots in the first 22 opened up, be it through injury or form, and just about all of them performed really well. Think of Hunter, Biggs, Redpath, Hamling, Roberts, the 2014 draftees.

It would seem our list is even stronger again this year. But there will be opportunities - for a young player or a fringe player to get 7 games under their belt is a successful season, it is not a season languishing in the VFL.

Perhaps when the wise ones say your team is only as good as the last half dozen picked, they are referring to players 33 to 38!

When a club has as many young and not quite proven AFL level players as we have at the moment it's inevitable that some won't come on this season the way we expect. Improvement in young players is never linear, and while we might think it's going to be incredibly tough to fit 30 players into one team, the reality is there'll probably be points during the year where only 15 or so will actually be automatic selections, and the other 7 will be made up of players who probably aren't doing enough to keep their spot, but the other 7 aren't doing enough to take it from them. Having 30-35 players who have claims to a senior spot might seem great during preseason, it will also likely mean during the season we don't have 22 players who justify selection.

It won't be as rosy in 4 months as it might seem now, what we need to hope for is more players to be automatic selections then than there are now. That will be progress.

[F'scary]

When a club has as many young and not quite proven AFL level players as we have at the moment it's inevitable that some won't come on this season the way we expect. Improvement in young players is never linear, and while we might think it's going to be incredibly tough to fit 30 players into one team, the reality is there'll probably be points during the year where only 15 or so will actually be automatic selections, and the other 7 will be made up of players who probably aren't doing enough to keep their spot, but the other 7 aren't doing enough to take it from them. Having 30-35 players who have claims to a senior spot might seem great during preseason, it will also likely mean during the season we don't have 22 players who justify selection.

It won't be as rosy in 4 months as it might seem now, what we need to hope for is more players to be automatic selections then than there are now. That will be progress.

True, it is very easy to forget we were winning games last year with a bunch of players who only had a handful of games experience between them.

[bulldogtragic]

Who had The Specimen? Sounding like its him from the media.

[Twodogs]

Who had The Specimen? Sounding like its him from the media.


I have a feeling that Dunkley will play round 1 too.