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bulldogtragic
26-11-2009, 07:53 PM
AFL clubs want Thorne in their side

GREY MORRIS

November 25th, 2009


Shane Thorne. Picture: BRAD FLEET
SHANE Thorne was on the verge of quitting football when AFL clubs began knocking on his door in the leadup to tomorrow's national draft.

The Wanderers utility turns 23 today but he wants his biggest birthday present to be delivered to him 24 hours later.

Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs are leading the pursuit of the man they call "Mr Magic" before the AFL Draft is held in Melbourne.

The prospect of a life-changing AFL career was a long way from Thorne's thoughts two seasons ago when he nearly walked away from the game.

"It was coming down to a choice of family man or footballer when my daughter was born and it looked like the first choice would win out," he said.

``Obviously things have changed a bit with Wanderers going well, Thunder getting started and now AFL clubs landing on my doorstep.

``It's been a big shock really, I never thought at age 23 I'd be targeted by AFL clubs.

``When Murray Davis was the high performance coach at Thunder he sent me a text a couple of weeks after the season finished telling me to stay fit in the off season. He didn't say why at the time but after a few AFL clubs rang me I knew the reason.''

The Western Bulldogs reaffirmed their interest a month ago when they took Thorne and his family outto dinner.

But it was Collingwood that convinced Thorne the constant phone calls and long chats about footy were all ``fair dinkum''.

``The Bulldogs sent a couple of recruiting staff up to speak to me after training last month,'' he said.

``We talked about a lot of things about footy and life for a couple of hours at dinner,'' he said. ``Then Collingwood sent some people up a couple of weeks ago and they got right into it.

``They asked me where I could see myself playing at AFL level and I said running off half-back and hitting up the forwards as they led towards me.

``That was exactly what they had in mind for me, so it may be a pointer, who knows?''






Bulldogs look at Thorne

GREY MORRIS

November 11th, 2009


Shane Thorne
WESTERN Bulldogs operations manager James Fantasia can see a lot of positives in having Wanderers magician Shane Thorne in a red, white and blue jumper next season.

Thorne is the Territory's wildcard in this month's AFL Draft.

Several pundits are predicting his selection in the 30s and 40s while others say the NTFL Eagles' own "Mr Magic" is a certainty to go in the pre-season or rookie drafts on December 15.

"Our recruiting people have spoken to Shane, along with hundreds of others, it must be said," Fantasia conceded.

"We've seen the qualities he has to offer our club and it would be good to have him in our side when we play in Darwin next year."

The Bulldogs will meet traditional Top End rivals Port Adelaide in a Round 16 premiership match in mid-July at TIO Stadium next year.

It will be the fifth time in seven years the two clubs have locked horns at TIO Stadium for premiership points. That scenario could change when Richmond come into the playing mix in 2011.

The Bulldogs or Melbourne will lose their "home" club status in favour of the Tigers. Fantasia said the trip north had a two-fold benefit for the Dogs.

"Darwin has been good for us in terms of getting away from Melbourne and developing a new fan base and we have a big advantage in that we've played up here more than any other AFL club," he said. "We're up to speed in terms of pre-match and matchday preparation in Darwin and reckon we do it a bit better than the other clubs."

Hotdog60
05-10-2010, 10:13 PM
*Bump*

Will he stay on the list?

He didn't really get a chance to show what he could do by getting injured so early in the season. Does anyone know of his current status?

GVGjr
05-10-2010, 10:18 PM
*Bump*

Will he stay on the list?

He didn't really get a chance to show what he could do by getting injured so early in the season. Does anyone know of his current status?

Very doubtful that he will be retained.

Templeton31
06-10-2010, 09:26 AM
If its possible to do less than nothing then thats what he's done. At least this bump reminded me it was only a pick in the 70s...

LostDoggy
06-10-2010, 11:03 AM
Has there been a less productive national draft than the last one? Howard is a goer, Tutt is 50/50, then nothing, other than Markovic, which would surely have been the ideal rookie lister. Weird, weird draft.

ps. In fact, I would suggest that it led to some of the malaise this year -- there was no pressure on the younger players with some up-and-coming talent, bad draftees like Thorne wouldn't have helped with the intensity message to Hill and others, and we didn't really have any ready-made quality to provide that spark (although this was mitigated somewhat with Jones, Grant, Hooper and Roughead emerging). A Barlow or a Silvagni would have done wonders in rejuvenating the group, but this is with the benefit of hindsight, of course (although I remember some posters giving Barlow a big wrap).

Mofra
06-10-2010, 11:10 AM
Has there been a less productive national draft than the last one? Howard is a goer, Tutt is 50/50, then nothing, other than Markovic, which would surely have been the ideal rookie lister. Weird, weird draft.
We probably have others that rival it, although we've done pretty well with 2nd round picks over the past 5-6 years.
Hooper looks promising IMO and Moles played senior footy so 2009 wasn't a total bust.

2010 already looks set to be a cracker :)

LostDoggy
06-10-2010, 11:14 AM
We probably have others that rival it, although we've done pretty well with 2nd round picks over the past 5-6 years.
Hooper looks promising IMO and Moles played senior footy so 2009 wasn't a total bust.

2010 already looks set to be a cracker :)

Hooper and Moles were both off the rookie draft, not the main national draft, which was my line of thinking -- we've always done okay off the rookie list, but our dearth of absolute top-liners must stem from our poor recruiting record in the main draft where the cream is picked. I mean, most of our 'stars' are picks 40/50+ or former rookies, which suggests that they've stepped up to fill a void of A-listers, which is fantastic in terms of development, but probably explains why our absolute best under pressure is not quite as good as some other teams' absolute bests under pressure, which as some have pointed out, is probably more a class difference than anything more esoteric like 'culture' or 'psychology'. Most of our earlier draft picks that would have been earmarked to bridge that class gap have disappeared or are languishing.

Agree with 2010 -- more luck than judgment though (unless you want to thank Steve and Libba for their foresight..)

Mantis
06-10-2010, 11:18 AM
We probably have others that rival it, although we've done pretty well with 2nd round picks over the past 5-6 years.
Hooper looks promising IMO and Moles played senior footy so 2009 wasn't a total bust.

2010 already looks set to be a cracker :)

We also traded away our 3rd pick for a washed up FF who did ok. ;)

Agree that 2010 looks to be the good, but it will be a hard draft to judge Dalrymple on as he has been gifted 2 very promising players. Hopefully he has more luck with his later picks in the ND this year compared to '09.

Topdog
06-10-2010, 11:35 AM
but our dearth of absolute top-liners must stem from our poor recruiting record in the main draft where the cream is picked. I mean, most of our 'stars' are picks 40/50+ or former rookies, which suggests that they've stepped up to fill a void of A-listers, which is fantastic in terms of development, but probably explains why our absolute best under pressure is not quite as good as some other teams' absolute bests under pressure, which as some have pointed out, is probably more a class difference than anything more esoteric like 'culture' or 'psychology'. Most of our earlier draft picks that would have been earmarked to bridge that class gap have disappeared or are languishing.


That is because Rohde pissed missed of them away via trading and we had that horror period with Power, Jordan and Faz in the top 15.

Greystache
06-10-2010, 11:36 AM
That is because Rohde pissed missed of them away via trading and we had that horror period with Power, Jordan and Faz in the top 15.

And Walsh

Topdog
06-10-2010, 12:27 PM
yeah didn't mention him because of injuries. I never knew if he was really good enough

Greystache
06-10-2010, 12:34 PM
yeah didn't mention him because of injuries. I never knew if he was really good enough

Trust me he wasn't. A family friend coached him straight out of the AFL system and said he wasn't capable of holding down CHF in the B-grade amateurs. Just said he had no natural talent for the game, although he has managed to get some good footy out of him on the wing because he has more height and pace than his direct opponents.

Sedat
06-10-2010, 12:47 PM
Trust me he wasn't. A family friend coached him straight out of the AFL system and said he wasn't capable of holding down CHF in the B-grade amateurs. Just said he had no natural talent for the game, although he has managed to get some good footy out of him on the wing because he has more height and pace than his direct opponents.
So why did such highly regarded recruiting luminaries as Stephen Wells and Scotty Clayton fall in love with him? This is more of a rhetorical question highlighting the fact that recruiting can still be very much an inexact science.

Greystache
06-10-2010, 01:10 PM
So why did such highly regarded recruiting luminaries as Stephen Wells and Scotty Clayton fall in love with him? This is more of a rhetorical question highlighting the fact that recruiting can still be very much an inexact science.

Totally, which is one of the reasons I think the concept of only trading first round picks for established stars is a bit rediculous.

Scotty Clayton actually concedes these days he didn't really want to draft Walsh at pick 4, he was under pressure from the club to go tall that draft (3 of our 5 picks were tall) and Walsh was simply the best of a bad lot. If you look back now there wasn't much in the KP space available even with 20-20 hindsight vision.

azabob
06-10-2010, 05:48 PM
Scotty Clayton actually concedes these days he didn't really want to draft Walsh at pick 4, he was under pressure from the club to go tall that draft (3 of our 5 picks were tall) and Walsh was simply the best of a bad lot. If you look back now there wasn't much in the KP space available even with 20-20 hindsight vision.

I have not heard that, but i'll never forget when he was asked about Jordan Roughead and Liam Jones (even Cordy to a degree) he said something along the lines we picked these boys because they can play football not just becuase they are tall!

Greystache
06-10-2010, 08:22 PM
I have not heard that, but i'll never forget when he was asked about Jordan Roughead and Liam Jones (even Cordy to a degree) he said something along the lines we picked these boys because they can play football not just becuase they are tall!

In fairness to Clayton he is extremely loyal to the players he drafts, that one is an exception to the rule.

And those 3 look exceptional!

EasternWest
06-10-2010, 10:06 PM
In fairness to Clayton he is extremely loyal to the players he drafts, that one is an exception to the rule.

And those 3 look exceptional!

Well he would say that wouldn't he? If he started bagging out the very same guys he recruited, it wouldn't do his job prospects or reputation any good.