Assessing the other clubs drafts

[Bulldog Revolution]

It may be a pointless exercise but who are the big winners from the Draft?

For the little I know about it Sydney look to have had the draft that might see them improve the most quickly

Gary Rohan, Lewis Jetta, and Trent Dennis-Lane will probably all be ready to go from R1 onwards and add far more leg speed to their team.

[GVGjr]

If I was giving the 3, 2 and 1 votes it would be:

3) North Melbourne
2) Sydney
1) Geelong

I haven't acknowledged Melbourne only because they got a free hit.

[LostDoggy]

3) Melbourne
2) North Melbourne
1) Port Adelaide

[LostDoggy]

Melbourne
North Melbourne
Adelaide

[Happy Days]

Geelong would have to be pleased.

Based on the late mail, they got their man with their first pick, and getting Christiensen (given his improved conditioning since draft camp) in the late 30's, and getting Vardy, the best ruckman in the draft, at 42, are both absolute steals; so they'd get the three votes on the day for mine.

[Before I Die]

Isn't this thread about 3 years too early? If the Burgatron and Big Footy predictions are the benchmark then the clubs are wasting a lot of money on talent spotters.

[Dogs 24/7]

Hard to go past Melbourne and Port but Sydney must be rapt to get a few good runners although Roos doesn't think Rohan will play senior football next year.
I think North did OK as well

[Go_Dogs]

Port Adelaide and Melbourne both did pretty well with their clusters of early selections.

Sydney are certainly a standout, adding some good players early in Rohan and Jetta and managing to snare Reid, Sumner and Dennis-Lane.

Fremantle I think did fairly well, they went local mainly but seem to have got a good mix of player and some good value deeper into the draft.

North are the other team, obviously Cunnington, Bastinac and Black is a fair effort in the first 25 - but also a couple of selections that appear pretty solid later on.

[GVGjr]

North are the other team, obviously Cunnington, Bastinac and Black is a fair effort in the first 25 - but also a couple of selections that appear pretty solid later on.

They probably lacked midfielders going into the draft and landed a couple of good ones that can play some senior football next year. Black gives them another key forward especially handy if Petrie moves to CHB. Robbie Tarrant and Black could become a good forward tandem for many years.

[Go_Dogs]

Anyone else in absolute shock at the way the Crows went about the Draft?

4 more KP players and another ruck prospect when they already have:

Bock
Rutten
Stevens
Hentschel
Maric
Moran
Sellar
Griffin
Tippett
Walker
McKernan
Davis

It was already a huge list and quite a few of (the vast majority imo) look like making it at AFL level. Are they preparing for a heavy raid of their KP stocks by GC and WS or are they just searching for a team with 3 Pav's, and a couple of Franklin's and Bock's??

[GVGjr]

Anyone else in absolute shock at the way the Crows went about the Draft?

4 more KP players and another ruck prospect when they already have:

It was already a huge list and quite a few of (the vast majority imo) look like making it at AFL level. Are they preparing for a heavy raid of their KP stocks by GC and WS or are they just searching for a team with 3 Pav's, and a couple of Franklin's and Bock's??

It was strange but my guess is that they are very confident with their emerging midfielders and have drafted the talls with a longer term vision. There is question marks on Hentschell, Moran, Sellar and Griffin so it's probably why they went with some talls. James Craig seems like a late pick bargain.

[Go_Dogs]

It was strange but my guess is that they are very confident with their emerging midfielders and have drafted the talls with a longer term vision. There is question marks on Hentschell, Moran, Sellar and Griffin so it's probably why they went with some talls. James Craig seems like a late pick bargain.

Can't disagree with your logic, so you are probably right. Rutten will probably be finished in a year or 2 with his withered body and quite likely a few won't make it - so some depth is not a bad thing.

I guess the other point to consider is the development of multiple talls on your list is probably better assisted by the Crows alignment with the SANFL - no issues trying to squeeze 5 developing talls into the same forward line like the Victorian clubs have to do.

Would the perceived trade value of talls also be a consideration?



But I will counter all that by saying Goodwin, McLeod and Edwards plus Doughty and Burton are getting on - I don't see an abundence of replacements for these guys waiting in the wings - but I guess they have a lot of faith in Sloane, Jacky, Martin and Petrenko and a few of those other guys.

[Bulldog Revolution]

The crows have a far greater capacity to carry ruckman and key position players on their list knowing they can play prominent roles at SANFL level, but it was interesting

I felt Sydney, North and Port would have been very pleased after the draft

Roos was interesting in todays age
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/gap-for-recruits-massive-20091127-jwzn.html

[mjp]

It is an interesting article - but if Sydney don't get something out of this group of draftees then they wont play finals next year...improvement from the 2nd/3rd year players is fine but most teams that improve get a boost from at least one of their new boys.

In Sydney's case, I honestly believe that they can count on Jetta contributing from round one next year - if they are prepared to play him of course. Not much chance he will keep up with Kirk in the sand-dunes or whatever the quote was...but not much chance Kirk could outrun Jetta (speed and agility) on the SCG either.

He then goes on to point at Veszpremi, saying he is 'still finding his way'. Well, what would you expect with a player like Veszpremi who has one stand out skill - attack on the ball - that carried him through junior ranks. That skill is not so obvious at senior level when it is matched (and surpassed?) by other players...with bigger bodies who have been taught good tackling technique.

Dennis-Lane will kick goals at AFL level - and he will be a very difficult match-up. They will be counting on him. They will be counting on Jetta. He mentioned Kristian Thornton (elevated rookie) in the 'draft group' as well...well, given he has played some games and is in his 4th year at the club - well, he should be ready to go.

I believe Sydney nailed this draft and think they will be the real movers in 2010.

[GVGjr]

I believe Sydney nailed this draft and think they will be the real movers in 2010.

They positioned themselves well in the trade period as well and had a good draft night. I'm not sure that they will be big movers next year but they probably won't slide too much.

[Bulldog Revolution]

They positioned themselves well in the trade period as well and had a good draft night. I'm not sure that they will be big movers next year but they probably won't slide too much.

Likewise, I'm not sure how many more wins it will translate into, but I did like the addition of some speed to the Swans mix

It will be interesting to see how Roos manages the balance between playing to win, and developing players in his final year as head coach.

I think he needs to open up the side for Jetta, Dennis-Lane and Rohan to play as soon as they can. I wouldn't expect any of them to benefit enormously from running around in the canberra league.

Quayles view on the draft
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-draft-who-won-20091129-jyed.html

[Swoop]

In the wash up from the draft I would love to get some more insight from our draft educated posters on Aaron Black. Early on there was speculation he was a first round draft pick, I would like to know what people think it was the ultimately saw him slip down to North Melbourne in the second round.

[GVGjr]

In the wash up from the draft I would love to get some more insight from our draft educated posters on Aaron Black. Early on there was speculation he was a first round draft pick, I would like to know what people think it was the ultimately saw him slip down to North Melbourne in the second round.

Good question.
There was only a couple of talls taken in the first round in Butcher and Talia so I'm guessing nearly all clubs just wanted a piece of the best midfielders more than the talls.
Black made more sense as a target for both Melbourne at 11 and 18 and also Carltons pick 12 but they also obviously wanted mids and runners more.
Richmond at 19 selected Ben Griffiths probably because he's such a big unit and then Freo took Fyfe over Black which was a shock for me.

Not sure if there is any real merit in what I have detailed but I think North snared themselves a bargain.

[Go_Dogs]

Good question.
There was only a couple of talls taken in the first round in Butcher and Talia so I'm guessing nearly all clubs just wanted a piece of the best midfielders more than the talls.

To me it's very interesting that a few clubs went this way. One would assume that the GC and WS teams will target quality young talls over the next few years - probably quite a few too - in the hope of unearthing a few AFL quality talls.

I tend to think there may be quite a few mature aged taller players taken in the Rookie Draft to compensate.


As far as Black personally, could it be the fact that perhaps a lot of recruiters hadn't seen a lot (or enough) of him during the year which brought him back a bit in the pecking order?

[mjp]

In the wash up from the draft I would love to get some more insight from our draft educated posters on Aaron Black. Early on there was speculation he was a first round draft pick, I would like to know what people think it was the ultimately saw him slip down to North Melbourne in the second round.

Carlton were planning to take him at 12. Obviously whatever happened before then changed their minds.

He is pretty happy about going to North.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Carlton taking another midfielder is very odd. They've got plenty.

Not drafting a running half back or a KPF at 11 was a shock to me.

[Bulldog Joe]

Anyone else in absolute shock at the way the Crows went about the Draft?

4 more KP players and another ruck prospect when they already have:

Bock
Rutten
Stevens
Hentschel
Maric
Moran
Sellar
Griffin
Tippett
Walker
McKernan
Davis

It was already a huge list and quite a few of (the vast majority imo) look like making it at AFL level. Are they preparing for a heavy raid of their KP stocks by GC and WS or are they just searching for a team with 3 Pav's, and a couple of Franklin's and Bock's??

Probably indicates more confidence in the younger midfield types they have.
Their talls are more suspect.
Rutten, Bock, Stevens and Hentscel may all be looking at career ends in 3 to 4 years.
Maric, Moran, Sellar and Griffin may not attain the standard required, while McKernan and Davis still have plenty to prove.
Only Tippett and to a lesser extent Walker appear genuine long term quality. They would be looking at serious problems if they lost one of those.

[LostDoggy]

then Freo took Fyfe over Black which was a shock for me.
.

It really does make very little sense, with Black being a WA boy and everything.. but this IS Freo we're talking about -- they were probably looking at their dot-matrix print-out on their high-tech 1963 IBM Selectric typewriter and didn't even realise Black was still available.

[mjp]

Have you guys seen Fyfe play? He is pretty useful.

I can live with Fyfe over Black - completely different players. If they want a mid-sizer who is a terrific mark, Fyfe is their man. I would not have been surprised had Fyfe been taken much earlier.

[GVGjr]

Have you guys seen Fyfe play? He is pretty useful.

I can live with Fyfe over Black - completely different players. If they want a mid-sizer who is a terrific mark, Fyfe is their man. I would not have been surprised had Fyfe been taken much earlier.


I've only seen him a few times but from my Bulldogs perspective mid sized blokes who can mark aren't as valuable as more genuine KP players who can also mark. I would have been dirty if we had have selected Fyfe over Black.

[mjp]

Well, he kicked 6 against us in the grand final playing against two guys who are at the AIS at the moment, one of whom was an AA this year.

Fyfe is a very talented player.

[Hot_Doggies]

I've only seen him a few times but from my Bulldogs perspective mid sized blokes who can mark aren't as valuable as more genuine KP players who can also mark. I would have been dirty if we had have selected Fyfe over Black.


Would you still be dirty Gary? ;)

[mjp]

Would you still be dirty Gary? ;)

I think this thread should be permanently bookmarked to prove that I know what I am talking about...and all other draft threads where I extoll the virtues of numerous other players who have turned out to be potatoes should be immediately and permanently deleted!

[LostDoggy]

I think this thread should be permanently bookmarked to prove that I know what I am talking about...and all other draft threads where I extoll the virtues of numerous other players who have turned out to be potatoes should be immediately and permanently deleted!

Amen.

[GVGjr]

Would you still be dirty Gary? ;)

Had him pegged as an undesized forward. He's been brilliant and a genuine brownlow candidate.

[Doc26]

Gary, if it was me I'd quickly make the post magically disappear and ban Hot Doggies from recalling it.:)

Fyfe is about my favorite player going round. Just love watching the chemistry between Fyfe and Hill.

MJP, insightful call back in 09.

[comrade]

Amen.

That 1963 IBM Selectric reference was a corker :D