Game Day 2014 National Draft

[Alfonz]

I don't want to wish bad things on a bunch of kids, but I hope Lever/Goddard/Durdin don't turn out to be guns. Not all that excited with Weller, but what would I know.

Blakely seems like a good choice. Was hoping we'd get him with our second pick.

The other two ... meh ... going to be pot luck whether they are any good. Surely we could have taken a chance on a tall with one or both of our last 2 picks.

 

[salim malik]

Counting Johnson we have 16 talls on our list.Thats 50% of the list.The obsession with drafting more talls is hard to follow.
It wasnt a lack of talls that tipped us out of the finals it was lack of pace.

 

[Docker82]

Haze ain't happy. Unfortunately he may have a point.

Paul Hasleby ‏@PaulHasleby 4m4 minutes agoPerth, Western Australia
Freo picking 4 midfielders.... What the!! Drafted poorly since Phil Smart left. Does not make sense.

We only really had an opportunity to draft a kpp at pick 13 tbh. Didn't really think any of the other kpps available at pick 34 really warranted the picks we had. But he's right that Weller better be a bloody good. Personally though I think he suits our midfield perfectly.

 

[leeloo]

I have given up trying to figure out why our recruiters do what they do. Just going to hop back on the wagon and enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is supporting the FFC.

 

[Alfonz]

Counting Johnson we have 16 talls on our list.Thats 50% of the list.The obsession with drafting more talls is hard to follow.
It wasnt a lack of talls that tipped us out of the finals it was lack of pace.

What tipped us out of the finals was injuries and poor goal kicking, not lack of pace.

You can count the 16 talls all you like, but the desire to draft talls is not hard to follow when you consider our future is basically this:

Clarke, plus Hannath/Moller who are quite likely fringe battlers at best
Pearce, Smith, Vandeleur - none of whom have done anything yet to suggest they will even make it
Apeness, Taberner - looks OK, but again there is a lot of uncertainty and no other options if one of these guys doesn't make it

It is very slim pickings in my opinion. We are really going to need something to change with our attempts at trading/free agency.

Obviously, don't take a tall for the sake of it ... but when there are some highly rated talls on the table, you'd want to hope we know what we're doing. Adelaide seem to have a reasonable eye for talls (Walker, Talia, Gunston, Davis, Tippet ... a few duds like Sellar, McKernan), and they snapped Lever up.

 

[Grape Bear]

Counting Johnson we have 16 talls on our list.Thats 50% of the list.The obsession with drafting more talls is hard to follow.
It wasnt a lack of talls that tipped us out of the finals it was lack of pace.

I take your point, Salim. however, using that argument, among the 16 talls on the list are:

Luke McPharlin - likely 1 year left
Pavlich - likely 1 year left, 2 if we're lucky
Sandilands - maybe 2 years left
Griff - maybe 2 years? Assuming he recovers well from his ACL and doesn't ask for a trade
Dawson - turning 29, maybe 3 years or more left
Johnson - 29, has had back surgery, so a bit iffy right now


3 of those names, all best 22, are genuine tall backs. Apart from A Preace and Tanner if we get him back, we don't have anyone else developing to be replacements back there. Given that it takes more time for talls to come on, it's pretty scary that if we can't lure a ready made option here, we don't have anything to plug into pretty big shoes in our vaunted backline.

Weller looks like he'll be a player, and at our pick, an absolute steal. However, there were three talls that slid to our pick, defenders at that, who were also perceived to be steals (Lever, Goddard, and Durdin), and that's probably where most of the angst is coming from. anything after 2nd round is also perceived to be speculative, so it also becomes puzzling that we made a point of using the last 2 of our picks on a player type that we have plenty of (mids and smalls) when clearly there's another type that we are short of.

In themselves, the boys we've taken sound like they have lots of upside. I hope they do well, because it will be great for us in the long run. It's more that it's hard to understand the approach to drafting, as surely there must be a tipping point where we need to recruit for need rather than best available, and it's looking like we may have already reached it.

 

[pavsbootlace]

What tipped us out of the finals was injuries and poor goal kicking, not lack of pace.

You can count the 16 talls all you like, but the desire to draft talls is not hard to follow when you consider our future is basically this:

Clarke, plus Hannath/Moller who are quite likely fringe battlers at best
Pearce, Smith, Vandeleur - none of whom have done anything yet to suggest they will even make it
Apeness, Taberner - looks OK, but again there is a lot of uncertainty and no other options if one of these guys doesn't make it

It is very slim pickings in my opinion. We are really going to need something to change with our attempts at trading/free agency.

Obviously, don't take a tall for the sake of it ... but when there are some highly rated talls on the table, you'd want to hope we know what we're doing. Adelaide seem to have a reasonable eye for talls (Walker, Talia, Gunston, Davis, Tippet ... a few duds like Sellar, McKernan), and they snapped Lever up.

Pearce, Smith and Vandeluer have done just as much as Lever, Durdin and Goddard.

 

[Andy Brennan]

The same thing seems to happen every year except 2013....There are talked up talls available but we select a mid because we can't overlook their speed/ball use or elite tank.

Then all the talls are gone and we select more mids later. I'm not saying I'm against it but....at some point we are going to need to select some talls!

 

[cp3_jr]

Everybody is forgetting Alex Silvagni as well so I don't think picking a tall defender was essential. We have McPharlin/Johnson for a yr or two, Dawson for a few and then Silvagni (entering his prime) and guys like Pearce, Smith and even Tabs developing. Also have the likes of Ibbo who can play on the third talls along with Sutcliffe.

Would have liked a key fwd potentially but if there were better mids I'm happy with the choices made. We need more speed and polish and I think we ticked those boxes. Hopefully Apeness comes on which I think he will and Clarke develops his Fwd play further as the backup ruck man. Tabs can then be the lead up player and should improve as well.

Really like the picks of Weller and Blakely and the other two fit our game plan as quick, aggressive goal kicking mid/forwards.

Definitely puts the likes of Sheridan, Crozier, DPearce, Duffy, De Boer, Clancee on notice...

 

[Fred Ziffel]

Counting Johnson we have 16 talls on our list.Thats 50% of the list.The obsession with drafting more talls is hard to follow.
It wasnt a lack of talls that tipped us out of the finals it was lack of pace.

More like lack of fit players Salim. We had five of our best 22 missing or injured in the Port Final.

 

[Alfonz]

Pearce, Smith and Vandeluer have done just as much as Lever, Durdin and Goddard.

Yes. But doesn't hurt to cover bases with another option that is rated much higher than the 3 we've got. If you put all of our players above back into this year's draft, even with the valuable development time at an AFL club, they would go undrafted or pick 40ish and beyond. Not top 20 (and at various stages ranked top 5-10) like the latter 3.

Let's just hope Weller over Lever works out like Fyfe over Black.

 

[Defacto]

I'm sorry but who the **** is Ed Langdon?????

he's a gun. people know i dont speak positively about freo but the selection of langdon and delucca are massive bargains. ed had a decent combine but he's just so deadily off the forward flank good kick. great get

 

[Unique Name]

Keeping our AAA engine room stock full of replacements, I like it.

Back line will be fine - Silvagni, Ibbotson, Pearce, Smith, Vand, Hurley??
Hopefully still have Johnson and Dawson for 2 more years and Macca for 1 more.

I really hope team selectors give Pearce more than a few games this year. Needs to be exposed to AFL level competition before we start heavily relying on him. It would be good to give him a few games against sides with weaker forward lines so Johnson and Dawson can look after him.

 

[Nickos66]

Counting Johnson we have 16 talls on our list.Thats 50% of the list.The obsession with drafting more talls is hard to follow.
It wasnt a lack of talls that tipped us out of the finals it was lack of pace.

Hey? Our list is only 32 players now?? It'd be closer to 1/3 of our list.

 

[Apenesslike]

In my opinion we just nullified the effects of the interchange rule changes. We picked players that can potentially compliment our forward and backlines and join the midfield rotations. We may have just found a way to free up Walters, Balla and Sutcliffe to join in with the current rotations.

 

[Unique Name]

Firstly, I'm wrapped with all of our picks.

Secondly, not expecting any of them to get a game this year barring us having a bad run with injuries or them getting a few gimme games against the Essendon VFL side or a mass resting game.

Sherro, Crozier, Duffy, Grey should be breaking into the side this year. We are not a s**t club that plays 18 year old youth because we have no one better, Melbourne will play theirs because they have no one else.

Let our new boys just train the house down this year, dominate for Peel and learn the Freo way at training.

 

[Arcassius]

The same thing seems to happen every year except 2013....There are talked up talls available but we select a mid because we can't overlook their speed/ball use or elite tank.

Then all the talls are gone and we select more mids later. I'm not saying I'm against it but....at some point we are going to need to select some talls!

We did with Smith (defender), Pearce (forward/defender), Hannath (ruck), Apeness (forward), Hurley (speculative defender), Moller (speculative ruck), Taberner (mobile forward), Vandaleur (defender)

Sure not all of them will work out - but it's not like we are totally shot for younger options coming through.

One or two talls in the rookie (re-rookie of Smith depending on how his training goes with the club) and the draft overall will have been balanced.

A future midfield of Weller, Fyfe, Neale, Hill, Morabito, Blakely, Walters is a good mix of inside grunt, silk and explosiveness

 

[theGav56]

I take your point, Salim. however, using that argument, among the 16 talls on the list are:

Luke McPharlin - likely 1 year left
Pavlich - likely 1 year left, 2 if we're lucky
Sandilands - maybe 2 years left
Griff - maybe 2 years? Assuming he recovers well from his ACL and doesn't ask for a trade
Dawson - turning 29, maybe 3 years or more left
Johnson - 29, has had back surgery, so a bit iffy right now


3 of those names, all best 22, are genuine tall backs. Apart from A Preace and Tanner if we get him back, we don't have anyone else developing to be replacements back there. Given that it takes more time for talls to come on, it's pretty scary that if we can't lure a ready made option here, we don't have anything to plug into pretty big shoes in our vaunted backline.

Weller looks like he'll be a player, and at our pick, an absolute steal. However, there were three talls that slid to our pick, defenders at that, who were also perceived to be steals (Lever, Goddard, and Durdin), and that's probably where most of the angst is coming from. anything after 2nd round is also perceived to be speculative, so it also becomes puzzling that we made a point of using the last 2 of our picks on a player type that we have plenty of (mids and smalls) when clearly there's another type that we are short of.

In themselves, the boys we've taken sound like they have lots of upside. I hope they do well, because it will be great for us in the long run. It's more that it's hard to understand the approach to drafting, as surely there must be a tipping point where we need to recruit for need rather than best available, and it's looking like we may have already reached it.

Pavlich is the only one of our established talls we have taken in the main draft, and apart from MacPharlin, none of the others were even half decent draft picks when originally selected.

 

[strobe00]

The last time our top draft picks were successful.

Fyfey wasn't a top draft pick. 2nd rounder.

 

[strobe00]

Counting Johnson we have 16 talls on our list.Thats 50% of the list.The obsession with drafting more talls is hard to follow.
It wasnt a lack of talls that tipped us out of the finals it was lack of pace.

And run. And effective ball use.

Some nice recruits to help bolster this.

 

[FreoGirl]

The same thing seems to happen every year except 2013....There are talked up talls available but we select a mid because we can't overlook their speed/ball use or elite tank.

Then all the talls are gone and we select more mids later. I'm not saying I'm against it but....at some point we are going to need to select some talls!

but it hasn't left us sitting down the bottom of the ladder either. As the commentators on afl.com.au have said, he seems to suit our style of play

 

[FreoGirl]

Fyfey wasn't a top draft pick. 2nd rounder.

and he isn't 6ft 8 either

 

[Andy Brennan]

We did with Smith (defender), Pearce (forward/defender), Hannath (ruck), Apeness (forward), Hurley (speculative defender), Moller (speculative ruck), Taberner (mobile forward), Vandaleur (defender)

Sure not all of them will work out - but it's not like we are totally shot for younger options coming through.

One or two talls in the rookie (re-rookie of Smith depending on how his training goes with the club) and the draft overall will have been balanced.

A future midfield of Weller, Fyfe, Neale, Hill, Morabito, Blakely, Walters is a good mix of inside grunt, silk and explosiveness

Couple your statement with the fact that talls can take a few years to get going and I just feel we could have used 1 or 2 more. We'll see in the rookie draft though, maybe it's a strategy to get them cheap as rookies and see how their development goes.

Still glad we got Weller since we desperately need a bit more speed and skill in the middle, maybe even more than we need talls.

 

[Andy Brennan]

but it hasn't left us sitting down the bottom of the ladder either. As the commentators on afl.com.au have said, he seems to suit our style of play

Hasn't gotten us to the top of the ladder yet either!

 

[FreoGirl]

Hasn't gotten us to the top of the ladder yet either!

oh but we are just a sniff away