Universal Love LOL, WE'RE TERRIBLE AGAIN

[Cannon82]

It's just moronic thinking we paid over for lever. You obviously think we do. Since you hinted at it.

Lever got injured just after he started to look like he was settling in. You might not have any inside goss, or might only have heard minimal about it, but lever would be one of, if not our best, leaders if he was on the ground. Potting him, as many others on here are right now, is just scapegoating.

And this whole draft pick wankfest over getting pick 15 or 23 or whatever it was to be, as topkent points out, is equally as mundane.

Tell me this, would you, or any one else here, be happy if we got back pick 23 and used it on say, Sydney stack?

I brought up Lever because of the number of people moaning about the May trade 5 games in. Lever has played 10 games, half of them shit, half of them passable to decent, and people are treating his return as Messianic. Lever may come back, may be mediocre to awful and may be semi-permanently injured for the next 5 years. We'll see when he gets back on the park. No one is scapegoating him - not sure how you arrived at that conclusion.

I really don't get you folks who yammer about draft picks being a "wankfest" - the draft is where 99% of players in the game come from. It can be a bit of a lottery, but the more tickets you buy, the more likely you are to win. Paying overs for players (and we do love to pay overs for players because the club aspires to be "good to deal with" at the trade table... like that's an admirable goal??) reduces the new talent being brought on to the list and leaves us holding on to potatoes longer.

I haven't seen Sydney Stack play but if we had an extra pick and used it to draft someone who isn't Maynard or Tim Smith, then that sounds like a win to me.

 

[Grimesy87]

I brought up Lever because of the number of people moaning about the May trade 5 games in. Lever has played 10 games, half of them shit, half of them passable to decent, and people are treating his return as Messianic. Lever may come back, may be mediocre to awful and may be semi-permanently injured for the next 5 years. We'll see when he gets back on the park. No one is scapegoating him - not sure how you arrived at that conclusion.

I really don't get you folks who yammer about draft picks being a "wankfest" - the draft is where 99% of players in the game come from. It can be a bit of a lottery, but the more tickets you buy, the more likely you are to win. Paying overs for players (and we do love to pay overs for players because the club aspires to be "good to deal with" at the trade table... like that's an admirable goal??) reduces the new talent being brought on to the list and leaves us holding on to potatoes longer.

I haven't seen Sydney Stack play but if we had an extra pick and used it to draft someone who isn't Maynard or Tim Smith, then that sounds like a win to me.

It was a broad comment, directed at many more than yourself discussing lever being "overs". And judging him on his 8 games at Melbourne is also irrelevant, you'd have to consider the seasons prior at Adelaide. I'm pretty sure if you asked him, he'd rather be playing too.

And You be probably followed Melbourne a while. Therefore, you'd be pretty familiar with the failings Melbourne has had there over the past decade or more. To describe the draft as "a bit of a lottery" in that time, we've seen more busts than any other club. The idea that we would magically take picks 11 and 16 or whatever the **** they were, and bag 2 absolute jets is laughable. Not because we have had so many busts, but because the draft has been more bust than not over it's history- Australia just doesn't possess the depth of talent per capita. We had the chance to get in an aggressive, young, skillful and focused leader, which cost us 2 pick downgrades from mid first to mid/late second.

You even acknowledged that as much when you alluded to some of the absolute plodders we have on our list. The likes of smith, maynard, Wagner's x2 etc... and we aren't alone, every list now has 4-5 Or more of these types.

My point is when using Sydney stack as an example, you could have pick 11, pick 45 or pick 145 and at the end of the day, you're getting some kid hoping he will play 200 games with no guarantee he will play one. Stack wasn't even taken in the draft, and has had 3 games now and already looks more likely to play long term than any of this year's Melbourne draftees.

 

[Cannon82]

It was a broad comment, directed at many more than yourself discussing lever being "overs". And judging him on his 8 games at Melbourne is also irrelevant, you'd have to consider the seasons prior at Adelaide. I'm pretty sure if you asked him, he'd rather be playing too.

And You be probably followed Melbourne a while. Therefore, you'd be pretty familiar with the failings Melbourne has had there over the past decade or more. To describe the draft as "a bit of a lottery" in that time, we've seen more busts than any other club. The idea that we would magically take picks 11 and 16 or whatever the **** they were, and bag 2 absolute jets is laughable. Not because we have had so many busts, but because the draft has been more bust than not over it's history- Australia just doesn't possess the depth of talent per capita. We had the chance to get in an aggressive, young, skillful and focused leader, which cost us 2 pick downgrades from mid first to mid/late second.

You even acknowledged that as much when you alluded to some of the absolute plodders we have on our list. The likes of smith, maynard, Wagner's x2 etc... and we aren't alone, every list now has 4-5 Or more of these types.

My point is when using Sydney stack as an example, you could have pick 11, pick 45 or pick 145 and at the end of the day, you're getting some kid hoping he will play 200 games with no guarantee he will play one. Stack wasn't even taken in the draft, and has had 3 games now and already looks more likely to play long term than any of this year's Melbourne draftees.

Yes, true on judging him on his 8 games is premature, but my point was more about him coming back in omnipotent form and solving our defensive issues, which is completely daft.

Prenderghastly isn't recruiting anymore and we also don't have Col Sylvia and Brent Moloney leading our draftees up the garden path and straight to music festivals. Yes we burned plenty of picks, but that's exactly why we do need to go harder at the draft because we're not going to fill that talent void by trading in players for two 1st / 2nd round picks at a time. I also don't understand how you can call the draft "more bust" over its history... as I said, 99% of AFL players come from the draft. Recruiting and developing players is something we can improve and absolutely need to - if we can't draft well, we may as well fold as a club because we're not going to get anywhere paying massive overs to get semi-decent players in.

We've got a lot more than 4 or 5 plodders.

With hindsight, you could pick an amazing team fourth round picks and rookie listed players from the past 10 years, I'm sure. 18 clubs passed on Stack multiple times, just like they did with Betts, Sloane, Dean Cox, etc. Those are extreme and rare examples, though. Most of the top talent in the draft is gone after 5 to 10 picks and the depth is usually pretty thin after 30 or 40 picks. If you can identify these guys before the draft, I'd suggest you go and tap the club up about a job as a scout. Otherwise, how does it not make sense to improve / increase our hand at the draft?

 

[rhaz]

Bumping my own thread. We are 2016 Western Bulldogs, except we didn't make it all the way.

 

[Tulip]

This thread is gonna be iconic

 

[CWaffles]

Start from scratch.

I never thought we would win but my god after quarter time we were EFL level.

 

[Topkent]

I've never given up and not watched before but I'm at a tipping point. We have completely destroyed all of Roos and Goodwins work.

Individually I can't remember so many players losing form, almost every single player is worse than last year and that's not an overreaction

 

[Dairyboy]

We are absolute shit, not even worth watching. Weideman is not worth $6. 600k a year? Whatever mate. This team is playing as bad a football as I have seen in many years.

 

[00Stinger]

I've never given up and not watched before but I'm at a tipping point. We have completely destroyed all of Roos and Goodwins work.

Individually I can't remember so many players losing form, almost every single player is worse than last year and that's not an overreaction

Good thing we brought in May and got rid of spuds like Hogan, hey?

 

[Cannon82]

We are absolute shit, not even worth watching. Weideman is not worth $6. 600k a year? Whatever mate. This team is playing as bad a football as I have seen in many years.

Milkshakes?

 

[Topkent]

Good thing we brought in May and got rid of spuds like Hogan, hey?

Stop acting like a child

 

[Tulip]

People gave it to a few of us for thinking the Hogan trade wouldn’t affect us all pre-season. Just gotta take your medicine lads.

 

[Topkent]

People gave it to a few of us for thinking the Hogan trade wouldn’t affect us all pre-season. Just gotta take your medicine lads.

We lost the exact same game last year by 50 points with Hogan.

 

[Tulip]

We lost the exact same game last year by 50 points with Hogan.

It’s undeniable that we miss him.

 

[00Stinger]

Stop acting like a child

once Tmac, Weideman, Fatboy May or KK does something AFL standard like I will be quiet.....


Believe me I am ****ing waiting

 

[rhaz]

 

[Topkent]

It’s undeniable that we miss him.

Its undeniable that one player makes no god damn difference to a teams performance.

You genuinenly think if we plonked Hogan into the side he would solve all of our problems? That rubbish. He would be just as out of form as everyone else

 

[Cannon82]

People gave it to a few of us for thinking the Hogan trade wouldn’t affect us all pre-season. Just gotta take your medicine lads.

How many more games would we have won this season were Le Grand Fromage Hogan in the side?

 

[Tulip]

How many more games would we have won this season were Le Grand Fromage Hogan in the side?

We might have kicked a couple of goals, or completed a few pieces of transition play. Again, undeniable that we miss him and that we were reamed by Freo.

 

[Dairyboy]

If Gawn decides to give up like the majority, then god help us. The look on his face after the game was like what am I doing here.

 

[Cannon82]

We might have kicked a couple of goals, or completed a few pieces of transition play. Again, undeniable that we miss him and that we were reamed by Freo.

So, we'd still be 1-5 then with a few extra goals for, assuming he could be arsed and wouldn't sulk or pea-heart away in the forward line?

 

[Topkent]

We might have kicked a couple of goals, or completed a few pieces of transition play. Again, undeniable that we miss him and that we were reamed by Freo.

Last year he took 9 marks and kicked 3 goals and we lost by more. Its stupid logic to say the least.

 

[Headless]

Who would win: 12 years of Melbourne, or 1x Mitch Hannan sealer?

 

[Gadzorks]

Gawn is good.

 

[Franky_024]

Anyone who thinks Hogan is the difference is kidding themselves.

More than half our side is horribly out of form. Players that had big years last year like Wiedeman, Harmes, T Mac, Hibberd, Petracca, Jones, Fritch and Lewis are all well down on their output last year. The rest are about breakeven, Oliver has regressed and so has Viney and Brayshaw but they are still trying hard.

Actually would rather play the Wagner boys than Lewis and Garlett, both should have retired last season. Harmes needs a spell in the 2's don't think i've seen him hit a target this year. Frost just fumbles and fumbles and then goes to ground and then fumbles again, awkward to watch tonight.