Draft Review 2019 - Revisit the 2019 AFL Draft

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Mar 20, 2002
24,079
24,761
Mosman Village
AFL Club
Carlton
Carlton could’ve turned pick 9 into Kemp and Robertson which would’ve been nearly the craziest (at the time of the draft) haul ever from that sort of a pick.

Instead they drafted 1 gun who slid probably 10 picks too far in Kemp but massively reached on the next pick for what looks to be a meh player.

FFS, there is no such thing as "reaching" for a player...…. if a club wants a player they draft him, its as simple as that.

In this case, the Blues next pick was in the late 40's so they figured that Philp would be gone by then plus the Tigers may have snagged him with #22.

So what did they do, they orchestrated a smart trade and got the player they wanted. If that is considered "reaching" then so be it, I consider it to be shrewd trading actually.

Whenever I hear this "reach" comment I feel like "retching" !!
 

Kramer1

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 8, 2007
12,063
25,672
AFL Club
Carlton
Clubs aren't supposed to play nice. If anything we should've bid on green, Carlton played out the situation better than we did. The academy system is supposed to just give clubs priority over players, not get them for free.

Freo are big boys, it's unlikely they would be half as salty and entitled as some of the posters in this thread have been.
Yep. Good post. Henry's name bobbed up plenty of times on our board...we genuinely wanted him, you guys knew that and set yourselves up appropriately.

Fair bump, play on.
 

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Aug 13, 2006
14,778
13,879
Melbourne
AFL Club
Melbourne
You're missing the point and are cherry picking because it suits your argument. Simply put, you can win a premiership fairly easily with a solid but unspectacular ruckman. You can't without elite midfield play and can't without decent forward play. Melbourne currently has neither.

This is because, in part, teams generally give up more turnovers than clearances. It's more important to create a midfield and forwardline which pressures turnovers and knows how to punish the opposition on the rebound than win clearances which don't really correspond to wins.
A lot of teams have won without a great ruckman, but it's not cherry picking to point out that some very good rucks have played a big part in teams winning. Brad Ottens was Mr September when it counted. McEvoy and Hale both very underrated. Tom Boyd could've won a Norm and the majority of his good play and marks came in the ruck. None of those guys cost nothing. And are you really going to say that Grundy hasn't been huge for Collingwood?

Yes clearances are overrated. But the thing to note with Richmond is they win clean clearances out the front of stoppages or they force the opposition to bomb it. Jackson's highlights are full of him winning the ball at clearances and taking it forward or laying tackles or pressure to force errors.

2 of the games best coaches in Chris Scott - with Blicavs and often Luke Bevo with Bont - have used mobile players in the ruck to generate more run and around the ground midfield quality. Luke Jackson won't kick like Bont, I'm not crazy, but he can play like a midfielder at ground level in a similar way to Bont in the ruck and easily do what Blicavs does. A 4th midfielder is a great way to get an elite midfield!
Petracca has never been as good as Martin at any point of his career. Martin is proof that if a teenager plays well in the juniors then hits the AFL blazing, then they'll eventually reach stardom. Petracca did the former, didn't do the latter. He's never had 30 touches in a game and doesn't kick that many goals. Martin is arguably Richmond's best ever midfielder. He's one of the best forwards in the game, lethal when the ball goes to the deck, great one-on-one, very good in contested situations and has one of the fastest 50 meter balls in the competition.

As for the rest, Edwards is a much better kick than Brayshaw who is a turnover merchant by foot. Yes, he won a lot of brownlow votes in 2018, but that seems like an aberration and he was poor this year.

I'm not impressed by Tomlinson's kicking and he had a very average finals series.

As for Lambert, he's signifigantly better than any of those guys. One of the most underrated players in the game. Pushes forward, provides genuine run and is a pretty decent kick.

As for the comments about kicks, yes, Lambert's kicking has improved. But we've seen the demons midfielders for a while now and they're still not elite kicks. Prestia isn't an elite kick but he's more fitter than a while and he's still the grunt factor.

Simply put, Melbourne's midfield lacks quality disposers of the football. Richmond has at least two in Martin and Edwards. It helps also that Richmond's midfield is a more instinctive attacking outfit than Melbourne who lack the vision and creativity that's present in the tigers. Like, where's your Martin? Petracca is far away and it's noticeable how Martin just naturally knows where to go and the importance of the fast deep ball.
Petracca hit the AFL with an ACL reconstruction, but he's slowly been building to become one of the only players in the comp who can get near 20 touches, 10 contested and a goal a game. It's Martin, Dusty, Robbie Gray and then Petracca. I wouldn't bet on him being Dusty but I'll bet on him being a serious footballer as soon as next year. In an awful team he took big steps forward. He's very hard to tackle and whilst his set shots have gone missing he can blast the ball as well as any. Watch and see.

Brayshaw was awful this season and yes there's a bunch of names not nearly as good as Lambert. But we've got plenty of options. Tomlinson wasn't good in the finals, but hardly a surprise given he was dropped for week 1, asked to ruck a lot week 2 and all on the back of being pushed up by the Coniglio money. If not a Caddy he could be a Kamdyn McIntosh type, serviceable.

And yes you'll admit greater fitness with Prestia has resulted in better skills. That should happen for Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw who all did stuff all preseason last year.

Both Petracca and Oliver have the ability to be super dangerous from the midfield. Oliver's already done it in spurts, he's had games - going down to Geelong in 2018 for example - with 40 touches and 8 inside 50's. Petracca tore the top of the ladder Crows apart in 2017 in one of the only games he's played anywhere near full time midfield. It's time for him to deliver but I think he will.

Certainly Melbourne need at least 1 skilled outside guy and 1 inside/forward running type. But if one emerges from the current fringe group and then we draft or trade 1 next year that's fine by me. Doesn't make the Jackson and Pickett's picks wrong.
 
If the Blues have a bid player in the future, Fremantle, Gold Coast and Giants won’t play nice.

Adelaide, and North Melbourne already bid on players.

I still think it was totally unnecessary and pointless to bid on a player that won’t going to get.

Why?

They selected those players with those picks, and clearly would have taken those players if those picks hadn't been superseded.....Where is the issue with that?
 

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Oct 14, 2016
2,442
3,002
AFL Club
Sydney
I think Elijah Taylor might be the steal of the draft.

Fremantle did really well. As did Port Adelaide.

Seriously talented player. Uses Micky O’s number, Buddy played a part in us taking him and will be collecting him from the airport, plus we have Goodes in and around the club. three indigenous stars to help him on his way. It’s a gamble according to some but I’m liking our chances of getting the best out of him.
 
Pies, Eagles and Swans all big winners.

Paying what they did for Bianco, Taylor and O'Neill is ridiculous, and I'm sure their fans would be ecstatic
I’m just as thrilled with Rantall as Bianco tbh. Never thought in a million years either of them would be available at our picks, let alone both.
 

Rich01

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 5, 2004
12,261
12,818
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Richmond
FFS, there is no such thing as "reaching" for a player...…. if a club wants a player they draft him, its as simple as that.

In this case, the Blues next pick was in the late 40's so they figured that Philp would be gone by then plus the Tigers may have snagged him with #22.

So what did they do, they orchestrated a smart trade and got the player they wanted. If that is considered "reaching" then so be it, I consider it to be shrewd trading actually.

Whenever I hear this "reach" comment I feel like "retching" !!
Agree. It really doesn’t matter how a club gets a player or where they are picked. If they think they are the best player and fit for the team moving forward that’s all that matters. Whether they are or not is a different matter that only time will tell.

This looks like a draft where beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Clubs like Richmond and Carlton rated Philps and Dow higher than Robertson, while names like Bianco and Rantall slipped through as others low on media and bigfooty draft boards got picked before them. I suspect this will be a draft where apart from the top few, it will be some unlikely types picked later on that are the better players.
 

Marcel Proust

"Oohh WADA ooga booga" {Jul 11 2013}
Sep 6, 2018
29,608
38,560
#BigBigSound
AFL Club
Richmond
There really isnt sorry. If you rate a player higher than others do all the recruiter is doing is backing their judgement.

its a reach in so much as one club rating the player in in the minority opinion

melbourne reached for jackson as am example, cause the other teams (probable) didnt rate him that highly
 
Jul 25, 2008
24,067
40,248
The Linc
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Oakland Raiders
You didn't have many chips to play with after the price you paid for Shiel last year.

They had a pretty bloody big one at trade time, but chose not to cash it in. Time will tell whether it was the right call* although it could potentially have given them access to any number of talented kids. My tip is Young and Kemp as a minimum.

*if they can/ do match Sydney’s FA bid and he does something in 2020 it’s a win.
 
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