2009 national draft

[FD2646]

I know this is early, therefore I am not expecting a difintive response, however it is fair to say we will have a very early draft pick(s). At the start of the year I thought we would look to draft more mids, however after watching the first 3 games I think my opinion is now divided. We have KPP deficiencies at both ends and midfield deficiencies also. With our first pick who would you go for early doors eg Lucas (WA Mid), Butcher (Vic KPP) - happy to hear any other suggestions.

 

[IbbosBFF]

Farren Priest - Murray Bushrangers

Composed, clean heands, good desion maker, good breakaway speed.
Aboriginal version of Scott Pendlebury

Reckon he'll stay off the radar a bit as well, would love to get him anywhere after the first round.

 

[Cat for Life]

Tom Scully would be great, total professional, has been training seriously for his shot since 14 and does not drink because of this.

 

[Special Agent Utah]

Farren Priest - Murray Bushrangers

Composed, clean heands, good desion maker, good breakaway speed.
Aboriginal version of Scott Pendlebury

Reckon he'll stay off the radar a bit as well, would love to get him anywhere after the first round.

Very Good Player.

Not sure about under the radar though. Should go First Round IMO.

 

[bman]

anthony morabito is a highly regarded prospect he's a utility at 193cm who is playing seniors for peel on the wing, apparently has pace to burn ive only seen him on footage from last years u18s carnival, hoping to see him play on abc during the season

others are lucas and sheppard from the sharks saw both play on staurday lucas did'nt impress me that much considering his reputation , but sheppard showed a lot of dash through the center although he needs to work on his kicking a little. the other guy i know is duncan from east perth he also is playing seniors.

 

[bman]

sorry its morabito

 

[DizzyHB]

I'd like Butcher.

It'd be nice to have Kane Lucas as a local boy and our midfield is lacking, but let's face it, Pav ain't gonna be around for a first premiership and after him our KPF stocks fall away dramatically. Campbell is solid but not the star a premiership side needs and after himself and Murphy we have nothing developing as far as KPF's go. We need to start now.

 

[FD2646]

Thanks all - good food for thought. As I said it is early so we will see how the season pans out and what we identify as our area of most need. BTW I had a mate (Swan Districts member) watch Morabito play for Peel vs Swans and he said he was quick for a big guy and could roost it 50-60 metres so I too will watch him with interest.

 

[Alfonz]

We really have a dilemma with so many holes to fill. But we simply must use our first pick (I predict #3) on a genuine ball winning midfielder with skill.

 

[DizzyHB]

I still think Harvs will go for a KPP.

We picked up a bunch of potential onballers last year, we havn't used a high pick on a KPP since 2005.

 

[Wizard]

I will be pissed right off if we finish bottom and end up with pick 2 becuase Melbourne have stunk it up for 2 straight years.

I want Scully.

 

[PLP4ever]

Isn't it true that the Gold Coast will get most of the early picks in this draft?

 

[Wizard]

Nope not this draft, the following draft.

 

[PLP4ever]

Thankfor that. It looks like we will be getting some early picks then. We better not screw it up. BTW, I am quite happy with Hill and Suban

 

[estibador]

Pav ain't gonna be around for a first premiership

People (mainly opposition supporters who want us to trade him) keep saying this like it's some kind of undeniable truth, but how many people thought Crawford would still be around to win a premiership when the Hawks first started their rebuild a few years ago?

Pav's still got a good 5 or 6 years left in him. If we can't rebuild and have another crack in that time then our club really is doomed to be permanent bottom feeders.

 

[Memories]

People (mainly opposition supporters who want us to trade him) keep saying this like it's some kind of undeniable truth, but how many people thought Crawford would still be around to win a premiership when the Hawks first started their rebuild a few years ago?

Pav's still got a good 5 or 6 years left in him. If we can't rebuild and have another crack in that time then our club really is doomed to be permanent bottom feeders.

Where do you get this 5 or 6 years left? If you notice he is still a fairly hefty weight for a midfielder and since his knee "injury" last year his performances have been far from his average. It is always worrying to me when you see someone of Pavlich's quality whining for free kicks and basically arguing with the umpires instead of actually playing. It is worrying because it means a player is thinking more about the "easy way out" than the quality which got them known as a great player. Injuries do this to some players. He appears slow, so maybe he is still injured (which is a very bad sign for his longevity if he is).

Either way we need to stop playing him in the midfield because it will ruin him at his current weight. Our medicos are big time morons for letting this continue without addressing his weight. People say "Richardson can play midfield/down the ground and he's 35", well Richardson isn't as large as Pavlich (despite the weight figures people bandy about) and is better distributed with his weight, like Pavlich used to be in 2003.

But we shouldn't have tried to delay our rebuild which is what appears to have happened with the lack of midfield recruitment in the 2008 draft. Half our midfield is going to be delisted within 2 years which means we need to find all new young players to fill those roles then develop together in it. This is at least a 3-4 year prospect now. Would have been 2-3 with the right picks last year.

 

[estibador]

Where do you get this 5 or 6 years left?

I'm assuming, like you say, that we'll stop with this stupid idea of trying to play him in the midfield.

We'll easily get another 5 or 6 years out of him if we park him down in the forward line where he belongs.

 

[Alfonz]

As has been said in this thread, Scully is who we need, unfortunately I can't see Melbourne winning 5 games. Copied this from the drafting/trading forum:

* TOM Scully was 14 when he clicked into AFL mode. When his mates were enjoying their youth, the determined inside midfielder made key commitments to football.

When Scully's mates were enjoying their youth, the ferociously determined inside midfielder made some key commitments to football.
He would not drink alcohol.
He would not go out partying.
And he would not miss a training session.
Aside from injury (osteitis pubis from over-training), the Dandenong Stingrays' captain has kept every one of those promises over the past four years and is the early stand-out No. 1 selection in this year's national draft.
"I don't drink at all, I've never drunk in my life," Scully said.
"I'm just not interested and my friends know that and they respect me for it, because they all know where I want to go.
"I knew when I was in the under-14s and all my mates were out going to parties and drinking, but I was in the Stingrays and all I wanted to do was really make it there, so I just said then, 'I'm not going to do that stuff'."
Likened to a mix of strong-willed Brisbane Lions onballer Luke Power and smooth-moving Richmond midfielder Trent Cotchin, the impressively mature Scully is an elite runner with exceptional skills and toughness.
He won All-Australian honours at the national under-18 carnival last year as a bottom age player, and recently showed his first-class fitness, blitzing a 3km time trial in 9min 27sec.
To put that into context, Chris Judd broke a Carlton record running 3.2km in 10:30 in December.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Scully, 17, said he idolised Geelong's Joel Selwood and had tried to emulate the young Cat's mature approach on and off the field.
"In my younger days it was Nathan Buckley and James Hird but now I try to model my game on Joel Selwood because he's just so hard at it," he said.
"He's a superstar, he has all the attributes and I just love the way he goes about it all."
Stingrays region manager Darren Flanigan first watched the left-footer five years ago and said the 182cm playmaker, who was best afield gathering 34 possessions in the TAC Cup season-opener last weekend, was the best talent he'd seen come through the Dandenong program in nine years.
"His attention to detail is incredible, he has the best preparation of any kid I've seen," Flanigan said.
"He is the complete package, he gets to the contests, he is clean on both feet and he dominates the one percenters as much as he dominates the regular stats."
The AIS-AFL graduate from Berwick demonstrated as much in the TAC Cup last season, averaging 27 touches, 12 contested possessions and nine handball receives a game.
According to Champion Data, he had fewer than 23 disposals only once for the year.
One AFL scout said: "It is only early and lots of things can happen but at this stage he's the number one (pick at this year's draft). The club that drafts him will be very happy they've got a super young player."
Scully, who was seriously impressive as an interviewee but remains a shy, humble teen by nature, doesn't wish to attract attention, Flanigan said.
"He doesn't like being made a fuss of, but we made him captain because he is just so well respected by the team," he said. "It's something he will have to learn and get used to."

 

[estibador]

Geez he almost sounds worth copping a wooden spoon for.

Almost...

 

[Bradesmaen]

He sounds worth paying off teams so that Melbourne get 4 wins.

 

[The Coast]

Doubt that Melb will gain more than 20 premiership points this year so that should give them pick 1. Im not even sure West Coast will either, although its prob a bit early to be making these calls just now. Freo will almost definately have a top 5 pick (possibly top 3) so should be able to secure a very nice player. I don't think there's as many KPP in the top end of this years draft - there's a few (Butcher, Fitzgerald etc) but I think the mids will make up most of the top 10. Scully, Butcher and Lucas would prob be rated top 3 at the moment with Morabito and Duncan also up around there somewhere along with a few other exciting prospects. Anything could happen though as we saw with Hill last year.

 

[Bradesmaen]

The way its going Melb will have 1 and 2 thanks to them sucking last year.

 

[Wizard]

1 and 3 Bradesmean, i think we might get pick 2 courtesy of our 2nd wooden spoon.

 

[Bradesmaen]

1 and 3 Bradesmean, i think we might get pick 2 courtesy of our 2nd wooden spoon.

I can't see us losing to them honestly.

 

[quirky40]

Ok could someone please explain the changes to the draft THIS year. Not the concessions given to GC next year.

People keep saying to me that we'll be at a disadvantage finishing low this year??