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2012 Draft Discussion

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I'm well sold on Mayes. Would've loved a Toumpas or Wines, or maybe even a Stringer, but following that, I'm pretty excited about the concept of Mayes for us...

I was never sold on Close or Paparone, but i'm taking comfort in the fact that Hadley's had Paparone on the radar for a few years, and that Close was considered a potential first-rounder last year before ankle injuries held him back. Certainly something to work with there... Was shocked last year when we didn't take a KPP, glad we've rectified it this year.
 
Rapt we got Mayes. Have been a big fan since the champs last year. I'd have taken him over Wines.

While a top notch tall would've been handy I wasn't happy with those available at our first pick, so I'm happy the Club opted for two more speculative later picks.

I'm not much chop at rating young talls so I'll just hope our recruiting team have nailed at least one of 'em.

A couple of things I will note though:

- our list is starting to look a lot more balanced. Add Conway (a hard nut inside mid) and Tickner (a likely CHB) and that balance improves further IMO.

- Our list management team clearly has a vision for our list, with big engines and versatility a focus. Will be interesting to see how that plays out over the next few years.

Finally, apologies if this has been answered, but do we have any rookie spots open this year?
 

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Ceebee said:
From what I gather, poor kid doesnt handle the media that well, yet.
All the best to him.
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Just get Rocky to mentor him in the media department, Loves the spotlight.

Or the Zorks!
 
Bucking Beads said:
I've been thinking that maybe Beams is our next gun midfielder. He seems to do well with clearances.
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I'm not convinced on "gun" status but he's definitely a chance of reaching that level. He's on the right trajectory to get there, just not sure where his ceiling is. But there are options for us - we've certainly got the numbers of inside mids.

Splitting up our midfield list between those who do best "inside" and those who do best "outside", I have them as follows:

Do their best work inside

Black
Moloney
Raines
Redden
Rockliff
Beams
Zorko
Bartlett
Harwood
Polkinghorne
Crisp
Lester
Green

Do their best work outside

Rich
Hanley
Polec
Docherty
O'Brien
Mayes
Yeo
Karnezis

(for illustrative purposes only - maybe the list isn't 100% accurate)

We've got heaps of inside or inside capable midfield types. Now, it may be that the class of those players is what we're concerned about. Fair enough. But we've not only got depth but they are all young and so their development path is unknown.

To be honest, if you leave out Black/Moloney (due to age) and Raines, Redden and Rockliff (who are already there), we'd be pretty unlucky if, of the 8 inside midfielders I have listed (plus Conway), none turn out to be best 18 midfielders.

When you throw in the fact that Rich is clearly an all-round midfielder, Karnezis showed some aptitude at reserves level as a mid, and we've got 2 x top ten picks in Polec and Mayes who will spend time at the contest, I'd argue that drafting and list balance is not our issue - we need to be developing the guys we've got, because the potential is there.

I'm a lot more bullish on our future midfield prospects than I am on our key forwards or defenders.
 
POBT said:
I'm not convinced on "gun" status but he's definitely a chance of reaching that level. He's on the right trajectory to get there, just not sure where his ceiling is. But there are options for us - we've certainly got the numbers of inside mids.

Splitting up our midfield list between those who do best "inside" and those who do best "outside", I have them as follows:

Do their best work inside

Black
Moloney
Raines
Redden
Rockliff
Beams
Zorko
Bartlett
Harwood
Polkinghorne
Crisp
Lester
Green

Do their best work outside

Rich
Hanley
Polec
Docherty
O'Brien
Mayes
Yeo
Karnezis

(for illustrative purposes only - maybe the list isn't 100% accurate)

We've got heaps of inside or inside capable midfield types. Now, it may be that the class of those players is what we're concerned about. Fair enough. But we've not only got depth but they are all young and so their development path is unknown.

To be honest, if you leave out Black/Moloney (due to age) and Raines, Redden and Rockliff (who are already there), we'd be pretty unlucky if, of the 8 inside midfielders I have listed (plus Conway), none turn out to be best 18 midfielders.

When you throw in the fact that Rich is clearly an all-round midfielder, Karnezis showed some aptitude at reserves level as a mid, and we've got 2 x top ten picks in Polec and Mayes who will spend time at the contest, I'd argue that drafting and list balance is not our issue - we need to be developing the guys we've got, because the potential is there.

I'm a lot more bullish on our future midfield prospects than I am on our key forwards or defenders.
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I''d have Rocky in the outside column. Just my opinion. Couple others maybe ,but he's a definate outsider for mine
 
Similar to POBT, I think our deficiencies at the stoppages are more a development issue than a talent issue. Need to keep spending time together, develop the sustained effort required, and build the cohesion of the group.
 
rusty08 said:
I''d have Rocky in the outside column. Just my opinion. Couple others maybe ,but he's a definate outsider for mine
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I disagree but definitely see where you are coming from.

In 2011, I reckon he showed the best form when allowed to attack the contest. When he cruises around the edge of packs, he tends to be a bit sideways in his play.
 
Grimreepah said:
Similar to POBT, I think our deficiencies at the stoppages are more a development issue than a talent issue. Need to keep spending time together, develop the sustained effort required, and build the cohesion of the group.
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Inside mid would appear to be a position where you don't necessarily have to be an elite junior to succeed at AFL level. Look at the inside mids from this year's GF - was McVeigh the only really high draft pick?

You do need bulk, smarts and endurance though which come with development. I had some concerns about our development programs but this year started to see some signs that we're doing OK in this regard.
 

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Grimreepah said:
Similar to POBT, I think our deficiencies at the stoppages are more a development issue than a talent issue. Need to keep spending time together, develop the sustained effort required, and build the cohesion of the group.
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I think it is a bit of both and also our use of the players we have. Playing guys like Lester at the centre bounces does nothing for our chances of actually winning the clearance. It might do in the future but not atm. We seem to be playing guys like him at clearances but not those guys who are specialist in that area. Harwood and Green are very good clearance players but I cannot remember them lining up at a single centre bounce last year. Rocky is very good inside but was not at many centre bounces even when fully fit. Raines as the tagger always is and generally I still think we have a very defensive approach to clearance situations.

Having Moloney in there will hopefully change the dynamic but I would still like to have another big specialist inside mid coming through to replace Moloney when he retires a year or two after Black. I have high hopes for Conway.
 
do you guys know the situations with the rookies? we currently have 4 rookies left newell and michael are nsw scholarship and queensland zone selections respectively and I don't think will count to the 4 rookie spots, so clarke and wrigley are our current 2 rookies, do we need to get numbers of rookies down to 4 for next season or 2014 season?
 
Quigley said:
I think it is a bit of both and also our use of the players we have. Playing guys like Lester at the centre bounces does nothing for our chances of actually winning the clearance. It might do in the future but not atm. We seem to be playing guys like him at clearances but not those guys who are specialist in that area. Harwood and Green are very good clearance players but I cannot remember them lining up at a single centre bounce last year. Rocky is very good inside but was not at many centre bounces even when fully fit. Raines as the tagger always is and generally I still think we have a very defensive approach to clearance situations.

Having Moloney in there will hopefully change the dynamic but I would still like to have another big specialist inside mid coming through to replace Moloney when he retires a year or two after Black. I have high hopes for Conway.
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I seem to be the serial defender of Lester but I haven't seen any evidence in the past 2 years that suggests that he is less adept at clearances than Harwood. The latter might have spent time at the contest as a junior footballer but we're yet to see it at senior level. Lester had 4 and 5 clearance games last year - hardly completely ineffective. Meanwhile, Harwood was playing on a half back flank. I reckon that is more relevant form than what they each did in the under 18s comp. Now, I suspect that Lester's stint in the middle was just us much about his physical maturity, understanding of the gameplan and endurance but that just demonstrates to me the gap between him and the others being spoken of as more natural clearance players.

However, I reckon the coaching staff agree with you about a big body at the contest.

I also agree with you about taking an overly negative approach to clearances. I would say though that someone like Redden took a fair while this year to display the see ball, get ball approach that the best contest mids have.
 
dlanod said:
After several years of supporters of West Coast popping on with similar facts about Rich, plus the Richmond boys and Karnezis, not to mention Essendon guys with Rischi, etc, some of us end up a bit fast on the trigger finger when similar posts are made these days. :)
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I'm not saying homesickness will be a factor, but perhaps that could have been a reason for his intitial reaction. After all, he probably thought he was a big shot to go to Power at 7 and stay in Adelaide. He's a consumate professional though, he would have come to terms with a move pretty quickly.
 

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ManOfClay said:
I'm not saying homesickness will be a factor, but perhaps that could have been a reason for his intitial reaction. After all, he probably thought he was a big shot to go to Power at 7 and stay in Adelaide. He's a consumate professional though, he would have come to terms with a move pretty quickly.
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That seems to have been the case. I strongly suspectt that they recuirted him on temperament as well as ability. As Grim said earlier, very low-risk selection for us. Sits comfortably with our 'no-dickheads' policy. Cheers for the insight, MoC.
 
captainrich said:
do you guys know the situations with the rookies? we currently have 4 rookies left newell and michael are nsw scholarship and queensland zone selections respectively and I don't think will count to the 4 rookie spots, so clarke and wrigley are our current 2 rookies, do we need to get numbers of rookies down to 4 for next season or 2014 season?
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Next season is when the rookie numbers drop.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/rookie-draft-prospects.981594/#post-26488004 has more details on how our boys likely fit into the new rules and how many picks we can take.
 
POBT said:
Inside mid would appear to be a position where you don't necessarily have to be an elite junior to succeed at AFL level. Look at the inside mids from this year's GF - was McVeigh the only really high draft pick?
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Lewis and Bolton were top ten draft picks. Bolton from a different era, of course.

I think the inside/outside midfielder breakdown deserves it's own thread. Personally I think there is definitely a spot on our list for a young in-and-under midfielder. I think there is a big difference between an 'inside-capable' midfielder who is comfortable in traffic and does good defensive work, like Redden, and a genuine below the knees extractor, like Black.
 
TomFC said:
Lewis and Bolton were top ten draft picks. Bolton from a different era, of course.

I think the inside/outside midfielder breakdown deserves it's own thread. Personally I think there is definitely a spot on our list for a young in-and-under midfielder. I think there is a big difference between an 'inside-capable' midfielder who is comfortable in traffic and does good defensive work, like Redden, and a genuine below the knees extractor, like Black.
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Pogniriac will be available in the rookie draft which could be an option for us unless he goes in the preseason
 
Looking forward to a couple of years down the track and having Hayes, Karnezis and Zorko rotating through the half foward / forward lines - should be hard to match up on. Still need a monster forward to complete the set up though.
 

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2012 Draft Discussion

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