13 - Acres/Salem/ Whoever the Slider is
39 - Hourigan
51 - Thorp/Garlett
39 - Hourigan
51 - Thorp/Garlett
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Assuming a general power ranking (top 12) as below, who's the most likely in that 5-10 range to slide through to Carlton at #13?
1. Boyd
2. Kelly
3. Aish
4. Billings
5. Scharenberg
6. McDonald
7. Lennon
8. Sheed
9. Bontempelli
10. Kolodjashnij
11. Freeman
12. Salem
At this point I'd think McCarthy and Taylor et al will be available at our pick, but if there was a surprise (ala Plowman last year) at the top end, could one of Lennon, Scharenberg, Sheed, Bonters or Kolo last to our pick?
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I think Acres is the one that is most likely available and that fits our needs. Would be a top 10 draft pick if not for his interrupted season due to a shoulder injury which kept him from being his best. Tall Midfielders with class and great skills is exactly what we need.
Hopefully he is around, if W.C take Acres instead of Sheed then either we get Salem or Sheed if Richmond take Sheed instead..... Very well rounded footballer.
Here is a little research project for you... go to Blueseum.org and have a look through the list of players who were champions for the club and work out approximately how old they were when they started playing for Carlton.
And work out when they were originally selected and when they finally had a major impact on the game.
I am willing to bet that the majority of the guys who you pick out were in their early 20s when they first played senior football for Carlton and if they were picked up when they were in their teens, they ended up playing 3-5 years in the reserves getting experience or they played in a state league (SANFL or the WAFL) before they were picked up by Carlton.
I would prefer that we picked up some good kids, give them limited game time while maximising their games in the VFL. This way, in a couple of years when they turn 20, they are much suited to playing against men rather than the other school kids they have been playing against for the last few years!
Sounds like your mind needs one of these C4.I keep changing my mind daily (which is pretty much an annual tradition for me leading up to the draft).

Sounds like your mind needs one of these C4.
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I keep changing my mind daily (which is pretty much an annual tradition for me leading up to the draft).
Yesterday I wanted Crouch at our pick because the bigger bodies in the middle are what stands up in September, and even though he is a bull in the middle of the contest - when he isn't playing there, I don't know if we can hide him anywhere else on the ground (such as a resting forward role etc).
Crouch, Dunstan, Acres, Salem. I keep switching between these four. Crouch's aggression vs Dunstan's reported leadership qualities is interesting. Acres is a unknown and Salem will be unlikely to slide.
The reason why clubs were able to give players plenty of time to develop/mature back in those days was the unlimited playing list size & no salary cap. In the current setup, where your playing list is limited to 44 players (senior & rookie list combined) & clubs are using 30+ players per season, it is very hard to give all players the time they need to develop at a lower level & with the compulsory requirement to draft at least 3 players each year & a 3 year limit on players being on the rookie list, clubs are not in a position to wait 5-6 years for players to develop, hence some players are lost to the game because they don't mature/develop as quickly as others.I believe that without our own Reserves and even under 19 teams has cost us a lot of great players, all the Champions of the club came through the u19s and Reserves where they played with each other and built there game and skills around other Carlton players from a early age and worked there way through the ranks and finally into the seniors where they had a number of other players coming through with them from the beginning and knew how to play to both there own and a lot of team mates strengths. It was great when you could go to a game, very early if you liked and watched all 3 teams play and see young players starting there career and you could follow them and see who was going to be great players for the club in the future. Without the U19s and Reserves we now don't have players who can be at the club for 5 or 6 years learning what is needed to be a elite AFL (VFL) player.
Don't think we'll see Salem somehow.
There seems to be a first 12 just at this stage and then a little bit of a lottery thereafter.
We'd need a team delving outside that 12 in order for one of them to drop to us.
Falling into what we may have to pick from are Freeman, Crouch, Taylor, Dunstan, McCarthy, Gardiner.
If the mids aren't seen to be good enough, I wouldn't now be surprised to see us pick up Gardiner. He's growing on me and is featured on the AFL site today.
Would we stretch to pick up the athlete in Hartung?
If the rumour mill is correct - and Melbourne are keen on Freeman, that would see one of the first 12 slip out to us.
Out of the second lot - I would like Freeman, Crouch, Dunstan or McCarthy, I'm not overly excited by Gardiner or Taylor.
Hartung would be interesting - he divides opinion.