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2015 Draft Discussion
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Makes sense
Tom14
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Thanks mate, as a longtime Carlton fan I'm sure you know exactly how they plan on drafting.
ZoBlitz
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Your gimmick is getting very tired. Do it somewhere else.
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What I failed to realise about Schache is that he only trains once a week due to living out in CV. Should improve at quite a fast rate once in a professional environment be it Blues or us.
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The only problem with that is that he might not be used to such a high training workload and may develop stress fractures.
Hollow Knight
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Great pity we Carnot get a crack at young Francis , seems a pity he carnt get to us , would Be a good feel story
Perhaps he can do an aish other way round in two seasons !
Perhaps he can do an aish other way round in two seasons !
If bombers get him, he's going nowhere
This is one hell of a tragic story...
Playing with prupose: Draft prospect Aaron Francis plays for his brother Hayden. Photo: Getty Images
Aaron Francis grew up with three brothers, on a farm outside Loxton in country South Australia. The four boys were born within five years of each other and whenever they teamed up to play football, cricket or any other backyard ball game Aaron and Hayden made sure to take on Nathan and Levi together, the two middle kids against the biggest and the baby. "Hayden always made sure we were on the same team, and he always said to me that if I ended up going to an AFL team he wanted to go with me," Aaron said. "His team was the Lions, and he had a job as a butcher. His plan was for me to go up to Brisbane and for him to move up, too, and open up his own butcher's shop."
Hayden is the reason Aaron plays football, now. He's the first reason he's had for playing it, the person who has made the game feel like something more. It is a little over 12 months since his 18-year-old brother passed away, just a few days after being diagnosed with cancer, but it doesn't feel like nearly that long. Aaron thinks about Hayden every day, at least once and usually more than that. At the end of September, out of his team with sore hips, he went home and spent the anniversary with his family and a big group of Hayden's friends.
"I went home for the whole week, and we had a get together out at the local pub where I grew up. There were 50 or 60 people that ended up coming along and it was a pretty special day," he said. "You could tell it had been on the back of everyone's minds, but I think it was good for us to be there and be around each other. It was sort of good to know people had been thinking about him. He's been on my mind the whole time."
It's still hard to understand what happened, and why it all happened so quickly. Aaron was in Adelaide, living in the Prince Alfred College boarding house and getting ready to play in the under-18 grand final for West Adelaide last year, when his brother was flown into town, straight to hospital. He had come home complaining of a stiff, sore back and the diagnosis was devastating: there was a cancerous lump under one of his arms and lesions on his lungs. "It was so sudden," Francis said. "And there was nothing they could really do. There wasn't really any time to get our heads around it. It was such a big shock to us."
Francis wasn't sure whether to play that Friday might, but Hayden wanted him to. "I had doubts," he said, "but he just said go win it." Only one other person at West Adelaide knew: Andrew Marks, the football manager, who had known both boys since they were little and from his spot on the bench that Friday night watched something come over the team's quiet, shy defender. Aaron was talking up, shouting out to his teammates, directing play, more than he ever had before. "The coaches were saying, where's this come from?" Marks said. "It was something we'd never really seen before."
West Adelaide won, but by the end of the game Marks knew something Aaron didn't. He has a photo that is still hard to look at, of Francis stepping up to collect his premiership medal with Marks waiting in the background to tell him, seconds later, that Hayden had deteriorated and his other brothers were waiting to drive him straight to the hospital. Aaron didn't even have time to change before he jumped into Nathan's car, digging a jacket out of the back.
"I was still in all of my gear and I had my medallion on," he said. "We got there and Hayden was in intensive care, he was hooked up to all these machines and he had a mask on so it was hard to tell it was him. I got to tell him that we won, and he was pretty happy about that. He was cheering about that, but it was too much for me in the end. It was too intense. Nathan was doing all the talking and I felt like I was going to throw up, I couldn't see him in that state. I left and just sat outside the room, waiting on what happened. We all thought it would be all right and he would be end up being fine, but it took a bad turn and he was gone."
Hayden died early on the Saturday morning, and Aaron had no idea what he was supposed to do next. He didn't want to fly to Melbourne less than two weeks to train with the AFL Academy but his mum told him he would regret not being there and he got to play on the MCG in a grand final day curtain raiser at the end of the camp, wear a black armband for his brother and feel the support of his teammates. It helped, as did being around his friends in the boarding house and getting back to West Adelaide once pre-season training started.
Later, one of his academy teammates lost a grandfather. Another player missed his grandmother's funeral when the team went to Florida for a training camp, and a few weeks after they got home one of the other boys lost his father in a mining accident. "It just shows that everyone has things going on that they have to cope with in life," Francis said. "It wasn't just me going through something bad like that. I knew how the other boys would be feeling, and that really helped a lot."
Francis is still quiet, still shy. But his football this year has been the opposite: loud, assured and controlled. In one state game he took 12 intercept marks while playing in the South Australian backline. "He's grown up and he's dealt with a lot and we noticed as soon as he came back for pre-season that he was a different kid. It's changed him," Marks said. "He was so much more mature in the way he spoke to people and dealt with people. It's hard to explain but he'd just grown and come out of his shell. And it was like he had this sense of belonging at the footy club, like it was his home away from home in a way."
He did, and still does, but he feels ready now for whatever's coming next. When Aaron thinks about Hayden he remembers how he used to make everyone laugh with a perfectly timed sarcastic comment, how popular he was, how many friends he always had around him. He won't be going to Brisbane with his big brother but wherever he ends up he'll be playing for him.
"It's changed me and it's changed my whole family and a lot of our friends. I've learnt a fair bit from having to go through it and I still am," he said. "I probably never had a reason to play footy before. I did it because it was fun and I love it and I loved playing with my mates, but now I just want to succeed and make something out of it. It's in the back of my mind all the time. I definitely play for Hayden now."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...s-football-20151104-gkqexq.html#ixzz3qW7vQOvn
Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook
Playing with prupose: Draft prospect Aaron Francis plays for his brother Hayden. Photo: Getty Images
Aaron Francis grew up with three brothers, on a farm outside Loxton in country South Australia. The four boys were born within five years of each other and whenever they teamed up to play football, cricket or any other backyard ball game Aaron and Hayden made sure to take on Nathan and Levi together, the two middle kids against the biggest and the baby. "Hayden always made sure we were on the same team, and he always said to me that if I ended up going to an AFL team he wanted to go with me," Aaron said. "His team was the Lions, and he had a job as a butcher. His plan was for me to go up to Brisbane and for him to move up, too, and open up his own butcher's shop."
Hayden is the reason Aaron plays football, now. He's the first reason he's had for playing it, the person who has made the game feel like something more. It is a little over 12 months since his 18-year-old brother passed away, just a few days after being diagnosed with cancer, but it doesn't feel like nearly that long. Aaron thinks about Hayden every day, at least once and usually more than that. At the end of September, out of his team with sore hips, he went home and spent the anniversary with his family and a big group of Hayden's friends.
"I went home for the whole week, and we had a get together out at the local pub where I grew up. There were 50 or 60 people that ended up coming along and it was a pretty special day," he said. "You could tell it had been on the back of everyone's minds, but I think it was good for us to be there and be around each other. It was sort of good to know people had been thinking about him. He's been on my mind the whole time."
It's still hard to understand what happened, and why it all happened so quickly. Aaron was in Adelaide, living in the Prince Alfred College boarding house and getting ready to play in the under-18 grand final for West Adelaide last year, when his brother was flown into town, straight to hospital. He had come home complaining of a stiff, sore back and the diagnosis was devastating: there was a cancerous lump under one of his arms and lesions on his lungs. "It was so sudden," Francis said. "And there was nothing they could really do. There wasn't really any time to get our heads around it. It was such a big shock to us."
Francis wasn't sure whether to play that Friday might, but Hayden wanted him to. "I had doubts," he said, "but he just said go win it." Only one other person at West Adelaide knew: Andrew Marks, the football manager, who had known both boys since they were little and from his spot on the bench that Friday night watched something come over the team's quiet, shy defender. Aaron was talking up, shouting out to his teammates, directing play, more than he ever had before. "The coaches were saying, where's this come from?" Marks said. "It was something we'd never really seen before."
West Adelaide won, but by the end of the game Marks knew something Aaron didn't. He has a photo that is still hard to look at, of Francis stepping up to collect his premiership medal with Marks waiting in the background to tell him, seconds later, that Hayden had deteriorated and his other brothers were waiting to drive him straight to the hospital. Aaron didn't even have time to change before he jumped into Nathan's car, digging a jacket out of the back.
"I was still in all of my gear and I had my medallion on," he said. "We got there and Hayden was in intensive care, he was hooked up to all these machines and he had a mask on so it was hard to tell it was him. I got to tell him that we won, and he was pretty happy about that. He was cheering about that, but it was too much for me in the end. It was too intense. Nathan was doing all the talking and I felt like I was going to throw up, I couldn't see him in that state. I left and just sat outside the room, waiting on what happened. We all thought it would be all right and he would be end up being fine, but it took a bad turn and he was gone."
Hayden died early on the Saturday morning, and Aaron had no idea what he was supposed to do next. He didn't want to fly to Melbourne less than two weeks to train with the AFL Academy but his mum told him he would regret not being there and he got to play on the MCG in a grand final day curtain raiser at the end of the camp, wear a black armband for his brother and feel the support of his teammates. It helped, as did being around his friends in the boarding house and getting back to West Adelaide once pre-season training started.
Later, one of his academy teammates lost a grandfather. Another player missed his grandmother's funeral when the team went to Florida for a training camp, and a few weeks after they got home one of the other boys lost his father in a mining accident. "It just shows that everyone has things going on that they have to cope with in life," Francis said. "It wasn't just me going through something bad like that. I knew how the other boys would be feeling, and that really helped a lot."
Francis is still quiet, still shy. But his football this year has been the opposite: loud, assured and controlled. In one state game he took 12 intercept marks while playing in the South Australian backline. "He's grown up and he's dealt with a lot and we noticed as soon as he came back for pre-season that he was a different kid. It's changed him," Marks said. "He was so much more mature in the way he spoke to people and dealt with people. It's hard to explain but he'd just grown and come out of his shell. And it was like he had this sense of belonging at the footy club, like it was his home away from home in a way."
He did, and still does, but he feels ready now for whatever's coming next. When Aaron thinks about Hayden he remembers how he used to make everyone laugh with a perfectly timed sarcastic comment, how popular he was, how many friends he always had around him. He won't be going to Brisbane with his big brother but wherever he ends up he'll be playing for him.
"It's changed me and it's changed my whole family and a lot of our friends. I've learnt a fair bit from having to go through it and I still am," he said. "I probably never had a reason to play footy before. I did it because it was fun and I love it and I loved playing with my mates, but now I just want to succeed and make something out of it. It's in the back of my mind all the time. I definitely play for Hayden now."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...s-football-20151104-gkqexq.html#ixzz3qW7vQOvn
Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook
Morgs_
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I really think that whoever picks him up will have a player for life. He seems like the kind of kid that is very mature for his age and what happened to his brother only sped up that process.
Wish him all the best.
Wish him all the best.
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Hope the club gets in his ear anyway ! Even if we carnt draft the boy , make a good impression to him and his family , do what we can for him , sounds a great kid with a tragic background
Be the right thing to do as a club !
Be the right thing to do as a club !
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Hey fellas sorry to jump on your board, I have drawn you guys in our mock draft.
Just wondering about your academy kids etc, is hipwood, chol and keays must have if someone bids on them in the first round? Or would I be better taking my chances with the many late picks you have?
Any other academy kids worth a look from elsewhere with the late picks? Cheers
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Just wondering about your academy kids etc, is hipwood, chol and keays must have if someone bids on them in the first round? Or would I be better taking my chances with the many late picks you have?
Any other academy kids worth a look from elsewhere with the late picks? Cheers
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Hollow Knight
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Hipwood and Keays are clear mid to late first round prospects. Feel free to match any bids from pick 9 for Hipwood and 11 for Keays.
Chol is a third round and beyond prospect. Reuben William and Corey Wagner are the other academy kids worth looking at late in the draft.
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Fantastic. Thanks. And if they are bid on prior to those picks?
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Hollow Knight
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Your call. You're the mock recruiter!
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I'd be matching them wherever they land really. Its not like we're going to get anyone near that quality where out other picks lie.
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Realistically, if you liked Keays, you'd probably like Mills, Parish, Hopper and possibly Kennedy better. Weitering and Schache have to go first too. That chews up plenty of the early picks so there aren't that many chances for them to go much earlier.
Could Essendon or Melbourne try to force our hand by bidding early on Keays when they actually want Curnow or Francis?
Maybe - that would hurt us - but they'd also be risking losing Curnow or Francis to play that game. Could come back to bite you in the ass.
Best case scenario, Essendon (or whoever) make Brisbane overpay with no real benefit to Essendon.
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They certainly seem to be better prospects than the late picks you have.
Thanks
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I actually thought about bidding on mills with two, but only to take schache anyway..but I think you guys need shaq more than you need mills so unlikely to risk losing out on him.
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Almost worth it with Sydney because they are a threat now.
From a tactical point of view, I look at it like this:
If you can't have all the good kids (and you can't, I checked ) then IDEALLY you want the other good kids to go to clubs where they do the least damage to your chances - a club you'll probably beat anyway.
Sydney are already a threat, so making things harder for them would make more tactical sense than hitting a bottom 4 side.
From a tactical point of view, I look at it like this:
If you can't have all the good kids (and you can't, I checked ) then IDEALLY you want the other good kids to go to clubs where they do the least damage to your chances - a club you'll probably beat anyway.
Sydney are already a threat, so making things harder for them would make more tactical sense than hitting a bottom 4 side.
