2017 Draft thread

[briztoon]

The footy world seems to have moved away from sub-180cm players being virtually undraftable. A few guys around or below the 180cm mark were drafted in the first couple of rounds last year. Under 175cm and you probably want to have a few other strings to your bow but I don't think a lack of height has the same stigma it once had. I don't know whether that is due to guys like Taylor and Daniel getting early games despite being undersized or the realisation that a centimetre or two didn't make much difference to modern day guns like Mitchell, Zorko, Rioli, Betts etc.

Just on that, I was really impressed with the debut of Fisher from Carlton last weekend. He didn't look too undersized and certainly his zip and skill in the forward half stood out. I think I read that he weighed in at something like 60kgs initially.

I think what we see with the smaller guys is they have to be really fast and agile. Able to stop and turn on a dime, and have great lateral movement. They also have to have to be very skilled and be tough little nuts.

If we draft a couple more quality midfielders, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Taylor and Bundy play primarily as small forwards, and Zorko will spend more time forward as he gets a little older.

It's not a position of need for mine, unless there is an gun at one of our picks.

 

[briztoon]

Can some one answer this question.

If we took 6 picks to the draft, but only drafted 4 players, leaving our senior list 2 players short, could we upgrade two players from the rookie list to the senior list for the full season?

 

[lionshine]

Can some one answer this question.

If we took 6 picks to the draft, but only drafted 4 players, leaving our senior list 2 players short, could we upgrade two players from the rookie list to the senior list for the full season?

I could be wrong but aren't there rumours that the rookie list will cease to exist from 2018 onwards?

 

[dlanod]

Can some one answer this question.

If we took 6 picks to the draft, but only drafted 4 players, leaving our senior list 2 players short, could we upgrade two players from the rookie list to the senior list for the full season?

Yes.

 

[briztoon]

I could be wrong but aren't there rumours that the rookie list will cease to exist from 2018 onwards?

Yeah, I have read that.

Yes.

Can players be signed to the rookie list longer than one season? I know that there is a max of three years on the rookie list, do they sign for 3 years, or year on year?

 

[dlanod]

Can players be signed to the rookie list longer than one season? I know that there is a max of three years on the rookie list, do they sign for 3 years, or year on year?

They can be signed for multiple years, though it's rare. Usually it's just year to year. Cian got a two year deal when he first came out here.

 

[scoman]

Watching Lions Academy v Tasmainia this morning. Ballenden playing as a key defender in the first quarter. Doesnt look to be a natural fit for him as he lopes around without much desperation, especually when the ball hits the ground. He has however looked fairly composed with ball in hand, making good decisions.

 

[Cockliff38]

Watching Lions Academy v Tasmainia this morning. Ballenden playing as a key defender in the first quarter. Doesnt look to be a natural fit for him as he lopes around without much desperation, especually when the ball hits the ground. He has however looked fairly composed with ball in hand, making good decisions.

Interested to hear your thoughts on how the rest of the game played out

 

[scoman]

Interested to hear your thoughts on how the rest of the game played out

Only stayed till half time. Tasmania were dominating unfortunately. Seemed stronger physically and hungrier for the contest.

Ballendean played the second quarter in defence also. Took a nice grab from a kick in and showed a bit of aggresion arriving late to a marking contest and giving away a free. Clayton was playing fairly deep in defence, noticed him do a couple of nice things but didnt get much of a chance to use the ball further up the ground. To be honest if you didnt watch those two on reputation you wouldnt have noticed them.

 

[LongLion]

Only stayed till half time. Tasmania were dominating unfortunately. Seemed stronger physically and hungrier for the contest.

Ballendean played the second quarter in defence also. Took a nice grab from a kick in and showed a bit of aggresion arriving late to a marking contest and giving away a free. Clayton was playing fairly deep in defence, noticed him do a couple of nice things but didnt get much of a chance to use the ball further up the ground. To be honest if you didnt watch those two on reputation you wouldnt have noticed them.

Why playing Ballandean in defence. To keep is draft stocks a bit lower??

 

[briztoon]

Why playing Ballandean in defence. To keep is draft stocks a bit lower??

I was thinking that as welll.

Or to give other players a chance to show what they've got, and a chance to make the Allies team.

 

[Cockliff38]

I wouldn't think there's anything suss at play in terms of Ballenden spending time in defence. You can't just be a one-position player, no matter how good you are, in the AFL anymore. Pat McCartin is a pretty good example of this.

 

[POBT]

I assume it is to teach him a few things.

Alistair Lynch wrote a good article on the weekend about how, ideally, the development of a young KPF will include time in other roles like in the ruck and in defence.

 

[briztoon]

http://overthelinesports.com.au/?p=30415

Can't copy & paste the section about Worpel on my phone.

 

[jjami15]

http://overthelinesports.com.au/?p=30415

Can't copy & paste the section about Worpel on my phone.

His kiscking is a concern but so was Powell-Peppers and look at hoe he has transitioned into the AFL. Will be really interesting to see him in the National Champs against the other best in the country. Love his hard work at the coalface which is exactly what we need.......badly.

 

[13Beast]

SPP I don't think anyone could have predicted he'd play so well so soon in the AFL. Had some major question marks over his disposal etc, hence 17 teams passing on him, yet his hardness and commitment was never in doubt. Still, plenty of committed, hard players who never amount to anything in the AFL. Port got a diamond in the rough. Hoping we get lucky like that too....Matho and Lewy are our recent SPP lucky strikes IMHO

 

[LeppaMessiah]

Just found out one of the guys at my local plumbing supplies centre is one of the midfield coaches for the lions academy. Said ballenden is sure to be drafted early, started him in defence on the weekend and was hopeless, moved him to the ruck in the third quarter and changed the game into the lions favour. The thing I found most interesting was his wrap on the young fullback Jack Paine. His words were something in the vicinity of "a blue chip athlete, loves the contest, courage for days and can drill people on the tit with flat quick passes by foot everytime." I've never heard of him, anyone who watches closely can elaborate on this?

 

[Cockliff38]

Just found out one of the guys at my local plumbing supplies centre is one of the midfield coaches for the lions academy. Said ballenden is sure to be drafted early, started him in defence on the weekend and was hopeless, moved him to the ruck in the third quarter and changed the game into the lions favour. The thing I found most interesting was his wrap on the young fullback Jack Paine. His words were something in the vicinity of "a blue chip athlete, loves the contest, courage for days and can drill people on the tit with flat quick passes by foot everytime." I've never heard of him, anyone who watches closely can elaborate on this?

Haven't seen any of the games but noticed he (Payne) has been named in the bests for every game... including a couple of BOGs. Before we jump the gun it's probably worth remembering we thought Dec Watson was a certain academy pick-up at this time last year

 

[briztoon]

Haven't seen any of the games but noticed he (Payne) has been named in the bests for every game... including a couple of BOGs. Before we jump the gun it's probably worth remembering we thought Dec Watson was a certain academy pick-up at this time last year

He would have been if we didn't trade for Frost.

Schwabby said before the draft that we might not be able match academy bids if they came early as the team did not want to go in to deficit for this years draft.

 

[jackess]

He would have been if we didn't trade for Frost.

Schwabby said before the draft that we might not be able match academy bids if they came early as the team did not want to go in to deficit for this years draft.

We traded future picks for Frost and a 2016 pick.

 

[briztoon]

His kiscking is a concern but so was Powell-Peppers and look at hoe he has transitioned into the AFL. Will be really interesting to see him in the National Champs against the other best in the country. Love his hard work at the coalface which is exactly what we need.......badly.

I liked the last part of the comment on Worpel, that you could see he was unhappy with his early misplaced kicks and worked through the game to improve his disposal by foot.

 

[briztoon]

We traded future picks for Frost and a 2016 pick.

Was it not a 2016 3rd round pick and a 3rd round pick swap in 2017.

 

[jackess]

Was it not a 2016 3rd round pick and a 3rd round pick swap in 2017.

The Lions will receive Frost, this year's pick no. 76 and a future third round pick, in exchange for the Lions' future third and fourth round picks.

http://www.lions.com.au/news/2016-10-20/frost-becomes-a-lion

We gave our third round pick to GWS IIRC.

 

[briztoon]

The Lions will receive Frost, this year's pick no. 76 and a future third round pick, in exchange for the Lions' future third and fourth round picks.

http://www.lions.com.au/news/2016-10-20/frost-becomes-a-lion

We gave our third round pick to GWS IIRC.

Ok.

But it doesn't change my previous comment. If we hadn't traded away our 3rd round pick, we likely would have matched a pick for Watson.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Ok.

But it doesn't change my previous comment. If we hadn't traded away our 3rd round pick, we likely would have matched a pick for Watson.

Not sure that's true. Watson was only rated in the 50s by our recruiting team on draft night. Probably suggests he wasn't too highly rated.