Bailey Backs Youth, Draft Over Trade.

[Dez!]

Bailey backs youth, draft over trade

By Luke Holmesby 3:13 PM Thu 28 August, 2008


MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says his club has no intention of exchanging draft picks for senior players in this year's trade week.
Despite a raft of star players expected to be looking for new homes at season's end, Bailey said he had his eyes set on the long-term future.
"We’ll keep our picks," Bailey said. "We want to keep our first pick [and] we also have 17 and 19. We’ll be really keen to keep our picks."
Two casualties of Bailey's youth policy are former best and fairest winners Adem Yze and Jeff White, who will both leave the Demons after Sunday's match against Richmond.
Bailey said the pair had been fantastic leaders of the club and would give their all against the Tigers.
"It was tough for Jeff but, as I’ve said before, he is a professional and he’ll treat this game like every other game he’s played for Melbourne," he said.
"But this one will be pretty special seeing as it’s his last one. The same with Adem, they’re both very professional people and outstanding people.
"We’ll make further tough decisions on that with an eye on what’s best for the club."
With reports emerging on Thursday that the new Gold Coast team may have up to nine first round picks in the 2010 NAB AFL Draft, Bailey said it was vital that the existing clubs use their early picks wisely this year.
"We have a young list now and this year it is important that we draft well," he said.
"Every year you should draft well. You can’t pick and choose drafts and you’ve got to ensure you put all the work into it so you can produce and develop players.
"Until it’s in front of all of us we’re speculating a bit. They (the Gold Coast) are obviously going to get a good run at it so they’re successful."
Bailey added that there have been plenty of positive signs in what has been a dismal year for Melbourne.
"We’ve given game time to young players that I think will be invaluable in years to come.
"Our win-loss record is not good enough, but I think we’ve shown the direction we’re taking and the decisions we will make will be based around developing a young team for the future."

Thank God for that, now we can rest easily knowing that Schwab will not be able to touch a draft pick.

 

[CaptainDavey]

The more and more Bails speaks the more I think he's not a crunt and he's actually going to be a very good coach for us

 

[Clean Heels]

The fact that he is sticking with the youth, means that he already gets my vote, we need quality kids, we already have a few - but we need to unearth a potential superstar, a future marquee player..

 

[RandB]

The most heartening bit for me (apart from the whole article) was "Every year you should draft well." Absolutely. It doesn't matter which stage your team is in (rebuilding or premiership window) you still need to refresh your stocks with the right recruits continually. This IMO is where we have fallen down a little over the last 10 years. We haven't recruited enough players who have been part of a plan or had real purpose. I think we lost sight of how important it was to keep planning and injecting quality youth because we have (until last year) been reasonably competitive (even years anyway). The problem was we took each year as it came and didn't focus enough on our recruits or the big picture. Bailey on the other hand knows what is required for us to move forward and sustain a level. Whether we have the resources is another thing but we have some good heads at the club now. Hopefully under Bailey and future coaches we will never again have the generation gap in our list that we had at the start of this year.

 

[Dez!]

The most heartening bit for me (apart from the whole article) was "Every year you should draft well." Absolutely. It doesn't matter which stage your team is in (rebuilding or premiership window) you still need to refresh your stocks with the right recruits continually. This IMO is where we have fallen down a little over the last 10 years. We haven't recruited enough players who have been part of a plan or had real purpose. I think we lost sight of how important it was to keep planning and injecting quality youth because we have (until last year) been reasonably competitive (even years anyway). The problem was we took each year as it came and didn't focus enough on our recruits or the big picture. Bailey on the other hand knows what is required for us to move forward and sustain a level. Whether we have the resources is another thing but we have some good heads at the club now. Hopefully under Bailey and future coaches we will never again have the generation gap in our list that we had at the start of this year.

Yeah that was good but Bailey stating that Schwab won't be able to touch a draft pick was the highlight for me.

 

[cannons]

As long as Schwab can get the job done in the areas of finance and operations, he's okay by me. Just leave the football/recruiting dept alone, Cameron, please!

One has to say though, that his role in recruiting probably generated a greater supporter base for Fremantle, and generated some excitement amongst the fans. Hopefully he can find an alternate strategy down here, as its a much more difficult job.