Essendon's list, post-draft

[Drummer_19]

Once you're in the AFL system you're just another playing trying to make it.

I see someone likes to steal their quotes from the Herald Sun sports section.

 

[Hencho]

Serious???

saving him for the season proper. No need getting him battered and bruised for a NAB cup game. I think that's what he meant by making him an emergency

 

[silk]

I reckon myers will be playing midfield next year and most of his career.

 

[Houli2Gumbleton]

Nab Cup Team:

B: Henry Slattery - Michael Hurley - Tayte Pears
HB: David Myers - Patrick Ryder - Courtney Dempsey
C: Brent Stanton - Jobe Watson - Brent Prismall
HF: Kyle Reimers - Scott Gumbleton - Andrew Lovett
FF: Angus Monfries - Jay Neagle - Alwyn Davey
R: David Hille - Sam Lonergan - Bachar Houli
I/C: Jason Laycock/Tom Bellchambers - Jason Winderlich - David Zaharakis - Jarrod Atkinson - Heath Hocking - Leroy Jetta

 

[Spikey]

Will Prismal be fit?

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Midfield... collectively ordinary now....... but........

when all have been fit and available we have held our own and won a lot of battles. McVeigh, Watson are very good at what they do. Welsh has shown very good qualites.. ditto Stanton and Winderlich. Lovett can change games.

It's the inexperience and lack of continuity of the past few years that makes our midfield look worse than it is. The addition of quality rotations and a lot of guys hitting the 50-100 game mark will see our midfield take shape next year and be recognised in the wider circles.

We still lack the classy game breaker that will make the difference between top 4 challenger and mid table plodders. All it takes is one or two of Myers, Houli, Reimers, Jetta, Demspey to really step up and we are in business.

 

[Houli2Gumbleton]

Will Prismal be fit?

I meant to do a young team and just wrote the title the nab cup so people don't start saying that such and such will still be playing. I just posted it to see how our youngsters would look in a team.

 

[dapto]

Kelvin

you have a special knack of nailing issues

 

[Thrust]

We still lack the classy game breaker that will make the difference between top 4 challenger and mid table plodders. All it takes is one or two of Myers, Houli, Reimers, Jetta, Demspey to really step up and we are in business.

I don't think Houli has the potential to be elite to be honest, Jetta does have the potential but I also really doubt he will ever be elite. Myers seems the most likely whilst dempsey will probably never get over his injuries and reimers is a bit of a wildcard.

 

[LeeARM]

Nab Cup Team:

B: Henry Slattery - Michael Hurley - Tayte Pears
HB: David Myers - Patrick Ryder - Courtney Dempsey
C: Brent Stanton - Jobe Watson - Brent Prismall
HF: Kyle Reimers - Scott Gumbleton - Andrew Lovett
FF: Angus Monfries - Jay Neagle - Alwyn Davey
R: David Hille - Sam Lonergan - Bachar Houli
I/C: Jason Laycock/Tom Bellchambers - Jason Winderlich - David Zaharakis - Jarrod Atkinson - Heath Hocking - Leroy Jetta

i like it but prismall will still be injured

 

[mantis]

I don't think Houli has the potential to be elite to be honest, Jetta does have the potential but I also really doubt he will ever be elite. Myers seems the most likely whilst dempsey will probably never get over his injuries and reimers is a bit of a wildcard.

WTF? I think he will be one of our top players in a year or two.

 

[stay true]

Midfield... collectively ordinary now....... but........

when all have been fit and available we have held our own and won a lot of battles. McVeigh, Watson are very good at what they do. Welsh has shown very good qualites.. ditto Stanton and Winderlich. Lovett can change games.

It's the inexperience and lack of continuity of the past few years that makes our midfield look worse than it is. The addition of quality rotations and a lot of guys hitting the 50-100 game mark will see our midfield take shape next year and be recognised in the wider circles.

We still lack the classy game breaker that will make the difference between top 4 challenger and mid table plodders. All it takes is one or two of Myers, Houli, Reimers, Jetta, Demspey to really step up and we are in business.

Yep. Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Fastback]

I don't think Houli has the potential to be elite to be honest, Jetta does have the potential but I also really doubt he will ever be elite. Myers seems the most likely whilst dempsey will probably never get over his injuries and reimers is a bit of a wildcard.

Agreed, the list is very speculative at best.

Good on the club for persisting with mining stocks though. Sheedy would have gone for Cousins...and Leroy Brown..and probably Begley on a 7 year project scheme.

 

[Kong]

i see our a-grade mids coming from either of longergan, houli, reimers and myers.
rich would have been very nice, but i'm confident in our midfielders coming through.

 

[eth-dog]

NAB Cup R1:

B: Pears-Hurley-H.Slattery
HB: Dempsey-Ryder-Myers
C: Stanton-Watson-Houli
R: Laycock-Lonergan-Winderlich
HF: Daniher-Gumbleton-Reimers
F: Davey-Neagle-Jetta
I(from): list bar Lloyd, Lucas, Fletcher, Dyson, McPhee

 

[Big Blow Hard]

Our future backiline options are starting to look rather delicious.
Hopefully the players Essendon intend to work into the midfield start showing a bit in there, add Prismall.
Get Gumby, Neagle, Davey, Jetta and co firing.

If I was not already. I am definitely starting to get excited about the future.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Kelvin

you have a special knack of nailing issues

dapto

you have a special knack of knowing which posters are right

 

[Big Blow Hard]

Absolutely agree with Kelvin up there. Our midfield has far from taken shape and developed into what it could. Our backline almost looks complete, and we just need to get Gumby Neagle and co up firing and we are all of a sudden looking like a team with great prospects in a couple of years, and for a long time.

 

[dons_fan185]

The addition of quality rotations and a lot of guys hitting the 50-100 game mark will see our midfield take shape next year and be recognised in the wider circles...We still lack the classy game breaker that will make the difference between top 4 challenger and mid table plodders.

We lack three young classy gamebreaks in a deadly, feared combo

When that "Cousins-Judd-Kerr"/"Abblett-Bartell-Corey" (yes I know I can do better there)/"Hird-Lloyd-Lucas" (if I may) emereges in the next gen Baby Bombers then the whole list will improve

not just talent-wise but psychologically too. look at West Coast in 2006 vs 2008

I just hope that trio emerges in the next 2/ 3 (max) seasons because the bulk of our list will be in a closer age range. That is as opposed to the wicked dispersion of age on our list now where most guys in the early or late stages of their career and the ones in the middle are struggling to carry the weight of both, hence injuries

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

We lack three young classy gamebreaks in a deadly, feared combo

When that "Cousins-Judd-Kerr"/"Abblett-Bartell-Corey" (yes I know I can do better there)/"Hird-Lloyd-Lucas" (if I may) emereges in the next gen Baby Bombers then the whole list will improve

Mitchell, Sewell, Bateman - Hawks premiership midfield 08

Goodes, Kirk, Bolton - Swans 05.

You can win flags without having the big name players. People are too focused on players names and how they're portrayed in the media then the job they actually do.

Bartel and Corey were no namers until the side came good. That could happen to any of our players or any players in the league.

 

[AndyLesPaul]

Nab Cup Team:

B: Henry Slattery - Michael Hurley - Tayte Pears
HB: David Myers - Patrick Ryder - Courtney Dempsey
C: Brent Stanton - Jobe Watson - Brent Prismall
HF: Kyle Reimers - Scott Gumbleton - Andrew Lovett
FF: Angus Monfries - Jay Neagle - Alwyn Davey
R: David Hille - Sam Lonergan - Bachar Houli
I/C: Jason Laycock/Tom Bellchambers - Jason Winderlich - David Zaharakis - Jarrod Atkinson - Heath Hocking - Leroy Jetta

surely it'd be bellchamers and laycock?
hille with the break?

 

[GoldenboyHird_5]

still doesn't change that we need more quality midfield options.

it's all well and good to select midfielders at picks 50 onwards but the likelihood is that the majority will be solid at best. We have plenty that will be like that. But with a top 20 pick, the chances of picking up dominating midfield become more and more likely. No doubt that a Rich would have been great in deleoping the engine room.

What needs to be taken into account is that the recruiters might have felt that Hurley was the best KP option when compared to next year's draft as well as this years. perhaps they felt that KP strength, especially backline, was rather bare and that midfielders were plentiful next year with Scully, Kane Lucas etc. After next year's draft, then it would have been highly unlikely we would have been able to pick a Hurley type with GC and WS coming in.

Next year we better ****in draft midfielders with our first two rounders though.... or heads should roll...

 

[Big Blow Hard]

still doesn't change that we need more quality midfield options.

it's all well and good to select midfielders at picks 50 onwards but the likelihood is that the majority will be solid at best. We have plenty that will be like that. But with a top 20 pick, the chances of picking up dominating midfield become more and more likely. No doubt that a Rich would have been great in deleoping the engine room.

What needs to be taken into account is that the recruiters might have felt that Hurley was the best KP option when compared to next year's draft as well as this years. perhaps they felt that KP strength, especially backline, was rather bare and that midfielders were plentiful next year with Scully, Kane Lucas etc. After next year's draft, then it would have been highly unlikely we would have been able to pick a Hurley type with GC and WS coming in.

Next year we better ****in draft midfielders with our first two rounders though.... or heads should roll...

I think the recruiters have gone the right way about it. We have effectively recruited two midfielders this year. One today, and Prismall. My opinion is everyone seems to just want a ready made midfielder, and not wait for the ones we have drafted to develop. Some people here for example, don't think Houli could become elite based on 10 games. In other words, have a bit of patience and watch them bloom. sure there a players like Palmer who come in and play fantastic straight away, but whats to say in three years, some of the other mids have not caught up.
Best comparison Judd vs Hodge

 

[GoDons]

The spread looks okay to me.

As for the midfield debate, people seem to have forgotten that we have plenty of opportunity to add to it to next year. There's no doubt that Rich or Sidebottom would've been excellent additions, but there are top midfielders in every draft, top defenders are far more scarce and we nabbed one today.

Having taken Hurley this year, we're free to take a midfielder from next year's pool, and whilst there aren't the bottom agers to choose from, guys like Kane Lucas, Tom Scully, Koby Stevens, Anthony Morabito, Mitchell Duncan, Jordan Gysberts and Jesse Crichton have all shown a lot to date, and as the year progresses, I'm sure we'll see plenty more emerge.

Taking Hurley hasn't doomed our midfield. We've already got a few gems, David Myers probably being the shiniest, and by the time our Premiership window opens, there could well be another from the 2009 Draft.

No need for the pessimism today, because the bloke we grabbed at 5's going to be a very good player for us.

 

[Merv]

For anyone that is interested.

Assuming we pick up Skipworth our average age at round 1 next year will be 22.73 with an average games played of 58.35

We will have 55% of our list in the 18-22 bracket (22), 37% in the 23-28 bracket (15) and 8% in the 29+ bracket (3)