Toast List management!

[GoalSneak07]

Let me just say, our recruiters have done a fantastic job over the past 4 to 5 seasons in selecting a list in which we have today. Our depth at the moment is as deep as any team. The game on the weekend simply proved it with the likes of Maccaffer, Blair, Reid, Wellingham, Beams and yes Leroy Brown stepping in and making an impact. These guys are/were considered our fringe players, before 2010 with the exception of Beams and to an extent Sharrod.

I remember when we drafted Reid so early, the footy world were questioning the Pies decision in taking such a young (youngest player drafted in 06 draft) raw underdeveloped player ahead of the likes of the highly rated Armitage and Sellar who have since both really struggled to play regular senior footy. They obviously saw something in him and I think it's really starting to pay off now with his breakout season.

St.Kilda's depth on the weekend was tested and proved very costly in their 48 point loss to us. With Dal Santo out the player they brought in Dempster was the best they could chuck at us which failed miserably. Add players like Pattinson and Geary and they stick out rather noticeably. Two seasons ago and even last season we had this problem, our best 22 could beat anyone on it's day but we had little ammo in terms of depth when something went astray. This season we have Dawes stepping up ahead of Anthony who kicked 50 plus goals last season and would probably get a game in almost every other team bar the Cats. With Cloke missing on the weekend we had our journeyman step up on the big stage Leigh Brown mr fix it.

With players like Medhurst, O'Bree, Fraser not being able to break our best 22 that means we are on the right track. Add to that young players in Luke Rounds and Josh Thomas who are coming up very nicely.

My overall point here is we seem to have recruited out of the box which has paid off and our list is overall very very solid in term of experienced players and young talent coming through the ranks. Look at these:

Pendlebury: Basketball background was thought to be picked to high by the Pies.

Daisey Thomas: Wasn't Xavier Ellis all the rage?

Harry O'Brien: Pick 20 in a rookie draft, thank you!

Dayne Beams: Pick 29 in the national draft of 2008.

Sharrod Wellingham: Pick 10 in 04 Rookie draft, BOOM!

Alan Toovey: 05 Rookie Draft. Missed Duffield and Priddis but happy with Possum!

Chris Dawes: Pick 28, 05 National Draft!

Jarryd Blair: Pick 28, 08 Rookie Draft, BARGAIN!!

All these guys have taken the extra step and i even forgot to even mention Steele Sidebottom. Job well done to our recruiters I say

 

[Heritier 09]

recruiters have been amazing. this is an incredible group.
but the big difference is the stand alone vfl team, they all play, every week, and they all play together.
good kids with a better chance then they would have at tonnes of clubs. who else has a stand alone vfl side?

A.Geelong. Super side, if anything their depth suffers because they have so many jets that the kids don't get a game. however its worth noting how good they are when they come in, and how they've coped without corey, ottens, rooke and so many others i can't think of off the top.

its the solution, it's the difference.

great recruiting+stand alone vfl side = Flags soon.

 

[knightwheelrqr]

Let me just say, our recruiters have done a fantastic job over the past 4 to 5 seasons in selecting a list in which we have today. Our depth at the moment is as deep as any team. The game on the weekend simply proved it with the likes of Maccaffer, Blair, Reid, Wellingham, Beams and yes Leroy Brown stepping in and making an impact. These guys are/were considered our fringe players, before 2010 with the exception of Beams and to an extent Sharrod.

I remember when we drafted Reid so early, the footy world were questioning the Pies decision in taking such a young (youngest player drafted in 06 draft) raw underdeveloped player ahead of the likes of the highly rated Armitage and Sellar who have since both really struggled to play regular senior footy. They obviously saw something in him and I think it's really starting to pay off now with his breakout season.

St.Kilda's depth on the weekend was tested and proved very costly in their 48 point loss to us. With Dal Santo out the player they brought in Dempster was the best they could chuck at us which failed miserably. Add players like Pattinson and Geary and they stick out rather noticeably. Two seasons ago and even last season we had this problem, our best 22 could beat anyone on it's day but we had little ammo in terms of depth when something went astray. This season we have Dawes stepping up ahead of Anthony who kicked 50 plus goals last season and would probably get a game in almost every other team bar the Cats. With Cloke missing on the weekend we had our journeyman step up on the big stage Leigh Brown mr fix it.

With players like Medhurst, O'Bree, Fraser not being able to break our best 22 that means we are on the right track. Add to that young players in Luke Rounds and Josh Thomas who are coming up very nicely.

My overall point here is we seem to have recruited out of the box which has paid off and our list is overall very very solid in term of experienced players and young talent coming through the ranks. Look at these:

Pendlebury: Basketball background was thought to be picked to high by the Pies.

Daisey Thomas: Wasn't Xavier Ellis all the rage?

Harry O'Brien: Pick 20 in a rookie draft, thank you!

Dayne Beams: Pick 29 in the national draft of 2008.

Sharrod Wellingham: Pick 10 in 04 Rookie draft, BOOM!

Alan Toovey: 05 Rookie Draft. Missed Duffield and Priddis but happy with Possum!

Chris Dawes: Pick 28, 05 National Draft!

Jarryd Blair: Pick 28, 08 Rookie Draft, BARGAIN!!

All these guys have taken the extra step and i even forgot to even mention Steele Sidebottom. Job well done to our recruiters I say

Certainly have done a great job over the last few seasons and we are seeing it. A good combination of fast tracking player development and solid recruiting is a big part of the success we are currently experiencing.

Great position to be in

 

[ThePheonix]

I was a critic of our recruiting in the late 90s and early 2000 but very hard for even the most pessimistic supporter to not be happy of the way we recruited in the last 5 years. Congrats to our recruiters

 

[robertg22]

From what I saw in the VFL game, Josh Thomas will be mentioned in lists like this soon, late draft pick and he looks like he could become an absolute gem.
Don't forget Goldsack was a late pick too, I still think he has an incredible amount of upside.
We paid overs for Ben Reid at the time too IIRC, he was bottom aged and thought to be a late first round/early 2nd round pick I think.

 

[ThePheonix]

great recruiting+stand alone vfl side = Flags soon.

Very interesting equation...It sounds fairly accurate to me

 

[mattys123]

Great thread, I was thinking of starting something similar while we are on a "high".

I think a lot of credit has to go to Derek Hine, but you also have to give the coaching staff and MM credit for some of the trades and recruits we have made.

It's almost a guarantee that it was on MM's behalf that we got Leigh Brown, and I'm sure there were plenty who disagreed with him at the time, but what a move that has been.

All our coaching and recruitment department need a big pat on the back for the position this club is in, not only for the 2010 premiership tilt, but for the promise that our list has for the years to come.

The future looks bright, Bucks must be so excited about the list he is going to take over in 2012.

 

[Rohan25]

Great thread, I was thinking of starting something similar while we are on a "high".

I think a lot of credit has to go to Derek Hine, but you also have to give the coaching staff and MM credit for some of the trades and recruits we have made.

It's almost a guarantee that it was on MM's behalf that we got Leigh Brown, and I'm sure there were plenty who disagreed with him at the time, but what a move that has been.

All our coaching and recruitment department need a big pat on the back for the position this club is in, not only for the 2010 premiership tilt, but for the promise that our list has for the years to come.

The future looks bright, Bucks must be so excited about the list he is going to take over in 2012.

Good post, and how lucky is Nathan Buckley. He is going to take over a team that is in the middle of a full on premiership assault. Imagine being the poor bloke who gets asked to fix Essendon in the near future...

 

[Markfs]

It really has been a great team effort across the whole club. The guys picked have been good but the player development guys have done a wonderful job.

The other aspect that has been good is that we have continued to do well even when people have left the club. Alan Richardson, Greg Swan and whole team of coaches have come and gone but we have used their skills and kept the good bits. Its an indication that the club is being run well.

I agree that the decision to have our own vfl side was excellent. Its worth every cent.

Fantastic work by everyone at the club!!

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

MM should have a clause in his contract that allowed for an extension of his coaching in the event that he won a premiership or two in his last 2 years. It seems unfair that he should take the team to a premiership then stand down.

 

[THATSGOLD]

Good post, and how lucky is Nathan Buckley. He is going to take over a team that is in the middle of a full on premiership assault. Imagine being the poor bloke who gets asked to fix Essendon in the near future...

Could possibly take over to coach the threepeat. haha wishfull thinking 10 11 12. only being silly.

 

[Hva sher a]

yeah thanks for the post...brings back memories of our drafting pre-Hine. Remember such gems as Bo Nixon, David E King, Luke Shackleton and Guy Richards. We'll still have our share of duds (Toby Thoolen) but at least we seem to unearth some really good ones recently as outlined above.

I also agree that the big difference has been to have a stand alone VFL side. Not coincidental that our list depth has been better since then

Good times ahead

 

[GoalSneak07]

Yeah good point about the VFL team, i suppose it helps when you have your full list playing week in and week out. As someone mentioned above we have had our fair share of bad picks, but i think the year we got Stanley and Cook with picks 21 and 23, we got Dawesy with 29 so it has sort of evened out for us.

Goldsack still needs to prove himself i think, we know he has the talent and this weekend showed hes on his way to grabbing his spot permanently. Hes the one to watch from here on to finals along with Reid and how they develop in the big games.

 

[TradeDraft]

Great Read Mate

 

[TradeDraft]

Don't forget we just got Ball and Jolly to top it off

 

[GoalSneak07]

Don't forget we just got Ball and Jolly to top it off

Yes we did, we were quite lucky to get Jolly in terms of where we were at what we needed and him wanting to return to Melbourne, but still great work in getting him here to the Pies.

As for Ball, I must thank Ross Lyon for his stubbornness and to Lukes credit in both games against his former team he has been in our best. We needed a in and under player as O'Bree was getting on with age and Luke is one of the best in the AFL at what he does.

The thing is Jolly is only gonna get better as this season goes on and Ball has cemented his place in our best 22 exactly what we wanted when we got both.

 

[twaters]

Also great focus on getting areas right:

spine: we go tall all at once with Reid, Brown, Dawes (back up later with Anvil).

extractors: last year we went all out with Ball, Sinclair, JThomas (to supplement O'B whose knees are shot and JMac who can't get on the park to even be shot).

rucks: JollyWood, Fraser, Anvil, Keeffe, Big Mac, Witts.

taggers: gosh we may even have some of them emerging too: in addition to the Johnno, Wellers runwiths, Caff, Buckley, Barham and the brick out house Hunter might all bring options.

flankers back and front: we have in abundance and f great quality.

small forwards: well Meds, Dick, Rounds (with Didak, Lockyer and Davis when not on other duties) - perhaps ok, but could do with bolstering?

small backs: Johnno, even tho he don't want to be there, demolished Milne and could be a premiership B/P rather than a runner-up wingman? Tooves - sometimes; Shaw at great cost to 'moving forward'; perhaps ok, but could do with bolstering?

KPF: Cloke (23 yrs), Dawes (22 yrs), swingmen in Anthony (22 yrs) and NBrown (22yrs), and a possible retiree in Rusling (24 yrs); plus an Anvil, a Frase, Wood and Jolls to make forward forays...seen worse, but probably could do with bolstering.

KPB: Presti (may he be on the same long-life cornflakes as Fletcher!), NBrown, Reid and then could all flankers please report to the central corridor if required: Goldy (?), Anvil, Keeffe, Perry, Young, Maxwell, Anthony (?). Oops, one KPB injury and we are scrambling. Not sure if Carter or KPendles would yet staunch the dyke at AFL level.

We are probably at the Hawks' list need stage of a while back. Plug a couple of gaps eg small BP, KPB, and get a small forward freak (or get Meds, Dick etc back on the ground and in shape). Work not over yet till the fat lady she sings.

 

[AsianWithAFro]

I think our list rotation has been good too. Players seem to come in fresh and are eager to play.

To sum up this thread

In Hines We Trust