Mark Bolton

[Frodo]

No 4 pick in the 1997 draft. How good a player is he?

 

[Dave]

Not all that. I still shudder when I see who went after him.

 

[windyhill]

Sorry Bolts,no good....get rid.

 

[BigStork]

Bolton is a good size and seems fairly athletic, but hasn't grabbed his chance like some of the other youngsters. Admittedly he has only had limited opportunities, but I don't think we will see him come on like a Ramanauskas or McGrath.

 

[M29]

He's a comedy act. Almost as funny as how he was drafted at no 4.

 

[TheJet]

Yeah, others to go after him in the draft were Tarrant and Goodes

 

[walshy1993]

sheeds is a big wrap for bolts, and sheeds has a tendancy to get young talent right

bolts has improved a heck of a lot this season and has added a few things to his game, he is fit and can now take a pack mark, he can play wing, key back, key forward or even as a mobile ruckman
his skills are better

i think he will make it, is probably still a year off from playing consistant afl football

 

[Frodo]

What I'm trying to fathom is the importance of early draft picks. Looking at your list it seems that most players were developed from under 18s and not many top six draft picks.
So it occurrs to me that perhaps it is the quality of player development that matters more than the players skills at draft stage.
There also seems to be a strong Essendon influence in the U18 competitions particularly at Keilor Park.

 

[walshy1993]

Originally posted by Frodo
What I'm trying to fathom is the importance of early draft picks. Looking at your list it seems that most players were developed from under 18s and not many top six draft picks.
So it occurrs to me that perhaps it is the quality of player development that matters more than the players skills at draft stage.
There also seems to be a strong Essendon influence in the U18 competitions particularly at Keilor Park.

the keilor area was part of the essendon zone, misiti and mercuri from keilor park, olarenshaw from keilor, calthorpe from east keilor all came through the old zone format, alessio was another local who came through the u19 comp

we have probably had an even mixture of early and late draft picks to make it
ramanauskas, mcveigh, henneman, heffernan, lucas and lloyd were all early picks (from memory)
hird, blumfield, jacobs, hille, forster knight, barnes are examples of talent we have taken late in the draft

a lot of essendons success has come via the rookie list, we have probably used the rookie list better than any other club, mark johnson, dean rioli, gary moorcroft, damien peverill, cory mcgrath all spent time on the rookie list

anther successful area has been trade, we havent tended to do a lot of trading but when we have its worked, robran for young, salmon for barnard and wellman, olarenshaw for a draft pick (rama), delaney-ridley-williams-kickett for a draft pick (lloyd), prior for a draft pick (ted richards)

so we have been successful in all aspects of recruiting i guess, every pick is really cruicial and talent can come from anywhere