Club Focus North Melbourne 2022 - Logue, Tucker, Sheezel, Wardlaw, George, Harvey, Drury, Free, Howe, Turner

AFL Club Focus

What priority picks should North get?


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May 28, 2013
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Technically we are in year 18, your favourite thread even has the number of days in it!


Mate you really should get the entire 1st round but unfortunately for a PP the key is the last few years - playing finals last year (if you call it that) rules you out of a PP to at least 2025.

We tick every box.
  • premiership points that a club has received over a period of years (with greater weight to recent seasons),
  • a club's percentage (points for/points against x 100) over a period of years (another indication of on-field competitiveness, with greater weight to recent seasons),
  • any finals appearances that a club has made in recent seasons,
  • any premierships that a club has won in recent seasons,
 
Mate you really should get the entire 1st round but unfortunately for a PP the key is the last few years - playing finals last year (if you call it that) rules you out of a PP to at least 2025.

We tick every box.
  • premiership points that a club has received over a period of years (with greater weight to recent seasons),
  • a club's percentage (points for/points against x 100) over a period of years (another indication of on-field competitiveness, with greater weight to recent seasons),
  • any finals appearances that a club has made in recent seasons,
  • any premierships that a club has won in recent seasons,
I was taking this mick with us, we aren't in the pp landscape.

You should get one, I think end of 1st round but wouldn't be surprised if you got another early pick
 
Jul 25, 2019
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What if he asks to leave citing that he’s lost his passion for the game and wants a new start?

That situation seems entirely plausible at the moment..

Only if Noble stays as North coach which is very unlikely
 

0utsider

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Jul 19, 2018
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Every year North’s passing of Logan McDonald looks worse. Probably expected some reprieve this year with what was being called a tall draft but now they’ll be looking at another year of a top pick without any KPP around the mark.

How good would Will Phillips have to be to make that not a poor decision?

What does it mean for North this year? Split their pick 1? Reach for Busslinger? Or do they just take best available and continue to stock their midfield?
 
Every year North’s passing of Logan McDonald looks worse. Probably expected some reprieve this year with what was being called a tall draft but now they’ll be looking at another year of a top pick without any KPP around the mark.

How good would Will Phillips have to be to make that not a poor decision?

What does it mean for North this year? Split their pick 1? Reach for Busslinger? Or do they just take best available and continue to stock their midfield?
One kicked a point and had 6 kicks on the weekend and the other has glandular fever. But sure.

s**t takes just keep getting shitter.
 
Last edited:

0utsider

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One kicked a point and had 6 kicks on the weekend and the other hand glandular fever. But sure.

s**t takes just keep getting shitter.
Not even saying Phillips is a bad player, but the need for someone like McDonald seems clear and there’s no signs of a similar player coming along any time soon meanwhile North’s midfield is already stocked and will keep getting fuller unless they reach for players who probably aren’t best available.

If you get the choice between Phillips and Busslinger or McDonald and Wardlaw I think most would take the latter.
 
Sep 5, 2014
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Not even saying Phillips is a bad player, but the need for someone like McDonald seems clear and there’s no signs of a similar player coming along any time soon meanwhile North’s midfield is already stocked and will keep getting fuller unless they reach for players who probably aren’t best available.

If you get the choice between Phillips and Busslinger or McDonald and Wardlaw I think most would take the latter.
McDonald is average. Wouldn't get a kick for us and barely gets one for a top side playing on the 4-6th defender.

DGB and Wardlaw is the correct answer to your question anyway. We have young developing forwards on our list already but no young key defenders.
 

0utsider

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McDonald is average. Wouldn't get a kick for us and barely gets one for a top side playing on the 4-6th defender.

DGB and Wardlaw is the correct answer to your question anyway. We have young developing forwards on our list already but no young key defenders.

McDonald is well above average for a second year key forward and is tracking at least as well as Larkey at the same age.

Reasonable argument, DGB would be equally or more valuable but all that does is push Phillips to 3rd in the rankings. McDonald is still ahead of him considering the number of mids available over the following couple of seasons.
 
Sep 5, 2014
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McDonald is well above average for a second year key forward and is tracking at least as well as Larkey at the same age.

Reasonable argument, DGB would be equally or more valuable but all that does is push Phillips to 3rd in the rankings. McDonald is still ahead of him considering the number of mids available over the following couple of seasons.
Mcdonald was supposed to be ready to go and he's tracking as well as a bloke we picked up in the 70s. Good to know. Why don't you let Phillips have a clear run at it before jumping to conclusions eh.
 
Jul 25, 2019
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For a couple of years, a lot of people (including myself) wrote LDU off, but has now arrived as a seriously good player, the one bright spot in a very dark season for North.

Think we should also show Phillips some patience and give him time to find his feet
 
Sep 5, 2014
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For a couple of years, a lot of people (including myself) wrote LDU off, but has now arrived as a seriously good player, the one bright spot in a very dark season for North.

Think we should also show Phillips some patience and give him time to find his feet
LDU had OP and couldn't run. Phillips has glandular fever and has missed the season as a result. Both gun juniors who need a bit of luck with their health.
 

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Mcdonald was supposed to be ready to go and he's tracking as well as a bloke we picked up in the 70s. Good to know. Why don't you let Phillips have a clear run at it before jumping to conclusions eh.
You’re completely missing my point, I think Phillips can be a very good player but the point is that by selecting him you’ve missed out on a high potential key forward (or back) for a position that you would easily have been able to fill in the following two years.

Again, it’s not about how good Phillips is/isn’t, it’s about how hard top key position players are to find.
 
Sep 5, 2014
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You’re completely missing my point, I think Phillips can be a very good player but the point is that by selecting him you’ve missed out on a high potential key forward (or back) for a position that you would easily have been able to fill in the following two years.

Again, it’s not about how good Phillips is/isn’t, it’s about how hard top key position players are to find.
I'm not missing your point at all. McDonald is average. We wanted DGB who is going to be a far better player and we need a key defender more. We only have 25 inside 50s a game atm ffs. Buddy would be doing * all if he was at North atm.
 

Daka

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Every year North’s passing of Logan McDonald looks worse. Probably expected some reprieve this year with what was being called a tall draft but now they’ll be looking at another year of a top pick without any KPP around the mark.

How good would Will Phillips have to be to make that not a poor decision?

What does it mean for North this year? Split their pick 1? Reach for Busslinger? Or do they just take best available and continue to stock their midfield?
Really? please tell me what McDonald has done that is outstanding? avg 8.8 disposals a game goalless in he's last 3 games!
 

0utsider

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I'm not missing your point at all. McDonald is average. We wanted DGB who is going to be a far better player and we need a key defender more. We only have 25 inside 50s a game atm ffs. Buddy would be doing * all if he was at North atm.

Whether it’s McDonald or DGB the point stands that Phillips looks like he was the wrong call at the time.

Really? please tell me what McDonald has done that is outstanding? avg 8.8 disposals a game goalless in he's last 3 games!
Second year key forward going through a down patch, hardly unprecedented. He still averages a goal a game despite playing different roles and rarely being the main target inside 50. That’s serviceable from a young bloke.

He’s shown enough to be able to see he’ll be at the very least a solid AFL key forward for a long time with the potential to far exceed that. North had the opportunity to snatch that up but they chose a mid who they could have easily found in any of the proceeding drafts.
 
Sep 5, 2014
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Whether it’s McDonald or DGB the point stands that Phillips looks like he was the wrong call at the time.


Second year key forward going through a down patch, hardly unprecedented. He still averages a goal a game despite playing different roles and rarely being the main target inside 50. That’s serviceable from a young bloke.

He’s shown enough to be able to see he’ll be at the very least a solid AFL key forward for a long time with the potential to far exceed that. North had the opportunity to snatch that up but they chose a mid who they could have easily found in any of the proceeding drafts.
It should have been DGB. I have said this all along. I don't know why McDonald is even in the conversation. We can find his type late in the draft.
 

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It should have been DGB. I have said this all along. I don't know why McDonald is even in the conversation. We can find his type late in the draft.

To be honest I think you’re overrating DGB and underrating McDonald. Neither has blown the other out of the water but both look to have been better options than Phillips.
 
To be honest I think you’re overrating DGB and underrating McDonald. Neither has blown the other out of the water but both look to have been better options than Phillips.

Think all of the top 6 will be very good in their own right. It wasn't so much they took Phillips, but they went small again at their next pick.
 
Sep 5, 2014
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To be honest I think you’re overrating DGB and underrating McDonald. Neither has blown the other out of the water but both look to have been better options than Phillips.
Haha I probably am overrating the key defender we needed vs the key forward we didn't need but Mcdonald is not a better option than Phillips.
 

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Haha I probably am overrating the key defender we needed vs the key forward we didn't need but Mcdonald is not a better option than Phillips.
McDonald has had more highly impressive performances but less consistently, DGB has been consistent but hasn’t shown the same ceiling.

I can see why the key defender would be a bigger need, particularly when the consistency is factored in, but on pure performance McDonald and DGB are about on par.

Top level key forwards (which is what McDonald is projecting to be) are by a large majority, first round picks. The suggestion that a player like McDonald can be easily picked up later in the draft is not realistic. Guys like Larkey are outliers.
 
Sep 5, 2014
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McDonald has had more highly impressive performances but less consistently, DGB has been consistent but hasn’t shown the same ceiling.

I can see why the key defender would be a bigger need, particularly when the consistency is factored in, but on pure performance McDonald and DGB are about on par.

Top level key forwards (which is what McDonald is projecting to be) are by a large majority, first round picks. The suggestion that a player like McDonald can be easily picked up later in the draft is not realistic. Guys like Larkey are outliers.
He's not projecting to be an average key forward. Wait till he actually has a decent defender on him. A good key defender was a bigger need as we only had McKay on the list.

Mitch Lewis was picked up a few picks after Larkey in that same draft btw
 
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