Official 2011 Draft Day Thread

[Bucking Beads]

Just goes to show you can put a negative spin on anything if you want to..

 

[jackess]

People put faith in Hadley et. al because they don't want to look stupid. In '08 you could've got fired up because of the drafting of Redden, Banfield and Rockliff and last year similarly with the drafting of Karnezis. Even if these guys weren't on the radar of any other club they were excellent draft picks.

Surely putting faith in the club is part of supporting it. If you have a negative attitude and always just presume that they are doing a lousy job you must be a masochist to support that club. Also there is no point whinging about it, you can't change the past.

 

[Tassie4ever]

Without getting into the who rated who where, the simple fact is that we ran 15th out of 17 last season. We won 4 games. From memory, we won 7 games in 2010.

This record does not suggest a terrific recruiting return. Or coaching achievement. Or any other kind of superlative. We haven't done well.

If we don't get a better return in 2012, there's no doubt in my mind at least that Voss will be gone. And many of those around him no doubt will follow.

Hopefully, seeing we spent most of last season minus JB, we have bottomed out. Let's face it, finishing in front of only Port and the Coast is pretty damn poor. That's not being disloyal to the club, which, like the Hawks before, I'll anyway follow through thick and thin [I buy 2 season tickets each year so I put my money where my mouth is]- that's simply being realistic.

I see some hopeful signs on the horizon- an understandable recruiting strategy under Rob Kerr, a switched on CEO, Mark Harvey, better club feedback etc. Let's hope the results also improve.

 

[irel]

Let's face it, finishing in front of only Port and the Coast is pretty damn poor. That's not being disloyal to the club, which, like the Hawks before, I'll anyway follow through thick and thin [I buy 2 season tickets each year so I put my money where my mouth is]- that's simply being realistic.

You have confused me here T4e. You say you will be loyal to the Lions and follow through thick and thin yet you showed disloyalty to your previous team the Hawks by not following them through thick and thin and changing to follow the Lions.

 

[dlanod]

Without getting into the who rated who where, the simple fact is that we ran 15th out of 17 last season. We won 4 games. From memory, we won 7 games in 2010.

This record does not suggest a terrific recruiting return. Or coaching achievement. Or any other kind of superlative. We haven't done well.

If we don't get a better return in 2012, there's no doubt in my mind at least that Voss will be gone. And many of those around him no doubt will follow.

Hopefully, seeing we spent most of last season minus JB, we have bottomed out. Let's face it, finishing in front of only Port and the Coast is pretty damn poor. That's not being disloyal to the club, which, like the Hawks before, I'll anyway follow through thick and thin [I buy 2 season tickets each year so I put my money where my mouth is]- that's simply being realistic.

I see some hopeful signs on the horizon- an understandable recruiting strategy under Rob Kerr, a switched on CEO, Mark Harvey, better club feedback etc. Let's hope the results also improve.

My caveat is the club is effectively being rebuilt as of 2008 (via the draft) and 2010 (via trading). Our record before either of those was horrendous - little oversight by the board lead to Gubby having a free reign in drafting, and attempts by both Matthews and Voss, again with the complicity of Allen and the board, to trade back into the finals were disastrous. We have very few unambiguous success stories from drafts after 2000, and a similar story with our trading.

Our player list has stagnated and is only starting to improve. Unfortunately that means it'll probably another two or three years before our playing list is mature enough to consistently win more than it loses. Voss may be gone by then, who knows, but I think this year is going to be a 4-8 win year followed (hopefully) by steady improvement. I think we're at the top end of that range if Brown stays fit, and at the bottom if he's out again. It's a shame that one man can so affect our chances of winning, but that's the reality we have to live with at the moment.

 

[Mayestro]

Without getting into the who rated who where, the simple fact is that we ran 15th out of 17 last season. We won 4 games. From memory, we won 7 games in 2010.

This record does not suggest a terrific recruiting return. Or coaching achievement. Or any other kind of superlative. We haven't done well.

If we don't get a better return in 2012, there's no doubt in my mind at least that Voss will be gone. And many of those around him no doubt will follow.

Hopefully, seeing we spent most of last season minus JB, we have bottomed out. Let's face it, finishing in front of only Port and the Coast is pretty damn poor. That's not being disloyal to the club, which, like the Hawks before, I'll anyway follow through thick and thin [I buy 2 season tickets each year so I put my money where my mouth is]- that's simply being realistic.

I see some hopeful signs on the horizon- an understandable recruiting strategy under Rob Kerr, a switched on CEO, Mark Harvey, better club feedback etc. Let's hope the results also improve.

I would say Tassie that even though the win:loss ledger was worse this year than last, we have already started to improve. We only got shellacked a few times, were very competitive in most and certainly took it right up to the eventual grand final contenders.

A good guide to our improvement was how we were compared to say Melbourne, who had more than 8 wins and yet their season was deemed a distaster. Yes, part of that was due to differing levels of expectation, but our season was very consistent compared to theirs, which while including some big wins had a bucketload of maulings.

Possibly the best guide to this season should be taken from impartial observers.
A few semi-trolling Brisbane threads started on the main board (some by our own supporters) were surprisingly vigorously defended by most neutral supporters- it was a massive change to the amount of shit we copped last year.

 

[Tassie4ever]

You have confused me here T4e. You say you will be loyal to the Lions and follow through thick and thin yet you showed disloyalty to your previous team the Hawks by not following them through thick and thin and changing to follow the Lions.

Sorry for the confusion- I still have a very soft spot for the mighty Hawks, who despite the perceptions, went through many a dry period from the 60's and 70's on and therefore required a strong sense of humour.

The lack of supposed loyalty charge is one that has been used against my good person from time to time, especially by one long-suffering Melbourne supporter friend of mine. My reaction is that his is a case of loyalty gone too far.

I've lived in Queensland for a long time now, enough to have a loyalty to the local team. If Tassie ever fields an AFL side [which admittedly won't be while the Big D's arse points to the ground] I retain the right to again alter my loyalty. In the meantime I'll have to live with Greene, Harwood, and Cornelius carrying the flag.

 

[Ceebee]

Well I am happy with all our drafts and am excited about the next few years.
Guess there must be something wrong with me.

 

[Judge]

Voss may be gone by then, who knows, but I think this year is going to be a 4-8 win year followed (hopefully) by steady improvement. I think we're at the top end of that range if Brown stays fit, and at the bottom if he's out again. It's a shame that one man can so affect our chances of winning, but that's the reality we have to live with at the moment.

Hard to disagree with that dlanod, although I think it's certainly possible that, if we have some real (well overdue) luck with injuries, we can win up to 10-11 games.

Injuries aside, the two keys will be Brown playing most games and getting some consecutive wins in the first half of the season to build confidence and momentum.

I think we are well and truly capable of beating sides like Melbourne, Richmond, Adelaide and North home or away if we have a good day, and wins against teams like that will push us closer to mid-table. However, I won't be too worried if that doesn't happen as long as we see guys like Polec, Lester, Lisle, Bartlett and Green really developing in tandem with the three R's etc. Good performances from the draftees will be icing on the cake.

 

[MacMum]

Well I am happy with all our drafts and am excited about the next few years.

..+1...nothing wrong with being positive about things either ceebee, good for you!!

 

[Banana Boots]

..+1...nothing wrong with being positive about things either ceebee, good for you!!

+2

 

[spotthedog1]

Didn't berate you, just asked some fairly simple questions - that you failed to answer. Quite clearly you have never seen Yeo play live & have based your opinion a short highlight clip along with BF & media talk. You are amongst the thousands of BF 'draft experts' that scepticism becomes a middle name for in all things draft.

OK have an opinion but don't turn all 'victim' (berate/sue) if someone exposes the basis of the opinion is paper thin.

Mate, I can have my opinions and you can have yours. Don't see why you need to try to belittle me just because I didn't particularly value one of our picks. Not playing a victim card - just calling it as I see it...

And I didn't answer coz I don't have to justify myself to you. I'm not trying to say "I'm right, the recruiters are wrong", I'm not trying to say "this is a veritable fact", I'm saying "my opinion is that he wasn't worth quite that much". I said that, and I said why I thought that. Yes, I only watched 2 EF games this year, and looked through the stats and opinions for a few others. Whoopy-do. I'm not a full time recruiter. How many did you watch to so vehemently object to my opinion? I can offer my opinions when I like, and I don't think you need to try to take me down a peg, just because you disagree with my point of view.

And if you're sick of the "thousands of BF 'draft experts' that scepticism becomes a middle name for in all things draft" then why are you here? This is a forum for opinions. I'm not claiming to be an expert, and even of those here who may be able to claim that tag, I haven't heard one person proclaim themselves an expert. We're all just here to share info and opinions.

 

[whatboutbob]

Mate, I can have my opinions and you can have yours. Don't see why you need to try to belittle me just because I didn't particularly value one of our picks. Not playing a victim card - just calling it as I see it...

And I didn't answer coz I don't have to justify myself to you. I'm not trying to say "I'm right, the recruiters are wrong", I'm not trying to say "this is a veritable fact", I'm saying "my opinion is that he wasn't worth quite that much". I said that, and I said why I thought that. Yes, I only watched 2 EF games this year, and looked through the stats and opinions for a few others. Whoopy-do. I'm not a full time recruiter. How many did you watch to so vehemently object to my opinion? I can offer my opinions when I like, and I don't think you need to try to take me down a peg, just because you disagree with my point of view.

And if you're sick of the "thousands of BF 'draft experts' that scepticism becomes a middle name for in all things draft" then why are you here? This is a forum for opinions. I'm not claiming to be an expert, and even of those here who may be able to claim that tag, I haven't heard one person proclaim themselves an expert. We're all just here to share info and opinions.

Yep, let's move on. In fact, this thread is well past its expiry date. Into the archives she goes.