Game Day Practice Match | North Melbourne v Melbourne | Feb 28th 1.10pm @Arden St. [Live on nmfc.com.au]

And isn't Kelly 27 or something and Walker is 21 or so. Who's to say what scope for improvement Walker has (IMO lots), and when Kelly is retiring Walker could be a gun in his prime. Time will tell but too early to be calling this a terrible choice by us.

As for yesterdays game, with so many players missing from both sides, i doubt either club could take anything out of it apart from giving some younger guys a run and trying a few things. The game against the Swans will tell much more.
 
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It’s almost like one game had all the elite players of the AFL while the other game looked like the second string players from two individual teams that finished in the bottom half of the ladder.


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Its more like the state of origin is what footy would be like if the afl hadnt added all the s**t franchises.
The afl is massively diluted these days quality is way down.
 
And isn't Kelly 27 or something and Walker is 21 or so. Who's to say what scope for improvement Walker has (IMO lots), and when Kelly is retiring Walker could be a gun in his prime. Time will tell but too early to be calling this a terrible choice by us.

As for yesterdays game, with so many players missing from both sides, i doubt either club could take anything out of it apart from giving some younger guys a run and trying a few things. The game against the Swans will tell much more.

Kelly is 25, 23 when he was drafted




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kaboom kid

From the River to the Sea, Israel will be free.
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Holy crap balls.

After nearly 20 years of hanging out in this joint I thought some half-decent common sense would be a constant around these parts but its deteriorating quicker than peoples memories..

After a couple of ordinary preseason games with 70% of our best locks out and our coaches giving 1st & 2nd year players a sniff, some of the depressing comments on here just has me laughing out loud.

I’m old and even I remember only 6 months ago this club winning 8 of its last 12 games which included big wins over top sides Collingwood and Richmond (didn’t that side that win the flag?..) and the absolute obliteration of our annual nemesis Port.

We haven’t lost hunger from last year, we haven’t lost our ability from last year, our coach hasn’t suddenly got dumber from last year, we just haven’t had the cattle on the park yet like last year.

Cool ya jets family and lets wait for the real stuff..
Great post. The Chicken Little Brigade are out in force, that's for sure. Its ironic how Rhyce fields two sides chock full of young and fringe players yet the reason for our current 'crisis' is because we don't play the kids. We had 4 rising stars last year.
 

kaboom kid

From the River to the Sea, Israel will be free.
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Kelly is 25, 23 when he was drafted




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Geelong struck gold with Kelly that's for sure but you can pick out examples like that from every draft. Eg Ben Brown getting picked up at 47. Plenty of spuds drafted above him by the other clubs. Kelly also got missed by all the other the clubs with picks 1 to 22 within that draft. Bit harsh for posters to lay that one at our feet just because we had the pick before.
 

Passmore

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Geelong struck gold with Kelly that's for sure but you can pick out examples like that from every draft. Eg Ben Brown getting picked up at 47. Plenty of spuds drafted above him by the other clubs. Kelly also got missed by all the other the clubs with picks 1 to 22 within that draft. Bit harsh for posters to lay that one at our feet just because we had the pick before.

They took a punt a struck gold for 2 years. There were clearly question marks as he probably should have gone in the top few on talent alone. Now he’s nicked off home and Geelong are back to square 1 with not much to show for it.
 

Kimbo

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Personal attacks and ideological stands aside, his footy insight is probably better than most on this board.
Just ask him. :rolleyes:

Technically, you're right. He's in the upper 50th percentile. Yet that's hardly the level of football genius he and his small band of accolytes claim.

He has some decent comment and insights from time to time, but he's equally prone to some idiotic comments, all on the back of a 'make a bold claim and hope some come through' mentality.

Where is Snake? Could use him now to sort this place out
Plenty of posters providing balance and composure.
 

7577969923

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They took a punt a struck gold for 2 years. There were clearly question marks as he probably should have gone in the top few on talent alone. Now he’s nicked off home and Geelong are back to square 1 with not much to show for it.

Is there any real explanation as to why Kelly had been passed over in multiple drafts and slid down into the 20's in the draft he was picked up in? Surely recruiters don't miss a guy who can walk in and be a top fifteen midfielder in the league in his first year?
 

Passmore

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Is there any real explanation as to why Kelly had been passed over in multiple drafts and slid down into the 20's in the draft he was picked up in? Surely recruiters don't miss a guy who can walk in and be a top fifteen midfielder in the league in his first year?

Possibly the go home factor. But then why didn’t WC or Freo pick him up?

There was obviously something amis.
 
Geelong struck gold with Kelly that's for sure but you can pick out examples like that from every draft. Eg Ben Brown getting picked up at 47. Plenty of spuds drafted above him by the other clubs. Kelly also got missed by all the other the clubs with picks 1 to 22 within that draft. Bit harsh for posters to lay that one at our feet just because we had the pick before.

You are absolutely correct , and my initial intention wasn’t to single out Will, but rather, highlight the previous recruitment department’s obsession with speculative picks in recent years.
They appear to get too cute with selections
Guys that didn’t even feature in the plethora of phantom / mock drafts
J Williams , Neilson, Watson etc that we burnt decent draft picks on , who would’ve been available much later if we had that much of a hard on for them
On draft night I’m sure most of us were shocked/ surprised when Will’s name was read out , but of course I hope the kid has a great career and in years is discusssed as a bargain pick up


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Apr 26, 2014
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Possibly the go home factor. But then why didn’t WC or Freo pick him up?

There was obviously something amis.
Was always a good player in the WAFL, but it wasn't until he took his game to the next level in 2017 that he became too hot a commodity for the AFL clubs to ignore. The draft age is very young and some guys just mature later.
 
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Why put aside personal attacks and bigotry?
Yep fair enough. Was a silly thing for me to write. I personally just come on the board for the footy related chat and skip the other stuff. I realise that leads to a not a very well balanced take on someone’s posting. I feel there is a lot of negativity on the board after 2 poor. practice runs and the place needed a reality check.
 

arden station

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Whether you're worried that the underwhelming preseason performances will be indicative of our early season premiership season form or not, we are really struggling with our ball movement out of defence. This has been happening every preseason for a number of years. We play sides in JLT, Marsh etc that hammer us with small forwards who pressure up and we can't deal with it.

You'd think that we'd be practising this all summer. But the problem is that we can't because we only have 2 small forwards on our list. So in intraclub scratch matches the two backlines don't face anywhere near the same heat they do against other sides.

Then against real opposition they either chip it around conservatively in D50 and go nowhere, try a chain of handballs which comes unstuck or try a risky kick that our half backs can't make. Finally we might kick it down the line where our forwards have pushed up to try take a mark at half back. If they do, we might get it out but usually it spills and our 6"2+ top heavy forwards get killed at ground level. Repeat.
 

kaboom kid

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Is there any real explanation as to why Kelly had been passed over in multiple drafts and slid down into the 20's in the draft he was picked up in? Surely recruiters don't miss a guy who can walk in and be a top fifteen midfielder in the league in his first year?
Not really. His WAFL form was pretty good (2nd in league B&F I believe the year he got drafted. Surprising that the WA clubs never selected him.
 
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