Scott Thompson

[hamG]

I would not swap players, Harry has a lot of versatility that we cannot use since we need him to play CHB pretty much all the time. Harry is a better all round player, Thompson may be a better 1v1 defender right now but its hard to tell since I have not had a close enough look at him.

 

[Selective Retention]

We picked Taylor with our first pick but we would have taken Thompson later on if you guys hadn't jumped in.

The thing with Taylor is that he stood out from the other state league players in that he is a genuine tall with good skills that blitzed the state screening tests that the recruiters love. You would never take a player like Scott Thompson in the first round of the draft. With Egan out Taylor has been given the job to play on the big name CHFs from the start and on balance has done a decent job so I wouldn't say we would regret selecting him ahead of Thompson.

As far as criticism goes, outside of Robert Walls who is a massive flog and just reguritates the same thing over and over, I don't think he has copped it that much

 

[Vegas.]

We took Scotty Simpson with out next pick after Thomo was picked up, and we took Dawson Simpson about 4 picks before Thomo.

How about a trade CrazyQ, Dawson for Thompson? Dawson was a 2nd rounder!!

 

[hamG]

Yeah he was mate - 2007

Thats why I edited my post before you replied Not a great case for my intelligence, I actually checked the '06 and '07 draft classes before writing a wholly incorrect statement.

 

[Vdubs]

What I liked about him at Geelong was his uncanny resemblance to Scarlett both physically and the way he attacked the ball; haven't seen much of him since, but was really annoyed he got away, just like Davenport.

 

[catswhiskers]

North did well to spot his talent. We would have taken Scott a bit later.

Big Dawson may well prove to have been worth picking before Scott - what I saw live before the PA game suggested to me he will be very good when he "grows up". He was up against Cloke in the ruck and did well. Dawson is a much better player than I was led to believe reading this forum.

We have now secured Gillies who looks the goods as well so we just need to add one more 192-195 cm defender with ability to secure the big defender area going forward.

I love to see late arrivers do well and I hope Scott continues to develop into a quality player.

PS when the gold coast and west sydney plunder the draft - the rest of us will be reduced to picking quality players from state leagues. I hope we have eyes and ears at every WAFL,SANFL,VFL game.

 

[Turkey Tom]

One advantage of Harry over Thompson, which we haven't really tried yet (!), is that he played CHF at times in the WAFL.

The Bulldogs game will be a great time to try this, as last time we played he didn't have a match up.

 

[CF]

I meant Taylor gets a bad wrap from people on here.

Thanks guys.

I disagree. He has copped an odd bake when he has had a bad game and been turned inside out at times. But overall the good outweighs the bad by a long stretch. All players can have a bad game now and then and especially ones still junior in their AFL Career.

Overall though, I think most Geelong supporters rate Taylor quite highly. Taylor is mobile, takes a strong mark, has a beautiful kick and can kick it a mile, he is smart and has settled into our backline like he has played there for 10 years.

 

[noclashjumpers]

When you think about the level Harry plays at, for the time that he's been playing, it's simply amazing. Particularly as a key position player.

 

[Jumping Jack]

Gillies will be a very good player and from what I'm told is alot closer to Scarlett than Thompson would ever be.

The big difference between the 2 is that Geelong intended to hold Thompson as insurance against Scarlett / Harley or Milburn going down but in Gillies they have a project they can work with in the next year or 2 as they did with Scarlett and develop a KP player who'll give us 200 games.

Need to remember with Thompson he's been in and out of that side a bit in the last 2 seasons and the kangas have not exactly set the world on fire in that time with on field results.

Also - I think if Thompson came back to Geelong while MoonDog is still around there'd be a bloke on our list who would be facing murder charges within a very short space of time.

 

[CrazyQ]

I disagree. He has copped an odd bake when he has had a bad game and been turned inside out at times. But overall the good outweighs the bad by a long stretch. All players can have a bad game now and then and especially ones still junior in their AFL Career.

Overall though, I think most Geelong supporters rate Taylor quite highly. Taylor is mobile, takes a strong mark, has a beautiful kick and can kick it a mile, he is smart and has settled into our backline like he has played there for 10 years.

Not on the Geelong board but from other supporters.

 

[CF]

Not on the Geelong board but from other supporters.

We watch him every week. Most other supporters see him only a few times a year and otherwise believe what flogert Walls says about him. nuff said.

 

[fugsy]

Not on the Geelong board but from other supporters.

They clearly are ill informed about the enigma that is the Q9.

 

[Patronus]

Not on the Geelong board but from other supporters.

As catman forever has said people feel the need to parrot Walls who took it apon himself to bag him every chance he got in his first year for nothing in particular just becuase he needed something to latch onto when Geelong were playing so well.

He would have been one of the more impressive first year players last year but you would never have know it the way Walls went on about him and after that everyone jumped onto the bandwagon.

I would not give up Taylor for Thompson. He had performed some very impressive shutdowns over his short career.

 

[krisholio14]

I'm still scratching my head as to why we wanted to take Dawson Simpson at all, let alone ahead of Scott Thompson when it was common knowledge we were going to try to pull a Matty Egan type selection with him.

Fortunately for us, the selection of Gillies has made it a moot point.

 

[hamG]

I'm still scratching my head as to why we wanted to take Dawson Simpson

My guess would be because he is really, really, really tall.

 

[krisholio14]

My guess would be because he is really, really, really tall.

So is Peter Street

 

[hamG]

So is Peter Street

So we have a pattern of taking such players. Hopefully in the next 30 years we will fluke one that works.

 

[thejester]

Simpson was rated going into the draft as a ruckman whose size could potentially allow him Aaron Sandilands-style dominance but who could actually pick up a footy below his knees and had something approaching skill. Was always going to be a project player; IMO it's still to early to write him off, particularly in light of our lack of a ruck coach (hopefully an area the club addresses soon).

EDIT: And for what's it worth I think Taylor and Thompson are completely different types of players. Can't say I saw a ton of VFL in 07 but we were loaded with KPP talent in a relative sense - Playfair, Spencer, Lonergan, Hunt and Grima were all in the team. People talked him up because he read the play well and because of his attack off half back, not because he was a classic lock-down defender. If we'd picked Thompson it would have been as an eventual replacement for Milburn. Not saying I wouldn't still have loved him but Laidler and McKenna both suggest they'll eventually be able to hold a position like that down.

 

[Vegas.]

He certainly is exceptionally tall. I saw him at Lambys one night and was totally blown away by his height, even compared to Ottens. He is a giant.

 

[Turbocat]

Very early days for Gillies but I do not see Scarlett in what I have seen but it will be interesting to watch him develop. On the other hand I do see a little bit Scarlo's mongrel in Thompson. I really don't think there would be a problem with Mooney if he did suddenly find his way to Geelong , its just game day stuff as far as I know a bit like Barry Hall and Scarlett pre international rules. However I doubt he will be going anywhere , he appears to be happy at North.

What is interesting is comparing Thompson to Hansen.
A highly valued early pick in a top draft is getting shown up by a kid from South Barwon. Hansen is a couple years younger and a bit taller but its another example of how players are under valued when they come thru the non standard pathway. I still think there should be some sort of system similar to Rookies or Father Sons where VFL sup players can be auto listed for a nominated value. It would reward clubs for trying to develop players from players who have previously missed out being drafted. It also shows we don't need to always throw our attention to the kids, there must be some good late developers 19-22, somewhere, that would fit well in the pending vacancies at Catland.

 

[Vegas.]

I agree with you Turbo, but not all clubs have a direct VFL affiliate, and we know how people like to whinge about Geelong rorting the system!

 

[Turbocat]

I agree with you Turbo, but not all clubs have a direct VFL affiliate, and we know how people like to whinge about Geelong rorting the system!

Their choice. We pay for that right ( I think $80,000 ) where as an aligned team is far less. Its not like we are stock piling players. It could be made a rule to use players who have been thru two drafts minimum or something to prevent rorting. Anyway with all the concessions to GC and NS , Im sure the AFL could be pushed by the likes of the Pies, the Bombers and the Cats if they wanted to push the issue.

 

[hamG]

Random thought: Had our VFL team not been so successful in 2007 North may have not even looked at him like no one looked at Egan and we would have grabbed him at the end of the draft.

 

[jim boy]

Their choice. We pay for that right ( I think $80,000 ) where as an aligned team is far less.

At most - they'll allow one or two more teams into the VFL, more than that and they may as well resurrect the reserves comp