SJ Pick in 2001 Draft

[Hood007]

I was perusing over some old draft stuff and I noticed that in the '01 superdraft the Cats took Charlie Gardiner at pick 23 (which we got for Justin Murphy)
And a fella called Stevie Johnson at pick 24.
Imagine if Murphy had've stayed?
Or we could only get a later draft pick for him?
Would the Cats have still chosen Charlie over Johnno if we didn't have that double pick?
Did they rate Charlie higher?
Would Stevie have still been there at our next pick (Playfair @ 41)?
Interesting in hindsight.
Especially now that Charlie is gone.
And Steve is in possesion of a little medal by the name of Norm.
Thoughts anyone?

 

[Catsace]

Justin Murphy from memory was acquired by Geelong for a Pick 11 in a draft that apart from Josh Hunt, proved hideous for Geelong in Bombers 2nd year as coach. This may have been the one that really firmed in Thompson's mind, and that of the whole club management that recycled players were not the way to go.

Geelong spent up big to obtain the 'Holy Grail' of a key forward, and gave up three picks (27,45,57) for Mitchell White. As it turned out, he was on his last legs despite only being about 27 or so, and Geelong only got about 20 unimpressive games from him in the end. Murphy seemed to be rarely comfortable at Geelong, and left after that awful Rd 22 game against Carlton to rejoin his old club, for the pick the OP mentioned. The unsavoury reaction by Murphy to Milburn's actions spoke of a player whose heart was never at Kardinia Park.

Didn't Geelong do well in 2001!! Bartel, Kelly, Gary Jr as a F/S pick and S.Johnson! Despite Gardiner and Playfair being picked up, who in their defence were serviceable players for who they were, it was at least a draft that saw Geelong get good games out of all their picks that time. Compared to 2000's effort, when Hunt aside all they did was redraft Lowther and H.Simpson, it was like chalk and cheese.

 

[Hood007]

^^^^^^^
Not sure what any of that has to do with the OP?

 

[DanA]

Justin Murphy from memory was acquired by Geelong for a Pick 11 in a draft that apart from Josh Hunt, proved hideous for Geelong in Bombers 2nd year as coach. This may have been the one that really firmed in Thompson's mind, and that of the whole club management that recycled players were not the way to go.

Geelong spent up big to obtain the 'Holy Grail' of a key forward, and gave up three picks (27,45,57) for Mitchell White. As it turned out, he was on his last legs despite only being about 27 or so, and Geelong only got about 20 unimpressive games from him in the end. Murphy seemed to be rarely comfortable at Geelong, and left after that awful Rd 22 game against Carlton to rejoin his old club, for the pick the OP mentioned. The unsavoury reaction by Murphy to Milburn's actions spoke of a player whose heart was never at Kardinia Park.

Didn't Geelong do well in 2001!! Bartel, Kelly, Gary Jr as a F/S pick and S.Johnson! Despite Gardiner and Playfair being picked up, who in their defence were serviceable players for who they were, it was at least a draft that saw Geelong get good games out of all their picks that time. Compared to 2000's effort, when Hunt aside all they did was redraft Lowther and H.Simpson, it was like chalk and cheese.

Was just looking on footywire and found a few things interesting:
- We could have had Shaun Burgoyne (12), Scott Thompson (16) or Daniel Kerr (18) with pick 11 in 2000. Still S.J has more than made up for the Murphy mistake.

- Geelong draft record is remarkable. Only 3 players who Geelong have taken in the national draft no longer on an AFL list. Those are:
2005 - Stephen Owen - Pick 35
Best players missed were Gamble and Stokes!

2003 - Cam Thurley - Pick 22
Next good player was Jed Adcock @ 33

2003 - Matthew Spenser - Pick 42
We didn't miss anyone although we passed 54 and Sam fisher went 55!

That is just phenomenal by Wells and our coaching staff (regarding player development)

 

[Catsace]

^^^^^^^
Not sure what any of that has to do with the OP?

Well, Justin Murphy was brought up, and i was outlining the scenario with this one-season player at the Cats. In answer to one of your points, he was never going to stay, his reaction at Geelong's players after the Milburn hit on SOS spelled out that his heart was still at Carlton, and not at Geelong.

Given White's propensity for injuries, it was no surprise that Geelong went tall with Gardiner at pick 23. They had several picks in the top 24, indeed four picks so they could experiment a bit. Bartel (Small) Kelly (Small) Gardiner (tall) and the next pick the talented S.J (small). Knowing Gary Jr was a F/S pick (small) they then picked two talls in Playfair and McCarthy. David Johnson was then picked at #81, who is of course still on the list.

Bear in mind too, that Geelong just watched Brisbane win a flag on the strngth of a powerful midfield. Bomber wanted to assemble a gang of young runners who have talent, that could develop into a midfield force. Thompson knew that assemble a great midfield, you then hold the keys to success. Wells foresaw the talent in many of those blokes, bearing in mind Corey, Ling, Enright and Chapman were already at the club. This group played a large role in winning the 2002 VFL flag, and by late 2003 were beginning to form the potent midfield core that we all now enjoy. Only Selwood and occasionally Prismall of players drafted more recently generally crack a gig in this midfield today. But as we all have seen over the past year, this midfield is awesome, in power it challenges the Brisbane unit of 6-7 years ago.

 

[Vegas.]

I'm pretty sure we were going to take Steve anyway. The idea was for a Maguire (local)/Johnson double with those two picks, however the Saints took him a couple of picks before. So Johnson was always on the radar, not sure why they picked in that order.

Read 'the Mission', it actually details how Wells got Bomber to come down to watch this kid who everyone thought was too slow. Apparently Bomber saw him in one play and said "He's not slow." - The rest is history.

 

[cats2rise]

Ive really got to get that book.

 

[Vegas.]

Agreed. Best use of paper I've ever seen. Ever.