Before my time on Big Footy but I'd hazard a guess that some were saying similar re Dangerfield, 1st round pick etc etc etc.
Danger didn't follow the normal hype/hope trajectory on Bigfooty, I think largely to do with his first year circumstance of staying in Victoria. From memory he played a game for Westies on the Easter weekend, and made his AFL debut later in the season when the Crows had back-to-back games at Docklands. Apart from that, with the relative lack of video on the web (compared to today), so there wasn't a lot of info on what he did in 2008 besides those handful of games. Combine that with the relative flashiness of his breakaway strength/speed that was evident from day 1, and his reception on BF was more akin to "OMG I love Pedlar the most give him a Brownlow now" than "Ned hasn't won a game off his own boot yet so he's a bust"