Can we please move on?

[michael7]

If we did not pick up Pears we still would have had Hooker and Hurley as tall backs.. Pears as another quality tall defender is just an added bonus that allows us to essentially play a similar player in Hurley forward.

As for Williams being the perfect player for us, a bloke we call 'Gus' says hi Zaharakis has also been playing this role at times for us, whilst Davey has shown he is more than capable of being a hit up target.

As for previous selections... Joel Selwood was the premier junior, a standout and a player who was always going to walk into an AFL club and dominate. His shoulders were suspect and that is the reason for clubs overlooking him before the Hawks took a punt

First off - Yes we would still have had Hooker and Hurley but then who plays forward with Gumbleton? Neagle? Yeah he has got talent but as we all know there are still many question marks over him whilst the Ruckmen do need to have some rest throughout the game.

Second - Yes we have Monfries, Zaharakis and Davey but cast your mind back to the end of last year and Davey had shown nothing like his 2010 form bar the r.13 Carlton game and a lot of people - me included - were hoping to see a lot more of Zaharakis up the ground this year which would've left only Monfries. Look I'm well aware of Monfries and his talents but I just felt at the time that Williams would compliment Monfries given that Monfries pushes up to the wings whereas Williams played primarily deeper in the forward line at Hawthorn and there were also other question marks over Davey, Jetta and even Reimers.

Third - Yes it would be great to have Selwood and he was highly rated before the draft but no-one knew that Gumbleton would have this injury run whilst Selwood had also had something like two knee recos in two years. Look hindsight is great and Selwood would be brilliant to have at the dons but thats just the way it is and Geelong took the risk and it paid off but it could so easily have gone the other way.

Finally, hindsight is great and its easy to say knowing what we know now. Having said that, I agree that our recruiters may have got some wrong before and shouldn't only ever be praised but I just feel like there are some people on here who sometimes only post a certain side of the story to suit their argument (Not aimed at the two posters that I've quoted in this thread by the way). Anyway my work is done, I feel like I've made my point and I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Kong]

As for Williams being the perfect player for us, a bloke we call 'Gus' says hi

Different players.

Zaharakis has also been playing this role at times for us

Was this planned before 2010? Very unlikely.

whilst Davey has shown he is more than capable of being a hit up target.

Read above.

As for previous selections... Joel Selwood was the premier junior, a standout and a player who was always going to walk into an AFL club and dominate. His shoulders were suspect and that is the reason for clubs overlooking him before the Hawks took a punt

What?

He did a knee and didn't play the entire season of the draft.

As for Hawthorn taking a punt? Errm...

And Rioli, well we all should know that Rioli is Longy's nephew, we should have taken him if we were to the whole 'family history' thing that we seem to have happening..

What 'family history thing'? Because we drafted Anthony Long? You're kidding yourself.

Also, there's a massive difference between pick #6 in a very strong top-10 draft and pick #33 in one of the weakest drafts in history. More liberty to gamble, if you ask me.

Overall though, I am disappointed we do not have Rioli or Selwood, hindsight is a wonderful thing though..

Exactly.

12 other clubs overlooked Rioli, and 5 others overlooked Selwood. Get over it.

What good does pumping yourself up in hindsight do? For yourself, maybe something small; for everybody else reading it, nothing; for the club, absolutely zilch.

Move on guys.

 

[George Washington]

^^ Exactly what I was going to say but just couldn't be bothered typing it out.

 

[Pweter]

Really, the whole draft is a gamble, even high picks. These are kids that are often only just finishing growing (or still growing) and most have never played league level in any state (WAFL, SANFL, VFL). It is therefore relatively unknown how their body will adjust to the AFL workload (many have injuries in their early years), how they will adjust to playing against elite athletes and how they will adapt to the break neck speed of AFL.

You have to remember these are 17/18 year old kids when drafted. Once most players had to come through the U19s and even reserves to earn a senior gig and even then most had quiet starts to their senior AFL career. Now they are expected to make the biggest adjustment in their football lives within 12 months else they are jumped on and sledged.

Patience is required with some of these kids and I think we are starting to see a bit with respect to Myers and Gumby. Sure, Selwood would be great but I don't blame the recruiters for not taking him. Rioli..... well I'd love him but quality KPPs are very hard to find and I reckon the recruiters firming up our KP prospects did the right thing.

 

[Slattery_20]

Takes 2 minutes and 20 keystrokes to reply, just a couple of clicks to Ignore List and the troll is gone forever.
I see no reason to believe why 'bombersno1' should be regarded as an Essendon supporter at all.

 

[vast]

Im pretty pleased with our drafting in the last few years, guys like pears, hooker hurley, melksham and zaharakis all look like being 200 plus gamers and very good players. Hurley could end being the best player from the 2008 draft and a genuine superstar.

Of course we have made 'mistakes' if you wanna call them that, like previous posters have said you make the decision based on all the information available
to you at the time.

One example Bryce Gibbs was talked up as being the greatest prospect since judd and clearly the best player in a 'superdraft' filled with KPP's that were gonna be stars of the competition. 4 years on would you say carlton wasted Pick 1 in the superdraft as they didn't take Selwood? Most people would say yes, but back then no one in their right mind would have taken selwood over gibbs.

You gotta take the good with the bad and I think we have our fair share of good on our list that will hopefully keep getting better. Go Bombers!