Maybe we haven't drafted as well as we think

[GabbaMan]

If we haven't drafted as well as we all hoped, then it may be that we have gone for too many one-pace triers & tacklers!

Time to forget about recruiting hard at the ball, do or die type players and please get us some highly skilled players with afterburners.

Personally I'm happy with our talls.

My problem is the later choicers, where perhaps in hindsight we could have punted on the quicker, more flambouyant types, especially pacey ballwinners.

 

[The Flying Belgian]

The big problem with saying we haven't drafted well is that the game has changed that much in the past 5 years. Even the last year has seen endurance become less of an asset than it has in the past.

But it's easy to forget we're in the first part of the season and blokes don't really get any faster from this point in, unless they're coupled with super endurance. The wear and tear of footy soon wears some teams down.

 

[Bobby Beecroft]

With the addition of 2 new teams ie. Gold Coast & West Sydney likely to enter the draft prior to actually playing, a stockpile of maturing KPPs may well be seen as a blessing. When this occurs they will become harder to accumulate.

Just another angle that doesn't appear to have been considered when looking 2/3 years down the track.

That said I think the best midfielder with our 1st selection in the next draft is fast becoming a must. We really have been exposed in the 1st 3 rounds in this area.

 

[acuguy]

If 3 out of Schmidt, Hawksley, Dalziel, Sheldon, Austin and Polkinghorne turn out to be quality footballer then our recruiting staff are geniuses. If they don't then we are going to have a raft of quality key position players without anyone that can get the ball!

 

[Hollow Knight]

If 3 out of Schmidt, Hawksley, Dalziel, Sheldon, Austin and Polkinghorne turn out to be quality footballer then our recruiting staff are geniuses. If they don't then we are going to have a raft of quality key position players without anyone that can get the ball!

Chris Johnson has massive wraps on Polkinghorne apparently.

 

[Ruse]

Chris Johnson has massive wraps on Polkinghorne apparently.

pfft, what the hell does he know.

 

[xplo]

If 3 out of Schmidt, Hawksley, Dalziel, Sheldon, Austin and Polkinghorne turn out to be quality footballer then our recruiting staff are geniuses. If they don't then we are going to have a raft of quality key position players without anyone that can get the ball!

Spot on, and I think there's every chance of that happening. Dalziell would have to be a chance this week and Schmidt perhaps in the next month. So far we've been a bit stiff with injuries to Sheldon and Hawkesly, but Sammy made to travelling emergency for the away Carlton game last year.

The other two are first year kids and might get a look in in the later part of the year.

Kiel is the other one. Pacy and punchy and can give a Boomer Harvey angle to your midfield. Harding is quick and Duffer was apparently good in the weekend.

We're missing that 23-26 tier of midfielders -- Hadley, Ben Robbins, Shattock, Gram, McGrath, Headland, Fixter, Logan, Moody, etc. For various reasons -- opportunity, injury, ability -- we've got a gap between our Black/Power/Lappin group and the Adcock, Proud, Stiller group.

No surprise that's exactly the age range that Ablett, Bartel, Kelly, Chapman, Corey etc are in.

So, drafting a gun midfielder in November is unlikely to make a big difference there.

 

[SDG72]

Kiel is the other one. Pacy and punchy and can give a Boomer Harvey angle to your midfield. Harding is quick and Duffer was apparently good in the weekend.

I agree that Kiel is the other one to watch.

However, being a rookie his chances are going to be limited as I believe the Lions are leaving the spare space on the list incase on of our ruckman get injured. They will then have to promote Tippet.

 

[Grimreepah]

We're missing that 23-26 tier of midfielders

If you break up our midfielders into age brackets:

27-30: a handful of quality players that perform week in week out

23-26: a dearth of players

20-23: out of form. Adcock is a gun, but more would have been expected of Rischitelli, Sherman, Selwood, Stiller, Moody and Corrie. Hooper is good but currently not in form. Brennan is a slow developer.

under 20: has potential, but every club has that.

As far as analysing the recruiting, we lost players in the 23-26 age bracket to keep the premiership team together. Perhaps some individual decisions in hindsight would have been made differently, but overall it was a sacrifice worth making.

If we are to be critical it would be more of the 20-23 age group. I had thought we had a good ability to find gems late in the draft, but perhaps our lack of good draft picks is starting to show a little. Also we lost Lynch, Leppa and Michael in quick succession so we needed to draft talls.

Don't think the 06 and 07 drafts would be making much difference to our current team just yet. Selwood is a freak and would be a good addition, but there was a risk factor with him coming off a knee reconstruction. Recruiting is a gamble, and if the fans expect perfection then you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

 

[knaf]

Just got a chance to see half the game last night on the very little screen provided by Bigpond. I wasnt as unhappy as some posters. After some of the posts on Sunday morning I had very low expectations and was prepared for the worst. Prehaps having some time to get over the loss also helps.

We got beaten by a more mature side that plays a very brutal brand of football. The week before they slaughtered a grand final side from the previous year. A couple of years ago when we couldnt stand up to them physically at all they slaughter us too.
Lions players I had high hopes for looked ordinary. Hard to identify a winner in the half I saw. We appeared to be smashed around the clearences. But with a bit of luck we could have been within a goal 10 minutes into the last quarter. I thought as a unit the guys stood up to the Swans and stuck to the game plan.

Our recruiters seem to be following the same path as Hawthorn. Get the structure right and then fill in the gaps. Rucks and KPPs generally need 3 to 5 years at league level before you get a consistent output. We still need a big bodied CHB (Patfull is currently doing a great job but is really more suited as a third tall) and a lead up CHF (hopefully Hendo is the answer). We have a bonus in the Berger who is starting to deliver as a ruckman, but we have no ruck depth.

Depending how Clark, Mills, Tyler, Gardiner etc go this year we might have the structure of talls set for the next 10 years when we come to recruiting and drafting for next year. Also depends how Rischa, Selwood, Stiller and Sherman go for the rest of the year. Mids who have been in the system for 3 to 5 years and there are still question marks is a worry.

Overall I think our recruiting and list management has been at least good and maybe better than good. ( based on performances across all clubs/postion on ladder /injuries to recently selected players). I support the general approach to get a strong structure in place first.

 

[xplo]

I've seen a few blokes wondering why we couldn't draft a bloke like Cyril Rioli or Cameron Stokes.

In real estate terms, Cyril -- like Richard Tambling -- is 'a pool'.

If you have a 6 bedroom house (Franklin, Roughead) in a leafy, well-to-do street (Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis) behind an impressive and imposing gate (Gilham, Croad), paying for a beautifully landscaped pool may well turn your $1 million property into a $1.5 million dollar property. Wise investment that.

However putting that same pool into a neat, two bedroom semi-detached unit in Reservoir * actually makes it harder to sell. Simply the people in that market aren't thinking about pools and haven't got the time and money to maintain one.

Rioli's an undoubted talent but if Hawthorn swapped him for Eddie Betts, Austin Wonneamari or Nathan Djerrkura, I doubt they'd be getting much less.

Similarly, as much as Richmond people would love to see Young Cyril as a Tige, he'd be no more use to them Marty McGrath or Andrew Krakeur were.

We have a decent house (Brown, Bradshaw), a robust wooden fence (Merrett, Patfull, MacDonald) but the address isn't good enough to be putting in pools.


* Queenslanders, insert your own respectable but affordable suburb

 

[acuguy]

Lovely little scenario except i think you will find that Rioli is the Jaguar sitting in the garage-always purring and ready to go, a good sign as to where we want to be.


Eddie Betts-Toyota
Austin Wonneamari -Mitsubishi Colt
or Nathan Djerrkura-Ford Laser

Rioli has all the goods to be the real deal, i agree with what you have said about key position players, but you can't win games unless someone gets the ball to them.

 

[xplo]

Lovely little scenario except i think you will find that Rioli is the Jaguar sitting in the garage-always purring and ready to go, a good sign as to where we want to be.


Eddie Betts-Toyota
Austin Wonneamari -Mitsubishi Colt
or Nathan Djerrkura-Ford Laser

Rioli has all the goods to be the real deal, i agree with what you have said about key position players, but you can't win games unless someone gets the ball to them.

Rioli has barely had a kick outside F50 -- there's no reason he needs to. Oodles of supply and Buddy-centric defenders -- a small forward's heaven.

 

[acuguy]

Rioli has barely had a kick outside F50 -- there's no reason he needs to. Oodles of supply and Buddy-centric defenders -- a small forward's heaven.

Hawthorn is a team i hold close to my heart- my pre Bears team, Rioli has been good through the middle of the field, showed great evasive skills, clean hands, seeks out his own ball and uses beautifully.

 

[Old Den]

I've seen a few blokes wondering why we couldn't draft a bloke like Cyril Rioli or Cameron Stokes.

In real estate terms, Cyril -- like Richard Tambling -- is 'a pool'.

If you have a 6 bedroom house (Franklin, Roughead) in a leafy, well-to-do street (Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis) behind an impressive and imposing gate (Gilham, Croad), paying for a beautifully landscaped pool may well turn your $1 million property into a $1.5 million dollar property. Wise investment that.

However putting that same pool into a neat, two bedroom semi-detached unit in Reservoir * actually makes it harder to sell. Simply the people in that market aren't thinking about pools and haven't got the time and money to maintain one.

Rioli's an undoubted talent but if Hawthorn swapped him for Eddie Betts, Austin Wonneamari or Nathan Djerrkura, I doubt they'd be getting much less.

Similarly, as much as Richmond people would love to see Young Cyril as a Tige, he'd be no more use to them Marty McGrath or Andrew Krakeur were.

We have a decent house (Brown, Bradshaw), a robust wooden fence (Merrett, Patfull, MacDonald) but the address isn't good enough to be putting in pools.


* Queenslanders, insert your own respectable but affordable suburb

For our list structure,we couldn't draft Rioli because we wanted Henderson at pick 8 - we could draft Collier because no one else had taken him(luckily) - as we wanted proud,we couldn't think about drafting Kurt Tippett with Aker's pick because Adelaide got him 2 spots beforehand

It's all about needs,circumstance and luck as you know xplo - I will be surprised if we don't go for a mid in round 1 this year and we may have a midfield gem(or 2) already on the list, yet to emerge

I think our "house" is in good shape with another CHB(or 2) and another ruckman as projects to work on

 

[Dippers_Mullet]

We didn't.

That was Sam Sheldon.

I've played on him... How's he coming along?

 

[Dippers_Mullet]

Hawthorn is a team i hold close to my heart- my pre Bears team, Rioli has been good through the middle of the field, showed great evasive skills, clean hands, seeks out his own ball and uses beautifully.

Well spotted.

I'm adament Rioli will be used in the guts over the couse of his career, his awareness, evasiveness, raw pace and silky skills earmark him as a future pinch hitting midfielder.

 

[Hollow Knight]

I've played on him... How's he coming along?

Osteitis.

 

[campbell]

Osteitis.

OP strikes again with our young ens.

These overuse injuries have been a real bugbear for us over the last few years.

 

[Lace Out]

I've played on him... How's he coming along?

Nice one.

How did you rate him on the day?

 

[Dippers_Mullet]

Nice one.

How did you rate him on the day?

When I think about it he had good skills, was a good size, but I was suprised when I saw he was a possible draftee. He certainly didn't dominate the match though.

Mind you it was one of (or the, I cant remember) last games of the year, and I don't think anyone really cared too much.

He cleaned up one of our little guys so he wasn't the most popular bloke going around .

 

[notting18]

These overuse injuries have been a real bugbear for us over the last few years.

We are not alone with this. I think there was a discussion about OP a while ago where it was said that around 2 or 3 out of the 44 players on each list struggle with OP at any one time.

It is just one of the things that all AFL have to deal with in 21st Century Football.

 

[campbell]

We are not alone with this. I think there was a discussion about OP a while ago where it was said that around 2 or 3 out of the 44 players on each list struggle with OP at any one time.

It is just one of the things that all AFL have to deal with in 21st Century Football.

perhaps, but it is an overuse injury.Sp in that you may think it could be limited with changes in overuse.IN all levels I am saying, its an injury type that is more prevelant in young kids, which can be changed.


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E1DB1F3AF931A15751C0A9639C8B63
http://www.sportscoach.34sp.com/mod...&POSTNUKESID=0ebb4600864603166d61ddac9fd8b06a

http://www.cdh.org/HealthInformation.aspx?pageId=P02779
http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?sec=ser&sub=def&pag=dis&ItemID=59396

 

[Scotland]

Weekend's 25 as emailed to me by AFL Dream Team.

B: Robert Copeland, Daniel Merrett, Joel Macdonald
HB: Anthony Corrie, Joel Patfull, Colm Begley
C: Tim Notting, Jed Adcock, Travis Johnstone
HF: Luke Power, Jonathan Brown, Nigel Lappin
F: Daniel Bradshaw, Jared Brennan, Rhan Hooper
Foll: Jamie Charman, Simon Black, Michael Rischitelli
I/C: Lachlan Henderson, Matthew Leuenberger, Albert Proud, Justin Sherman
EMG: Troy Selwood, Cheynee Stiller, Scott Harding

11/25 from the last 4 drafts since you made your last GF, although Corrie was technically drafted earlier and re-drafted as a rookie.

Adcock, Bradshaw, Charman, Brown, Power, Lappin & Black would get games in all sides, Notting & Copeland in many. Not a bad effort to replace almost half your best side from a GF year within 4 drafts (and not be hopeless right now obiviously), I reckon there clubs out there who have drafted a lot worse.

I agree with the best available draft philosophy too.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Drafting is a tricky business because basically you're drafting for where you'll be three or four years down the track. It's fairly rare that you'll get a Joel Selwood and to be honest I'm not sure it's good for young players to play so much AFL football that early in their careers, just in terms of injury.

You'd like to see Riska/Selwood/Stiller to really step up this season though and start consistently affecting the results of matches which they maybe haven't done in the past.