Preview Round 1, 2022: St.Kilda v Collingwood - Marvel Stadium, Friday 18th March, 7:50PM AEDT

[Ephemeral Hope]

When will we announce North announced JHF early and Daicos got announced like a day ago?

 

[stavro#4]

Would be super nice if Brad Crouch got back to his best this season. Would go a long way to getting our midfield competitive.

Check out his season last year. Very good and under appreciated by us.

We also got a full season minus the 2 game suspension

 

[The Punter]

I'd take all 4 ahead of Long.

Hindsight is a great thing but Bolton was the obvious choice at the time.

I doubt Bolton gets anywhere near his best if drafted by St Kilda. Things different now, but in 2017 we didn't have the infrastructure.

 

[Jesuswasacarpenter]

That's why he's a bartender.

Lol...he is actually a works at a foundry and makes specialist manufactured products for overseas clients, his Dad owns the pub and he lives upstairs, is room and board are paid for by serving behind the bar for a few hours a night, and he makes pizzas, which are the best you can purchase in the town I live in.
He get a meal cooked for him every night and can drink as much as he wants...he has coached junior footy for a number of years...his opinions I don't always agree with however his footy knowledge is very good I reckon.

 

[Sun Ra]

Dunstan was that inside ball pig...my local bartender, the one who really rates Hayes...told me last night he thinks Dunstan is better than Crouch.

My garbo is also a big wrap for Hayes. Maybe he drinks at the same bar ?

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Fair, but all the years leading up to it still had an effect on what our current side is. And to my mind we still have issues in the centre that we are yet to address.

 

[Jesuswasacarpenter]

My garbo is also a big wrap for Hayes. Maybe he drinks at the same bar ?

My apprentice has said the same thing about Hayes he is rated over here ( I live in SA).
I hope he translates his SANFL form on to the big stage...the thing I keep hearing is that he is a competitive beast.

 

[FQFjt]

Check out his season last year. Very good and under appreciated by us.

We also got a full season minus the 2 game suspension

Yep good point. Wasn't his best season, but he didn't have a bad one by any stretch.

 

[SaintOfLondon]

I'm very bullish on Bytel and think those inside ball winners are under-rated (assuming they can actually kick and aren't slow), in saying that I've got no issue with him spending a month in the VFL to get some continuity into his footy after 3 years of interrupted footy. I'd hope to see him cement b22 after that.

 

[Sun Ra]

My apprentice has said the same thing about Hayes he is rated over here ( I live in SA).
I hope he translates his SANFL form on to the big stage...the thing I keep hearing is that he is a competitive beast.

At last - genuine intel. I like it. I'm hoping Hayes can make a contribution this season. He is still getting used to the speed of the game.
Jury is out but there is something there I think/hope.

 

[Chef Ratts]

So?

POTD

 

[SaintJunior]

After watching last night the obvious one is Petracca -put him in our side and we are contending

Shame he wasn’t available at our pick.

Oh wait

 

[gringo2011]

Looking at only the first pick we took in the draft. 2013 (when our rebuild really started) and 2014 are pretty obvious and don’t need to be retread. 2015 gets a pass with Gresham. In 2016 we pulled Long out of nowhere when any of the next 4 picks directly after him would have suited us better. 2017 is Clark so gets a pass, many wanted Bonar over Coffield but the jury is still out on both. 2018, hey we got Max King which is awesome so again a pass but he still isn’t a midfielder, Bailey Smith is the obvious midfield option there although Max is probably the better pick. 2019 we had no early draft picks. 2020 we excluded as again it’s obvious. 2021 there was Hobbs and a slew of others, obviously we don’t know if any can play yet.

Reality is the only players who can play centre square midfield that we drafted with our first pick since our rebuild started are Gresham and Clark and they are arguably better elsewhere on the ground. And of our first choice midfielders the only one we actually drafted is Seb Ross back in 2011. Meanwhile Melbourne have drafted all of Petracca and Oliver (and Salem if we count him), Spargo and Sparrow, and WB drafted all of Bont, Dunkley and MacCrae (who was 2012 admittedly, but adding 2012 definitely doesn’t help us) and Smith with their first pick alone. And both of those teams got their entire first choice midfield set up from the draft, all be it with a little help from the father-son rule.

Shai Bolton over Long or take 10 to the draft and get Jai Simpkin and we would already have a gun player running around.

 

[Chef Ratts]

When will we announce North announced JHF early and Daicos got announced like a day ago?

Do you mean the teams or naming debutants?

Team announcement around 6pm I believe and as far as the debutants are concerned, maybe none are playing?

 

[gringo2011]

Worth noting. Had we not Brought in Hill. We probably take Serong. So that helps inside.

But then we are crying out for outside skill and speed.

So robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Hill has offered **** all so far. Looks primed for a big season but I'd swap Serong for Hill in a flash.

 

[gringo2011]

I'd argue that our current rebuild started when Lethers arrived and that anyone holding on to the years prior needs to get over it asap.

Stop arguing about it then.

 

[gringo2011]

Sorry you are right. In which case, there is absolutely fu** all I’d want aside from Pickett maybe Weightman. But they are small forwards.

8. Fremantle: Caleb Serong (midfielder/forward)

9. Fremantle: Liam Henry (midfielder/forward)

10. GWS: Tom Green (midfielder)

11. Gold Coast: Sam Flanders (midfielder/forward)

12. Melbourne: Kysaiah Pickett (midfielder/forward)

13. Hawthorn: Will Day (defender)

14. Port Adelaide: Miles Bergman (midfielder/forward)

15. Western Bulldogs: Cody Weightman (forward)

16. Geelong: Cooper Stephens (midfielder)

17. Carlton: Brodie Kemp (midfielder/forward)

18. Port Adelaide: Mitchell Georgiades (key forward)

It was good draft. I reckon Brodie Kemp could be a pretty special player if he gets going.

 

[ScrappyDo]

Hobbs is a spud is a massive call. I guess we will just have to see how that pans out.

Not sure pick 26 is hardly the criteria we are discussing? There are a lot quality mids running around that were taken early in the 2nd round.

Anyway, you disagree with my opinion that we should have used one first rounder on a mid in the last 2 drafts but at the same time say you wanted Poulter so I'm not sure it's worth going round and round.

I disagree that pick 26 should be considered at the premium end of the mids talent pool which is the crux of the discussion..

I agree in that I'd have preferred we took Poulter or O'Driscoll and in an ideal world Perkins was my big want but that was never happening.

I disagree that passing on Hobbs was a mistake (TBD) as IMO he may well become a good player but doesn't have any outstanding features of a possible star. His lack of pace or size will hurt him at senior level.

Across 2020 and 2021 we got for our draft hand Allison, Highmore, Heath, Coops, Snags, NWM, Owens, Windy, Adams, Peris and Kyle, plus Crouch as a FA. And I am %100,000,000 satisfied with that.

 

[stavro#4]

Hill has offered fu** all so far. Looks primed for a big season but I'd swap Serong for Hill in a flash.

That wasn’t my argument.

It’s that if you had Serong you are then asking for outside speed. Poise and skill.

Currently we want a gun ball pig and clearance beast as we took the skill and speed.

 

[saint66au]

Very much doubt the Owens rumour has legs. We'd know by now

 

[gringo2011]

And that's my whole point.
For the last 5 years the sum of failures on "premium" mids equates to Poulter and Hobbs.
Stacked against Clark, Coff, King, Bytel, Hill, Byrnes, Snags, NWM, Owens, Windy aaaand Allison.
Yeah, we've been shithouse...

I'd say it's too early to tell if we've been good bad or indifferent. King and Snags look primed. Coff and Clark were looking promising but slow burn. We still haven't got a player that came on quick like Naughton and Bailey Smith have, they look set to become stars already. King probably the exception but still have him behind Naughton. Really need to find stars with our high picks when we get them, not just GOPs. At the end of the day that was the issue with Trout. We are probably above average for finding solid talent outside the high picks but below for finding top end talent generally.

 

[gringo2011]

That wasn’t my argument.

It’s that if you had Serong you are then asking for outside speed. Poise and skill.

Currently we want a gun ball pig and clearance beast as we took the skill and speed.

But now we don't have either. Hill is a HBF and we don't have the inside pig.Hopefully Hill pays off this season though. So far so good, he looks like a good player again now even if he isn't on a wing.

 

[Chef Ratts]

Very much doubt the Owens rumour has legs. We'd know by now

Hopefully that means they'll pick Bytel

 

[stavro#4]

But now we don't have either. Hill is a HBF and we don't have the inside pig.Hopefully Hill pays off this season though. So far so good, he looks like a good player again now even if he isn't on a wing.

Hill being on a wing or a HBF is semantics.

We play him at half back to get him on the ball quicker. We want to use his speed to break a line and his kicking to open the play or to beat the first press which is the most aggressive.

So we clearly took the speed and poise.

 

[Sun Ra]

But now we don't have either. Hill is a HBF and we don't have the inside pig.Hopefully Hill pays off this season though. So far so good, he looks like a good player again now even if he isn't on a wing.

Hill just needs to get the "deer in the headlights" thing out of his game where he freezes and turns it over. He seems to be doing that now.