He was pick 1

He's the future of the team

He's probably a better player now than 80% of the list.

Unless Marc is injured/knackered/obviously not trying or interested, he should play every game next year. He doesn't have to get good numbers. DeLedio didn't really in the first half of the year. He just needs to play as best he can, spend half the game on the bench, get his hands on the ball, and gear up for 2007.

EVERY GAME.

PEOPLE WHO WORRY ABOUT "RISKING" PLAYERS DO NOT UNDERSTAND MANAGEMENT. IF HE IS PHYSICALLY FIT, HE SHOULD BE PLAYING. "MENTAL" STATE IS A MATTER FOR THE COACHES TO GUIDE HIM DIRECTLY. HE IS NOT GOING TO GET BLOODY GULF WAR SYNDROME.

EVERY GAME.

The same goes for Russell. And, needless to say, blokes like Walker, Simpson, Bentick etc etc. If Pagan needs to drop them to the Ants, its because he's not coaching them correctly, or they've stopped trying. From what I've seen, they all relish trying.

IRRESPECTIVE OF PERFORMANCES. IF THEY'RE TRYING, AND NOT INJURED, THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH.

They need the confidence of knowing they're part of the team now, that they have the respect of their coaches, and that they won't be shitcanned for mistakes.

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Love Cricket? Love me

Agree....

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Unless he is crap or injured, he should play all 22, plus the 4 after that, lol.

No, only 3 after that. With Murphy playing every game, we'd have to assume we finish top, get the double chance and win in the first week

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Love Cricket? Love me

I've never seen him, is he that good Tyrant?

Another facet of the draft these days is "Return on Investment". Murphy cost us a truckload of Footy Karma Points, and we (the angry fans) need to see some reward for that. For Murphy to rot in the reserves for 2 seasons, while Pagan waits for him to tie his shoes correctly or something, would really cheese me off. I'm still a bit peeved that Russell didn't play more games, and that it took him so long to give Simpson and Bentick regular games.

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Love Cricket? Love me

For a pick 1, he'd want to be.

The kid really tries as well. We'll only know how good he can be if we see him at the top level. If he's putting in like a Thai Nike employee on the field, we've got to trust him to let his potential come out. Its only going to come out if we give him a stage.

He's like any performer. You have you give him a stage for him to really show what he can do.

If our pick 1 turns out to be a dud, then everyone at the club should be sacked. There's no excuse for that in this day and age. With pick 1, odds are he's more likely to be a superstar than a chump. But there's only one way to find out.

Or, put it this way: would we prefer to see guys like Prendergast or Bannister get games ahead of Marc? I'd rather reshuffle the deck and find taggers from within the squad, and let Marc play forward pocket/bench.

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Love Cricket? Love me

well we wont see guys like diggers, johnson, harford, bowyer, clarke etc taking games off theses kids, not too mention campo. they served their purpose of trying to hold the team together and keep us competitive while we developed. now its the turn of the kids.

i reckon we cna expect to see a team something more like this:

Livo Saddo Teague
Lappin T Bird Bower
Russell Carrazzo Simpson
Fisher Waite Whitnall
Betts Fevola Kouta

French Stevens Bentick

Bench: Murphy, Deluca, Scotland, Walker
Emg: Houla, Bryan, Wiggins

and guys like Setanta, Blackwell, Hartlett will hopefully keep the pressue up on the more established players.

man even now it's bloddy hard to pick a line up.
like you i hope the murphys, russells , bowers and blackwells of the list get a bit more of a chance

It is a big jump from playing against school boys to senior AFL footy. Very few make the transition straight away.

You can't play all the kids for the sake of it. What happens if the majority of them struggle and we get smashed because we've got too many kids struggling? There has to be some balance between the future and short term misery. That's why the club drafted players like Chambers.

As for the 2005 draft, it was widely considered the most open draft ever so to say everyone at the club should be sacked if Murphy tuns into a dud is a bit much. A lot of experts have openly said they didn't have Murphy at number 1. Being no.1 isn't always a guarantee of elite talent.

But definitely I would like to see Murphy get every chance in 2006.

i think we should, it will make him a better player, he will gain confidence and we should do wha the tigers did with deledio, he played every game.

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"I can't wait to win a premiership with this club" - Fev

That's fine to say Murphy should play every game, but you can say our 10 or 12 most talented kids should play every game.

What if he is not as good as Deledio and he struggles, do we keep playing him regardless. Would he not lose confidence?

If that happens, then you put him back into the Ants.

And by that time you may have set back his natural progression a year, are you willing to take that chance?. Jeez I know we are eagar for "something... anything" to happen, but let's not get carried away. Start him in the Ants for the first few games and let him prove himself. His performances there will indicate what level he is currently at. I'm sure we can all wait THAT long.

You're old skool, Speakers. The club drafted players like Chambers because they made a mistake and overrated him.

I also didn't say we should play all the kids. I said we should play Russell and Murphy. I don't see how playing Murphy and Russell ahead of a guy like Chambers DIMINISHES our chance of success, given that Chambers is such a shockingly untalented player.

And this "they get smashed and wrecks their confidence" doesn't wash with me. The only way losing/making mistakes will damage their confidence excessively will be in a culture where failure is not tolerated. Thats what I mean by "management issue". If they know that effort will win over error, and we as supporters and the coaches are tolerant of the odd error and keep pumping them up, eventually their talent will shine out. If we don't dwell on mistakes, and instead praise efforts and promise them games based on effort, thats the ticket for this team.

Tell them as long as they try, they'll be given a game the next week. Obviously you "coach" them through the week out of their errors without making them feel like shit for it, then there shouldn't be a problem. We can't bloody cotton wool them forever. We have to back them in with faith.

Obviously if they are PHYSICALLY weakened by playing firsts a lot (and they shouldn't be if they're given enough bench time), then you give them a week off.

Be Bold. Run. Take risks. Play your game. Mistakes can be corrected. Keep running. Be accountable.

these are the basics of our future success..... not:

Be afraid. AFL is hard. You're not ready and you may never be. Mistakes will kill us. Be negative. Block and don't create......

Murphy was pick 1. Russell pick 9. Walker pick 2. Thats too great an investment to leave to chance. There's every reason why these guys will be guns if we let them.

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Love Cricket? Love me

I bloody hope they don't do anything like this.

We can either embrace fear, or conquer it by faith.... faith in potential and ability, and back our young players and our recruiters.

Or we can keep seeing Bannister, Prendergast and Chambers in the team.

Fear or Faith... what is it?

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Love Cricket? Love me

It's the least we can expect from an 18 year old!

No, but seriously hopefully he'll play a fair bit of seniors, if fully fit, i'll be happy with about 16-18 games. Just remember, he's bloody young and Walker didn't play the full 22 games.

We need to be patient. He's going to be good though. Looking forward to his debut, i'll be there, front row centre

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Corinthians 9:6- 8

You also mentioned the likes of Bentick and Simpson and threw in an 'etc'.

Don't you remember the club saying they drafted all the discards because they needed some hard bodies in the side?

It doesn't matter what you say to a young player, if he sees the ball being kicked through the opposition team's goal for the 30th time in a match for the third week running, and he knows he partly contributed to some of these goals being kicked, his confidence will take a hit.

We will let players like Murphy and Russell shine, but you need some balance.

If I am old skool, then you are gung-ho.

We need to be patient with him becoming a superstar... we don't need to be patient for his debut, and regular appearance. We should expect it from a coach interested in the future and not win/loss records

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Love Cricket? Love me