Todays game is all about hard running ball winners...it's no longer a game of specialists....it's a game played around mids who can fill a number of roles....joker types. That's why guys like Cloke, Fisher, Wiggo and co (and their type) are in effect redundant....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Good news, he's already grown. Wayne Hughes said he is 191cm.

Why do we always draft 188-190cm players and hope they grow...been down this road before, Chatfield, Vance, Sporn, Livingston.

Not for one moment suggesting that the new draftees will end up like the previous named but the 188-190 obsession. We had a name for it on TBV and the boards before that, 190 centimetris.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Absolutely right.

That's why our draft selections are the way to go. Have you seen their highlight reels? They can all run, jump, and especially kick (Fish, Chief take note!).

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"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

we have Dylan Buckley coming through as F/S and also Jake Pianta (potential CHF in the making) Blake Bray and Matt Lodge (another KPP im fairly sure) coming through over the next 2 years. If these prospects show us enough, we've just nabbed some very cheap talent.
Watch out for Jake Pianta in next years carnival...

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R A D I C A L B R O T H E R S

Inspired by the One-Minute Sculptures of Erwin Wurm

"All in all is all we are..."

When our recruiters say "best available" are they saying the "best available" player on current form or the "best available" player in 5-10 years?

If you take the "best available" player today you are going to take a mid-sized player 90% of the time and eventually you have no key forwards, not enough key backmen and a distinct lack of ruckmen. You become Footscray.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

When determining "best available" at the draft, I am sure this will include an evaluation of "upside", how much more can a player improve with the resources at an AFL club at their disposal, the full-time dedication, the coaching etc etc. Of course there is a baseline in talent but it's known that tall players take longer in the AFL system which is why they look for future upside as well. There are attributes that junior KP players will show that will require further development and will take time against bigger stronger opponents but if a player shows things like good sense of reading the play, takes one grab marks, has soft hands, ability to make several contests, demonstrating good work rate, you can get an indication of where a draftee may end up in 5 years time (if the development is right).

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Lucas was best available in every phantom draft I read -at least 3. That's pretty conclusive to me that Hughes made the right decision.

lets stop worry in about talia f f s we have got what ee got so u experts shut up

Predicting how draftees would turn out is like predicting the stock market, just wait and see what happens

Very good points you make KKK & CC. In the 2006 draft, when sydney took Jesse White at pick 79, it's clear that not only carlton, but 14 other clubs didn't not see the upside to Jesse white that the swans saw. We took Clint Benjamin at pick #51.

If this is not an example of when you should take at least one EDUCATED & WELL-RESEARCHED punt per year on a key forward, I don't know what is.

Cazzesman, can you please tell us why we refuse to take these educated punts on key forwards?

We don't have the best midfield in the AFL, so where's the fire?

Rotations, rotations, rotations.

See what Adelaide did to us last year.

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It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it

And Essendon*, who just ran past us.

On reflection, fleet-footed run-and-carry midfielders were probably our key deficiency.

Try to fit Kreuzer, Hampson, Warnock, Jacobs, Waite, O'hAilpin, Henderson, Jamison, Thornton, Bower and Austin into a line-up and its apparent that barring several injuries, we've got enough talls to work with for now.

But next draft and the one after we're going to need to go after a couple. Probably by trading a ready-made ruckman for a nice early pick.

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Dut, de dut, de daaa!

I think it's a pretty simple equation here - the club didn't rate what talls were on offer, and I'm not sure why anyone would pay a recruiting team if they went to a draft and picked players they didn't rate in order to satisfy positional requirements. If that was the case, then you can sack Hughes and put on Billy from Balwyn and all the other whinging so-and-so's who call up SEN or post on here, let them read the Herald Sun on the morning of the draft and pick our players based on how tall they are and who they supported as a kid.

Probably because we were EDUCATED & WELL-RESEARCHED.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Coming through as potential Father son selections??

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

NSW scholarship players. Of course, they are long shots, but are rated by some and with a bit of luck might be able to offer us something. I'd like to know a bit more about the three of them, actually.

Thanks, I wouldn't mind knowing a little more about these guys also....

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

I don't think we picked up 3 midfielders in this draft .......................


From what I have heard Lucas is a midfielder who can play in the HFF, Davies is 191 and played a number of games at CHB last year and Kerr is a wild card who can play up forward ................ Sure all 3 may be able to play through the midfield too, but they have other positions which they can play in and will be able to step into roles in the future (Lucas replacing Stevens, Davies replacing Scotland, Kerr replacing Houlihan). That said, if ONLY 1 or 2 of them make it then great, we have done well in the compromised draft. Better than taking a speculative pick in Panos, Temel or Hill (who are ALL still available in the Rookie draft .....................)

As for not addressing our needs, ANYONE who saw the Crows or Bombers run over us twice each last year will tell you run and carry through the midfield is one of our needs ....................

and a gameplan........

....... 4 or 5 big defenders is sooooooooooooooooo old school it isnt funny....

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