* First Round Draft picks to come in

[bulldogsfight]

We had 8 first rounders not playing

Is this a ray of hope of a bright future
or
bad drafting, bad development, bad team selection or bad luck

Grant
Williams
Smith
Hrovat
Wallis
Cordy
Bontempelli
Howard

[The Doctor]

I'm looking forward to seeing Hrovat back in the senior side. I think he may well become the best of this lot.

You can't help injuries which has affected most of them so a bit of bad luck there. Only Cordy and Howard have proven themselves incapable at the senior level so that is certainly poor drafting.

[LostDoggy]

I'm looking forward to seeing Hrovat back in the senior side. I think he may well become the best of this lot.

You can't help injuries which has affected most of them so a bit of bad luck there. Only Cordy and Howard have proven themselves incapable at the senior level so that is certainly poor drafting.

Agree with all of this, Hrovat looks silky smooth, pray that Bonts continues his upward spiral.

Howard is still the most dissapointing drafting decision on that list. '09 was one of the deepest running drafts in the last decade, and we took a speculative pick at best.....should have been a third rounder! Easy in retrospect but this decision was wrong before, during and after, anyone for Nat Fyfe at 20?

[LostDoggy]

Agree with all of this, Hrovat looks silky smooth, pray that Bonts continues his upward spiral.

Howard is still the most dissapointing drafting decision on that list. '09 was one of the deepest running drafts in the last decade, and we took a speculative pick at best.....should have been a third rounder! Easy in retrospect but this decision was wrong before, during and after, anyone for Nat Fyfe at 20?

That's one of the most popular and repeated posts on this forum MCL

[The Bulldogs Bite]

We had 8 first rounders not playing

Is this a ray of hope of a bright future
or
bad drafting, bad development, bad team selection or bad luck

Grant
Williams
Smith
Hrovat
Wallis
Cordy
Bontempelli
Howard

My opinion:

Grant - Bad drafting if compared to Dangerfield etc. but if he reproduces his form of late last year, he will be a very handy player moving forward.
Williams - Last year on the list IMO. Had/has talent, more so as a forward, but his body has killed his career. Unlucky.
Smith - We miss him. Will be a good inclusion.
Hrovat - Rate him very highly, will be a good inclusion.
Wallis - Jury still out - needs more strings to his bow to make it.
Cordy - Won't make it.
Bontempelli - Early signs are good but not realistic to expect 'side improving' performances until another 1-2 years. Should get a few games though.
Howard - Won't make it. Absolutely woeful selection.

Overall, it's a mixed bag. Grant and Wallis still have time but are far from convincing - we really need both to come on very quickly/soon. Cordy/Howard are busts. Smith/Hrovat/Bontempelli look like being strong contributors moving forward but it's hard to estimate how much of a better side they'll make us in the immediate future.

[Greystache]

My opinion:

Grant - Bad drafting if compared to Dangerfield etc. but if he reproduces his form of late last year, he will be a very handy player moving forward.
Williams - Last year on the list IMO. Had/has talent, more so as a forward, but his body has killed his career. Unlucky.
Smith - We miss him. Will be a good inclusion.
Hrovat - Rate him very highly, will be a good inclusion.
Wallis - Jury still out - needs more strings to his bow to make it.
Cordy - Won't make it.
Bontempelli - Early signs are good but not realistic to expect 'side improving' performances until another 1-2 years. Should get a few games though.
Howard - Won't make it. Absolutely woeful selection.

Overall, it's a mixed bag. Grant and Wallis still have time but are far from convincing - we really need both to come on very quickly/soon. Cordy/Howard are busts. Smith/Hrovat/Bontempelli look like being strong contributors moving forward but it's hard to estimate how much of a better side they'll make us in the immediate future.

Good analysis TBB, agree with all of it.

Grant was bad drafting on two levels, the Dangerfield one you mentioned, but also in the fact that a player of his height and build was never going to be able to play the role at AFL level we were drafting him for. If he can find consistency and become a handy player then that's at least a good consolation, and let's face it our preferred choice was Cale Morton and he's utterly shithouse!

Smith looks a pretty safe bet. Hrovat is a bit of a concern with such regular soft tissue injuries, hopefully it doesn't limit his potential. Bontempelli is still very raw so it'll be hard to tell where his ceiling is for a few years, but early signs are promising.

[Axe Man]

Whilst Wallis is technically a first round pick really it's Wallis and Libba for picks 22 and 41 - you would take that every day of the week. It's academic as to which was selected at which pick. I still think Wallis is more likely than not to have at least a solid career.

Howard is the only one that should be classified as a complete blunder in my book. I think there would have been quite a few other clubs that would have been happy to take Cordy at around that mark at the time.

[craigsahibee]

Whilst Wallis is technically a first round pick really it's Wallis and Libba for picks 22 and 41 - you would take that every day of the week. It's academic as to which was selected at which pick. I still think Wallis is more likely than not to have at least a solid career.

Howard is the only one that should be classified as a complete blunder in my book. I think there would have been quite a few other clubs that would have been happy to take Cordy at around that mark at the time.

St Kilda nominated that they would take him with their first pick which meant we had to use our next pick in the draft after their's (our first) to secure him.

[lemmon]

Smith looks the best off that list with Hrovat also important. As someone who panned the Smith selection it's stunning how quickly he has become an important cog of the midfield. We've missed so much of his contested work and aggression already this year. Think he may end up being one of those heart and soul Hayes/Bolton/Cross types

[LostDoggy]

St Kilda nominated that they would take him with their first pick which meant we had to use our next pick in the draft after their's (our first) to secure him.

The bitter irony........Ayce playing up in Bendigo whilst that eventual pick St Kilda took Tom Lynch carves us apart at the dome!

[Twodogs]

The irony, is, as you say, bitter indeed MCL.

[bornadog]

Grant - Bad drafting if compared to Dangerfield etc.

You can't say that, 9 clubs passed on Dangerfield, it happens in every draft. I can pick a champion from every draft that is a late pick. Chris Grant was 101.

Howard - Won't make it. Absolutely woeful selection. .

Very puzzling Dalrmple went for Howard. Other than that Dalrmple has been pretty good since.

[soupman]

You can't say that, 9 clubs passed on Dangerfield, it happens in every draft. I can pick a champion from every draft that is a late pick. Chris Grant was 101.

Absolutely. And Dangerfield was a shock selection at 10 anyway.

[LostDoggy]

Absolutely. And Dangerfield was a shock selection at 10 anyway.

We did do alright at pick 19 as well mind you.........until those *add as many expletives as you like* pigs up in Blacktown stole him from us!

[Mofra]

My take:

Grant - good for half a season, very interesting to see how he comes back

Williams - I've lost faith. Not entirely his fault with injury, but I really think it's time to cut our losses

Smith - Absolute gun and the type of player his teammates must love playing with. Will be a beast for us.

Hrovat - Alright, unpopular opinion time (noting he was an early second round pick wasn't he?) - did we really need to pick him up given what we need on our list? He looks good - but Hawks nabbed O'Brien with the pick we downgraded to, and although talls take longer we are in desperate need for decent developing talls

Wallis - much like Grant, apromising half a season but evidence this year is that he needs more work to become consistent

Cordy - I'm officially off the bandwagon. Worse injury history than Williams, never gots a clean run at it so development is way off.

Bontempelli - Moves well, seems coachable

Howard - must have compormising pictures of Jason McCartney to have managed a 2014 contract. Sorry, I just don't see it.



At this stage I see Grant & Smith as best 22 selections when fit - all the others are up in the air at best