Rookie selections - What is the theory?

[Rod61]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

What about Mitch Thorpe from Hawthorn.
Delisted no6 pick key position player.
Massive upside or overated player?

[LostDoggy]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

Can't see us picking up Skip.

From what I have been reading on here, I sense that Rocket is ready to let Roughy play as our 3rd option Ruckman.

[mighty_west]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

What about Mitch Thorpe from Hawthorn.
Delisted no6 pick key position player.
Massive upside or overated player?

The fact that Hawthorn cut him free with a year left on his contract tells me he has a sign on his forehead reading "stay clear".

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

Will be interesting to see what happens with Thorp

Can we not use the rookie list to do a bit of both?

a) kids who were almost drafted
b) mature aged players ready to roll

With our ageing list I think we cant afford to just have mature age players on the rookie list, and we need to keep turning the list over by putting kids on there, and seeing who can improve the most

[Rod61]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

l would have thought last round selection in main draft or rookie draft would be worth the risk with Thorpe as you don't get selected these days at no6 unless you have a fair bit of talent.
All reports are he had a big head but surely 2nd time around he would recognize its his last chance.
A good back up CHF or CHB without costing us a lot.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

With 2 more teams coming in to the AFL i think we will see more recycled/older players picked and or rookied due to the lack of depth of young talent.

If we lose Minson and Hudson at the same time we will be left with a a raw Roughead leading the ruck division with help from either Everitt, Cordy, Mulligan, or another senior player that wouldn't normally play in the ruck, therefore altering our setup. Barry Hall, Tom Williams or another tall might have to play as a backup ruck.
We kept Skipper last year for this reason as it was felt that our younger rucks weren't ready. This year we have let him and Cam Wight go so finding a backup ruck tall defender that could ruck should be the first option to rookie.

Williamstown have said they will fund another rookie so who would we pick?
Patrick Rose is the obvious standout however do we pick him just to keep Willy happy or do we go with someone else?.

If there are young players available that are worth taking the punt on then we should decide to take 2-3 of them, and 2-3 recycled/older players. I'm assuming we would pick a total of 5 players this year, so it would be 2 of one and 3 of the other.

[GVGjr]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

l would have thought last round selection in main draft or rookie draft would be worth the risk with Thorpe as you don't get selected these days at no6 unless you have a fair bit of talent.
All reports are he had a big head but surely 2nd time around he would recognize its his last chance.
A good back up CHF or CHB without costing us a lot.

His problems aren't confined to just injuries and over confidence. He would be a risk but I'm sure some club will take him.

[boydogs]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

l would have thought last round selection in main draft or rookie draft would be worth the risk with Thorpe as you don't get selected these days at no6 unless you have a fair bit of talent.
All reports are he had a big head but surely 2nd time around he would recognize its his last chance.
A good back up CHF or CHB without costing us a lot.

He was picked in our phantom draft, so someone agrees with you

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

Scott Simpson might be a worthy mature age rookie selection. He's had a few injuries but is talented and if I recall correctly kicked a bag earlier this year. I read on another site that he's hoping to emulate Aaron Edwards path to get back on an AFL list. It'd seem his attitude is OK.

[Raw Toast]

Re: Rookie selections - What is the theory?

Just reading the thread on young Majak Daw and saw the comment 'would make an ideal rookie selection...'. I have some thoughts on that and rather than sidetrack that thread figured I would start my own.

Rookie selections are:

1/.For players who 'just' missed out on being selected at the national draft and who we want to let develop at Williamstown for a couple of years.

2/.Mature players with 20-50 senior games at state league level (more is OK!) under their belt who we aren't quite sure will be good enough but are 'ready to go'.

My vote is for Option 2. Good, young performers at state league level who can fill the role of a rookie as defined by the AFL - actually come in and PLAY if we get injuries. Based on this, I would do the following:

- Find the best ruckman available not on a senior list and get him on our rookie list. If that is John Shaw - so be it.
- Do the same thing with a key defender and crumbing forward. I propose Ben Stratton from East Perth and Patty Rose at Willi. Done and Done.

Getting guys who need to develop is OK - but we need ready made players as rookies. Let's use the rules - we pay them bugger all and they know coming in that they are only backups...besides which they are just desperate for a chance (no ego's to worry about).

I guess under my theory we would have missed out on Harbrow, but maybe there is a bit of a 'some for today, one for tomorrow' policy with these selections.

Have we done a bit of this with the National Draft? To me it's like we decided that the draft wasn't that deep, and so with our last two picks we went for some more proven players who can probably come in if we get injuries.

You could call them depth players, but I presume that the recruiting staff see enough upside in them to compete for a first-team spot anyway...