2015 Draft Watch

[GVGjr]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

you might be right

my question is what do we do if our key tall targets are gone.

I'd go with best available at 20/21 and then use picks 30 and 51 to try and address the imbalance. Mind you it's still no good reaching for players if we don't genuinely rate them as being good enough.

[Missing Dog]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

you might be right

my question is what do we do if our key tall targets are gone.

I see.

Well I don't particularly like any of the other talls at our first two picks, if McKay, Collins etc. are gone. I'd go with best available with a slight preference towards speed/foot skills. Good key backs can be found late in the draft or even rookie listed, I don't think we need to do something crazy here. Reaching for one would be a bad idea IMO.

At pick 30 Sam Skinner will probably be available still and he had a pretty good underage year last year. I'd look at nominating Himmelberg and Flynn around this pick as well. If we can't get any of these, I might be ok if we went with Glass-McCasker or even Nyoun. Not sure.

Our last pick would have to be a tall, there should be some decent tall options available.

Do you like him at Pick 20/21 for us bulldogsman?

Yeah I do (pick 20 will likely become 25 once the academy bidding is done) and I'm of the belief that this is one of the reasons why we traded back to this position. For KPD's, pick 11 was too high for both Collins and McKay IMO. I'm very confident one of them will be available, more than likely McKay.

What do I like about McKay? I like his competitive nature and physicality. He's a very good size. He has a bit of presence out on the field. When a high ball came in, I was very confident he could either mark it (very good contested mark) or get a strong fist on it. He's different to our other key backs. He could be the tower in defence that we are missing.

Like I said, he's going to need a fair bit of work though, and he's far from a guarantee. I've seen a fair bit of improvement in his positioning and kicking in a short period of time, so that should give us some confidence at least.

[lemmon]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

An AFL feature on Ben McKay here http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-11-0...he-draft-board

Interesting that in the interview he says "I'm a forward, definitely"

[Rocco Jones]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

Where do we think Mitch Brown will go?

[GVGjr]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

Where do we think Mitch Brown will go?

Hard to say we if would be even be interested in him. I'd suggest around 40 if there is any real interest.
Saints might consider him and Essendon have apparently been keen.

[Missing Dog]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

Hard to say we if would be even be interested in him. I'd suggest around 40 if there is any real interest.
Saints might consider him and Essendon have apparently been keen.

Sam Landsberger mentioned we were one of 8 clubs interested in him.

[LostDoggy]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

Good discussion about our 'type' preference. The overriding philosophy I have heard Dalrymple use is 'draft for best available, trade for specific needs', which is something I think we collectively agree upon in general.

This philosophy does presume that trades get done. This year we were widely connected to Kruezer, Carlisle, Martin and Lobbe, as well as quieter enquiries on Z.Clarke, May, Haynes and probably a few others. It would appear that our list managers have identified Ruck and KPD as areas of specific need, however for various reasons a suitable trade could not be made.

The question is; if trades don't get done, how much do our drafting priorities change?

In my opinion we will still take best available where a clear distinction exists, however where a choice exists between similarly ranked talls and smalls, we would surely lean towards the tall (especially where fairly developed ruck or kpd traits are in evidence).

This doesn't mean we blindly take talls. But, if best 20/21 picks are clearly smalls/mids, then surely we'll lean towards talls later, especially a Mitch Brown or even a Nick Coughlan who can offer something in the shorter term, at 51 at least.

[GVGjr]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

Good discussion about our 'type' preference. The overriding philosophy I have heard Dalrymple use is 'draft for best available, trade for specific needs', which is something I think we collectively agree upon in general.

This philosophy does presume that trades get done. This year we were widely connected to Kruezer, Carlisle, Martin and Lobbe, as well as quieter enquiries on Z.Clarke, May, Haynes and probably a few others. It would appear that our list managers have identified Ruck and KPD as areas of specific need, however for various reasons a suitable trade could not be made.

The question is; if trades don't get done, how much do our drafting priorities change?

In my opinion we will still take best available where a clear distinction exists, however where a choice exists between similarly ranked talls and smalls, we would surely lean towards the tall (especially where fairly developed ruck or kpd traits are in evidence).

This doesn't mean we blindly take talls. But, if best 20/21 picks are clearly smalls/mids, then surely we'll lean towards talls later, especially a Mitch Brown or even a Nick Coughlan who can offer something in the shorter term, at 51 at least.

Yep, thats the way I see it. We shouldn't necessarily take a player we have ranked 30th best at pick 20 just because he fits our needs however, we also can't have a logjam at certain positions just because the easy approach is to just keep taking the best mids.
I hope we look at the bigger picture and show a level of flexibility with our selections.

[The Doctor]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

Yep, thats the way I see it. We shouldn't necessarily take a player we have ranked 30th best at pick 20 just because he fits our needs however, we also can't have a logjam at certain positions just because the easy approach is to just keep taking the best mids.
I hope we look at the bigger picture and show a level of flexibility with our selections.

if we take 2 smalls at 20 & 21 I will spew up to use a well known phrase.

You cannot win a premiership with an army of midgets.

Midgets are easy to find in any draft and are an easy escape route for a recruiter when not sure what else to do. the skill of a good recruiter is being able to identify a good tall outside of the elite juniors. Dalrymple has not been able to do this from my observations to date.

We all know we need good talls. My concern is that trading away our pick 11 jeopardises our chances to get one. I just hope our footy dept know what they are doing. If they get a quality tall at 20 or 21 then they will look like genius' especially if the other player selected turns out to be a good player. But it's a high risk approach in my view.

[boydogs]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

The question is; if trades don't get done, how much do our drafting priorities change?

I think we will find this is exactly why we traded 11 for 20 & 21

[LostDoggy]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

if we take 2 smalls at 20 & 21 I will spew up to use a well known phrase.

You cannot win a premiership with an army of midgets.

Midgets are easy to find in any draft and are an easy escape route for a recruiter when not sure what else to do. the skill of a good recruiter is being able to identify a good tall outside of the elite juniors. Dalrymple has not been able to do this from my observations to date.

We all know we need good talls. My concern is that trading away our pick 11 jeopardises our chances to get one. I just hope our footy dept know what they are doing. If they get a quality tall at 20 or 21 then they will look like genius' especially if the other player selected turns out to be a good player. But it's a high risk approach in my view.

Would've loved to have been a fly on the wall when that 11 vs 20/21 discussion went down. So many ways to read the decision.

Maybe our top choice (say Ben Mackay) will still be available at 20, which effectively gives us pick 21 for free - a major win.

My worst case scenario is that Keiran Collins (a developed type who could well slot into a KPD role straight away) goes between 11 and 20 (probable given Hawthorn have 2 picks in this range and Buckenara rates him top 5 in the whole draft) and all the quality talls are gone by 20. That would be a disaster.

The other little query in my mind is that 20/21 carry more points than 11 in a bidding scenario. I wonder if we will play for an academy player? It was reported that both Bev and Dal spoke at length with Ben Keays at the combine.

[GVGjr]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

We all know we need good talls. My concern is that trading away our pick 11 jeopardises our chances to get one. I just hope our footy dept know what they are doing. If they get a quality tall at 20 or 21 then they will look like genius' especially if the other player selected turns out to be a good player. But it's a high risk approach in my view.

I don't have a problem with the trade of pick 11 for 2 later selections. I don't believe we were in a position to grab a game changing key position player at 11. Most of the better players are already committed to like Weitering, Schache and Hipwood with Curnow and Weideman also likely to be gone before 11. That would have left us with the likes of Harry McKay and Kieran Collins around the mark of pick 11 which I think is a bit of a stretch.
If we are to make a 3 or 4 year investment into developing a key position player from this years crop then we can do that with one or two of the 3 picks we have in the 2nd round.

[soupman]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

The other little query in my mind is that 20/21 carry more points than 11 in a bidding scenario. I wonder if we will play for an academy player? It was reported that both Bev and Dal spoke at length with Ben Keays at the combine.

I like the thinking but you can only match points as the nominated club, not the bidding club making the points value redundant.

[LostDoggy]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

I like the thinking but you can only match points as the nominated club, not the bidding club making the points value redundant.

Thanks soupaman. Still getting my head around the academy/fs bidding system.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: 2015 Draft Watch

if we take 2 smalls at 20 & 21 I will spew up to use a well known phrase.

You cannot win a premiership with an army of midgets.

Midgets are easy to find in any draft and are an easy escape route for a recruiter when not sure what else to do. the skill of a good recruiter is being able to identify a good tall outside of the elite juniors. Dalrymple has not been able to do this from my observations to date.

I'd agree with this. We've recruited in such a way that we simply must take a tall with one of our first 2 picks, even if it means slightly reaching for one. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't advise this approach, but our drafting and list balance demands we pick up the highest rated KPD - whoever that may be come time of Pick 20/21. We then should take a mature aged option at 51, particularly if we also don't rate the depth of the draft.