Personally I would continue to blood the following 'youngsters'

Teague, Prendergast, Sporn, Chambers, Longmuir, Deluca, Livingston

This will ensure at a minimum a bottom 3 finish and possibly a PP.

THE TANK IS ON!

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17 4 10

John's quote


I understand your reasons for this John, but I don't think it's fair. How old is DeLuca turning this year? 24.

I believe there's an upside there, and he can, and has the time to get it together by the time he's 26.

He's worth persevering with. It's not his fault that so much was asked of him in his first 2 years. He needs time and patience.

With a possible delistable list of mine, sitting at 15-16 over 2 years, that's plenty; 13 or 14 is plenty. Otherwise we will be delisting kids who haven't had the chance to prove themselves end 2008; defeating the reason we list kids in the first place. Given there is more than enough delistables to take advantage of the next 2 drafts, let alone this superdraft, we could afford to carry him in that period, if he is to be developed properly.

After all we do not have the luxury of too many 200+ cm players when French retires. Batson and Aisake are a long way off, leaving just DeLuca when French retires end of 2006 -7. You have to be mindful of the fact that big guys take a long time to develop. If you get rid of him, who will be there with the potential to fill the void? Everitt, MacDonald, Primus...retreads or Cox, White, Fraser, Biglands...I'd like to see that. It aint gonna happen.

It's about time we got a little bit of positive perspective with the role DeLuca can play for this club.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

We still have the matter of 3 X FS picks in this years draft to consider.

Do we;

Take all 3 and therefore use picks 3,2,1?

Take just Sam Sheldon @ 3rd round and hope the other 2 are there at round 4 and 5??

Tell Tommi Johnno to take another year in the Ants to develop and we'll take him with our 3rd in 07?

Finish bottom and tell Tommi or Diesel's boy we'll pick them up in the rookie draft with pick #1

Whatever scenario we choose, it's a conundrum of massive proportions for the recruiters to work through .

Finishing bottom may help a little, but I'd still prefer the scummers to get their first of may spoons .

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end of message

I was thinking while I was on the road to Glenelg ...

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This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

I think De luca has another year to go on his contract, as does Teague.

You have a signature begging for a drafting a quality player in the draft and you want us to finish honourable 10ths in order to get them.

My thoughts on our 2004 are pretty widely known around here and whilst I do not criticise our subsequent draft choices Jordan Russell at 9 and Adam Hartlett at 25, I am sure we all would have liked a crack at Deledio et al.

We may have got a membership spike as a result of 2004 and the Wizard cup of 2005, but they have certainly dropped off pretty quickly - short term gain and now we have some longer term pain.

Get with the program Ryan.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Every week select players according to age and form:

AGE NUMBER
20 years or younger 6
25 years and younger but older than 20 10
30 years and younger but older than 25 5
35 years and younger but older than 30 1

TOTAL 22

Agro,

It could be argued that if we finished near the bottom in 2004 (which we should have with a percentage of around 70) and got the PP the following may have happened:

1) we may have have picked up Tambling and/or Roughhead who haven't exactly set the world on fire.

2) we may have picked up Deledio, Griffen and/or Franklin which would have made us a significantly more competitive unit last year. This in turn probably would have resulted in us averting the spoon and missing out on Murphy.

I agree that overall it would have been best to get the PP in 2004 however it may not have benefitted us as much as some suggest.

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There is no footy god

You cant argue this point with 20/20 hindsight.

However clearly the strategy is to draft as best you can with what you have got - the evidence is irrefutable that since 2001 the early draft picks are where the quality players are. Sure you can luck out and get pearlers later in the draft and hey Russell and Hartlett may be superstars (I hope so).

In particular in those years up till 2005 you were able to get a Priority Pick prior to the first round as well.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

My ideal finish to the season would be as follows:

- play the kids
- avert the spoon (we probably need to beat Essendon*)
- win only four matches (one more game outside the Essendon* win)
- remain competitive with no large "blowouts"

Use our PP to draft a quality young ruckman.

Is that too much to ask?

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There is no footy god

Humpers



You are easily pleased, and I hope you get your way.

The ladder situation would be a perfect scenario, depending on how important 1st pick is for us. If Essendon* wanted the guy we need, then that makes things tricky.

2 round 1 selections (1 or 2 and 17 or 18) best ruck & good midfielder
1 round 2 selection (35 or 36) best player
1 round 3 selection (F/S or 53) Johnston, Sheldon, Williams

We also have to be weary that St Kilda and Doggies are in the hunt for a ruckman, and both teams have got pace in abundance, making our No.1 requirement a ruckman, to be picked with our first selection (1 or 2).

We better find out who we need and soon, because it may matter in the long term, if we don't win the spoon. Interesting.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

attacking positive game plan, minimal flooding, kids given opportunity, faith shown in fringe players when they are brought in and for the team to perform as well as possible. I'm not fussed about w/l ratio and if we end up winning the last 6 games and lose that extra draft pick then so be it

I used to think avoiding the spoon was a PRIME OBJECTIVCE especially when we were the only team that hadn't got one. But hey we got one and the sky didn't fall in and guess what you can get a player like, Deledio, Murphy, Gibbs - the pickings are real lets get them now before the AFL follow the US model completely and start introducing a ballot for the number 1 draft pick.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill