Doubt anyone on our current list will be in our next premiership side...

No issue with Touhy being on our list (promoted), Sheehan as a rookie and Byrne as a category B rookie. Byrne especially is good list management for an additional player on our development list (though CFC development is another topic).

If we look at needs or best we have a core we can build on but we need to be smart.

Our "CORE" for the next 5-6 years should be:

B: Buckley Jamison McInnes
HB: Docherty Henderson ?????

Foll:Kruezer Curnow Murphy
C: Yarran Cripps Gibbs

HF: Bell ????? Menzel
F: Casboult ?????? Thomas

Other possibles: Giles Johnson Graham

IMO everyone else is up for grabs and this is what we must build on.

_________________
#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

Unsure of prospects of building a decent side around that midfield.

I'd add to Holman to list of possibles.

Doesn't that show we need to recruit mids desperately??

_________________
#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

Syd Blue how was Kouta a project player?

I get that he was a tremendous athlete but he played AFL football for Lalor & if I'm not mistaken was drafted from our recruitment zone.

Had there ever been a player like Kouta before
I cant think of one he was an athlete that played football

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Pretty sure he also played Teal Cup back in the day, so he could play at junior level as well competing at pretty high levels with his athletics.

Barry Besanko!!

Saw Kouta play his first praccy game against Footscray at Rosebud. To say he was raw was an understatement. Don't think he saw the ball. He is a classic definition of a project player. A champion hurdler if I remember correctly before being drafted.

What I'm getting at is that Kouta was not foreign to the game. He had played junior footy etc etc

Certainly was an athletic champion but had played the game.

Watson Casboult Cripps Hampson all are not foreign to the game either but they are project players .We kouta came he didnt fit the mould of the average player
He is the only player I know that has played every position on the ground including ruck
He was a gamble that paid off big time he had a lot of flaws early on be developed into one of the greats
What I am saying is we trying to find a diamond in the rough all the time.
We have to many players that are projects
Watson
Casboult
Cripps
Bell
Robbo
Bryne
Sheehan
Touhy

Before them
Rasso
Aisake
Setanta
Chambers
Hampson
Even playing 3 small forwards was experimental
Need to get back to basics and stop hoping for devine intervention
We are tge worst club at player development and have a big list of players that need a lot of development
Pick footballers

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

90% of players drafted are so called project players. Our problems is we pick the players with the wrong skill set. I'd love to know how our recruiters rank players. I still can't see what they saw in Bootsma and Watson other then they are good kicks. But you arn't going to make it as a defender if you don't like body contact.

Cripps isn't a project player. He just needs fitness. He knows how to play football.

A project player was a Hughes special.

Yeah, don't know about Watson & Cripps being project players, more a speculative pick in the case of Cripps with potential the big plus coming off such a low fitness base in an All-Australian U18's year but how will his growth spurts affect his game/position is an unknown.
Watson could play (also All-Australian U18), it's just that he was a large lad playing against boys, now he's getting monstered as he can't play one on one & by the U18 reports was good at zoning off and controlling the back half, which he's been unable to do in the AFL. Still some sort of a kick.
Both are footballers but the jury is out to whether the right choice with our draft pick at that time.
Hampson, Casboult, Bell you could call project players with later callings to Aussie Rules. 1 a pick in the teens but the other 2 rookies, so no issue with the latter.
Issue is our due diligence with our 1st rounders in getting serious footballers with outstanding AFL qualities & skills that you build teams around for the years to come & 150 gamers.
2009, Lucas (fail). 2010, Watson (fail). 2011, Bootsma (fail). 2012, Menzel (tick). 2013, Cripps (TBC due to lack of fitness to start & injury but optimistic).
Our rookie picks have been quite good but our National Drafts with our 1st, 2nd & 3rd rounders have been mostly miss but we're trying to get solid footballers in from last years example.

Think we'll again target former 1st round picks from other clubs this trade period.

I know our record isn't good. But at some point we have to separate Rogers' work from Hughes' work. Rogers' picks have been far less speculative than Hughes' project type specials (Bootsma, Hampson etc).

Rogers is in charge now and I have a feeling we will bring in a List Manager above him.

Rogers needs to concentrate on picking the BEST player at every pick with the key criteria being the ability to use the ball. Nothing else. Whilst I'm not convinced about Rogers ability it is too hard to judge at the moment. The other key component is we generally have stuff all picks in the last few drafts. We need to start having 5-6 picks in every draft and then try and get them as early as possible. Our goal needs to be 3-4 picks inside Top 25 over the next 3-4 years. It needs to be our number one priority.

Give them 2-3 years of that then we can judge.

_________________
#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

I wouldn't be calling juniors who play at the top level project players. A project player is someone plucked out of a world outside of AFL.

_________________
It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

Completely agree with loading up on picks, especially top 30 picks. However, I just can't see how we can get them. Other than Walker, Robbo or Warnock - we have no currency. Lucas Garlett Watson etc won't get us anything of value.

It's hard to separate as they formed a "recruiting team".

Don't tell me Rogers and the others had totally other players in mind but Hughes went and did his own thing.
They were together for a long time working in recruitment so there would have been a level of similarity in their selections.

And Rogers' selections haven't been great so far at all.

Sorry em ... not feeling it.