Who should we be drafting?

[SimonH]

Check out the excellent footydraft website which contains a summary of the major talent on offer.

Talk of thin drafts is always much-exaggerated- I could safely say without going through the archives that every draft ever held has produced champions- and they are very frequently players not picked in the top 10. When people say 'thin draft' they really mean not much more than 'we can't see many guaranteed superstars'. Not really a problem for a team with its first pick at #31!

There's obviously heaps on offer in terms of talent and ability. It's just a question of making an educated guess about who will thrive & who will wither on the vine.

I haven't seen him play, but I reckon we would be mad not to give Ed Clarke a run at #63 if others haven't picked him up before then. We can concentrate on the 'go talls/KPPs' mantra when picking #s 31 and 47.

Beyond the first couple of rounds in the draft, the odds are (well) over 50% that the person won't make it at AFL level, but a local boy who is a dynamo at the bottom of the packs and is bulked up enough to play AFL a couple of years ahead of his contemporaries is worth a shot, I say.

Whenever in doubt, we should be picking local kids.

Other people's nominations?

[DST]

With us taking Willoughby and Schmidt early last year, I think we need to go with what ever is left on the tall KP CHB/CHF basket with our first pick. After that whatever the clubs sees as the best still going at that time.

I also found this on another website about a RAMS player, Marc Lord.

Hidden Star in NSW
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After moving from melbourne at the start of 2001 i have been watching a bit of under age football in sydney, and also following the progress of the NSW/ACT rams.

That year i noticed a young player by the name of Marc Lord dominating on the back flank for the rams, whilst getting in the bests for swans reserves and also for North Shore in first grade.

This kid looks to be about 183-186cm and weigh about 83kg. Has good speed, an exceptionally strong overhead mark, and silky skills.

Does anyone have anymore information on this kid? As i have heard he has had phonecalls from many different clubs concering this years draft

Anyone seen a little bit of him when playing for the reserves ?

DST

[NMWBloods]

Good site. Some interesting possibilities for us, particularly some of the solid centerman types.

[SimonH]

Originally posted by DST

I also found this on another website about a RAMS player, Marc Lord.

Hidden Star in NSW
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After moving from melbourne at the start of 2001 i have been watching a bit of under age football in sydney, and also following the progress of the NSW/ACT rams.

That year i noticed a young player by the name of Marc Lord dominating on the back flank for the rams, whilst getting in the bests for swans reserves and also for North Shore in first grade.

This kid looks to be about 183-186cm and weigh about 83kg. Has good speed, an exceptionally strong overhead mark, and silky skills.

Does anyone have anymore information on this kid? As i have heard he has had phonecalls from many different clubs concering this years draft

Anyone seen a little bit of him when playing for the reserves ?

DST

He certainly is a hidden star- he isn't listed on the Rams squad page (not even in the back-up list). No idea what scope the Rams have to bring in non-squad players.

[robbieando]

What needs do we have to fill from the draft this season?

Well I would think we would be looking at the following

- A 190cm+ K/P defender
- A Forward to develop into a back-up for Barry Hall (ala Scott Stevens)
- Another ruckman to develop alongside Ericksen

With the delisting of Rogers and more than likely James along with the retirement of Warfe, we really need to get some depth down back among our tall defenders as really our only options not in the side at the moment are LRT (who more than likely will get a chance in the seniors), Powell and Matthew Davis (who so little is really known).

Up forward we have no real cover for Barry Hall if he get suspenened or injuried so I would think the team would look at solving that via the draft or at the very least the rookie draft. In the ruck we are more than set with the inclusion of Jolly, however with the retitement of Ball just around the corner I would like to see us draft another young ruckman to develop alongside Ericksen.

We have reasonable depth in the midfield (could do with one or two top quailty midfielders but we have to make do with what we've got for now) so I would think we would look to cover those position's via the rookie draft if at all. Dempster, Thewlis, Schmidt and Willoughby look close to senior action with McVeigh likely to be given even more gametime.

[caj23]

Robbie i agree with your priorities however given how low our draft picks are we should be taking the best available players remaining in the draft pool

obviously if there is a key position player and an onballer who we rank equally you would take the kpp, but if there are no decent kpp's left then you have to take what you can regardless of size

[NMWBloods]

Yep - I agree with Will that we should really look to get whomever looks best of the ones left.

That said, I don't think we have a lot of (any?) depth in the solid centreman type, and we should consider one of those if available.

[Newbie]

Originally posted by Will Sangster
Robbie i agree with your priorities however given how low our draft picks are we should be taking the best available players remaining in the draft pool

obviously if there is a key position player and an onballer who we rank equally you would take the kpp, but if there are no decent kpp's left then you have to take what you can regardless of size

I think drafting the best available players is a myth. Judging whether a short or a tall has better talent is never objective.

We should go talls. We have enough of young developing midfielders (Macelski, Sundquist, Bevan, McVeigh, Schmidt and Willoughby). Getting another might be counter-productive as we could only afford so many nurturing spots in the team.

Plus the unknown factor for talls is a lot more at the drafting age and thus the chance of getting an unknown gem given our drafting positions should be better for talls than shorts.

Would love if someone could give a comparative statistics of the success rate for talls drafted before 30th pick (A) and after 30th pick (B) vs shorts for respective ranges (C and D).

I got a feeling that D/C < B/A < 1.

[ROK Lobster]

Lets draft shorts. All the shorts we can find. Skills not important. Just short, squat, hard men. Monopolise the shorts. And trade/delist all our talls ('cept maybe Baz). Then all we have to do is wait for a really wet winter. 20-22 wet weeks and the flag is ours...

[NMWBloods]

I think we should draft all the middle-size players, that way we can honestly say we are middle of the road. No one under 5'10 and no one over 6'!!

[Captain]

Originally posted by DST
With us taking Willoughby and Schmidt early last year, I think we need to go with what ever is left on the tall KP CHB/CHF basket with our first pick. After that whatever the clubs sees as the best still going at that time.

I also found this on another website about a RAMS player, Marc Lord.

Hidden Star in NSW
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After moving from melbourne at the start of 2001 i have been watching a bit of under age football in sydney, and also following the progress of the NSW/ACT rams.

That year i noticed a young player by the name of Marc Lord dominating on the back flank for the rams, whilst getting in the bests for swans reserves and also for North Shore in first grade.

This kid looks to be about 183-186cm and weigh about 83kg. Has good speed, an exceptionally strong overhead mark, and silky skills.

Does anyone have anymore information on this kid? As i have heard he has had phonecalls from many different clubs concering this years draft

Anyone seen a little bit of him when playing for the reserves ?

DST

I know a little about him.

Excellent young player who has been held back by shoulder injuries. Was very likely to get drafted a year or two ago before he did his shoulder. I don't think clubs will be willing to risk drafting him. Personally I think it wouldn't hurt considering him for a spot on the rookie list.

His older brother Adam also plays for North Shore.

[chammond]

Originally posted by ROK Lobster
Lets draft shorts. All the shorts we can find. Skills not important. Just short, squat, hard men. Monopolise the shorts. And trade/delist all our talls ('cept maybe Baz). Then all we have to do is wait for a really wet winter. 20-22 wet weeks and the flag is ours...

Er . . . Telstra Dome?

I like your thinking, though. Just needs a bit of fine tuning.

Maybe we could recruit eskimos and arrange to play all our games in Hobart?