Saintsational Fan Forum - A passionate community of St Kilda Football Club fans discussing news, history, players, trade rumours, results, AFL stats and more.
Appreciate that its a great topic of conversation, especially over the coming weeks, but just thought that WO should have at least credited the person that went to the trouble of writing all the reviews, even if they were filled with some inaccuracies. Thats all!
There are very few journo's that are actually credible sources when it comes to the draft. For accurate info, stick to Emma Quayle, Jason Phelan or grab the Inside Footy draft special. All have a great track record and actually speak with the clubs and players and watch them play.
Just don't want fellow Saints fans reading/believing misleading information.
Marley is a quality player...and would be happy to get him, but thought he was a bit too much like Jack STEVENS. I was trying to mix our midfield up a bit. Marley and Shane Nelson have produced similiar stats for the year. I put Shane in front of him because of his Combine results.
Another was Murray Newman who I put in front of Marley because Murray has played Senior footy for most of the year.
SAINTS another day older another day closer to the Holy Grail!
Old Mate wrote:I reckon Myles Bolger will be our first pick if he's still available.
"Myles Bolger, one of the best ruckmen in this year's draft, recovered from a foot injury which sidelined him for almost two years.
The ruckman, who was part of the AFL Academy in 2010, could be targeted by Greater Western Sydney as they look to make the most of their draft domination. "He's agile, he's fast and I think he should go in the top 10," Maskos said. "
WinnersOnly wrote:Marley is a quality player...and would be happy to get him, but thought he was a bit too much like Jack STEVENS. I was trying to mix our midfield up a bit. Marley and Shane Nelson have produced similiar stats for the year. I put Shane in front of him because of his Combine results.
Another was Murray Newman who I put in front of Marley because Murray has played Senior footy for most of the year.
To me Williams looks more like a natural outside player with good skills and a raking left foot. Steven is more of an inside mid with average skills. Both have pace though.
I think it will be a very interesting draft from a Saints perspective... Will we go a tall with our first pick, or a midfielder?
Clearly, with the cleanout of talls from our list this week, a tall forward may be the way to go, however there are very few deserving enough of our first pick. Jackson Paine is impressive - good competitor, hard as nails and is a beautiful set shot for goal. His pace holds him back a bit, although he would still be worth grabbing if we could get him at #25.
This draft is actually very thin for KP players. It is a midfielders draft. So perhaps we draft a high quality mid with our first pick, and then maybe a speculative tall or two later, or maybe we will go for the best tall available at #25, then mids from then on. There are virtually no ruckmen in this draft, so I'd personally prefer us to take a project ruckman with one of our last two picks and then maybe even draft a mature-aged ruck (Currie or Daye) in the rookie draft. Both still young, but are good enough and big enough to compete at AFL level.
I think too that this draft is very hard to read from a recruiting POV, due to it's evenness. Also, so many clubs only have two or three picks, meaning they are likely to be recruiting for needs, rather than best available. GWS will likely do this too, with 11 of the first 14 picks, they then don't have another go until #56. It means that they are likely to grab a few players earlier than expected - they can't just draft Patton and a bunch of mids and running defenders. This will likely see some decent talent slide down the draft order a bit - more likely mids as there are plenty of them - meaning the a club like StKilda, with 3 picks in the 2nd round, may find ourselves in a pretty good position to pounce on these sliders. Geelong is about the only club likely to get in our way (typical), with picks 32 and 34. Although, they look desperately in need of KPP backs and forwards, so may still go on a needs basis.
Anyway, putting my trust in Elshaug etc, I'm feeling pretty excited.
It is supposed to be only a shallow draft, but to me it appears that there are quite a few handy kids that will be around after Round 1, but I agree, they are mainly mids or smaller players.
Thought I'd have a look at where we ACTUALLY have picks in the draft this year. Whilst some people are talking about us having some very late picks, they actually move significantly earlier when you take out the picks of clubs who are only drafting 2-3 players, and those upgrading rookies.
So once all father/son, upgraded rookies and non-picks are taken out (ie selections that are pre-determined and cannot be changed), here is the draft order below:
Looks much better when you actually look at what pick order we actually have in this draft! I'm excited!
There's a reason all those picks are being used for rookie upgrades. The talent available after about pick 50 in this draft will be of a level that most clubs would only gamble a rookie list spot on.
"... You want to pose a threat to the opposition in as many ways as you can, both defensively and offensively. We've got a responsibility to explore all those possibilities - and we will."
The answer seems pretty simple to me - we may be short on depth in the KP stakes but we can get around in 2012 with what we have if we add a late, low cost, possibly project style ruckman for insurance (MacAuley type from Brisbane).
So if the best available at our picks is mids/running types, then we take that - it's not like we can't use pacy, skilled running types.
Then we have a strategy that extends over more than one draft period.
Factor in that 2012 is meant to be a boom draft, and that we may have early picks courtesy of losing someone to GWS, so we target that draft for our key position selections.
Given the free agency looming and what direction Pelchen and Watters want to take the list over the next 3 years, trade period next year may be the most important time in our list development for the next 5 years.
Not at all surprised if we end up with one tall and the rest mids this year, with next draft the one for KP.
The pick that we swapped for Walsh 35 or 37? not sure which one , will be the one that is looked at and critisized for years to come. Both by swans supporters and saints.
If Walsh turns out to be a gun and our pick is a dud , we will never hear the end of it.
Heres hoping that Walsh is just average and our pick becomes a champ , so we can hang it on swans fans for the next ten years!
We must nail this pick!!
Saints94 wrote:If there are any sliders, who do you think they will be?
Mitch Grigg
Early on in the piece was touted as being a pick 10-15 however after a poor combine expect him to drop to around 20-30.
Very good skills and a ready made midfielder who could have an immediate impact in his first year however doesn't have a lot of upside and is quite slow.
Old Mate wrote:I reckon Myles Bolger will be our first pick if he's still available.
"Myles Bolger, one of the best ruckmen in this year's draft, recovered from a foot injury which sidelined him for almost two years.
The ruckman, who was part of the AFL Academy in 2010, could be targeted by Greater Western Sydney as they look to make the most of their draft domination. "He's agile, he's fast and I think he should go in the top 10," Maskos said. "
noob wrote:I'd probably go for a ruckman with our 35-37-42 pick.
I agree. There is no point in wasting our first pick on a ruckman as he will take at least 3 to 4 years to come good anyway so he will not be helping Ben in the short term. I actually think we may have to recruit an older type ruckman from the VFL.
noob wrote:I'd probably go for a ruckman with our 35-37-42 pick.
I agree. There is no point in wasting our first pick on a ruckman as he will take at least 3 to 4 years to come good anyway so he will not be helping Ben in the short term. I actually think we may have to recruit an older type ruckman from the VFL.
70s sainter wrote:The pick that we swapped for Walsh 35 or 37? not sure which one , will be the one that is looked at and critisized for years to come. Both by swans supporters and saints.
If Walsh turns out to be a gun and our pick is a dud , we will never hear the end of it.
Heres hoping that Walsh is just average and our pick becomes a champ , so we can hang it on swans fans for the next ten years!
We must nail this pick!!
Agree, I can't stand another "swans are recruiting geniuses" after raiding our stocks again. Hopefully this is the one the law of averages makes into a spud. Hopefully after we beat the swans next year there is a repeat of him laying facedown crying again.
