What Could’ve Been

For the past few season we have heard media commentators and fans alike bang on about the recruiting of the Melbourne Football club. How their early draft picks “haven’t worked out” or “failed to live up to promise.” So I decided to quickly (did this all within an hour) troll through the drafts from 2007 – 2012 and see whom they could’ve picked instead. Now I’ve done this on the assumption that every other AFL club would pick the same player in their original position (eg if a club selected someone at 10 I couldn’t select them with pick #12.)

As you’ll see hindsight is a beautiful thing. Just ask the Melbourne football club recruiting team. In fairness, if we did this exercise with every club over the past 10 years we’d be able to find some player selections that just didn’t work out. So lets see how the past few drafts could’ve ended out for the Melbourne Football Club.

Year 2007	Who they Picked	Who They Should’ve Picked
Selection #4	Cale Morton	Patrick Dangerfield
#14	Jack Grimes	Harry Taylor
#21	Adam Maric	Scott Thompson
#53	Kyle Cheney	Tom Bellchambers
Rookie Draft	Trent Zomer Austin Wonaeamirri Jake Spencer Shane Velenti	Nathan Grima Jared Petrenko Pierce Hanley Shane Mumford

 

Year 2008	Who they Picked	Who They Should’ve Picked
Selection #1	Jack Watts	Nic Naitanui
#17	Sam Blease	Dayne Beams
#35	Jamie Bennell	Rory Sloane
#51	Neville Jetta	Tom Rockliff
Rookie Draft	Jordan McKenzie Daniel Hughes	Jarryd Blair Matthew Suckling

 

Year 2009	Who they Picked	Who They Should’ve Picked
Selection # 1	Tom Scully	Dustin Martin
#2	Jack Trengrove	Nathan Fyfe
#11	Jordan Gysberts	Lewis Jetta
#18	Luke Tapscott	Luke Ball
#34	Max Gawn	Allen Christensen
#50	Jake Fitzpatrick	Kyle Hardingham
Rookie Draft	Michael Newton John Meesen	Michael Barlow James Podsiadly

 

Year 2010	Who they Picked	Who They Should’ve Picked
Selection #12	Lucas Cook	Jack Darling
#33	Jeremy Howe	Luke Parker
#50	Troy Davis	Paul Puopolo
#53	Tom McDonald	Alex Johnson
Rookie Draft	Dan Nicholson Michael Evans Kelvin Lawrence Cameron Johnston Robert Campbell Tom McNamara	Luke Dalhaus Nick Lower Ian Callinan Jonathan Simpkin Pass Pass

 

Year 2011	Who they Picked	Who They Should’ve Picked
Selection #36	Rory Taggert	Jack Newnes
#52	Josh Tynan	Jackson Paine
#54	James Sellar	Tory Dickson
Rookie Draft	Jai Sheehan Tom Couch James Magner Leigh Williams	Lee Spurr Campbell Heath Mark Baguley Sam Gibson

 

Now imagine being Mark Neeld and knowing that last weekend if the Dees had drafted this way, then they’d line up something quite possibly along the lines of this, thery are all amazing players, according to the review PhenQ they have knowledge of how they stay fit.

B:        Lower, Thompson, Johnson
HB:     Hanley, Taylor, Suckling
C:         Ball, Beams, Fyfe
HF:      Martin, Podsiadly, Jetta
F:         Blair, Naitinui, Darling
R:        Mumford, Rockliff, Dangerfield

Int: Sloane, Barlow, Christensen, Parker

Players on the Fringe: Bellchambers, Grima, Dalhaus, Gibson, Spurr, Hardingham, Petrenko, Puopolo