Your choice for the Saints draft picks.

[Armoooo]

How would anyone here know if Dawson would or would not have gone later in the rookie draft. We got him and he is likely to be the first upgraded so it sounds like a good pick to me. The other may or not make it and someone on here can then say I told you so but at the moment none of them are likely to be upgraded in the near future.

Hasn't DeBoer already been upgraded?

DeBoer I can live with, he has huge question marks over his disposal and I wouldn't aat all be surprised to see him turn into a Clinton Jones type player... The player who I regret most is Clancee Pearce, he was an excellent small back at under 18's level and I believe he has more potential than most other players in the draft, he has pace, defensive aility and good disposal, he would have never slipped to the rookie draft any other year IMO...

[vacuous space]

Pearce didn't end up getting the upgrade though, even though he was touted by Harvey in preseason as being a likely to get one. Pearce and de Boer would have been two-year commitments for us as well as they're from interstate. I'm not sure they're worth that kind of commitment to us.

I'm pretty happy with the guys we got from the rookie draft. I don't think we should have speculated on whether Dawson would drop to a later pick. It's not worth it. There's no way to be sure no one else was going to take Dawson. Hawthorn may have been planning on doing with him what we did with Howard, for example.

[Armoooo]

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but this is what I would have done if I were the recruiters.

Pick 13 - Tom Swift, I didn't know a lot about Tom Lynch to be honest and Schoenmakers, Brown and Trengrove were all huge gambles. May aswell take one of the most talented mids and pray that he comes good.

Pick 47 - Nick Heyne - Guys with his talent should not survive until pick 47, I probably would have been tempted to take him with pick 13. He needs to make some significant improvements in his game, namely his disposal under pressure, but make no mistake this kid has the X - Factor and could be one of the steals of the draft.

Pick 48 - Jordan Lisle - One of the best key backs in the draft, a genuine defensive prospect, second behind Hurley IMO.

Pick 62 - Rhys O'Keefe - Excellent disposal and can find the ball, we used to have an abundance of running defenders but with them all making the move to the midfield we could probably actually do with another one or two of quality.

Pick 78 - Clancee Pearce - For the same reasons as Rhys O'Keefe, but this is more of a best player available kind of pick.

Pick 83 - Casey Sibosado - Has huge potential and at this late in the draft must be worth the punt, could have been the third tall we were looking for.

Rookie Draft -
Pick 13 - Matt De Boer - There were probably better players around (Cockie, Thomson) but IMO DeBoer was the one worth giving the shot to, he has so much ability it is only his disposal that kept him from being a first rounder.

Pick 29 - Kade Klemke - Had a good carnival and is a good strong mid sized defender. Unlikely to ever become a superstar but a likely type,

Pick 45 - Luke Breust - Not a great deal of talent left in the draft, he is one of the better players left but he has some of the hardest things to teach, goal sense and over head ability.

Pick 57 - Brad Howard - To save paying him out, give him one last shot

Pick 70 - Ross Tungutalum - I had never heard of him, but I would assume Xavier and Raph would have filled me in on this hidden gem.

Pick 79 - Samuel McGarry - Just not a great deal of quality left, everyone is a gamble, rather go with a youngster.

Pick 83 - Blake McGrath - Obvious selection.

[borderbarry]

Armoo's picks looks pretty good to me. Half way through last season I read where the Saints were interested in Tom Swift and Jack Ziebell. Just like the previous year I read where we were interested in Rioli. Both years I have been disappointed that we did not take the lad we had been looking at. Ziebell was already gone, but we gifted Swift to he Eagles, as we did Rioli to the Hawks.

[plugger66]

Armoo's picks looks pretty good to me. Half way through last season I read where the Saints were interested in Tom Swift and Jack Ziebell. Just like the previous year I read where we were interested in Rioli. Both years I have been disappointed that we did not take the lad we had been looking at. Ziebell was already gone, but we gifted Swift to he Eagles, as we did Rioli to the Hawks.

I cannot remember anyone at the club ever saying we were interested in Rioli, Swift or Ziebell. Maybe people on here said it bit I doubt the club would mention any names.

[evertonfc]

When I look at De Boer and Pearce I see them as kids that all 16 clubs overlooked in the national draft, the pre-season draft and in the early stages of the rookie draft

But that in itself doesn't make them bad players. They have well-known issues: De Boer needs to work on his disposal and Pearce is already physically developed "like a man" (182cm, 90kg).

Yet I often feel recruiters get sucked in by the lure of wanting to overlook well-known players because of their desire to pull a left-field selection, see it come off and then they get lauded as a recruiting genius.

We all have different ideas about how it should work out...my gut feeling is that this past rookie draft had several gems floating about.

Sometimes, recruiters get it right when they ignore the hype - see Ruory Kirkby - and they are right to do so.

But I felt there was an amazing surplus of good rookies; and I reckon if he had of punted on, say, four-five of them, a good few of them would have worked out.

[Armoooo]

Yeah completely agree, Fremantle will get two, possibly three 100+ game players from this years rookie draft.

[SaintBot]

I like your selections Armooo. (Although I am also happy with what we did get).


Rhys O'Keeffe would've been a beautiful selection, especially so late! From memory I had him going to Geelong with pick 16 (shows how much I know!). He has very unique skills and quite a good frame. I can see him becoming a very talented "quarter-back" style player off the half back line for Carlton.

[evertonfc]

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but this is what I would have done if I were the recruiters.

Great challenge! And an opportunity for posters to put their money where their mouths are...

I'm excluding the following players, because I probably would have overlooked them last October: Wade Thompson, Hayden Skipworth.

Pick 13 - Tom Swift - For reasons Armooo said.

Pick 47 - Nick Heyne - For reasons Armooo said.

Pick 48 - Jordan Lisle - For reasons Armooo said. Just nudges Aaron Cornelius by a whisker, but with some more info on AC I might have swayed back.

Pick 62 - Rhys O'Keefe - For reasons Armooo said (sensing a trend here!).

Pick 78 - Jason Davenport - Has had some exceptionally good VFL seasons for Geelong and many Cats fans felt he had everything going for him. Gets the nod over Colm Begley for the 'recycled' draftee spot; I'd have considered him for a rookie spot.

Pick 83 - Robin Nahas - Incredibly quick, a true livewire and capable of being our long-term replacement for Milne. Unless I'm allowed to taken Ben Cousins, who I would have picked here.

Rookie Draft -
Pick 13 - Matt De Boer - For reasons Armooo said.

Pick 29 - Andrew Browne - Just edges Klemke for mine as I've overlooked Rhys Stanley. He is an enourmous human being and with time could evolve into an excellent ruckman.

Pick 45 - Clancee Pearce - Steal of the rookie draft. Could play senior footy this year. Get him fit, run him hard - could be the next Stewart Dew.

Pick 58 - Steven Gaertner - Great project player. I hate that term, because it's an excuse to take crap players, but he is a genuinely exciting prospect who could be anything - or noting.

Pick 71 - Zac Dawson - The recuiters might have nobbled me here with Ross Tungutalum, who I knew nothing about.

Pick 79 - Ian Richardson - 20-year old who he averaged 14 possessions and booted 62 goals for Claremont, winning their B&F. You'll never know him, however, as he wasn't picked up.

Pick 83 - Blake McGrath - Might as well take him seeing as we'd poured a whole year into his development.

[BigMart]

St.Kilda spoke to Swift early in the year (pre-carnival) and he had a medical to assess his knee..he reported this

[Armoooo]

St.Kilda spoke to Swift early in the year (pre-carnival) and he had a medical to assess his knee..he reported this

That is comforting to know. They clearly put in the hard yards and did the research and they felt it wasn't worth the risk.

But I could still see him becoming a great player.

[Mr Magic]

Armoooo and evertonfc,
Thanks for giving us your draft picks and the reasons why.
I found it really interesting.
Do you want to have a go at trying to figure out why the Recruiting staff took the players they did?

[Armoooo]

Armoooo and evertonfc,
Thanks for giving us your draft picks and the reasons why.
I found it really interesting.
Do you want to have a go at trying to figure out why the Recruiting staff took the players they did?

Pick 13 - Tom Lynch - We have been crying out for a third tall since Hamill left, they believe that Lynch could take on that enforcer role. He has strength, size and endurance, three pivotal traits in modern football.

Pick 47 - Rhys Stanley - Because King and Gardiner are two of our three oldest players. We have McEvoy but he seems to be more of a swingman, he can play second ruck but is probably more damaging as a resting forward. Stanley is your typical aggresive follwer ruckman. Hopefully the two of them can form a dangerous combination in years to come.

Pick 48 - Nick Heyne - He is a freak, he has enough ability to go top 10 most years (imo), and if he can have a few of his weaknesses ironed out we could have the new Didak/ Johnson/ young Akka. I also have a sneaking suspicion they took Heyne after Stanley because it was the pick we got in the Ray trade. So if Heyne comes on quickly in the next two years it will make the Ray trade look much better in retrospect.

Pick 62 - Alistair Smith - He is a running machine, the game is becoming all about run and carry and IIRC he is national level good over 400m. I knew very little about Smith before we drafted him but he really impressed me at training the other week. He is built, vocal and competative, could prove a very good pick.

Pick 78 - Paul Cahill - Roo, Kosi... then what? We really don't have too much quality coming through in the key forward stakes. Also, he is a pretty good 'beat boxer'...

Pick 83 - Colm Begley - To free up Gram/ Goddard or Fisher. Those three are some of the better players and the coaching staff obviously believe they are being wasted (for lack of a better word) in defense. Begley doesn't need to be a star, he just needs to be able to hold his own to vindicate this pick.

[Mr Magic]

Thanks Armoooo.