Brad Miller [merged]

[Judge Roughneck]

Good post claw. Don't have an issue with this one.
He'll come at much less cost than Bradshaw too.

less cost

much less abilty

[tiger till i die]

u guys are saying he will be an coburg only player? highly doubt that when Griff isnt going to play first couple of games cause he is badly injured in th shoulders and is havin major construction work on them MEEENs he will never be a great player he will be good but not Great.

We need another Foward with Jr8 like a buddy to a Roughhead type deal 

I hope he proves me wrong tho..

[mightytiges]

I find it staggering that people to this day bring up the Tigers selecting Mark Graham in 2005 as being a bad decision by the club. It was a good decision, it costs us late draft pick (in the 50's IIRC) he helped in developing the younger players and allowed some blokes time to develop at VFL level rather havng them thrown in the deep end when they weren't ready. Perhaps if we as club under previous regimes had done this with a few more younger players over the years we'd have better developed young blokes than we do now 

I would say people argue that on two fronts WP:

1) Graham lasted only one year as a back-up (2005) so he wasn't around when AK retired and Gas retired/was dumped in 2007. McGuane, Thursty and Moore were thrown in the deep end by sheer necessity anyway starting with that Geelong nightmare game at the Dome.

2) Graham was picked up late in 2004 draft but when you look at the PSD and especially the rookie draft that year there were still some decent (then young) footballers to be found which could have been drafted instead that had a decade of footy in front of them:

PSD
3. Eddie Betts (Carl)  ...... We selected Trent Knobel at pick 1.

Rookie Draft:
7. Josh Gibson (North/Haw)
16. Danyle Pearce (Port)
18. Clinton Young (Haw)
19. Dale Morris (WB)
20. Harry O'Brien (Coll)
26. Matthew Warnock (Melb)
38. Scott McMahon (North)
39. Ryan Crowley (Freo)
42. Heath Grundy (Syd)
60. Josh Drummond (Bris)

Nb. that year due to poor finances we only used one rookie pick (1. Will Thursfield).

So while there was some logic to having Graham as a back-up/fill-in at the time, it really was a short-term decision made at the expense of recruiting for long-term when we were meant to be in full rebuild mode.

[Infamy]

I have no problem with us picking Graham with our last pick in 2004
Had the rest of our draft been any good we wouldn't be discussing it at all
Problem was, after Pick 5-7 the 2004 draft was a stinker

[tony_montana]

Depends how you see the big picture, i see as we trade out the likes of tambling, thursfield, mcguane or rance etc ... and draft more kids like Heppell, Mitchell and Lamb etc who will be good players for a long time going forward.

So you trust the club to make the right decisions in regards to picks and kids, but not trades involving mature bodies?

I believe we are better of trading out the likes of Thursfield, Tambling et al and using those picks on Kids. Thats it in a nutshell.

I second that Ramps and MT!

Why doesn't Melbourne delist Miller and tell him to play at Casey in a "Mentoring Role"?

Why don't we just ask him to be a forward coach that just plays at Coburg? At least it "FREES UP" a place for a young cub to get a chance.

Why do we have to Rookie him and play "X" amount? Insurance?

That's it in a nutshell for me as well Torch.... all those advocating a mentor role, just invest the money into something we desperately need - an extra few bleating development coaches and be done with it! Melbournes fwd line is still very much developing why do they feel they don't need him to assist the very raw J.Watts and co? hmmmm......IMO young players don't learn much from onfield tutelege from Miller type players, champions like cuz is a different story.

[cub]

Terrible & stupid decision if true 

[the claw]

Good post claw. Don't have an issue with this one.
He'll come at much less cost than Bradshaw too.

bradshaw is quality you should never look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes so cheap.

[wayne]

Good post claw. Don't have an issue with this one.
He'll come at much less cost than Bradshaw too.

bradshaw is quality you should never look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes so cheap.

Only problem would have been if Riewoldt had of gotten injured, he'd have been sitting on the sidelines with Bradshaw for most of the season.

[the claw]

I have no problem with us picking Graham with our last pick in 2004
Had the rest of our draft been any good we wouldn't be discussing it at all
Problem was, after Pick 5-7 the 2004 draft was a stinker

i have enormous problems with it as far as list management goes the graham and miller situations are different if people take a good look at it.

i posted this over at bf i might as well say it again.

without miller we have jack at 22 hes the oldest kpf we have and the sole one who is established. by any standard we need some mature players especially talls.

prior to the 05 draft and taking graham who was 32 mind  we had  28yo gaspar, 24yo hall, 29yo a kellaway,  we had 22 yr old weller taken in the psd and 18yo archibald taken very late and moore who at the time was not considered a kp.
 we had no need for a 32 yr old graham what we had need of was a couple of promising big bodied  kpds  instead we got graham. it was a nonsense and typical of miller/wallace.

[TigerTimeII]

there is nothing wrong with this decision

miller still isnt too old, big body, can play fwd and back
but most of all is a team man

hey mt remember the yrs when u kept bagging rfc due to the rumours that we were after Leigh Brown

well werent the pies effheads for getting that hack mt ??????

i guess thats y they do what they do , i do what i do, u some just perfect their cut and paste techniques


miiller would be great at that price full stop

[Mr Magic]

bradshaw is quality you should never look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes so cheap.

He's not cheap.

[cub]

Manager Paul Connors says he's spoken to Richmond re Brad Miller continuing his career at Punt Road, unlikely to be a trade tho

[tony_montana]

Manager Paul Connors says he's spoken to Richmond re Brad Miller continuing his career at Punt Road, unlikely to be a trade tho

that would be the icing on the cake if we actually traded for him.

unlikely indeed 

[mightytiges]

there is nothing wrong with this decision

miller still isnt too old, big body, can play fwd and back
but most of all is a team man

hey mt remember the yrs when u kept bagging rfc due to the rumours that we were after Leigh Brown

well werent the pies effheads for getting that hack mt ??????

i guess thats y they do what they do , i do what i do, u some just perfect their cut and paste techniques


miiller would be great at that price full stop

Mark Seaby and Mark Blake were also 2nd ruck premiership players. They must be guns as well that Richmond should have chased . Just because you've squeezed into the final 22 and ended up with the medal around your neck doesn't make you a top AFL footballer. All it means you played in the best team. Darren Jolly who is a top classruckman and All-Australian dominated as the Pies' ruckman and Cloke and Dawes were the Pies two first choice key forwards along with their plethora of midsized forwards. Brown made his dreams come true so good on him but he was just the final piece in the puzzle at best. Lucky that the Saints had lost their two most experienced ruckmen to injury for the GF replay. Brown vs Kosi in the ruck was hardly Jolly vs Cox in 2005. Sheesh Brown ran into the back of Kosi 4 times as they both didn't know what they were doing . In any case the Pies had already rebuilt their list and played finals 3 years in a row before they picked Brown up. If Richmond had got him everyone here would be bagging the club because he would've made no difference to us as we are rebuilding.  

[mightytiges]

Sorry I missed your earlier post smokey but having said that as I just posted in replying to bj the Dees lost 4 of the 6 games Miller played in by 40-60 points. Add to that he played 52 games b/w 2007-9 when the Dees won just 12 from 66. So the argument that we need him to stop continually losing after losing doesn't make sense to me. One player (unless they're of Judd's class which Miller sure hell isn't) doesn't save 7 goals say to turn a flogging into a competitive loss. Hawthorn btw lost 12 from 13 games in the middle of 2006 and most of those badly. 14 months late they were playing finals. Losing doesn't kill ya if internally everyone understands where the list is at. Development and getting games into our youngsters is what is important right now instead of results and scoreboard. We are still miles away and IMO Miller won't change that injuries or no injuries.

Fair points MT but I don't think Miller is being chased for his senior on-field potential, rather his skills and experience at the lower tier.  He is an insurance policy if crap goes down and he will be capable of helping stem the tide if it turns against us but I'm not considering him at all as a senior recruit - just someone who can help keep the natives at bay until the cavalry arrive.  And to our young side who learned strong lessons this season about input, output and attitude in general, I think that can potentially be very important.  Hopefully the situation never arises but it won't hurt to have a couple of wheel chocks available while we climb that steep hill.  No point rolling all the way to the bottom again.

I don't have a problem with us getting Miller as a future potential coach playing at Coburg as we've done that before with Tim Clarke. IMO if we want Miller for that role than employ him as that. Players should only be on our playing list if they are part of our playing future. If Griffiths isn't right for round 1 due to his shoulder(s) then Miller will play and then he is then playing ahead of another young tall which I'm against.