VIDEO: Francis Jackson's review of the 2013 National Draft ...
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/2013-11-21/2013-draft-jacksons-review
Summary
* Did the National Draft go to plan?
Just about! You hope it all goes to plan. There were some very nervous moments before our first pick because we weren’t sure if West Coast were going to pick Ben. So I was sweating on the number that they actually read out. It never goes 100% to plan but not far from it.
* Ben Lennon?
It’s very exciting having Ben at the footy club. He spent his AIS week with us early in the year which gives us just a little bit more information about him. We saw how he reacted in a few situations. A number of [our] players rated him highly. They were texting me to make sure we got Ben so that was very interesting. Ben provides a lot of class and he’s a very smart player. He sees the footy really well, is strong overhead and a terrific kick. He played a little bit more of a midfield role towards the back end of the year so we think he has a lot of versatility. His footy smarts are really exciting.
* Nathan Gordon?
We had been tracking Nathan all year at North Adelaide. He's a mature player from the SANFL. He had a fabulous finals series for North Adelaide, who played off in the grand final. He’s a very strong competitive player with a wonderful work ethic, got terrific endurance, and he competes well and is a strong mark as well. We think he may be able to play a midfield role. He played a little mid role early on in the year but predominantly played as a forward.
* Sam Lloyd?
Sam is an old-fashioned, very intelligent, very smart footballer. He’d be very difficult to play on because he can hurt you in so many different ways. He’s an outstanding mark. We tracked Sam for two years. We went and watched him last year playing for Mt Eliza in the Morning Peninsula league and then he made the commitment to Frankston. He had a full pre-season there and kicked a lot of goals in the VFL. He actually represented Victoria against WA where he kicked 4 goals. He’s really worked hard on his fitness and he’s got some real talent.
* Rookie Draft?
We’ll meet early in the morning and have a look at our rookie options. Quite a few players, who we anticipated might have been chosen tonight, missed out. We’ve still got a fair bit of work to go with three rookie picks but we’re excited to look forward to what other talent we can bring to the Club.
lol if the plan was to take just one kid in the draft im against it.
Ben Lennon - as if wce were going to take lennon in front of sheed. going by this they had tunnel vision and were taking lennon no matter what. id have dom sheed every time.if wce had taken acres does that mean we would have passed on sheed . woud we have even looked.
Nathan Gordon - again it seems they had tunnell vision. watched him all yr and just had to take him reaching for a mature player who we could have taken later.we have done this a fair bit over the yrs. dea, conca, batchelor, jon, are just a few that spring to mind where they have watched em and just had to have em.
Sam Lloyd - a sml forward at 66 probably a fair enough selection to take mature player at this point.
Ricky Petterd - did we really need to promote this below standard player. it cost us any chance of tweaking things if we wished.
Rookie draft - so from the horses mouth there were quite a few players who they anticipated might have been chosen still there. so in fact according to our club there was talent available perhaps this will put paid to the no decent kids horse poo comments that the defenders of all things richmond put out there.
i have a question for the club.
why were we the only club in the nd period to only take one kid. every other club saw fit to take as a minimum 2 kids and that included clubs with sanctions,
there was just 5 live picks used on mature players one of em was a 21yo in lobb at pick 29. another was dayle garlett a 20yo at pick 38.
no club apart from richmond took mature players after pick 42 with a live pick where wb took matt fuller a 23 yr old with sublime footskills. they also took honeychurch at 66 a 18yo.
all other clubs after pick 42 who had live picks were still targeting kids. it seems none were interested in mature types. except to elevate the ones they already had.
if we knew we were going to take mature players at 50 and 66 did we make an attempt to gain another pick in the 40 55 range. i dont think so.
again to finish im not against the lads we picked but i do question useing just one nd pick on kids. im happy we could give some state league boys a go rather than the other clubs reject players with chronic weakness and poor performance route that we usually take.
my criticism is not just about the nd but the whole trade and nd period. with just a little tweaking over the entire period we really should have had 2 or 3 18 yr olds plus the mature players we have taken.
