Buzz

SHAW SHOT– ROBERT SHAW

Give me inside players and I'll give you success!

The trends in the draft give a strong clue to where the game is headed.

THERE are three phases of list management, starting with the trade period and ending in mid December with the all-important rookie draft and pre-season draft.
In the latter, Zac Dawson will join Fremantle as it looks to lend support to Luke McPharlin and also hopes to extend Matthew Pavlich's career in the forward line.
Generally clubs trade for additions who could solve specific weaknesses.
Of course GWS's philosophy of adding significant experience does help it to shepherd some very young players through year one of a taxing 2012.
Matthew Warnock goes to Gold Coast to afford critical support to Nathan Bock, Ivan Maric to Richmond adds a competitive edge to the ruck allowing Tyrone Vickery to continue his exciting development up forward, while Melbourne blindsided the Fremantle brains trust in securing Mitch Clark.
This move not only brings a big key forward to the 50m arc of Melbourne but also will make Liam Jurrah and Jack Watts better players.
By the way, it will be interesting to see what Mark Neeld can do about the cultural lack of aggression that has plagued the Demons. For too long Melbourne has focused on ball players.
In doing so it let a raging bull midfielder in Dustin Martin slip through to the Tigers.
Melbourne just hasn't drafted tough (with profuse apologies to Col Sylvia and Brock McLean).
Good luck to Neeld. His attitude and approach seems spot on. One person that he beat for the role in Todd Viney has been an exception to the rule. Hopefully his son, Jack, who the Demons can list next season as a father-son, is a chip off the old block.
Maybe then Melbourne will no longer be the most frustrating club in the competition.
In highlighting the need for contested ball winners there is a pleasing trend coming through in this year's draft.
I say pleasing because it continues a trend whereby footballers are being favoured over athletes who clubs believe they can "turn into" footballers.
Too often in the past clubs highlighted outstanding beep tests, agility runs and vertical jumps.
Significantly, recruiters at one club with a new coach were very keen on an outside runner, skilful and a good kick. The new coach said: "We have always recruited that type" and immediately went for a tougher inside competitor who is good around clearances and wins his own ball.
Nowdays if a player has an identified weakness the smart clubs accept that weakness and place the onus on the ever-growing list of assistants and development coaches to fix the problem.
There is always some sort of knock on players. Take the strengths, identify the positives that can help your club and then use the development coaches to improve the negatives.
Otherwise why the great focus and expense being ploughed into beefing up coaching panels if the coaches the clubs appoint in development roles can't improve a player.
If you need tough players draft tough players. If you need outside run and skill then draft it. By knocking a player's deficiencies, all you are saying is our coaches can't fix the issue.
Going on the trends of the recent draft, clearances, contested ball and the physical press are about to be taken to another level and refined even more.
The next phase will be looking at how to extricate the ball out of the press and this is where ball use and vision becomes so important.
Here is the breakdown in the draft held in November.
Fourteen per cent of the draft involved rookie elevations. In a draft dominated by GWS and the theme that it was a "light" draft, clubs chose to elevate their own.
Twenty-three per cent of the draft were listed as forwards, 35 per cent as midfielders.
There is a natural theme to push for talented midfielders and this figure is somewhat inflated by the GWS desire to stockpile a range of talented midfielders.
This was important for GWS as it knows that clubs south of the border will come hunting in the years to come, and it will surely lose one or two good 'uns.
But the telling theme for me was that of the 35 per cent midfielders, almost half of those were described using words like "inside, competitive, tough".
Only 18 per cent were highlighted for their outstanding testing results!
It is only to be expected when the physical sides such as Collingwood, Geelong, St Kilda and Hawthorn continue to perform in finals where contested ball and physical application is a priority.
Natural defenders particularly full backs are hard to find. Over the years the likes of the Fletchers, Martyns and Silvagnis have been cornerstones to premiership success.
A few draftees could develop in that role but development pathways are not great at finding and developing tall last-line defenders.
Only 18 per cent of the draft were listed as defenders and not one was listed as a full back. The term full back did not appear in any player profile I read.
It is little wonder Dustin Fletcher is playing on and James Frawley remains Melbourne's most important player.
Finally the game starts in the centre bounce and with stoppages so important ruckmen are critical to long-term success. Seven per cent of players drafted were listed as ruckmen. There is an obvious dearth in ruck stocks and Brisbane swooped early to grab a 10-year ruckman in Billy Longer.
Surprisingly GWS loaded up on midfielders at the cost of a 10-year ruckman, something I thought would have been a priority for Kevin Sheedy. Not sure how that one was missed.
Finally, it was great to see Orren Stevenson drafted by Geelong. At 29 he is in his prime as a ruckman, is settled in his life and possibly the best ruckman outside the AFL.
Talking of historical percentages, the 29-year-old constitutes 0.0011 per cent of the draft!
Little wonder we never saw it coming!