National Rookie/Pre Season Draft 2009

[b_lions16]

Carlton
- The Blues have finalised their first lodgement, removing utility Greg Bentley from their rookie list. Bentley played five games in 2009 after 21 in three seasons with Port Adelaide.
The 22-year-old's departure is one of six from the rookie list, with Lachlan Hill, Darren Pfeiffer and Luke Stanton also cut and Sam Jacobs and Aaron Joseph elevated to senior spots.
Jeff Garlett and David Ellard have been retained.
Nick Stevens announced his retirement on Thursday.

North Melbourne
- The club has officially parted ways with frustrated half-back Jesse Smith, who knocked back the offer of a new contract and was unsuccessful in his attempts to be traded.
Smith, 23, had not played a senior game since round five, 2008 because of hamstring and ankle injuries and leaves the Roos with 27 matches to his name.
He was recruited as a father-son selection in 2004.
"It is just an unfortunate situation that occurs from time to time in this industry. It is disappointing for everyone, but it's something that occurs across the entire competition," chief of football Donald McDonald said this month.

Port Adelaide
- Wade Thompson has been upgraded to the senior list, with Danny Meyer accepting another rookie list contract. NSW scholarship player Jordan Johns has also been added to the rookie list. Chad Cornes joins Warren Tredrea on veteran status.
"Wade showed us some really exciting things early last season, and with a full pre-season we think he can fill an important role in our team in 2010," general manager of football operations Peter Rohde said of Thompson.

West Coast
- Jamie McNamara has been delisted after 19 games for the club while Ryan Davis will try his luck in the NAB AFL Draft after rejecting the offer to stay on the rookie list for a third season.
Callum Wilson, Will Sullivan and Lewis Stevenson will remain on the rookie list for a third year, and Adam Cockie a second. Ashley Arrowsmith and Liam Bedford have not been retained.
Retired premiership player Tyson Stenglein will be delisted after the draft, allowing the Eagles to participate in next year's NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsartic...3/default.aspx

[b_lions16]

West Coast won't make a play for de-listed St Kilda defender Matt Maguire in the national and pre-season AFL drafts.

Maguire, who has played just 14 games over the past three seasons after suffering a badly broken leg late in 2006, was axed from St Kilda on Thursday after 99 games.

The Eagles will use picks 7, 22 and 23 in November's national draft and will hold vacant a spot on their list for a mature-age player in the pre-season draft.

But West Coast football operations manager Neale Daniher said 25-year-old Maguire was not on their radar given his injury woes.

"We'll go to list management and talk through (about) Matt and make a decision but I wouldn't have thought Matt would be the top of our list," Daniher said on Friday.

"You would have thought (his injury is still a worry) otherwise he would still be on St Kilda's list.

"We'll have a look at all the de-listings.

"We'll probably take an experienced player given we've got three young guys to pick in the national draft and then we might have four or five rookies to come in as well.

"We'll probably go with someone with a bit more experience given the inexperience coming in at the other end."

Meanwhile, Daniher slammed the AFL's decision to schedule the Eagles away games in round one and 22.

Daniher said it was unfair to start and end the season away from home and was especially critical of the round 22 match against Geelong at Skilled Stadium.

Not only do the 2009 premiers have the luxury of playing at home, but they will have had two days extra break than the Eagles.

"We are disappointed about round 22, not only we are away but the fact they play Friday night the week before (and we play the Sunday)," he said.

"We played St Kilda early last year where we came off a six-day (break) and had to travel over there and they had an extra two days and we got belted.

"It does have a big impact."

However, Daniher said overall the club had been given a fairer draw than it was dealt last season.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...018851,00.html

[b_lions16]

http://www.afl.com.au/offseason/afld...0/Default.aspx
- NAB AFL Draft Wish List

[b_lions16]

Height: 195cm
Weight: 91kg
DOB: 18/04/91
Recruited from: Fitzroy
Bio: The dominant ruckman at the NAB AFL under-18 Championships for South Australia, earning All-Australian selection. Tap work at clearances is a feature of his game, as is contested marking.


Matt Burgan's draft rating: 18-late

Watch James Craig in action

What type of player are you?
I am an athletic-type ruck / key position.

Which AFL player do you feel you resemble, and why?
Matthew Kreuzer. His follow-up efforts after a contest and ability to be a dangerous player around the ground.

What are your strengths as a footballer?
Competitiveness and my attitude to all challenges.

What parts of your game would you like to improve?
Marking and finding more of the footy around the ground.

Which AFL team do you support and how did you come to barrack for them?
I support the Adelaide Crows. I support them because most of my family have supported them.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career so far, and why?
Craig Brooks - he was my junior coach at North Adelaide for four years. He taught me the importance of second efforts and one percenters.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsartic...6/default.aspx

[lions_girl_4life]

He sounds like a good bloke

[b_lions16]

THE spluttering AFL career of former first-round draft pick Mitch Thorp will be revived at another club in the forthcoming draft period, according to his manager Liam Pickering.
After two failed years with the Hawks, the 20-year-old was officially delisted last week.
Taken with pick six in the 2006 draft - one pick ahead of Geelong's dual premiership star Joel Selwood - the ex-Tasmanian has battled osteitis pubis, hip, knee and ankle problems that restricted him to just two senior games. Last season, the 194-centimetre forward broke a bone in a foot.
Despite having a year to run on his contract, Pickering said yesterday that Thorp wanted a fresh start at a new club in 2010 and opted to put himself up for trade.
A deal could not be struck during trade week, but Pickering said Thorp's ''talent alone is good enough'' to have other clubs interested as the national and pre-season drafts approach.
''It's going to be a pretty tough forward line to break into with [Lance] Franklin and [Jarryd] Roughead [and] he's had injuries, but I think he's a very talented young player,'' Pickering said on radio station SEN.
''A 20-year-old key position forward and he didn't go at pick six for no reason … he's a talented player and he will get an opportunity, I'm convinced of that.''
Another of Pickering's clients, injury-prone former North Melbourne defender Jesse Smith, is also hoping to resurrect his career at a new club.
After five seasons at the Kangaroos that produced just 27 games Smith was being targeted by as many as five clubs, Pickering said.
''Everyone knows his talent, but there are clubs that may not [be interested] because of his medical history,'' he said.
''[New coach] Brad Scott spoke to Jesse and asked him to reconsider his position,'' Kangaroos football operations chief Donald McDonald said after Smith walked out of Arden Street.
The club revealed it could not broker an adequate deal that would have given the 23-year-old a fresh start ahead of the draft period.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfn...835193350.html
Seriously hope we can snare Thorp, good Hendo replacement and will become a star if he could just get his body right.

[Anzac]

Originally Posted by b_lions16

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfn...835193350.html
Seriously hope we can snare Thorp, good Hendo replacement and will become a star if he could just get his body right.

i reckon there would be a few clubs looking at getting Thorp on their rookie list for next year

could become a really good forward

the lions really dont need him though with Fev and Brown now

[Anzac]

Originally Posted by Hayley

I'd be going for Carlton if I didn't support Brisbane. They're not that bad LOL

im the other way round, if I didnt support Carlton mainly it would be Brisbane for me

[lions_girl_4life]

Well since the whole debarcle with Fev, I'm a bit weary of Carlton, but have nothing personal against them.. Just friendly competitiveness

[b_lions16]

Carlton could provide discarded St Kilda defender Matt Maguire with an AFL lifeline, according to his former teammate Robert Harvey, one of the Blues' assistant coaches.

Harvey, who has been promoted to a full-time assistant coach after serving last season as development coach, said Maguire could be invited to train with the Blues in the lead-up to the national and pre-season drafts.

Maguire, 25, was delisted recently by the Saints after failing to add to his 99 career games in 2009 despite overcoming serious leg injuries.

Harvey, who played a club record 383 games for St Kilda before joining Carlton, said the Blues would consider inviting Maguire for a trial.

"We'll consider maybe asking Matty Maguire to train with us, but (as for other players delisted by clubs) ... we're pretty happy with the list we've got," Harvey said as the Blues began pre-season training.

"We cover most bases with young guys, we think, and the holes that we have got we think we're capable of covering them."

Carlton's biggest challenge when it comes to covering holes will be who to use as targets in attack in 2010 after Brendan Fevola was traded to Brisbane Lions.

Fevola topped the Blues' goal kicking from 2003-09, twice won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goal kicker and bagged 89 majors in 2009, after 99 in 2008.

Harvey said Carlton's re-think was not just a case of replacing Fevola with another player.

"Obviously you can't just replace a guy that kicks the amount of goals that he does," he said.

"It will be more of a restructure of the whole set-up and that's another thing that we're excited about.

"You don't replace that guy. You can't replace 100 goals a year, but three or four guys possibly can and that's what we'll be looking at.

"It might make us more unpredictable and we hope that's a good thing ... there will be some restructuring, but who or what that is we don't know yet."

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...018851,00.html