Anyone worried about our ruck problems? Not now we have Derickx

[Jewels]

Reggi the difference is all of those players you mention were brought up on Aussie Rules, player junior footy, tried basketball and returned to Aussie Rules. No comparison, Mitchell had not heard of Aussie Rules until the combine. By the way it is a little ingenuous putting Tony Shaw's name there he has only ever played basketball on a social level to keep fit in the summer. All the Shaws are from a long tradition of Aussie Rules at Collingwood.

Don't know about the others, but I thought Dean Brogan was first and foremost a basketballer and won an NBL championship before he played AFL.

[Primmy]

Right Jewels, actually I think he won an NBL championship with the team from Adelaide before 'defecting' to AFL.

[Mug Punter]

Reggi the difference is all of those players you mention were brought up on Aussie Rules, player junior footy, tried basketball and returned to Aussie Rules. No comparison, Mitchell had not heard of Aussie Rules until the combine. By the way it is a little ingenuous putting Tony Shaw's name there he has only ever played basketball on a social level to keep fit in the summer. All the Shaws are from a long tradition of Aussie Rules at Collingwood.

Exactly, the same as saying we should draft baseballers into cricket because Ian Chappell, Geoff Lawson and Allan Border were good baseballers.

Don't get me wrong, I hope he makes it. All I'm saying is that that I don't think we should get our hopes up. Can't wait to see him running around next year though

[Ludwig]

Everyone realises that bringing in American basketball players is an experiment. Not one has played a game, which makes sense, since they're all on rookie lists with Mitchell and Holmes (StK) only just drafted and Eric Wallace joining the Roos last year. The risk is mainly financial, since the club gets an extra rookie spot for these players. So far only 3 clubs have decided to go down this particular pathway.

It will probably be several years before we can make any sort of judgement on how successful this experiment has been. At this point, we can only look on with an open mind and see what develops.

[stellation]

It's obviously taking a punt with Mitchell, but it's a moderately educated one- they put a lot of effort into narrowing down potential recruits and didn't just grab a guy off the street.

[jono2707]

Everyone realises that bringing in American basketball players is an experiment. Not one has played a game, which makes sense, since they're all on rookie lists with Mitchell and Holmes (StK) only just drafted and Eric Wallace joining the Roos last year. The risk is mainly financial, since the club gets an extra rookie spot for these players. So far only 3 clubs have decided to go down this particular pathway.

Collingwood had Shae McNamara on their list for a couple of years a few years back too...

[wolftone57]

Don't know about the others, but I thought Dean Brogan was first and foremost a basketballer and won an NBL championship before he played AFL.

Jewels he was brought up with AFL and played junior footy. He came from Adelaide and played junior footy and chose to persue a career in basketball with the 36ers. He was a good solid basketballer but found that he preferred Aussie Rules because of the aggressive nature of the game. He joined Port but that was NOT the first time he had played Aussie Rules he played as a junior as most if not all Adelaide kids do. I know I was a kid growing up in Adelaide and in even his formative years Adelaide was and I believe still is footy mad. We all played basketball in a off season and some of those that were batter at it an tall enough went on to have basketball careers. Two of my school mates played state representative basketball for Sa but they both played footy as well.

[Meg]

The ABC this evening had a short grab of an interview with Shane Mumfield at his first training session with GWS. Mumford was warm and generous about the Swans saying the club had been good to him, he would always be a premiership player because of the Swans, and he had no regrets. I miss him already!