The top two 2018 AFL National Draft prospects are South Australians ~ both considered exceptional.~

Firstly, Izak Rankine AFL Draft prospect Izak Rankine catches talent scouts’ eyes while playing for SANFL side West Adelaide and South Australia

Then there’s Jack Lukosius U18: Bottom-ager Lukosius stars in SA's big win

And Connor Rozee goes all right too. That trio are all in the AFL Academy squad which is where the better prospects can be found.

No wonder the Crows fought tooth and nail to extract our future first round pick for Jake Lever.

That’s cruel. After no 1st rounders in 2016 and 2017 Draft, we have traded out again of the 1st round in 2018. 

We have put the chips into Weideman and Lever who cost us 2016-18 1st rounders. History will judge us like the 2007-15 junket of Top 10 & Top 20 picks. 

1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

That’s cruel. After no 1st rounders in 2016 and 2017 Draft, we have traded out again of the 1st round in 2018. 

We have put the chips into Weideman and Lever who cost us 2016-18 1st rounders. History will judge us like the 2007-15 junket of Top 10 & Top 20 picks. 

Put 2016 down for Weeds, time will tell but we ended up with a similar pick and he's a year ahead.
Put 2018 down for Lever, unless we end up in the bottom 4 I'd say we've come out with a good result there.
2017 we traded back from pick 10 to pick 36 as part of the Lever deal. If Harry Petty can make it as a solid key defender then that's also a good result.

The AFL website’s Callum Twomey is a little bit behind us but he hasn’t wasted much time getting into the 2018 draft prospects.

The next batch: Looking ahead to the 2018 draft

 

10 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

The AFL website’s Callum Twomey is a little bit behind us but he hasn’t wasted much time getting into the 2018 draft prospects.

The next batch: Looking ahead to the 2018 draft

 

All born this century. I feel old 

53 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

All born this century. I feel old 

relax, the century didn't start until 2001.

Not having first round picks fro a while, and having traded out a lot of early second round picks too, does feel a bit weird.

But with Hibberd's effort and Melksham's improvement we seem to be getting good value for those picks.

Lever's progress will be fascinating to watch but there's no doubt he was worth a first rounder plus a downgrade, just a question of whether the downgrade amount was too much.

If we end up with 2 All-Australian defenders in our list thanks to trades, I wont complain about a shortage of draft picks.

Especially when we seem to have a recruiting team with a talent for finding respectable late-pick players.

On 11/24/2017 at 11:08 PM, spirit of norm smith said:

That’s cruel. After no 1st rounders in 2016 and 2017 Draft, we have traded out again of the 1st round in 2018. 

We have put the chips into Weideman and Lever who cost us 2016-18 1st rounders. History will judge us like the 2007-15 junket of Top 10 & Top 20 picks. 

Should I value your judgement?

Here's your post from earlier this year in the corresponding 2017 draft prospects thread (with their actual draft position in brackets added by me):

Quote

my 23 April top 10

Brander (13)

Darcy Fogarty (12)

Ballenden (Bris) (43)

Stephenson (6)

Rayner (1)

Hayes (47)

Worpel (45)

O'Brien (10)

Higgins (17)

Garner (60)

Spargo (29), Clavarino (35), Coleman-Jones (20), Hewson (-), Lachlan Fogarty (22) , Clark (7), Balta (25), Parish (-), Krueger (-) and Davies-Uniacke (4) rank as top 20 prospects. 

How did that go for you?

• 3/10 in the top 10
• 9/20 in the top 20

29 minutes ago, Fifty-5 said:

Should I value your judgement?

Here's your post from earlier this year in the corresponding 2017 draft prospects thread (with their actual draft position in brackets added by me):

How did that go for you?

• 3/10 in the top 10
• 9/20 in the top 20

Does that really need answering?  He is a terrific scout from his armchair.

Dees got

Lever & 2nd round Crows 2017 (Petty) & 3rd round Crows 2018

Crows got

1st round Dees 2017 (D Fogarty) & 1st round Dees 2018 & 4th round Dees 2018 

Pick 10 was O’Brien to carlton

I for one am stoked we no longer have an O’Brien on our list

4 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Dees got

Lever & 2nd round Crows 2017 (Petty) & 3rd round Crows 2018

Crows got

1st round Dees 2017 (Lochie O’Brien & 1st round Dees 2018 & 4th round Dees 2018 

Correction 

18 hours ago, hillie said:

I for one am stoked we no longer have an O’Brien on our list

Agree, can't remember him getting a kick.

 

Oh that's right Harry O'Brien is off the list.

Superdraft or superhyped? Early view on 2018

Reminds me. Time for my first phantom draft and it’s no surprise that a few South Australians figure very highly. 

From the POV of the Dees, we are unlikely participants in the top 10 of the draft which is fine by me since we have Jake Lever instead.

However, that said, this year’s batch of players coming into the system is looking very strong.

My top 10:-

1. Izak Rankine – West Adelaide (SA)
2. Jack Lukosius - Woodville West-Torrens (SA)
3. Max King – Sandringham Dragons
4. Connor Rozee – North Adelaide (SA)
5. Ben King – Sandringham Dragons
6. Sam Walsh – Geelong Falcons 
7. Ian Hill – Perth (WA)
8. Jye Caldwell – Bendigo Pioneers
9. Jack Bytel – Calder Cannons
10. Matt Green – Sporties Spitfires (NT)

Another Max King?

Max, Mitch and Max King - this is starting to do my head in.

 

Tassie has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Here are a couple of youngsters from the Apple Isle who are hoping to make an impact as the year progresses ~

Pair poised to ease Tassie's long draft drought

This kid can play just a little bit ~

Lukosius stars in top draftee showdown

The Under 18 TAC Cup competition is going into its third round.

Here are the wash ups from the first two rounds:- 

Weekend Washup Round 1

Weekend Washup Round 2

... and from Knightmare 

Key talls dominate April's AFL draft power rankings

 

Melbourne has been active in luring basketballers to the club. 

This bloke sounds interesting ~

Vic clubs chasing son of Australian sport champions

Xavier Duursma has started the 2018 season in good form. Inside mid with good pace. Captain of Gippsland Power under 18s.  Hard at the footy.

Good connection with Demons as his dad was in Dees list without playing a game and of course his uncle Jamie Duursma played with the Demons. 

Better keep him under wraps for now as we have no 1st round picks right now in 2018 draft. 

10 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Melbourne has been active in luring basketballers to the club. 

This bloke sounds interesting ~

Vic clubs chasing son of Australian sport champions

His Dad is a big demons fan and I recall Mark talking about his sons enjoying watching Melbourne after having their doubts when we were less than good

Wasn’t there a picture recently of Mark Bradtke with Gawn down at the Club? He was big enough that he made Gawn look normal size. @Satyriconhome do you know what Mark was doing at the Club?

I had not heard of Austin till just now but if at 17 he is already 205cm and is athletic as described then I desperately want him at our Club. 

He was there during pre season teaching the rucks 'agility', so the cloae in work after the tap