12 hours ago, Demonstone said:

The latter.

Well his nickname should be ‘the King’

3 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

Well his nickname should be ‘the King’

5 hours ago, Young Blood said:

With Jagga yes he slight up top of course. But he has fantastic core/hip strength. This is why I liken him to Daicos. He has similar low centre of gravity and ability to twist and shift his hips to get out of tackles/traffic. Have a look at some of his games for Richmond in the VFL and you will see how well he's already performing around mature bodies. They simply can't catch him at times because of his ability to get out of traffic. His ability to get on the move and open up the ground is fantastic

On your last statement I would have traditionally agreed with you. But we have the big bodied mids at the moment (Clarry, Trac, Rivers) what we desperately need is what the best midfields have now which is someone with elite agility, pace and accurate damaging ball use. We have the physical contested ball winners. What we need is an outside mid who can get out of traffic and create with excellent foot skills.

O'Sullivan, Jagga and Draper are the three highest quality mids in this regard high agility, speed, skills and clean. Unfortunately I think all three will be picked ahead of us. If for some reason one of those slid (or we traded up) that would be amazing.

Watching his VFL games his ability to read the play around the ground and at stoppages are both elite but almost exclusively he’s ducking out the back of contests or banging it on the boot. Most of his clearances come from setting up defensive side too.

And in general play he has chances to put the foot down and he’ll often handball off or take safe kicks.

I see the Daicos like shimmies and clean ball handling but not the same pace, he’ll often handball off rather than put the foot down. When Nick clicks in to top speed he’s super quick. Nick also kicks hard and low, Jagga just pops it. If anything he’s more like a young Josh Daicos than Nick.

Draper and O’Sullivan both have more pace and damaging kicks. If you trust his physical development and his contested ball stuff then Murphy Reid has a far bigger kit bag.

And yeah. We need a hard running midfield accumulator, but with pick 5 or 6 or whatever it is we need the best possible talent for 10-15 years ideally not current fit or to fill a need. There’s other ways to fill needs.

30 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Watching his VFL games his ability to read the play around the ground and at stoppages are both elite but almost exclusively he’s ducking out the back of contests or banging it on the boot. Most of his clearances come from setting up defensive side too.

And in general play he has chances to put the foot down and he’ll often handball off or take safe kicks.

I see the Daicos like shimmies and clean ball handling but not the same pace, he’ll often handball off rather than put the foot down. When Nick clicks in to top speed he’s super quick. Nick also kicks hard and low, Jagga just pops it. If anything he’s more like a young Josh Daicos than Nick.

Draper and O’Sullivan both have more pace and damaging kicks. If you trust his physical development and his contested ball stuff then Murphy Reid has a far bigger kit bag.

And yeah. We need a hard running midfield accumulator, but with pick 5 or 6 or whatever it is we need the best possible talent for 10-15 years ideally not current fit or to fill a need. There’s other ways to fill needs.

General consensus on here seems to be that we must go midfielder with pick 5, but I wonder whether JT and Goodwin will look at Alix Tauru as a prospect we could't possibly pass up on. We know we always look to competitiveness as a key trait when drafting, and he seemingly has it in spades. Can't say key defender (or potentially forward) isn't a need for us as well - May and TMac are both the wrong side of 30 and we seem committed to keeping Petty forward.  JT has also shown a willingness to take a bolter high in the draft - Clarry, Jackson and even Windsor last year to an extent were all taken higher than expected.

We could then look to draft midfield depth later on. Jack Ough interests me as an option in the 20s. 

@Davos  midfielder midfielder midfielder pick 5 must be a midfielder 

we have neglected the midfield balance 

5… O’Sullivan, Langford, Lalor, Lindsay 

Tauru is good and yes competitive but I’m still ranking him around 20   Had good traits and will be a player 

Jack Ough. Good call. His name is catchy and he gets the OOOOO!! call most likely. He is one that impressed each time I see a few minutes of the Rebels. Just his height and presence as a mid does add something and he’s composed with the footy. Had him around mid 40s so early-mid third round.  

18 minutes ago, Davos said:

General consensus on here seems to be that we must go midfielder with pick 5, but I wonder whether JT and Goodwin will look at Alix Tauru as a prospect we could't possibly pass up on. We know we always look to competitiveness as a key trait when drafting, and he seemingly has it in spades. Can't say key defender (or potentially forward) isn't a need for us as well - May and TMac are both the wrong side of 30 and we seem committed to keeping Petty forward.  JT has also shown a willingness to take a bolter high in the draft - Clarry, Jackson and even Windsor last year to an extent were all taken higher than expected.

We could then look to draft midfield depth later on. Jack Ough interests me as an option in the 20s. 

Absolutely agree, the initial rankings (which is really just 3 people in the media) are very high on mids but I personally think the number of blue chip mids in this draft is closer to 3-4 than 6+ and that includes Ashcroft. And even then none of them truly blow me away.

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Watching his VFL games his ability to read the play around the ground and at stoppages are both elite but almost exclusively he’s ducking out the back of contests or banging it on the boot. Most of his clearances come from setting up defensive side too.

And in general play he has chances to put the foot down and he’ll often handball off or take safe kicks.

I see the Daicos like shimmies and clean ball handling but not the same pace, he’ll often handball off rather than put the foot down. When Nick clicks in to top speed he’s super quick. Nick also kicks hard and low, Jagga just pops it. If anything he’s more like a young Josh Daicos than Nick.

Draper and O’Sullivan both have more pace and damaging kicks. If you trust his physical development and his contested ball stuff then Murphy Reid has a far bigger kit bag.

And yeah. We need a hard running midfield accumulator, but with pick 5 or 6 or whatever it is we need the best possible talent for 10-15 years ideally not current fit or to fill a need. There’s other ways to fill needs.

Yeah I certainly wasn't comparing Jagga's game to a Daicos. Just that he has the hip strength/shimmy and ability to get out of traffic. He doesn't waste too many possessions and definitely uses handball too often currently but the positive is that its pretty much always to a player on the outside or ahead of the ball who can dispose cleanly in space. He plays the modern getting on the move, drawing opponents and releasing players and with his quick feet he relocates to create another option. Very rarely does he win the ball and hack a kick out, he's clean and goes for quality possessions. 

Agreed would definitely prefer Draper and O'Sullivan who have more well-rounded games. I'm expecting O'Sullivan to go pick one he's just has all the tools and then some.

I think any of these three are going to be excellent players over the next 10-15 years.

Edited September 11, 2024Sep 11 by Young Blood

15 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

@Davos  midfielder midfielder midfielder pick 5 must be a midfielder 

we have neglected the midfield balance 

5… O’Sullivan, Langford, Lalor, Lindsay 

Tauru is good and yes competitive but I’m still ranking him around 20   Had good traits and will be a player 

Jack Ough. Good call. His name is catchy and he gets the OOOOO!! call most likely. He is one that impressed each time I see a few minutes of the Rebels. Just his height and presence as a mid does add something and he’s composed with the footy. Had him around mid 40s so early-mid third round.  

You might have him at 20, but Cal Twomey thinks he's shot himself into top 10 calculations. I could see us liking Langford, Lalor and Draper - but there's a chance they all go before pick 5. What then? I personally wouldn't draft Jagga, and I'm lukewarm on O'Sullivan. Lindsay isn't a top 10 calibre prospect for mine. I love Reid but understand his potential limitations at AFL level. 

Twomey also mentioned on the most recent Gattable podcast that Ough is probably a top 30 guy. Whether he's the right fit for our midfield mix would be the question. 

This is probably our most important draft since 2019. We really need to nail pick 5 and snare a future elite player.

In this draft we may even land a very good player with a late 1st or earlyish 2nd round pick.

Lindsay although he's done his knee looks a gun to me. Elite left foot kick and a good connector into the forward 50. 

This is an important draft. Allow me to be the 50th person to say that we need to nail this and the trade period.

be great if we could somehow get two mids in the top 15 and then a slider KPF/KPB between 25-40 (somehow)..

just have to see what we can do with playing around with pick swaps (including next year's picks). 

9 hours ago, layzie said:

This is an important draft. Allow me to be the 50th person to say that we need to nail this and the trade period.

Unlike other years, where it never mattered.

Allow me (probably not the first)  to say that we should treasure next years first round draft pick. Too many here believe it wont be an early one. Im thinking it could be.

Armstrong is a guy to keep close eye on, if we can get pick 14 like we are trying to do that could be the midfielder spot if Armstrong does come into calculation — but again it’s a tough one cus we do need a gum mid with pace and a nice kick but if all of Reid, Smilie, Smith are gone pick 14 might nab a guy like Tauru w/Armstrong at 5.

 

It is going to be intriguing — I was hoping for Smilie but seems like he’s gonna be pick 2-3 at present. 

19 minutes ago, Tolstoys Nudge said:

Armstrong is a guy to keep close eye on, if we can get pick 14 like we are trying to do that could be the midfielder spot if Armstrong does come into calculation — but again it’s a tough one cus we do need a gum mid with pace and a nice kick but if all of Reid, Smilie, Smith are gone pick 14 might nab a guy like Tauru w/Armstrong at 5.

 

It is going to be intriguing — I was hoping for Smilie but seems like he’s gonna be pick 2-3 at present. 

It's such an interesting draft with no clear order.

Despite everyone talking about the mids I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Armstrong goes in the 1 - 5 range.

 

1 hour ago, binman said:

Unlike other years, where it never mattered.

Some definitely don't matter as much as others.

The ranking in which they matter seem to coincide with our position on the home and away ladder that year.

Funny that. /s

@Davos lukewarm on Finn O’Sullivan? He dominated as an under age player last year and would have been drafted top 5 if eligible last year.  He has had some injuries this year.  But he has elite skills, wins the footy, can play mid or half back distribution role, is a leader, wins the footy etc etc. He plays LDU … slightly shorter version (4cms shorter than LDU). He’s still my number 1 pick this year.   Tigers might go Smith or Langford and I hope O’Sullivan drops to us.  Unlikely though.  
 

O’Sullivans situation reminds me of the Joel Selwood draft year where he went from likely pick 2 or 3 (behind Bryce Gibbs)to 7th pick due to an  injury interrupted draft year.  

on Selwood pre the draft, Matt Burgan wrote … Although a knee injury plagued him in 2006, Selwood is enormously rated by AFL recruiters. He is regarded as one of the premier midfielders in the draft, while his character and leadership qualities have also been highly commended. He has been touted as a future AFL captain by one recruiting manager.  
 

The rest is known what that meant for the Cats!! 

Edited September 13, 2024Sep 13 by spirit of norm smith
F

Another watch today on some potential prospects.

Harvey Langford, Finn O'Sullivan and Jagga Smith could all fall to our pick potentially.  

A big watch on Harry Armstrong who has every chance of sneaking into top 5 calculations. 

Murphy Reid will not be hyped up as much as the other top prospects because lacks outstanding physical attributes.

But wouldn't surprise me if he ended up with the best career of the lot.

Sidebottom/Pendlebury/Sam Mitchell level of IQ, movement, touch - a player Melbourne haven't had for as long as I can remember (maybe trapper back in the day).

I think would compliment Windsor/Koz pace and Trac/Clarry contest very nicely

12 minutes ago, Lord Neville X Flash said:

Murphy Reid will not be hyped up as much as the other top prospects because lacks outstanding physical attributes.

But wouldn't surprise me if he ended up with the best career of the lot.

Sidebottom/Pendlebury/Sam Mitchell level of IQ, movement, touch - a player Melbourne haven't had for as long as I can remember (maybe trapper back in the day).

I think would compliment Windsor/Koz pace and Trac/Clarry contest very nicely

Exactly how he controlled games in U13; 14; 15; 16 for South Melbourne. Could play like a NFL quarterback, score when needed, cover back when needed, win contests. Excellent decision making since Auskick.

2 minutes ago, 1964nowMORE said:

Exactly how he controlled games in U13; 14; 15; 16 for South Melbourne. Could play like a NFL quarterback, score when needed, cover back when needed, win contests. Excellent decision making since Auskick.

Certainly has a Sheezel style about him

Up until now, I thought we would definitely pick a mid, but Armstrong might be exactly what we need long term, to go alongside JVR.

25 minutes ago, Lord Neville X Flash said:

Murphy Reid will not be hyped up as much as the other top prospects because lacks outstanding physical attributes.

But wouldn't surprise me if he ended up with the best career of the lot.

Sidebottom/Pendlebury/Sam Mitchell level of IQ, movement, touch - a player Melbourne haven't had for as long as I can remember (maybe trapper back in the day).

I think would compliment Windsor/Koz pace and Trac/Clarry contest very nicely

Twomey and Rookie me have him at pick 6. So rated highly. ESPN have him at 18 with a Q on athletic abilities but do say he is a pure footballer.

39 minutes ago, manny100 said:

Twomey and Rookie me have him at pick 6. So rated highly. ESPN have him at 18 with a Q on athletic abilities but do say he is a pure footballer.

Yeah we are definitely likely to get him with our first pick.

Although, we usually preference physical attributes

Our recent first round picks: Windsor (Speed), Kolt (Power), Jackson (Everything), Kozi (Power/Speed), Jefferson (Tall/KPP)

 

Edited September 15, 2024Sep 15 by Lord Neville X Flash