Leaderboard

6 & 11 for Watto would get Lamb shot at sunrise

No bandaged knee. It’s a good sign for pre season at least. It would be fantastic if it held up through the season.

Why wouldn't we take Curtin if available at 7? 🙄

Hunter and Langdon both went at 32% contested possessions per disposal in 2023. Josh Daicos, who won a B&F in a premiership year, went at 30%. Windsor went at 32% this year. I haven't seen enough of Windsor to have an informed view, but if he uses it well and breaks the lines with speed I don't see an issue based on his recent numbers.

With Petty’s return questionable and Smith under a suspension cloud, I’m expecting BBB to be in the mix come round 1. edit - “opening round”. sorry!

What is the purpose of trading out Picks 14, 27 and 35 for Pick 11 only to land Tholstrup who wasn't even considered a top 15 player in the draft which we could of taken with Pick 14 anyway. If that's the case then it's very amateur by Melbourne. More pick swaps to come I feel.

Cal’s Phantom Draft 2023 Melbourne selects ~ 7. Caleb Windsor POS: Midfielder Ht 185cm, Wt 74kg, DOB 9/6/05 From Eastern Ranges/Vic Metro The winger with all the right stuff. If things go a certain way, Windsor comes into contention for the Demons' first pick. The elite runner and midfielder has real pop to his game – and it's the upside that is exciting for recruiters as well. He has speed – he ran 2.92 seconds in the 20-metre sprint – and can shift forward and hit the scoreboard from the wing. Has weapons with his run and carry and an elite pace and endurance mix that brings him into contention early. If not him? The Demons have been in the thick of the action. If Nick Watson gets this far, he is favourite to be picked. Zane Duursma would also be snapped up. Under this scenario the question would be on the Dees grabbing Dan Curtin or letting him pass and also what the Dees would do if West Coast offered their future first-round pick? It seems more likely they will hold their own pick, but they have continued attempts to get up the board, including to Hawthorn's No.4 pick using a future first-round selection. 13. Koltyn Tholstrup POS: Forward/midfielder Ht 186cm, Wt 86kg, DOB 28/6/05 From Subiaco/Western Australia The Demons have shown recent interest in Tholstrup among a number of clubs to do late interviews with the powerful forward. His explosive streak in the front half adds some presence and in the future he will likely go through the midfield more as well. Tholstrup played most of the season with Subiaco's senior side so is ready for the step up at that level and he is prepared for a move away from Western Australia. Tholstrup was invited to attend draft night, showing the early interest in him, but he has chosen to watch from Perth with more family and friends. If not him? The Demons have been active in trying to push up the order so may still move position. Caleb Windsor is a chance to get through to this pick in an alternate draft order, while Connor O'Sullivan and Nate Caddy would also be looked at very closely if they managed to sneak through. Cal Twomey's 2023 Phantom Draft: Top 30, late picks, whispers

Good lord, what an ignorant post! You must be fun at parties

Thanks Demonland very comprehensive run down for next year. The stars are aligning for 2024 just need to get all our coaches, supporters and troops fit, happy and firing and 2024 could be as good as we all expect it to be.❤️💙

Many have written BBB off from making a meaningful contribution to our season next year. I must admit I've also lowered my expectations somewhat. Clearly the man himself still has the desire and some belief that he can get his body right and get out on the paddock again. If we can get even a few good games out of him while Petty retuns, that would be a great bonus. It's probably an ideal scenario in some ways for it to be clear to the likes of JvR to have a mentor still around the place, but one he knows shouldn't get in his way and be keeping him out of the side when he's fully ready to be one of the main men.

You'll get a lot of haters for this post but I totally agree bar Hunter and Billings. Thought Hunter was serviceable and a much better option then Jordon who we had previous year. My biggest concern once again is that we go into another year not addressing our outside speed and skill. We have Hunter and Langdon on the wings with zero to no depth of anyone coming through and overtaking them. Langdon has been poor the past two years and whilst Hunter was okay this year, I can't see much improvement from a 29 year old mid paced wingman. The Collingwood pick up of Oleg Markov is one of the great bargain pick ups in years. Collingwood identified speed off half back and immediately saw that Markov would be suitable to at least come in and make an immediate impact. As much as I was/is a fan of Marty Hore, I really am confused by this selection. He doesn't address a glaring need at all and he's practically depth behind Turner, Tomlinson and Adams. The ruck depth is another one of our biggest concern on our list and you'd think they would have added depth in this department instead of another half back flanker. If Gawn goes down then responsibilities are left up to poor Will Varrell.

Bloody hell. We could possibly field a whole team next year with all the names we’ve been linked to. It’s almost like singing along to Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ Harley Reid, Caleb Windsor, Kynan Brown Ryley Sanders, Daniel Curtin, let’s trade down.

I thought I was a pretty good bull ****ter but some of the stuff in this thread makes me look a rank amateur.

Beautiful location. Espy to Perth is a 8+ hour drive. I did it once hitchhiking in the middle of summer. Ahh... the stupidity of youth! Can see why he'd stay home for the night if his whole family couldn't get over. Sometimes we forget these are just kids, often from families that aren't flush with cash

More thinking Roos take Mckercher and Duursma at 2 and 3, then offer their future 1st for Curtin to either us, GWS etc...

Yeah I've changed my tune on Watson (have already acknowledged this on here..) After assessing our list deep and thoroughly the outside speed and carry is a significant hole. My Watson comment was also suggested on thr back of talk that Spargo could be looking at a trade potentially. After going over a bit more in depth I felt that midfield depth especially outside run was a genuine need we had to fill. Langdon is 28 next year and not getting any better and has had 2 poor years whilst Hunter will be 29 and slowing down. He had a poor back half of the year as evident of finishing outside the top 10 of the best and fairest. After those two we have no one else under the wings that boast the same running power and speed as what Langdon has. Like literally no one.. we obviously rate wingman highly as part of our game plan hence why we went and gotten Hunter but recruiting Windsor just reassures our depth. Windsor's high work rate alongside his speed and running power fits a greater need for us. Speed is where the game is going and it's no coincidence that after watching GWS and Collingwood over the finals series l, they've set the benchmark of being able to provide speed and power from half back and especially on the outside. Windsor just makes a whole lot more sense in terms of talent but also topping up our depth. I see him being a Lachie Whitfield/Isaac Smith type wingman for us.

It also cost us Adam Cerra because we didn't have a first round pick to satisfy Fremantle as we used it to trade up the previous year. Cerra wanted to play for the Dees but we simply had no draft asset. Zac Butters and Ben King are out of contract next year. Trade our future 1st on Monday night and you can kiss goodbye any attempts of nabbing either of these two.

JT doesn’t move unless he sees a talent worth moving for. His track record is worth trusting.

Already too much. I've always admired our aggressiveness but we need to stop trying to get every shiny new toy we see !

I thought we wanted Duursma and Caddy and Sullivan and Curtin and Windsor and of course Reid.

I believe these timelines for return to pre-season training is part of players CBA. As posters have said, the club still has expectations on your training, diet and what you do with recreation time when you are in the off-season, pre-season and during the season. Plenty of articles in the past with the likes of Petracca, Gawn, Rivers training early or doing extra stuff in off-season, I think every player would do extra to some extent. Anyway, it's good to at least see BBB up and about and his knees not bandaged.

Dropped at 6pm last year

My thoughts are we’d have to get their F2 back. For this deal to happen you’d imagine Hawks have decided on Curtin over Watson and it will happen on the night if North take Duursma after Mckercher

Great, that gives the new kids a week to pack up and settle in to their new digs before preseason kicks off, pretty short notice when you think about it. Plus interviews meeting the coaches, players and staff members, their heads will be spinning. Lol.!!!

I’m pretty sure JT has talked before about not getting too caught up in trends. Which I think is right. I still think contested ball is king, just that sides have spread the contest across more of the ground through pace, skills and work rate. I also don’t think speed and skill are ever going out of fashion. A question to ask with Windsor is; is positional value important in AFL drafting? The last time we had high picks JT spent them on a ruck and small forward, so I’d suggest he doesn’t see it that way so much. Powerful mids and dominant key talls are the most valuable but after that elite players are surely the aim with top 10 picks. Is Windsor a high end talent? I’m not entirely convinced, but he has high end traits.

I can understand that but then we would also pass on O'Sullivan? I think we need to recruit the next Steven May ASAP.

From my view during the championship, Tholstrup is energetic and determined footballer, eager at the contest. Loves a goal. Good aggression. Skilled player. Doesn’t accumulate a lot of the footy. Suited to a goalkicking half forward role. Imv he plays like Cam Rayner or Cam Zuhaar. Would be worthy of the Dees pick 13/14 AFL website profile Recruiters were impressed by Tholstrup's season, particularly his commitment to his role at senior level for Subiaco in their forward line. The forward/midfielder enjoyed a strong carnival for Western Australia and plays with some physicality and strength. He matched it with senior opposition through the season and will do the same early in his AFL career.

It's been mentioned in a couple articles that Sydney and St Kilda have interest in Tholstrup who have picks 12 and 13. Moving from 14 to 11 makes sense in this setting if everything is taken on face value. Personally I think Windsor and Tholstrup will be our targets if we can't end up shifting up the board any higher, and I'm perfectly happy with that. We may still be making a play for Duursma/Watson with upgrading pick 6 and if we upgrade 11 then perhaps Caddy/Curtin or another will be in play there. Then there's a chance for another hail mary attempt for Reid and see if West Coast bites this time around.

Once pre-season training starts, players really don’t get much of a rest for 9 months (10 if you go deep in finals). Even when they’re not training, they are in the gym, or in debriefing with coaches, or studying outside of footy. Also factor in the never-ending recovery/rehab schedules. Then throw in that they are on pretty strict diets for virtually the entire in-season, it’s unrelenting.

I hope we don’t get this opportunity to try such a scatterbrained idea. Dangerous Trac doing this even once let alone multiple times per match.

We trade pick 6 to Hawks for pick 4 and our first round pick in 2024. We then trade pick 4 and 11 to WCE for pick 1 and take Reid :-)

Venues 14 - MCG 2 - Optus Stadium 2 - Adelaide Oval 1 - Marvel 1 - SCG 1 - TIO Traeger Park 1 - Gabba 1 - Heritage Bank Stadium Time slot (First 15 rounds only) 4 - Thursday night 3 - Saturday night 3 - Sunday arvo 1 - Wednesday night 1 - Saturday twilight 1 - Sunday twilight 1 - Monday arvo

We've got equal amount of MCG games as Collingwood and one more than Richmond. Pert and CO will be wrapped with that. Surely it's been years since that's occurred.

Drove past Trevor Barker Oval 10 Minutes ago in medium level traffic and saw Angus, Spargo, Salem, Disco and possibly Howes doing a skills session. Salem shirtless obviously happy with the rig. It was only a brief glimpse but excited people they were training the house down.

We'll end up taking O'Sullivan and Wilson given we've been linked to them least

Really unpredictable draft it seems. Our first pick has been linked to Windsor, Watson, Curtin and Sanders over the past 2-3 days alone.

I’m ok with the draw. Just wish the AFL would release the FULL draw rather than [censored] fart around with the second half. It’s bloody annoying. Also very happy we don’t have to play the puzzie cats at their dung heap. ABOUT BLOODY TIME. GO DEES.

That's why the Tholstrup pick makes a whole lot more sense.

You paint a very pretty picture of an AFL player’s life. Good job if you can get it? That’s how it appears but there’s things of which you’re not aware. The Club owns the players’ souls. Even when they’re overseas they have to check with the Club before taking prescription medication if they’re ill or hurt. When they’re rehabbing they can’t touch alcohol, 24/7 for as long as they’re in rehab The list goes on but I just realised to whom I’m talking so I’ll leave it there. #pointless

We don't use the sub.

Ben Waterworth has us with Windsor and Tholstrup as his picks for us. It's only around 48 plus hours until the draft and the general consensus is that Windsor and Tholstrup are our potential picks by the looks of it. Draft journo's usually get good draft Intel close to the draft and reading the ones from the Age and Herald Sun, they too had us with Windsor and Tholstrup.

I reckon Hawks will pass on Curtin and we’ll take him with 6 I reckon we’ll take Tholstrup at 11 even if Windsor is still on the board 42 will be traded for a future pick unless a top 25 prospect in JT’s eyes slips that far down the ladder