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Don’t get caught up in the points, it’s so irrelevant. Pick 9 is gold

This. Essendon would not agree to this trade if not for the fact THAT THEY WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO USE ND9! No team is giving a top ten pick for essentially ND 28 and a delayed recompense of a top ten pick if we miss finals again ( the other picks are chum). Also, we have as many picks in the ND as we have gaps on the list so if people were worried about ‘later’ picks, don’t be. Love that we have been on the front foot with this pick trading the last decade.

Oh no, what would we do without pick 40? 😐 Our recent drafting history with picks in the National Draft at 40 and above: 2023: None. 2022: None. 2021: Taj Woewodin (FS match). 2020: None. 2019: None. One would almost think that we have a drafting philosophy of doing whatever we can to get further up the list where the good players are, rather than picking later where the ordinary players are. I'm not going to cry over giving up additional late picks to get a top 10 picks.

I felt that when Tholstrup played he impacted games in the first half and then tired. I'm hoping that with another pre-season he can increase his endurance to impact a whole game. What he does have though is a natural aggression and confidence that cannot be taught.

Has Kozzy put in his request yet?

For all those D'land Dribblers who have been calling for Tim Lamb's head. The Demons have aced the AFL futures market, but Collingwood have floundered.This is how they did it Melbourne’s bold move to trade up to Essendon’s pick nine surprised clubs for its audacity as the AFL’s trade period entered its second week, but it’s straight from the Demons’ successful future trading playbook, which has made them the best traders in the first 10 years of the AFL’s future trading system.

He just said that pick 9 has already requested a trade from Melbourne

With the brilliance of Jason Taylor, surely two shots with picks 5 and 9 is far better than one shot with pick 2... hope we don't trade with North.

I hope everyone realises that if this trade does eventuate then it could never have happened but for the selfless act of life member and premiership player Alex Neal-Bullen when he sacrificed the remaining years of his career in the big smoke for four or five years of drudgery, boredom and despair in Adelaide. Cheers Nibbler. I’ll drink a toast 🥂 to you when we win next year’s flag and the one after that with all of that young talent coming into the club.

We won't stop until we own ALL the picks

I love Jonesy. So I feel conflicted writing this. And it’ll probably be a wildly unpopular opinion. But I don’t like it, for a number of reasons. Sounds like he’d be coming in as our midfield coach. It’s bloody hard to coach and give strong feedback to blokes you’re mates with as he’ll have to do to our midfielders. Secondly he never seemed to have any burning passion for coaching. I don’t mind listening to him on commmentary but he’s never struck me as an incredible tactical brain and he’s never overly insightful. I was also excited about the idea of Teague coming in as he’s regarded as one of the best ball movement guys in the business. You’d think it’s one or the other with him and Jones otherwise with Bassett coming in and Chaplin and Choco there too, the soft cap would prevent it from happening. What experience does Jonesy have for what’s probably the most important line coaching role a team has? If it’s Teague OR Jones it’s Teague all day long for me. Also just reckon it feels like a bit of a token feelgood move to appease an angry and disenchanted supporter base. Would absolutely love to be proven wrong but they’re my initial thoughts.

All quiet on the Oliver front this morning. Must be real news to report......Like the hapless, beleaguered, wretch of a club securing pick 9 to add to pick 5 in a strong draft......all from a team that hasn't fired a shot for 20 plus years. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Just because it isn't listed in the provisional draft order at the moment doesn't mean that our draft picks stop and we can't select any more players. We have draft picks to fill all open list spots, they'll just be added on at the end (in reverse ladder order). If we traded away all of our draft picks and still had 5 list spots open going into the draft, then we'd get 5 draft picks (eg, 75, 78, 79, 80, 81) at the end to fill out our list.

Tholstrup gets to a lot of contests. He's got plenty of 'go' in him as well. Some players are inconspicuous when it matters but the Kolt is often thereabouts. Which is a great sign for the future The game is too fast for him right now so he'll need another season or 2 to get into the tempo. From what I've seen, he'll be a good player With Windsor it's different as he has terrific leg speed off the mark. He's already caught a number of opposition players napping. Will be a player As for Lamb, trading just 2 spots up looks like it will be well worth it. And Taylor's long journey to talk to the lad (Tholstrup) was well worth it as well

We simply get deals done, no endless haggling which takes up precious time. Now we can sit back and let others come to us if they want, but we get our work done asap so we’re not part of the mad rush at the end.

As many other posters have said, I can't see anyway this now gets done. Whilst I completely understand that a club has a prerogative to keep a contracted player, I think GWS' decision here is pretty ordinary. Given the potential ins to the club, i.e. Stringer, and the glut of contracted forwards on their list who are being played or seemingly in-front of Derksen, holding him to the final year of his contract is frustrating. I'll be keeping a watch on him next year and I think it will be an interesting scenario if we look to re-attempt the trade next year, noting we've traded our future third, or if it now becomes a one-and-done type of scenario. A disappointing outcome for both parties IMO.

A big no to Harry Armstrong. Reminds me too much of Sam Weideman and tends to lack intensity at times. If you're wanting key forward, go after Jobe Shanahan.. kid is an absolute beast.

Hopefully a better Coach then commentator

Dr Don Duffy was a shocker as President of the Melbourne Football Club. We had a prime opportunity in the 1960s and 1970s to get a Home Base built. We failed at that. We are now still feeling the long-lasting effects of Dr Don Duffy's ineptitude. Let's hope we can finally get this huge issue fixed and the Home Base built at the Caulfield Racecourse. I don't care who is President or CEO is either. As long as this monumental task of a Home Base is achieved in our lifetimes.

Thanks George. I did see the posts of a particular poster in this regard, and a quite disgraceful thread opened by the same individual attacking mods, who it should be said do terrific voluntary work keeping this site going that is dedicated to our great club. Demonland’s own Inspector Clouseau should be ashamed of themself. However, I will give some personal information on myself. I am a lifelong Demon and I channel the spirit of Dr Don Duffy, the president who took over just before our previous flag and sat in the driver’s seat for years. Under his watch we went from having an administration that was the envy of every other club to become a long term league laughing stock. Complacency and sustained mediocrity did us in. I know this because my Pa kept complaining about it down the decades as I grew up, with late career Robbie Flower the only redeeming feature in going to the footy for a young Demon kid like me. I don’t barrack for particular boards or CEOs. (Although I do have an enduring crush on Peter Jackson, for obvious reasons). I can’t believe the board cheer squads on here. To quote M. Blight, I don’t give a fat rat’s clacker about board members (past, current and prospective), and particularly those who just want to build their CV on the back of being on our board. What I do care about is the board getting on with one of its key jobs: ensure we have an outstanding CEO. Give someone of Tom Harley’s quality a godfather offer. Do something. That is where we have been so mediocre and it is so critical to success. That’s what I’m barracking for, as well as our teams on the field, of course.

I assume Verrall as it stands. I won't go into the my thoughts on it at length, but as blessed as we've been to have Max, my personal opinion is the ruck isn't a vital position - As in, you don't need a superstar in that position to be successful. Max is in the argument for the best ruck of all time of course, and he's somewhat unique in what he's able to contribute around the ground, but post-Max I don't think we need to replace him with another A-grader. Verrall, later picks in the draft etc, we'll be fine.

Nice to see a positive MFC story in 'The Age' for a change. The Demons have aced the AFL futures market, but Collingwood have floundered.This is how they did it

Saints get Pick 8 for Battle we get NOTHING for losing Brayshaw. AFL compensation is a joke!

I thought that this would happen. Glad to be right for a change! The Demons having picks #5 and pick #9 is fantastic.

Can someone explain how they can possibly fit Houston into their salary cap? Cripps and Weitering are surely on very very good money. McKay, Walsh and Curnow just behind them, I assume. And they went on a multi-year recruitment extravaganza, presumably putting forward tempting financial offers to get Cerra, McGovern, Williams, Hewett and Saad. I know their depth is highly questionable, but is everyone else on $300,000 a year?

Joe Berry. Ollie Hannaford slightly further back. I also wonder whether Carlton have a player in mind at 12. Even when they were in the Houston race they were adamant in holding on. Which I’m turn makes me wonder whether we were very keen to get ahead of them (rather than be sandwiched between Carlton picks if we secured p13 from GC).

Writing off a 19yo already? Half the battle for a teenager is getting to contests and then adjusting to a sport which is miles quicker and physical than under 18 footy So Tholstrup is getting to the contests when a number of debutants don't Adjusting to the pace of the game takes time unless a player is a step ahead of the rest The draft can throw up mixed results so throwing up descriptions like X-factor should be taken with a grain of salt Watching his highlights at under 18 level showed a player who gets to a lot of contests and then having the time to dispose of the ball ... and at AFL level, disposing of the ball accurately and quickly takes time to learn Patience, Grasshopper

We might gave to trump up a bit more than what we're hearing (to the Bombers) but it will be worth it And I'm convinced that the need to replenish the midfield (with picks 5 & 9?) has got a lot to do with the uneasy situation with Trac & Clarrie The club can't sit idly by and hope for the best. So go the other way and create a position of strength By doing that we can trade and bargain in the next off-season knowing that if we lose either player (or both) we won't be left short In fact, if both are worth 2 first round draft picks then both combined are worth 4 first round draft picks. That's a lot of picks As well as picks 5 & 9 this off-season So go hard this off-season and then get Trac & Clarrie fit and firing and playing well By default, increasing their trade value for the 2025 off-season (if either or both want out) In the background there's JT who doesn't draft busts. His ability puts us into a no-lose situation

I’d be disappointed if we don’t hold 5&9 in what seems to be an even draft at the top end It’s not like there are a couple of Harley Reid’s available that would justify trying to push higher up the draft board

Makes you wonder were we ever really interested in 13. A convenient distraction….

Who’s Gus playing for next year?

I am guessing we are leaving room for potential delisted free agents? Having the 2 draft picks and Harry Sharp surely doesn't put our list spots at full capacity?

What say what. Don’t tell me you’re complimenting the Tim Lamb that there’s 8 pages on here discussing sacking because he’s no good. The same Tim Lamb that did a similar trade last year to move up picks and get Tholstrup.

I'll try to break it down for you. Pick 5 will get access to the next best player that Richmond, North, West Coast and Adelaide don't take. If one of them bids on Ashcroft and Brisbane match then our pick 6 will get access to the next best player that Richmond, North, West Coast and Adelaide don't take. You know, the same player in either case ...

Think of it this way. Yes we’ve potentially given up more than necessary and are banking on moving up the ladder again next year. But if we have another poor year then Petracca and Oliver will no doubt want to leave again and we’ll get first rounders for them anyway. So we can’t lose! 🤪

I hope when we win the flag next year the contribution of pick 46 gets acknowledged.

If Derksen doesn't come which looks likely, I think we'll need to keep one of Tomlinson or Hore. Tomlinson gets a bit of a bad rap, he's almost never injured, never drops his head at Casey, comes in a plays a role when needed. It seems like he's good for "kulcha". He'd only get a year and can probably get more elsewhere so we may end up renewing Hore.

Tholstrup goes reasonably hard at the contest and doesn't look around. Doesn't mean he's going to get a lot of the ball (yet) but it's a great start He's not up with the pace of the game but once that happens, he can be a 20+ possession player. So those contests that he gets to will result in him winning the ball more often As a comparison, we could use Morton & Toumpas as examples (both pick 4's) Both were conspicuously absent a lot of the times. Contests were often avoided. Harsh, but true You can disagree, I'm not fussed. So let's agree to disagree, Ryan

5 and 9 in this draft is unbelievable! Great trading by the demons. Every other team must be annoyed they missed this opportunity to get pick 9 This bring some genuine excitement for next year now. A couple of young bulls to keep Trac and Clarry on their toes

I guess we had to do 28 and the future first for 9, that’s the minimum price for a quality pick. 46 gets cancelled out by the future 3rd. 65 is junk. Did we have to put both 40 and 54 in, I guess the deal says yes and Essendon needed points picks for Kako to do the deal to begin with. I hope we find a way to get a 3rd rounder, if not for Derk then at least for JT to have a crack at a slider.

Hats off to Shelley Heath who kept Jaimee Lambert (arguably their most important player) to her statistically worst game for the year. It goes a long way to winning when one of their prime movers and talisman is rendered ineffectual 6. Hanks 5. McNamara 4. Heath 3. Goldy 2. Chaplin 1. Gall Special mention to Campbell whose ruck tap work is improving but mainly for the ridiculously kamikaze marking effort that led to Zankers left foot goal. It was Tayla Harrisesque

Not gospel, but only because his info is by definition second hand. But totes agree on twomey is on of the better AFL jounos - in large part because of his expertise and deep knowledge about the draft environment. Knowledge he has been developing and building for many years. Like a proper journalist. Take note third rate gossip mongers like Morris et al.

I just don't see it with Tholstrup. Reminds me of a poor mans Callum Ward. All the draft write-ups were about X-factor, but all I see is a work horse type. Can someone tell me what or where the X-factor is?

I’d say Salem was instrumental in winning a flag, and Kelly has been great but hasn’t got GWS that far really. Not saying we ‘won’ that trade but I’m happy with what we’ve got from Salo over the journey

I rate Houston. But I’m a bit relieved we didn’t get Houston. Adding picks 5 and 9 to our list of young talent should see us seriously competitive for a very long time and should JT nail one or both picks in a super talented draft we could have a superstar.

The opposition....