Deespicable

Whilst I was initially surprised we are even thing of bringing in a soon to be 33-year-old three-club ruckman in Tom Campbell, I have tempered my feelings somewhat after checking his file. Firstly he is regarded as a great clubman - won Saints award in 2023 - and we need that sort of person. Secondly he had a super final two months in VFL once he returned from injury - on stats by far the best VFL ruckman during that period torching Southport's mature age prospect Brayden Crossley and Willy's Tom Downie and pretty much breaking even with Essendon's Nick Bryan. As I've stated elsewhere, we need a high-quality mature-age VFL standard tapman to be our back-up for a Gawny injury whilst we wait and see if Will Verrall develops into an AFL quality ruck. At the end of 2025 season we should know if Will is going to step up to that level - he's nowhere near yet but another big pre-season may make all the difference. Aside from Campbell I would have said the other options via the rookie draft were Crossley, Norwood's Margarey Medal winner Harry Boyd or even Coburg's Cooper Keogh - the latter of whom rarely takes a mark, but can tap. As a result Campbell is probably a better option for the one-season back-up quick fix.

Like others I haven't ever seen him play, so thanks for videos from his pre-GWS days and he does look the goods - but so do many that have junior video highlights. But a quick look at his numbers in the VFL for the Giants tells me that he is a moneyball pick of the highest order - potentially a pick that will save Tim Lamb's job. How many forwards take 12 marks and have 25 disposals - as he did in a loss to Willy. The week before he was quieter in a 50-point loss but still kicked a couple. The week before it was 17 disposals and two goals in a one-point loss, although he did have a shot at a matchwinner. He was prominent against us the week before - 19 disposals, five marks, three tackles. That's a lot of disposals for a tall. His height is somewhere between 194cm and 197cm - that's tall and he can play back-up ruck - tick. He can kick it a long way based on the videos and with both feet - tick. He is still only 23 - that's way better than drafting/trading in players who are at end of career such as Membrey or Taberner and given that he has been in the system for two years is ready to play AFL - tick. He can play both down back and up forward, which means if jnjuries happen to our ageing tall defenders, he can be sent there or Petty can. He is from a club that boasts the best talls - Taylor, Buckley, Cadman and Hogan - tick - which explains why he didn't get an AFL gig. He has at least one mate at club already - AMW - and apparently has family in Melbourne - tick. If anyone has any major doubts then let us know - he may not have high tackle numbers but nor do many talls. So what do we give up for him? I'd say we'd have to give up our second rounder or the pick we receive from Adelaide for ANB - any deal involving our pick 5 should be immediately shut down. And given that he looks ready to play, the length of his contract should be three years, just in case he struggles with the extra expectations of playing AFL. I'd imagine he is on somewhere between 200-250K at present, so his deal should come with a new $400-$450K salary. To me, it's the first good trade news we've had since Ed and Ben.

What gets me with Tim Lamb is that he doesn't seem to be across things and has made some major howlers since 2021 when he was feted as our guru along with JT? In June 2022 he agrees to a seven-year extension for Oliver. Yes he was worth big money based on four B&Fs and being one of the games greats and I am sure his manager wanted that length of deal, but we have since read that Oliver had infuriated teammates by that stage already - Gawn and Goody have alluded to this with comments about him becoming a better person this year in the wake of his public shaming. I don't expect Lamb to know all of Oliver's personal life, but I am sure the players knew he was having issues. I get that long deals are all the rage, but at what point is a list manager expected to read the tealeaves and offer just a five-year extension - that is also a very long period of time and doesn't have the same potential to cripple a club for so long? We only recently found out Lachie Hunter was actually given a three-year deal when he signed in Nov 2022 - yes we got him for a pittance and yes he gave us a left-foot wingman that we needed but yes he had some significant personal issues that should have raised red herrings when it came to length of deal. Would his manager have said no to a two-year deal - highly unlikely given we were one of the few clubs willing to take him and his salary on. In the same draft year of 2022 he added a bargain - Josh Schache - who the Dogs were happy to offload for all his talent after realising that he was a nice bloke, but not quite tough enough for the current high-pressure game. The move was somewhat understandable given we'd just lost Jackson and decided we couldn't afford paying the Weid big money anymore with Grundy coming in, but it showed a lack of awareness about where the game was heading. I don't have any major problem with us signing Jack Billings for two years. Yes Billings was a risk because the game's intensity may have moved past him. But his skill level and the fact that he cost us nothing, but his money outlay, meant it was worth a risk. Collingwood wanted him too. Billings may well have been more of JT's call anyway, given he liked him as a junior, but Lamb would have had the final say. But last year Lamb added two more years to the contracts of both Jefferson and Adams. I can sort of understand Jefferson because we are locked in on his potential, even it fails to materierlise, but two more for Adams? What has he shown so far to warrant it and which club is keen on luring him. If he doesn't make major inroads next year, we will be looking to delist him early. On top of that there are now nine former Demons - Jackson, Hogan, Bedford, Harmes, Howe, Baker, Jordon, Wagner, Grundy - playing seniors for other clubs with ANB about to join them. That's a lot of exodus without nailing much in return via the list manager - so far only Langdon and Ben Brown (before injury got him again in 2022) have been good additions. It is for that reason myself and others here are very wary with what Tim Lamb does and my series on our draft/trade periods highlighted that while JT has shown himself to be an astute judge, sadly the same cannot be said of Lamb. We enter another trade period hopeful of wise calls - but names will come up and I am wary of Lamb's decision making. Tim Membrey's name has been mentioned and yes the 30-year-old is coming to the end of his career and the Saints will be happy to move him on. He is a lovely kick, but he is only 188cm tall and has always struggled to be that target down the line. He is a third tall and leads well - the same role that Turner is playing and Fritter can play if needed. If we are so desperate to add an out-of-contract tall forward, wouldn't we be better to look at someone like Freo's Matt Taberner who is of a similar age (31) but is actually 197cm tall and whilst he might end up injured a lot of the time like Brown, he at least he can play the down the line role when fit. He kicked five in the WAFL prelim final. Matt Kennedy and Matt Owies name's are being mentioned here now as well. But both are being allowed to go because they are not quite quick enough for the modern hokball era. I'd be happy with either providing us more depth, but the Blues will want a second rounder for them and I'd rather we use that on a kid as JT is more likely to get it right. Clancy Dennis will be around that pick, not to mention possibly Ollie Hannaford. Young is one we should consider given his height, but I think he, like Schache, is regarded as being too nice to make it.

Ok, that's 38 plus the three as yet unsigned players on our list that will lose ANB. I have a minimum six must have picks via this year's drafts/UFA scenarios and ideally seven or eight and I am sure that JT would have similar aspirations to add that many. I just hope Lamb hasn't stuffed up the numbers again.

Thanks for Hannaford video Chaser J and yes based on that game he will definitely be drafted. And given the rise of HokBall - he should be very much in JT's thinking. He was a lot quieter today in the PF, but will be well worth a watch next week along with Jonty Faull in the GF.

I have stated before that Caleb Daniels had the best highlights package of any U18 player I have seen and he has shown he can have an impact with his clever kicking at the heart of his skillset. But he is now 28 and lost some of his zip and there is now way he can play like a Nick Watson and nor does he have his passion for tackling. Essentially he is another pick up like Jack Billings, someone who has great skills and smarts but no longer has the intensity required for the current game. If Tim Lamb thinks he is worthy, then we know he's not. Enough said.

In terms of sides for 2025, I will stick with my view that we need someone to provide drive and pace from down back - and the only player in the Jordan Clark/Nick Blakey mould on our list is Caleb Windsor. The loss of Kozzie for the first three weeks means that we can also trial Bowey forward. My other switch is that I'd give Kynan Brown a decent go at making the grade and start him on the left-side wing. Other than that, I have no surprises, although Oliver has been left out at this stage because he has to show he can still lay a tackle before playing. B: McVee May T.Mac HB: Windsor Lever Salem C: Langdon Rivers K.Brown HF: Petracca Petty Chandler F: Bowey Fritsch JVR Ru: Gawn Sparrow Viney Int: Turner (fwd), Tholstrup (fwd/mid), Moniz- Wakefield (def), No.5 pick (mid), Woewodin (sub) Emerg: Howes, Laurie, Sestan

Thanks Ted Lasso for your early draft prognostications. I still don't quite understand why we wouldn't do a deal with Brisbane for their current pick 14 - worth 1161 points. Given they will lose it for Ashcroft, I just assumed they will look for a better points deal and we can offer them picks 38, 42 (ANB deal), 45 and 51 - a points total of 1466. Have the rules changed in that regard? To me that's the only way we can get access to a tall forward such as Whitlock or Davis to go with a quality midfielder at pick 5. Secondly, I hope you have not got caught up in the Jon Ralph Tiger trade hype value. He is a Richmond supporter after all. Yes I agree they will likely get Gold Coast's pick 6 as part of the Rioli deal with something going back to the Suns - most likely pick 29. Then Fremantle may be willing to part with pick 10 for Shai Bolton, but two first rounders for a soon to be 26yo small forward coming off a poor year is fanciful. And as for West Coast offering a first rounder (as Ralphy suggests) for a 26yo small defender/forward in Baker - please give us a break. The best the Eagles will stump up is pick 23 and some would say that is overs.

Nibbler is a great team man and I'm sure Adelaide will be rapt to get him and surprised how hard he works when they actually get him down to training. It's a big loss to us and further erodes our culture of good, hardworking upstanding citizens after losing Brayshaw as well this year. But as to getting a late first rounder or an early second rounder in compensation, give us a break - he's 29 in January. The best we can hope for is getting back our pick 26, which we gave them for McAdam, and most likely give them back our second rounder which we got for Grundy (pick 38). And if they don't want to lose pick 26, then I'd demand their third rounder (pick 42) for him. Then we can package all our second and third round picks up for Brisbane's pick 14 - they need the points to cover for Ashcroft. And Taylor gets two good shots at drafting on top of last year's haul.

Down on his best - Nick Daicos and Sam Walsh say Hi

When I started this series I had a bit of an ulterior motive in that I often think that Geelong draft guru Stephen Wells is overrated because of his success during the early naughties when he plucked out players such as Harry Taylor and Steve Johnson. I mean under his guidance the Cats have also had their share of blunders – Billy Smedts (pick 15, 2010), Darcy Lang (pick 16, 2013) and Nakia Cockatoo-Collins (pick 10, 2014) to name a few that didn’t come off. And I thought that maybe Jason Taylor had become someone who we all give a tick of approval too, based on his success in 2014 and 2019, without thinking of his misses – primarily his failure to find a key forward until JVR and his failed stabs at finding a decent back up ruckman. But as many of you have summised in your comments, Taylor has an incredible strike rate, plus a really good awareness of what to look for, not to mention his affinity with the WA kids - Van Rooyen, McVee, Rivers and Jackson are all quality choices. Indeed you could justly argue that if we hadn’t kept trading away Taylor’s draft picks to either upgrade or bring in second-rate players at the expense of second and third rounders, we’d be a lot better off. As a result of this year's failing, the spotlight will be on Tim Lamb when Melbourne enters the trade/draft period this season – and rightfully so. The role of list manager means you are the subject of criticism and most likely inaccuracies from bloggers like me, but after a bad season like this one, there’s a big queue that want Lamb out of the place and I’m inclined to think they have a point. Three years ago, he, and we, were feted in the media. Back then we had the best list and it was full of youngsters. A dynasty was expected after claiming the 2021 flag. Compare that to now. Since 2022 we have lost five premiership players – Jackson, Hibberd, Brayshaw, Harmes and Jordon – on top of losing three important fringe players – Hunt, Bedford and Baker. Our Jackson replacement Brodie Grundy has come and gone. Ben Brown will join the list of departures post-season as injuries have crippled him for the past three years. He’s now 32. Charlie Spargo must be thinking about it to after falling victim to a persistent achilles problems. T-Mac will probably want to play on and after a solid season down back, few would deny him that right, even at 32. Same goes for Melky, now turning 33. The worrying thing for Lamb is that virtually none of his moves to improve the list have paid big dividends – Ed Langdon being the one exception in 2019. Surprisingly Grundy, the most publicised pick-up, didn’t pay off. That’s not entirely Lamb’s fault, in fact I’d argue his recruitment was a clever and cheap recalibration once Jackson left with the Pies paying $250K of his salary and his asking price a mere second rounder in a dud draft year. Goodwin’s failure to adapt and use Gawny as the more permanent forward, rather than Grundy, arguably cost us the 2023 flag. But in the past three years aside from Grundy, Lamb’s brought in Dunstan, Hunter, Schache, McAdam, Fullarton and Billings from other clubs – that’s hardly a sign that he’s a judge of players and then on top of that he’s regularly offloaded our future first rounders – in 2020 it was done so that we could acquire Bailey Laurie and then last year he gave away three pretty good picks to progress up the order by two spots for a player – Tholstrop – who almost certainly would have been available at our original pick. Thankfully last year he didn’t offload our future first rounder, because it now shapes up as being around pick 7 or 8. He did though get rid of our second rounder (currently pick 27) to Adelaide for McAdam. Lamb’s record is a little why I’m wary of our mooted Dan Houston deal. Houston, if we get him and it seems like we are indeed a chance, is a quality player and will provide us with a clever, taller long-kicking defender – something we are clearly lacking. He will be our best pick up since Langdon. But Houston turns 28 in May and talk of us offering two first rounders for him is hopefully well off the mark. Lever was 21 when he came to us for two first rounders. Our options are to throw Sparrow or Salem, if they wanted to go, into their deal and see if they’d accept our second rounder (linked to Sydney) and third rounder (linked to St Kilda). But most likely Houston will require our first rounder and, in this case, I’d offer them our future one instead of this year’s one, as I reckon our bounce back chances are high next year and giving Taylor pick 7 or 8 this year should net us a pretty handy kid as well. If Power plays hard ball for this year’s pick 7 or 8 as part of the swap, then I’d request their second rounder back in return so Taylor can at least try and work some magic. Aside from finding a mid-sized long-kicking running defender, we also have to ensure that we get some mature back-up bigs for Gawny. We don’t and won’t be able to secure a genuine top liner so we should be trying to find a mature delisted back-up ruckman like Braydon Preuss or a standout tapman at VFL level like Coburg’s Cooper Keogh. We can’t solely rely on Will Verrall developing quickly. And if the VFL’s best defender Adam Tomlinson leaves for a club willing to give him more opportunities, then I’d be keen on us bringing in an experienced back-up tall to replace him and if Sam Weideman was happy to come back I’d take him as a UFA as he can provide cover at both ends of the field – we will be losing Schache and Ben Brown after all. We also will pick up Noah Yze, Adem’s son, who is rated well outside any top 25 kids lists and I imagine he’ll be a rookie choice a la Kynan Brown last year. But ultimately our philosophy should be to make sure to give Taylor as many kid picks as we can. Aside from Ben Brown and Schache, Lachie Hunter will depart and I expect Tomlinson will move as well to a club that needs him. Joel Smith will surely be delisted as well. I’d certainly hold off on re-signing Melky, instead I’d make him one of our assistants if he’s willing to fill such a role. I suspect Billings, who is contracted, may want to retire instead of going around again and as stated, Spargo’s achilles may also see him finish up a year early. But the other big list changes in the off-season should be to our ageing management and coaches. Tim Lamb is the likely first scapegoat given it’s his area that we have underachieved. CEO Gary Pert and Footy GM Alan Richardson are both 59 and it’s time that at least one of them moves on – Hawthorn youthful management environment has worked wonders this year and we need to start a phase out with one leaving this year and the other going next. I love what Mark Williams does – he’s a born coach, given his constant communication to players on fundamentals. But I do worry that his message is lost a little with a lack of respect stemming from the age gap – he’s about to turn 66 after all. And just as Lamb’s exit papers should have been stamped, so to should our forward coach Greg Stafford. He may be a great bloke, but at 50, it’s time for us to refresh our feel around Goody. McQualter and Chappy are still just 38, so they are in the prime of their tuition years. I know some here have also suggested it’s time to move on fitness coach Selwyn Griffith and they may have a case as well given our last quarter fadeouts mid-season, but I certainly don’t feel qualified enough to assess that area. Whatever happens, I think we are in for an intriguing blood-spilling off-season. But my hope is that we give Jason Taylor enough line to hook a few gems.

2023 Draft: 7/10 Trades: 2/10 Pick swaps: 2/10 When you are only one year in, it’s hard to be categorical about players but in round 10 in Perth it is was categorical. We needed to offer West Coast more than the kitchen sink for pick 1 – Harley Reid was that good! Our pre-season had largely been dominated with our offers for Harley with both our first rounders (Freo’d pick had fallen to No.6) and our 2024 one in the mix. At the time I thought we were being way too generous, but once he lined up for the Eagles you could see why – stars don’t fall in your backyard everyday. Behind the scenes Tim Lamb had made some plays – lining up Tom Fullarton and Shane McAdam to help our forward line. While the Clayton Oliver hospital night was all the rage, Lamb was also discussing with Goody on whether to keep our new forward project Harrison Petty with the Crows apparently talking two first rounders for him. On the basis of six goals in 17 games so far as a forward this season, you’d have to say we should have sold. The Crows were also into Tom Sparrow, while I think Charlie Spargo was also courted for a bit by the Roos before both decided to stay. But Lamb’s clearout did continue. Brodie Grundy was offloaded to Sydney for pick 46 and a future second rounder – that wasn’t far off what the Pies got from us. But lafter failing to re-sign premiership sub James Jordon, losing him to Sydney for nothing (he was a UFA because he was demoted to our rookie list three years earlier) was another blow to our midfield reserves which were also hit by popular team man James Harmes going to the Dogs for a future third rounder. Lamb also cleared out our draft picks 14, 27 and 35 to the Suns for minimal gain – we moved up three spots to No.11, which became 13 after the Academy kids. The Saints ended up getting Darcy Wilson with the pick, but I suspect we would have been able to secure Tholstrup anyway with it. We ended up giving a future second rounder to the Crows for McAdam and pick 47 to the Lions for Fullarton. Based on AFL output this year, we lost both deals and given the reluctance of Goody to play Fullarton in the AFL even with Gawny out, you have to wonder whether the coach was fully consulted on this move beforehand. Then late in the trade period it became clear Jack Billings was out-of-favour with Ross Lyon and the Pies had the inside running on him until we made a late bid for his services. Jason Taylor did really like him back in 2014 and Goody was worried Lachie Hunter’s left-side wing spot might become available. So we snared him with our future third rounder. Billings is classy, but like Schache, the physical nature of today’s game has gone past him. With the Eagles ignoring us on Harley, the spotlight was on Taylor with his first two picks – 6 and 11. It’s too early to tell if Taylor was on the money, but I was surprised that we didn’t go Nate Caddy – given his lateral movement in testing and our forward failings. Windsor is a clear talent though, but so far Caddy is shaping up as the next Charlie Curnow and after Harley, the best pick in the 2023 draft – apologies in advance to the classy top 10 who all look the part with the Crows Daniel Curtin (pick 8) the only exception. 7 Caleb Windsor – He has pace and a touch of Robbie about him. Whether he develops into an elite midfielder will be decided in a couple of years when he graduates to our onball division. He does read it well and his height means he’s good defensively in the air. I’d actually play him off half-back next season, especially if we don’t get Houston, as we need that Jordan Clark style dash off half-back and unlike our other small defenders, he can aerially cope with a three-quarter tall. 13 Koltyn Tholstrup – Taylor jumped him up the order after visiting him in WA and he does have that brashness that we needed. He’s also got the hardness and a thumping kick, but whether he has the pace to replace Clayton as our inside mid hard-ball getter is unclear and it’s hard to see Goody moving him in there until 2026 anyway. We apparently were also interested in Tassie’s James Leake (pick 17), who is yet to play for the Giants, but probably will make their team come finals. So Lamb’s late pick swap didn’t help as we could have had either Tholstrup or Leake plus Brisbane forward Logan Morris if we’d been smarter. Father/son Kynan Brown – with no-one bidding on him during the main draft, we automatically were able to take Nathan’s son who had a ripper season with Oakleigh and Vic Metro but probably didn’t tick the great prospect boxes needed to be taken early. That’s a blessing for us as he certainly has a great work rate, seems to have a great character, plenty of smarts and tackles with passion – he logged an amazing 24 tackles on a wet day in a VFL game against Frankston recently and he will never forget his Nick Larkey tackle which saved the game for us in his AFL debut. He certainly deserves more AFL game time and don’t be surprised if, after another season of weights, he lines up for us in AFL rd 1. With Hunter and Billings on the way out, I’d be preparing him to play left side wing next year as he kicks well on both sides and has his dad’s determination. We also reinstated Jake Melksham via the rookie draft and went back to Marty Hore after he dominated for Williamstown. Both safe moves, but not requiring the use of Taylor’s skills. As a footnote, when you watch videos of players you often don’t get the full picture. But aside from the videos of the kids who go in the top two or three, there has been two that have stood out to me as amazing over the years. The first was Caleb Daniel’s highlights from the U18 carnival in 2014 – what a player. The second was Arie Schoenmaker last year – wow what a left foot – think Paul Wheatley and add some. Daniel was deemed too small and fell to pick 46, while Schoenmaker’s attitude cost him and only Ross Lyon and the Saints were willing to give him a go at pick 62. I reckon the Saints like the Dogs with Caleb are on a winner. Friday: The conclusion of the series and the coming draft

2022 Draft: 2/10 Trades: 2/10 Pick swaps: 3/10 For the first 10 weeks of 2022 we seemed bullet proof, but Freo came with kryptonite in rd 11 and by finals Joel Selwood and his men were on a mission. Shock losses to Sydney and Brisbane saw us exit September early and with Gawny and Ben Brown along with Trac and a few other all looking tired and injured, the recriminations and the upheaval of our list began. Among those happy to jump ship was our fastest player Jayden Hunt, who must have really enjoyed the surf and golf in Perth while in lockdown a year earlier. Sam Weideman also saw the writing on the wall and headed to Essendon, while the unthinkable happened – Luke Jackson wanted to head home - admittedly coming off a season where he had underachieved in comparison to his amazing grand final display. Jackson was still only 21 and his versatility and speed made him irreplaceable as we have all come to realise. What’s worse was that Freo only had to give us two mid-table first rounders (one a future one) for Jacko and a few late pick swaps saw us lose valuable back-up small Toby Bedford to the Giants for effectively pick 44 which we sent off to the Dockers We also delisted Oskar Baker who was picked up as a PSS by the Dogs, meaning that five of our players would play AFL at other clubs in 2023 – that’s a big one-year exodus in my view. Of course it wasn’t all one way traffic and on one hand I think we should give some credit to Tim Lamb for realising that we now had shortages and we needed to get something back. Being a popular destination club (we may have lost that tag this year though) Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy was willing to walk across the Yarra Park precinct to Gosch’s Paddock and take on Max at training. Thankfully the Pies were willing to pay a chunk of his salary and all we had to give them was pick 27 which they used to claim Jakob Ryan. Grundy was mega popular when Gawn hurt his knee early in the season, but late in the season it became apparent that Brodie didn’t have the speed to play as a lead-up forward and we axed him. Why we didn’t send Gawny forward and use Brodie as our ruck instead is beyond me as the skipper is more capable of being a target. Either way the whole thing became a negative talking point and led to us having the smallest first semi-final forward line in the history of the game (or at least since the 1981/82 Carlton mosquito fleet). The fact that Grundy has had a super year at the Swans in 2024 just highlights that as a club we didn’t get that right. Lamb, doubtless with Goody’s support, also signed our first decent left-foot winger Lachie Hunter, albeit late in his career and with considerable baggage. Given his indiscretions at the Dogs, all they wanted was our future third rounder. The Dogs also sent us Josh Schache for a fourth rounder. He had also played against us in the 2021 granny, but was clearly out of favour. We wanted him as a replacement for Weid and to be fair, Schache’s done a pretty good job for Casey and has rarely been injured. But with the physical way the game is now played, he ain’t quite AFL level. Nor mind you it appears are our two draft picks from 2022 – it seems that even Jason Taylor couldn’t weave his magic this time. It’s still too early to cast major judgments on the year, but on paper it’s not a flattering draft yet with Essendon’s Elijah Tsatas (pick 5) and Geelong’s Jhye Clark (pick 8) still struggling to make headway among the top 10. Outside of high picks Sheezel, Wardlaw and Humphrey, Hawk Josh Weddle (pick 18) appears to be the wonder boy of the ’22 draft with his amazing athleticism, while later picks Darcy Jones, Lachie Cowan and Noah Long have been racking up the games. The rookie draft was also a bit of a bust that year with most newbies, including our two, yet to play a game, but I really like a couple of PSS picks – the Blues took Alex Cincotta, while the Saints unearthed a project forward Anthony Caminiti, who is starting to pick up the pace and would have been a godsend for us. But ultimately 2022 is a draft you wanted to miss, so thankfully we didn’t buy in by giving up a future first rounder like we had the previous three seasons. 15 Matt Jefferson – with our failings up forward re-emerging, Jason Taylor decided to use his top pick on the Oakleigh leaper who had kicked seven for Vic Metro against WA, but had struggled at times with his accuracy and consistency. A lot of us had hoped to see him play AFL by now but unfortunately he now looks likely to go the way of Lucas Cook (pick 12, 2010) or Nick Smith (15, 2002). Some of our Casey watchers have seen some green shoots this year but his lack of physicality is a concern and is why he was pulled aside early this season and given more one-on-one tuition on tackling. He’s clearly not ready to play AFL yet, but personally I’d give him a game or two in the next few weeks, just so he can see firsthand what’s required and can feel more a part of it – it is hard being continuously outside the main group at training. As to draft night, the next live pick was his Oakleigh teammate Josh Weddle, who must have been part of Taylor’s discussions given his amazing athleticism. He was the AA U18 full-back, so maybe we were less interested than we should have been. Ed Allan (pick 19) also had amazing athleticism, yet he’s struggled at the Pies so far. 38 Jed Adams – his highlights reel back in 2022 was hardly flattering, so I do wonder a little how we plucked him out – Taylor has a good record in WA though. He’s a big strong lump of a lad and his kicking has really improved under our tutelage but he just doesn’t seem to be able to get it enough at Casey to warrant selection. He certainly has some good role models with Tomlinson and Marty Hore. He’s got two years to run on his contract (I am not sure why we needed to sign him that long so early), but he certainly needs to get a wriggle on and show more than he has so far. Pick 12 rookie draft – Will Verrall – Taylor went back to taking a stab at Gawnie’s successor and decided on the second South Australian ruckman (Harry Barnett had gone to the Eagles at pick 22 of the main draft). He’d missed a bit of his top-age year overcoming a few groin and hip injuries and he spent a fair bit of 2023 rehabbing with us. But he’s shown a bit and seems to have a few forward smarts as well. Next year is the key year for him if he’s going to make it. We also took former basketballer Kyah Farris-White, who is 206cm tall, but his lack of mobility and feel for the game has been telling when he lines up for Casey, so we will have room for a Category B rookie next season. Pick 22 rookie draft – Oliver Sestan – This was definitely an out there pick by Taylor with the Mansfield man taken after an impressive scratch match with fellow juniors. He’s got thickset Brian Wilson hips, so can baulk out of tackles and he’s pretty clever with his kicks and can bomb a long ball like Trac. I reckon we should give him a taste in our final couple of games as he’s certainly showing enough signs at Casey to warrant it. We also added classy looking Old Haileybury defender Kye Turner to our list pre-season, but unfortunately, he got injured after six games for Casey and probably just lacked that physical presence needed down back to warrant keeping.

6 Gawn - I was a bit worried that his calf injury would render him insipid and when he didn't even jump for the first ball-up my fears seemed reality. But to Maxy's credit he lifted and got on top of English in the centre bounces and he also moved fairly swiftly around the ground and took a beauty and goaled in the second term. Definitely in the best six on ground and definitely still in mix for AA. 5 Bowey - Like many here, I've been really disappointed with Bowzer after a super pre-season. This was the first game that he actually provided run and his confident play up middle in third was our best passage for night. Gees I hope we try him in the middle one day. 4 Rivers - He's still not delivering with his disposal but he really looks the part as a tall midfielder. 3 Langdon - the running man has had a great few weeks since being allowed to go back to his favoured wing. 2 Van Rooyen - I think it was the second term when May realised JVR was way out on the opposite wing by himself against a smaller opponent and it was just so good to see our man just be so strong in the contest. He's really come a long way this season and is one reason why we don't have to keep looking for the full-forward any more. 1 Sparrow - After being dropped last week he came back and really applied himself with more confidence. Was sent to Bont in the second and worked hard on him but the Bont is the Bont.

2021 Draft: 8/10 Trades: N/A Pick swaps: 6/10 Another tricky year for recruiters with many games cancelled or made off limits and the new world of Zoom meetings altering how things were done in October. What was clear though was that Jason Horne-Francis was the best live pick after a stunning SANFL finals display for South Adelaide and that Nick Daicos and Sam Darcy were huge father-son choices – part of what is shaping as a super draft year. While we were caught up in an amazing season, a rule change on academy picks resulting from Jamarra Ugle-Hagan being gifted to the Dogs, meant our athletic Academy talent Mac Andrew was no longer guaranteed to be taken by us if he fell in the first 20 picks. A few strong showings for Dandenong and some impressive combine stats, meant that Andrew ended up going pick 5 and if you’ve seen him play this year, you will know why and what we were robbed of. All that didn’t seem to matter once we won the flag with an incredibly youthful list, but Andrew’s height would be a huge bonus now. Nor did we get involved in player trades. We were not alone in this regard, presumably getting players and their agents to talk in the COVID was tricky as well. But we did engage in a key pick swap. Having given away our top pick for ostensibly Bailey Laurie in 2020, Tim Lamb again decided to offload our top pick of 2022 to Sydney via Adelaide and in so doing received back pick 17 belonging to the Bulldogs. This time however it worked a treat with the player we had earmarked staying around that level, although at one point, fearing JVR would go, we did ask about swapping it for the Giants pick 15. Only 65 kids were taken at the draft and less than a dozen untried kids at the rookie draft as clubs struggled with the new dynamics, but thanks to rookie magic with Judd McVee it will actually go down as one of Jason Taylor’s best efforts, even if we are only just three seasons in with these players. The Cats would also be toasting plucking Oliver Dempsey via the rookie draft, while Essendon struck gold in the pre-season supplemental picks snaring Claremont quick Nic Martin. The Gold Coast Academy would also bear fruit with Broadbeach local Bodhi Uwland taken as a rookie by the Suns. And it now appears we may have nailed one via the NGA system with Andy Moniz-Wakefield starting to look the part after being nabbed from Nightcliff in Darwin. And earlier in the year, Taylor had already plucked a bit of a gem from the mid-year draft, which proved to be quite fruitful for several clubs. The Hawks were able to tie up Box Hill star Jai Newcomb, Gold Coast got a good ruck back-up with Ned Moyle, Essendon got a warrior with Sam Durham. We snared a young defender in Daniel Turner who has become a handy forward this season. 19 Jacob van Rooyen Who do you add to a list that is regarded at the time as the best in the comp? The best available. The Zimbabwe-born Roo had impressed enough for Claremont Colts to train with Fremantle mid-season where he was a little starstruck with idol Nat Fyfe. The question was would Freo take him and thankfully they used their first pick (8) on East Perth forward prospect Jye Amiss star. They also liked another Subiaco prospect Matthew Johnson who they took at pick 21. But Sydney did call a Claremont kid with pick 18 – Angus Sheldrick. JVR has been developing nicely and has the key element of physicality that I reckon makes him a better long-term bet than Amiss and certainly one that can cope with the ruckwork buffeting. Almost played finals in 2022 and his absence via suspension from our second final last year was mega costly. 39 Blake Howes We are starting to see just how deep the 2021 draft was with guys like Sydney’s Matt Roberts (pick 34) and Crow Jake Soligo (36) now stepping up, not to mention Marcus Windhager (47). Howes showed a bit as a half-forward with Vic Metro and Sandringham and was expected to go mid to late twenties but slipped through to 39. He had a stressie in his foot in 2022, but showed enough on the wing at Casey in 2023 for Goody to trial him as a defender this season. He wasn’t overawed in round 1 up in Sydney, but still needs to work on his body-strength to play on the bigs, which he will have to be given since we are keen on playing up to four smalls down back and at 191cm he’s a giant by comparison to Bowey, McVee, Moniz and Salem. 65 Taj Woewodin Another West Australian, but this pick was a no-brainer for Taylor given his dad Shane was a Demon great with a Charlie and we got him automatically at the end of the draft. He’s got good foot skills and enough size to graduate into our midfield like his Dad did after starting as a defender. But whether he has the determination to make it there is questionable, given he hasn’t got amazing pace. Will be an interesting watch to see how he goes in next two seasons. Pick 16 rookie draft Judd McVee Most clubs baulked at taking kids in this draft, but Taylor’s love affair with the west meant he liked the looks of another East Fremantle prospect – McVee being a teammate of Woewodin’s. He spent a year muscling up and learning his trade in the VFL and a few eyes were raised when he played round one in 2023, but he’s become a key down back, often minding the quickest and most dangerous forward. What’s impressed most onlookers is the cleanness of his ball movement – it’s a little like late 80’s/early 90s back pocket Alan Johnson – just so deft and precise. Unearthing great rookies hadn’t been Taylor’s forte. But it was this year. NGA Andy Moniz-Wakefield We haven’t had much luck via this method until now. M-W had impressed with his dash as a high half-forward for NT Thunder in his draft year and we had listed him as an Academy kid, presumably spotted via one of our last Darwin trips before Gold Coast took over that region. He was only 18 when we took him and many felt he couldn’t kick far enough to make it in his first few games at Casey. But this year he has developed as a running defender and eventually his weight of big possession numbers forced Goody to elevate him. And he’s been a great find in just four games so far, providing defensive spark and looking for all the world like a Matty Whelan 2.0.

2020 Draft: 6/10 Trades: 6/10 Pick swaps: 2/10 The world changed in 2020 and young schoolboys spent the year wishing they could play, after being told by Dan that COVID could be passed around easily outside. The result was that you’d have to be Nostradamus to predict which kids were going to make headway and the disruption meant many lost their way in life. It impacted the draft big time. Of the top 20 that season, only two are standouts – the top pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan who has taken a while to develop and pick 20 Max Holmes. Holmes came from an athletic background and had played only a handful of school games at Melbourne Grammar where he was better known as an APS sprinter. To Taylor’s credit, he was apparently keen on him as well and I think we were planning to take him at pick 21 or 22 until the Cats swooped, gifting Richmond their 2021 first rounder for pick 20. With Josh Mahoney out the door, Tim Lamb was now ensconced in the role of list manager, and made some very intricate moves, most of which were designed to get us a full-forward. North’s Ben Brown had been a prolific goalscorer until knee injury in 2020, so the Roos were willing to offload him provided we offered enough. Eventually the Kangas agreed to offload the soon-to-be 28-year-old for our picks 26 and 33 with us getting pick 28 back in the deal. The pick 26 had come via a pick swap with the Swans for 31 and 43, but as I said, losing picks was not a loss that draft. Lamb had received pick 31 by offloading Braydon Preuss to the Giants and we got the Dogs third rounder for 2021 in the Mitch Hannan deal. Offloading our No.1 pick of 2021 and pick 25 for the Lions pick 18 and 19 was not as bad as it looked at the time because by virtue of us winning the flag in 2021, the Lions only got pick 18 back which became pick 20 and Kai Lohmann. But imagine if we had bombed in 2021. The 2020 draft, in general, has been a bust. Bowey and Beau McCreery (44) are the only two role players to play in premierships, while Errol Gulden (32) is the big star of that year, along with Jamarra, and both were academy picks. Plenty of clubs were burnt. Essendon’s Adrian Dodoro tried to play hardball on Josh Dunkley’s deal and ended up losing him. Instead he got to keep picks 8 & 9 to go with 10 – Cox, Perkins and Zach Reid - three strikes and you are out they say. The Crows are still hopeful that Thilthorpe emerges, they’ve almost given up on Luke Pedlar (pick 11), North now know that they erred by not taking Logan McDonald with pick 4, instead opting for Will Phillips (pick 3), while the Giants had three picks before us and are yet to get 25 games out of any of them, albeit Tanner Bruhn (pick 12) left and looks better at Geelong. 21 Jake Bowey – He’s only small but he was just so polished when we finally gave him a game late in 2021. Ironically Jayden Hunt got injured which meant that Bowey stayed in the side and by the time Jayden was fit to return, it was too late to make a change – we were in the prelim and Bowey was our classy little defender. Since then he hasn’t really kicked on. He had a ripper pre-season this year but then got hammered into by a Swan in round 1 and broke his collarbone. Now that he’s fit I’d actually like to see him given a chance in middle where his smarts may come to the fore. I’d hate for him to be branded as just a defender because I think he’s got more to offer and so far Goody hasn’t got any more out of him than what we saw in season one. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 22 Bailey Laurie – OK, so we just took a 175cm mid in Bowey who we turned into a defender. The very next pick Taylor takes a 179cm (5ft 11in) midfielder who has exquisite skills but lacks pace. This for a list that already has six other sub-6 footers – Kozzie, Spargo, Chandler, Viney, Neal-Bullen and Bedford. I’m sorry I just don’t see how that’s smart list management. I’m also not sure why giving up our first rounder to the Lions in 2021 to get Laurie was necessary. Wreaks blunder to me. Laurie is running out of time to show he’s AFL level. Invariably he’s the sub for us, so he never gets a chance to show what he can do either. 34 Fraser Rodman – a good athlete from Wesley, whom I suspect Taylor hoped may become the left-side wingman that we have desperately needed since Brian Dixon retired! He had height and pace but he didn’t really have a penetrating kick and after two seasons a decision was made to let him go. Thankfully we didn’t miss out on any stars soon after him. Barely anyone bothered with the rookie draft that year given most VFL and TAC sides hadn’t been playing. We did trial a few players over summer and Deakyn Smith, a classy small defender impressed enough to become a supplemental player. He wasn’t really quite big enough to make it. The loss of Preuss meant we were on the hunt for a ruck back-up for Gawn and Jackson and we added Majak Daw, who at close to 30, had been released by North. Daw almost got a game for us but Gawn and Jackson were remarkably durable in 2021, as were most of our players, so Daw spent much of the season rucking in the VFL practice games. The big gamble for us in 2021 was Ben Brown, who had only played nine games and kicked eight goals in 2020 as his knees became unmanageable. He spent much of pre-season riding a stationary bike after his first knee clean-up surgery and we had to wait until round 7 for his debut against North. He had some good moments against Sydney the following week but was back in the medical room after round 9 with another clean-up required. He missed the next seven weeks and it looked like he’d miss the flag boat, but returned for the Port game as Goody trialled his new 'three-bigs' forward line with T-Mac and Jacko. By finals he was impressing with his lead-up work, often winning frees as teams chopped his arms to cope with his height. He didn’t kick any big bags but we all got used to his 50m run up to a shot on goal and he was prominent on grand final day, so his arrival gets a big tick. He was pretty useful in 2022 as well, although come finals he was sore and unable to move as freely and that’s been his problem since with four goals in a game his best return in 45 matches for us. His contract ends this season and he’ll most likely become even more involved with coaching the women’s team. Whether he transfers that to helping out our forwards in the off-season I am not sure, but he’s a very decent bloke and behind his natural mirth, he always seems quite knowledgeable.

2019 Draft: 9/10 Trades: 8/10 The 2014 draft was where our culture was made, but the 2019 draft and trade period was where we sowed the seeds for the 2021 flag, solving our key deficiencies with pace a priority along with Taylor finally selecting the right young ruck/forward. And it took us falling off the map, we lost our last seven matches to finish second last, to do it. But just when we locked up pick 2 and access to Noah Anderson, who had trained with us for a week or two during the school holidays and left a strong impression, the AFL took it away and said Gold Coast could not only have Matt Rowell, but his best schoolmate Anderson as well. Plenty of pundits thought we’d take Dandenong’s Hayden Young and his booming left foot or Larke Medallist Caleb Serong, but Luke Jackson’s back-up efforts for WA had started to win everybody over and Taylor was a fan. Then there were the other two plays that Tim Lamb, our new upgraded list manager, had to orchestrate with Josh Mahoney’s guidance and you would really have to ask them to explain all the coming and goings that pre-draft season and even then they probably wouldn’t remember all the intricacies. The first was finding a player with outside run, we had the inside mids covered by then, but were deficient in the spread area. Somehow we managed to entice Fremantle’s Ed Langdon, a Sandringham mate of Angus Brayshaw who was taken at pick 54 in 2014. Only issue was that he had finished 2019 in ripping form for the Dockers, I think he came third in their B&F in 2019. That meant Peter Bell wanted more than our second rounder for him. We ended up swapping our second rounder pick 22 for their 26 and then gave them our 2020 second rounder as well in what was a big win for us I reckon. Then, possibly in the wake of missing out on the quality top-end of the 2018 draft, Mahoney and Lamb managed to present North with what on paper looked like a win for the Kangaroos. We’d give them our 2020 first pick (based on 2019 that would be around 2-6) and our pick 26 in return for their 2019 first rounder – which was pick 8. That gave Taylor two high picks like in 2015 and options aplenty. Possibly initially he had earmarked Jackson for pick 8, but it soon became clear he was racing up everyone’s boards as the quality tall. We also offloaded Sam Frost, who was out of favour, at least with Steven May anyway, for the Hawks 2020 second rounder. He’s already played 85 games for them, so that’s ended up being a poor deal I reckon. And we went hard for unrestricted free agent Adam Tomlinson – our original thinking was to also play him on a wing. Tommo cost us nothing pick wise, but he’s been on a big salary for a fringe player. But just before the draft we did another shifty with Freo. Aware that we may bid on their academy kid Liam Henry to force a fall and a loss of pick 9, Freo agreed to gift us picks 10 and 28 so that they could keep their high pick before a bid on Henry. And suddenly we had three highish picks plus Ed Langdon and the rest is history, although it took another year for the pace injection that came with Jackson, Pickett and Rivers to really bear fruit. 3 Luke Jackson – if you’ve been following this series you’d know that drafting the right talls hasn’t been Taylor’s strength. But Taylor loved his second efforts for WA and, having lost Anderson, rated him as a must-have. On his first day at training the 18-year-old took on Lever and ANB in a 400m time trial and showed his athletic ability – ANB did win though. By year two he was showing more than a few glimpses as Gawny’s back-up and then in the GF, his injection into the middle in the third term coincided with our hottest offensive period this century. After his third season a few family issues back home led to him heading to Fremantle – did we do enough to try and keep the emerging 21-year-old? That’s not a question for Taylor, but it is for Richardson, Lamb and Goody because you just wonder what would have happened if we’d offered him unparalleled top coin to stay. 12 Kozzie Pickett – Clearly we wanted a gun small forward and Kozzie and Cody Weightman were rated the best of that year and I think Taylor and his team were aware that neither was likely to be a top 10 pick, so having pick 8 was going to be a waste, hence the late pick swap for 28. Cody was the safe bet being a local and his aerial prowess for his size had already been seen. But Kozzie had shown a few magic signs and his crunching run-down bump video was eye-watering stuff. As it turned out, with Adelaide going McAsey (pick 6), our former pick 8 could have netted one of Serong or Young, both guns. But Kozzie has that special matchwinning ingredient – the ability to break laterally with his amazing burst of speed. I love how Serong plays but Kozzie is one out of the box and our point of difference. 32 Trent Rivers – with all the academy picks, we ended up at 32. I think Taylor was keen to get another WA kid Georgiades, who had a super bottom-age year before injury, but he went pick 18 to Port. It ended up being a really deep draft and it was a super year for WA prospects, especially after Jackson, Devan Robertson and Henry had inspired them to a rare win in the U18 champs. Rivers was one of the few players I’ve seen with the confidence to take a bounce and after a few hiccups along the way, developed last year into a quality defender before his recent metamorphosis as our best big-bodied mid. It's a shame we didn’t have another pick that year, as another of Jackson’s and Rivers East Fremantle teammates Chad Warner went at pick 39 and I’m sure Taylor would have been across him. Michael Frederick (pick 61) has also torched us with his pace. The rookie draft that year wasn’t super special, with mainly academy kids making it, so it’s good that we skipped it. We did however pick up a few extras via unusual sources. Tomlinson came as an UFA and finally seemed to find his niche as a backman in early 2021 and did a memorable job on Hawkins when a flailing arm sent Maysie packing early that year. You had to feel for the tearful big fella when he did his knee down in Tassie two weeks later. He’s got a huge tank and is a very clean footballer – he just seems to be unlucky – T-Mac’s reincarnation spoiled his 2024 for example leaving him with the unwanted tag as the best VFL defender going around. Ed Langdon spent his first few weeks standing out on his far wing and calling for the ball – half way through the year our mids figured out he was pretty quick and went lateral to him. We also took a punt on two players via the PSS – Harley Bennell and Mitch Brown. Brown proved a good back-up tall, while Harley showed glimpses but the heavy-tackling game of the 2020s meant there was little room for an outside player like Harley. Worth a try though. But ultimately it was this draft that gave us the speed and freakish unconventional skills of Jackson and Pickett that led to our flag in 2021. In my view, it was Taylor’s best year in charge.

Part 6 of the series that looks at Jason Taylor's draft years at Melbourne 2018 Draft: 6/10 Trades: 8/10 Coming off our best season since 2000, our club was suddenly a desirable destination again and footy manager Josh Mahoney actually won the battle with Collingwood to secure the signature of Suns skipper Steven May for our pick 6 that had been gifted to us by Fremantle for Jesse Hogan. Hogan had endured a few tricky years with testicular cancer, depression, his father’s death along with a few serious off-field misdemeanours and he was injured during our almost triumphant 2018 finals campaign – so letting him go didn’t seem like such a bad thing then, although his resurrection at the Giants makes pick 6 look about right. Freo‘s boss Peter Bell had played hardball with us but eventually gave up their early pick for Jesse which we packaged up for the Gold Coast. It could certainly be argued that at 27, May wasn’t worth pick 6 which ultimately they used on Ben King. But the deal included Kade Kolodajshnij, who before his concussion run looked a future superstar. May had a dirty first year with us with hamstring and drinking issues, but since then he’s found the right balance and I personally reckon he now rates as our best ever full-back – and that’s after just six seasons. We also offloaded Dom Tyson to North for their back-up ruckman Braydon Preuss which meant we actually had a decent foil for Gawny and given Taylor’s ruck-prospect howlers, it was a clever move until we let him go two years later. The impact of the May trade and the Lever deal from 2017 meant that we didn’t get a go at the top-end of a draft that was rated the best since 2013 – so it was a significant gamble. The Power got Rozee (5) and Butters (12), while the Swans got Blakey (academy), Rowbottom and McInerny. The Blues got a superstar in Sam Walsh, but then in an act of excited stupidity by SOS, thought they’d charge up the ladder and offered GWS their 2019 first pick for Liam Stocker (pick 19). 27 Tom Sparrow – While the 2018 draft had a superstar top-end look, there weren’t too many standouts after Butters and Quaynor at pick 12 &13. Rowbottom at pick 25 is a quality kid, but I’m not too sure Taylor had him on his radar anyway and Tom was a strong-bodied midfielder who ultimately cost Melky a spot in our 2021 premiership team. There’s a few on Demonland who don’t rate him highly, but Goody certainly does. Bont destroyed his shoulder in 2020, but he returned in 2021 a better player and he nailed his spot on a flank just in time to be a key member of our flag. 33 James Jordon – Being the youngest in the 2018 draft, I think JJ was a bit of a punt by Taylor as he wasn’t regarded as a suoerstar at Caulfield in the APS or for Oakleigh Chargers until he played a blinder in the TAC Grand Final that got him noticed. But once drafted, he got to hone his craft under Ben Matthews and, along with Sparrow, matched up at training against Viney, Angus, Trac and Olly, so he definitely got the grounding that has helped him at the Swans. Our depth of midfielders meant Goody was only willing to give him a wing and whilst he was a hard worker, his lack of explosive pace meant he became known as a bit of a road-block for our attacks. We even rookied him in 2020, such was our lack of confidence in him making it. But he’s now winning rave reviews as a tagger in Sydney and will most likely play in their premiership side with Brodie – one better than being the non-utilised sub in 2021. 53 Aaron Neitschke – Another SA youngster, he was less of a punt by Taylor as he had some sensational junior form for Central Districts as a running half-back. But three ACL’s in three years meant we barely saw him, even at Casey. 56 Marty Hore – Marty was coming off a year where he was B&F for Collingwood’s VFL team and you could see he was mega classy from the outset and he won some rave reviews in 2019, but once Lever got over his injuries and on a roll, there was no sweeping spot down back for him and he’s not quite tall/muscular enough to play key defender and not quite quick enough to provide run. I was a little surprised we went back to him this year, but he’s certainly classy with his ball use and courageous under a high ball. 75 Toby Bedford – Taken by us via our academy, he took a while to develop an AFL-sized physique but he did play a few useful games for us, often as the sub, in 2021 and 2022. With Kozzie and Spargo around it was hard for him to break in, even more so when Chandler came on. Adam Kingsley was rapt to get him in 2023 and has given him plenty of gametime, even utilising his aerobic ability to play him as a tagger. As I’ve said all along, since Roos arrived, we’ve known how to train the kids. Having upgraded Category B rookie Corey Maynard on to our list, Taylor punted on another small forward – this time a SA country kid called Kade Chandler, who stood just 175cm tall but had shown a bit for Norwood juniors. We also snared delisted Roo Corey Wagner (Josh’s brother) and Casey’s Tasmanian Jay Lockhart via the supplemental selections. Chandler’s smarts and team play have made him a Goody favourite and whilst I’ve been a strong advocate that our list is way too small, I am starting to warm to him as our second small forward alongside Kozzie. He’s a nice kick and he’s got a great workrate and after Callum Wilkie (pick 3 of the rookie draft by the Saints) and Jordan Butts (pick 34, Adelaide), he’s probably the third best performed rookie from that year. Lockhart was a nice kick with clever vision and there was a VFL game against the Magpies where he looked a million dollars but he probably was just too small and left his move from Tassie a little too late to make it, while Wagner also found it hard to break into our star-studded midfield but was just so disciplined, driven and courageous, even after we delisted him, that he’s getting a game at his third AFL club Freo on occasions. Did Taylor miss much in 2018? Once we’d given up our high picks to trade for Lever (from 2017) and May (2018), he didn’t get a shot at what many felt was the best draft since 2001. But unearthing Sparrow and Jordon, was pretty impressive, even though they are hardly world beaters – yes they are premiership players and good role players but that doesn’t make them stars of the game! The only players after pick 27 who you’d look back and go ‘if only” from that year are Lachie Schultz (57) and Connor Idun (61) and more recently Justin McInerny (44) and Curtis Taylor (46) along with the unexpected jewel of the rookie draft – Callum Wilke. The pre-season supplemental picks saw Sydney snare Hayden McLean, while the mid-season saw Richmond grab Marlion Pickett, while Collingwood got John Noble. But despite the hype, it was hardly an earth-shattering draft, so Taylor gets a pretty solid mark. NEXT WEEK: His best year yet and his annus horribilus?

2017 Draft: 6/10 Trades: 8/10 If we thought the trade for Michael Hibberd was big in 2016, then have a think back to how the trade for Jake Lever eventuated in 2017. We offered young Jake a massive price hike, he was an emerging defender after all, and he liked the idea of joining forces with his 2014 Vic Metro mates – Trac and Brayshaw. It was our biggest trade heist since we lured Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore. And we had him secured before the finals. Adelaide kept pressing him for an answer and it backfired for them as it meant everyone at the Crows knew his answer and were really [censored] with the then 21-year-old and many say the whole issue impacted their grand final psyche that year. The angry Crows then played hard ball and wanted the world back and we, unlike most clubs, quickly agreed to getting the deal sorted by giving up two first rounders as requested - pick 10 of 2017 and our first-rounder for 2018 as well, although our improved year in 2018 meant that became pick 15. The result of all that was we needed some inspirational lower-order choices from Taylor and drafting three premiership players is a pretty impressive booty from that year by him. Goody’s decision to jettison Jack Watts meant that we did get back into the draft in the second round which ended up being crucial as it helped us snare Fritter. 29 Charlie Spargo – The more skilful son of a handy North player, it was a bit of a surprise when the Kangas overlooked him at pick 23. But then given his size (172cm), it was likely a bit of a Caleb Daniel scenario for most of the clubs and little Charlie is not a big kick like Caleb or Jake Bowey. But after 98 games for us, including a polished 2021 season, he’s been pretty useful and his ability to lower his eyes and find a target has been missed this year. My own view though is that we have too many small forwards on our list, so I’m not one who views him as a must keep. But back then he did provide a point of difference. The fact that the next pick – Carlton’s Tom de Koning went at 30 – has become such a standout will temper many people’s views on our choice. 31 Bayley Fritsch – His form in the VFL was hot and cold for Casey, but having won the best young talent award, several clubs aside from us were across him with Sydney (pick 33) a big danger. He took a couple of years refining his skills, but his class up forward was on show throughout 2021 (59 goals), not to mention that memorable grand final. This was the pick we got from Port for Jack Watts and he has topped our past four leading goalkicking charts, that’s four more than Jacky boy. 37 Harrison Petty – This pick was all Taylor apparently with his knowledge of the draft pool meaning he couldn’t believe Harrison was still around and that even though we’d outlayed heaps for Lever, he had to get the Norwood youngster. Some of you may recall his abysmal first game against St Kilda, when his first left footer dribbled off his toes like Chris Lamb a couple of decades earlier, but once he got over the AFL nerves he showed he could be handy and was trialled up forward back in 2020 before groin injuries curtailed that idea. In 2021, he emerged as a quality VFL defender, but had to wait for an injury to get a gig and with Tomlinson going down about round 6, he was summoned and had a very important year spoiling the third talls, usually ruckman and allowing Lever and May to do their thing. Our forward issues have necessitated another experiment and the wave of comments here this season has generally been unkind, he’s kicked four goals in 14 weeks as our star forward so you can sort of understand why. Worse still is that we could have had two first rounders from Adelaide for him last year and now we will probably just get their second rounder at the end of the season. On his day though, he still marks with aplomb and I reckon he could do a very good Lever intercept role at another club if their list requires it. Or who knows, he may yet stay. 48 Oscar Baker – A major speculative pick from Aspley (Qld), Oscar had a great ever-ready battery but probably lacked the class with his kicking and whilst he’s quick, he’s not explosive quick, meaning he was useful, but just outside our best 22 for much of his five years before we traded him on to the Bulldogs. He’s one of eight ex-Dees that have played this season at other clubs – Howe, Hogan, Harmes, Jordan, Bedford, Wagner and Grundy are the others – which explains why our VFL side is bottom tier this season. Instead of Baker, Taylor could have snared Bendigo’s Kane Farrell (pick 51) who is starting to look the part at Port, while Gryan Miers (57) and Dylan Moore (67) would have been better than any of our swag of small forwards taken in the past few years, Kossie excluded. And North got Tristan Xerri at pick 72, so passing on TDK (30) wasn’t our only solution to our current back-up woes. There weren’t too many gems unearthed in the rookie draft that year although Richmond again found another goer in Liam Baker, the Suns did likewise with Nick Holman, Sydney snared a developing tall forward Joel Amartey playing for Sandringham via their academy and the Giants got a quality defender in Dylan Buckley. The Pies also thought they had found a mature defender with Brody Mihocek, but got lucky turning him into the tough, dependable premiership forward that he’s become. We decided to maintain the faith with Filipovic, Keilty and Smith.

I I agree that small forwards are more in vogue these days - I mean the Hawks used pick 5 on 170cm Nick Watson, whereas 10 years earlier Caleb Daniels, whose highlights from the carnival eclipsed Watson's, went through to pick 46 for fear that he would be exposed in match-ups. I suspect Taylor also learnt the value of smalls from his short stint at the Pies, who back then had pressure smalls such as Blair and Fasolo on top of Didak. But I just reckon our overall list balance has become too heavily weighted with smalls - that's a godsend when it rains like last Saturday, but in April and May or on a dry day in September it can hurt.

Yes Tubby is what I call most Taylor’s I come across out of habit and I suspect it is now totally inappropriate to do so. Apologies I will try and remove that nickname from next parts of series.

Part 4 of the series that looks at each of Jason Taylor's draft years and trades and swaps that influence his hand. 2016 Draft 2/10 Trades: 8/10 Finally Goody takes over from Roosy and after finishing 11th, our era of top-end high draft picks appears over. Goody first task is to lure Michael Hibberd over from a disjointed Essendon, where he served as an assistant. There’s a lot of pre-draft talk about them wanting a first rounder for him (which we don’t have, after offloading it to the Suns the year before) but eventually the Bombers agree to a second-rounder (pick 29) for him. Hibberd was so sensational in his first season that even after missing the first five games he made the All-Australian team. His opening-game goal against the Tigers on Anzac Eve is rated among our finest under Goody and he continued to be a strong attacking defender for us for 113 games and the next seven seasons We also get Jordan Lewis from the Hawks for a steal – a shuffle of third rounders – who brought with him toughness and smarts. The only downside being that his 30-year plus lack of pace could be exploited. And we also punted on promising Giant Pat McKenna, who ended up spending more time in the rehab room than on the field before being delisted. Having made our big plays in 2015, we basically had late-order picks, so could Tubby unearth a jewel. Sadly no, although Mitch Hannan provided the highlight in 2018 with his memorable goal against Geelong in the elimination final. Did giving up our first-rounder (pick 9 Will Brodie) the previous year hurt us? Probably not. Aside from the fact that we would not have taken a midfield extractor like Brodie, there were very few superstars unearthed in the 2016 draft, just a lot of good ordinary footballers as Jack Dyer would say. Hugh McCluggage (pick 3) is probably the closest to warranting the star label while Shai Bolton (pick 29) can go to that level on his day and Tim English (19) is a super mark and kick. Tom Stewart (pick 40) is the most celebrated player from that draft and only Matty Scarlett wanted him taken that high after seeing what he could do for their VFL team. Nick Larkey (pick 73) is another coup for North who also took Jy Simpkin (pick 12) that year. Coburg’s Luke Ryan (pick 66) was an inspired choice by Fremantle and Mitch Lewis (pick 76) has had some great moments at Hawthorn, when not in rehab. Then if you look at the rookie draft, we erred big time with again trying to find another back-up for Maxy – read on to see what we did. 46 Mitch Hannan – Goody had watched the then 22-year-old shine in the Dogs 2016 VFL Grand Final win over Casey and wanted the classy lead-up player. He often had knee issues for us, before eventually being sent back to the Dogs five seasons later. But when fit he had a great leap and a thumping left -foot and he was quick enough to run away from Jake Kolodashnij and take three bounces down the wing before nailing the sealer in our memorable finals win over Geelong in 2018. 64 Dion Johnstone – Taylor’s liking for small forwards was becoming an obsession. Dion was a huge stab from Oakleigh Chargers and was mega courageous but lacked polish and never really pressed for selection before being delisted. Given Luke Ryan and Nick Larkey came soon after, you have to wonder about our priorities, although clearly hindsight is a wonderful thing. The rookie draft was a horror show for Tubby that year. Four potential ruckman went in the first 10 picks and a fifth Oscar McInerny was stolen by Brisbane from our Casey outfit. Imagine if we’d taken any of Sam Draper (pick 1 of rookie draft), Rowan Marshall (pick 10) and McInerny (pick 37) on our list back then – not to mention Larkey. Instead we took Lachie Filipovic at pick 8, a mate of a mate of Gawny’s apparently. Aside from missing the quality rucks, it also meant we missed a shot at taking Cam Zurhaar or even Jack Henry. We also elevated two Casey regulars – Tim Smith and Declan Keilty. I am not against us elevating Casey players, you’d like to think that our scouts would be right across them and both did play for us and Smith in particular was unlucky with injury. But the Filipovic choice was mind-boggling and given the other bigs taken around him, has had an impact on us to this day.

6 McVee - could he win our B&F if Gawny is out a couple more weeks. So polished and had to play on Stringer for a fair chunk on the night and won that match-up hands down in the conditions. 5 Langdon - I was going to say Eddie everywhere, but he actually just ran up and down the AFL wing all game like he used to before Goody's experiment of playing him as a high half-forward this year. Missed the top votes because he was responsible for one of Essendon's best - Nick Martin - for a bit of the game. 4 ANB - Zac Merrett has been killing it in recent weeks and ANB was on to him making it tough for him from the first bounce. 3 Melksham - Not as classy as Fritter, but used his body and smarts to maximum effect to make Ridley accountable. 2 Windsor - What a goal and made sure his opponent - Cox - spends the rest of the year in the VFL. 1 Oliver - after being unsighted in first quarter, emerged from a rev-up to dominate second term and then just kept diving in like his good, old days. Apologies to Rivers whose disposal was appalling, but yes I did notice the presence and the height he brings to our midfield. If he'd hit a couple of targets he probably gets the 5 votes. Apologies also to Kozzie - another silly early 50m penalty but came back well after halftime and was clearly a big factor as well, especially given he was given a hard tag at throw ins and ball ups and worked through it. Votes should also go to Goodwin who decided to go small, against my wishes, and the weather gods looked after us and him. It was a bit like tipping a downpour at the GP and selecting wet-weather tyres.

Part 3 of the series that looks at each of Jason Taylor's draft years and trades and swaps that influence his hand. 2015 Draft 6/10 Pre-draft pick swaps: 7/10 Trades: 3/10 Another year when we fared pretty well at the draft, but ultimately our list-management trading (Todd Viney was still in charge I believe) let us down a bit. That is not to say then footy manager Josh Mahoney, who seemed to oversee the new area of pick swaps, didn’t do well. I mean this was the first of several years where we made pre-draft swaps which back then were revolutionary to a degree. Mahoney seemed to cotton on to the draft points rules pretty early and went to work with the developing interstate clubs. Somehow we got pick 3 from GC, after swapping them picks 6 and 29. The downside was that we also offloaded our first rounder for the 2016 draft but that year wasn’t rated so highly. We also managed to move up to pick 7 after offering GWS our picks 10 and 43 and 64, which helped them with points because they had a few academy kids on the way. I doubt we wouldn’t get such a great deal today. Maybe the Giants felt sorry for us, given we were taking Tom Bugg off their books. It is difficult to follow the paper trail as to how all this happened but it did and we emerged with two early picks (3&7) again which became 4 and 9 because of academy kids - Mills (3), Hopper (7). When it came to draft night, there is no doubt that the choice of Clayton Oliver with pick four (it was three but Mills being a Swans academy made it four) will go down as one of Taylor’s best pieces of work. Olly couldn’t even make the Vic Country side earlier that year and I suspect Taylor was watching when he played for Richmond reserves later in the season and dominated and his final six TAC Cup games were sensational – from memory I think he polled three votes in five of them to win the Morrish Medal. It was still a ballsy call by Taylor to pick him. Firstly there was the stigma that would have come from past coaches and Vic Country bosses who would have told the stories to Taylor of how he was an overweight kid and not good enough for their side, let alone an AFL one. Then there was the powerful Vic Metro movement who would have told him that Darcy Parish was a quality kid – the obvious choice for us. To be fair Parish is a pretty, handy midfielder, but Olly developed at a rate of knots and has won four B&Fs for us – I think by any reckoning it was an inspired choice by Taylor. Sure his off-field indiscretions in 2023 may have tempered our ratings of him slightly, but he’s proven to be almost as good an upgrade pick as Bont was for the Dogs. But Taylor’s judgment of bigs, particularly in 2015, may not quite win the rave reviews that he’s won in the midfield area. At that point we’d all lost faith in Chris Dawes holding his marks and the pressure on then youngster Jesse Hogan was immense. Taylor took three stabs at bigs, junior star Sam Weideman, who’d been injured for much of his pre-draft year, then way down the order he punted on ruckman Mitch King, who was another Murray tap prospect and left-field Stingrays pick Liam Hulett. Weideman always seemed to have the right attitude, and had the occasional standout game, but given Carlton snared two Coleman Medallists that year with Harry McKay (pick 10) and Charlie Curnow (pick 12), so it is hard to make a case that we fared well in this particular draft – Olly aside. Nor did we fare well in trades. The Pies stole Jeremy Howe and gave us back a small hard-working forward Ben Kennedy, who was great at VFL level, but not quite quick enough to dominate at AFL level. We also gave up our second rounder for Jake Melksham, who has been a very serviceable addition, but not in 2016 when he spent his first-year out under the Essendon ban. Tom Bugg added some grunt (Callum Mills might use another rhyming term), but he wasn’t a world beater and to be fair, was never going to be. He did do one incredible shut-down job on Sidebottom that I recall though 4 Clayton Oliver – Four best and fairests in a golden era for our club makes Clayton a great of our club, even though he’s going through some hard times at the moment. From day one he had such an innate ability to read the game and his quick hands and peripheral vision made him a standout midfielder. I remember going to an intraclub game out at Casey pre-2016 and you could hear and see the excitement coming from Goodwin on the sidelines just watching what the 18yo was doing. In 2021 and ‘22 his game went to a new level because he took things on himself, often breaking lines with his dash. This season he seems to have regressed back to that quick sideways dish to avoid errors and his “see ball, get ball” mantra has been lost a little as he follows other stars such as Cripps and Butters into a contest, rather than being the instigator. His inability to stick and hold tackles has also hurt, but that may be because of his thumb injury. Whether he can get back to being that fearless big-bodied extractor will likely determine if our season ends on a good note. 9 Sam Weideman – It is rumoured Tubby showed Jesse Hogan tapes of both the Weid, Curnow and McKay and Jesse liked what he saw of the Weid, who was a standout bottom-aged forward who was injured for much of his draft year. Curnow (pick 12) had misbehaved a bit in his draft year and was viewed more as a potential big-bodied midfielder back then, so you can understand why we overlooked him, although McKay (pick 10) had serious height and upside with his pace for a big bloke. Weid did have some great moments, remember the 2018 finals series when Jesse was injured, but he never quite developed into the star that we’d hoped and surprisingly we never tried to turn him into a defender either. From all reports I’ve had, he is a super bloke, maybe he was just a tad slow on the lead, but he had great vision and nice kicking skills. I’d actually be quite happy if we rookied him at season’s end (Essendon will delist him) and offloaded some of our other talls. 42 Mitch King – not sure why we needed another development ruckman given Gawny was already an icon and we had rookied Max King two years before and there were a handful of handy draft picks to come including one current standout skipper – Jordan Dawson (pick 56) - along with handy defenders such as Blake Hardwick (44), Werribee’s Sam Collins (55) and Nathan Broad (67). 46 Liam Hullet – Another tall forward prospect who had played a few games with Dandenong Stingrays, but wasn’t on any draft lists other than ours apparently. He looked the part with a strong body and he was a nice kick, but he just did not have enough pace to make it at the highest level. 6 Rookie draft - Josh Wagner – A nice left-footer plucked from Queensland. He was a handy hard-working half-back, who managed 42 games for us and a couple of memorable tackles – one on Gary Ablett when he was at the Suns I seem to recall. We also upgraded Joel Smith, who was starting to show some good signs, off the category B list and re-rookied Vic Michie. At this far down it’s all a bit of a lottery as to who comes on, but there were a few rookie gems unearthed by other draft gurus – Sydney’s Tom Papley, Essendon’s Tippa and Port’s Dan Houston stand out - and we did overlook another Aspley product in Mabior Chol, who has taken a long time to come on, but would fit our list profile perfectly now. So there’s probably at least six clubs who would reckon they did better than Taylor that year. Interestingly, and this is with the benefit of hindsight (a wonderful thing), for the third successive year Geelong’s most-celebrated draft guru Stephen Wells failed to really unearth a gem from his haul – Sam Menegola (pick 66) being the closest thing to a revelation down at the Cattery.

I had always understood that the recruiting team, led by our list manager and draft guru, sits down together and goes through options on a regular basis throughout the year and on occasions they bring in the footy manager and coach - maybe I am wrong about this as you seem to know better. Did you want to finish the series for me, or are you happy for me to continue?