Red and Blue realist

I wonder if the players we highly rate are off the board by 7 or 8, if we could look to manufacture another first round pick from next year. There are a few WA & SA players prjected to go around our pick, so could be something like the following (examples) trade 8 to Adelaide for 16 & F1; or 8 to Port for F1 & FF2; or 8 to WC for 13 & FF1; or 8 to Freo for 20 & F1 & FF2. See if we can tempt some teams into moving now. SA in particular have a strong field of projected players this year, while WA has Farrow which might end up around WC 13 anyway, but they might be tempted to jump early or Freo could try to move up.

The list of Free Agents for 2026 is out - it doesn't seperate free or restricted - but there could be a few names on here we could look at. We know we've got far less salary cap restraints after the recent trade period. From the list below the bigger names are obviously Butters, Walsh, Bailey and Ben King, but Mitch Lewis, Jordon Butts, Hinge, P.Voss, Amartey and B.Williams are all under 28 and could fill roles for us (talls at either end). Interestingly we have the most names on the list, but I think at least 4 of ours will retire (May, TMac, Melk & Campbell). Fox SportsQuartet headline 2026 out-of-contract stars as every AFL...Quartet headline 2026 out-of-contract stars as every AFL club’s list of free agents revealed

Not ranked in the top 40 or 50 from most online judges, such as Cal Toomey, Rookie Me, ESPN etc. So will be a late or rookie pick

The club has committed to White, but not certain that Sinemma has that commitment yet., it's very likely we do take him. Seems like Woey will be forced out at this stage.

All the best to him, while we all loved the grand final performance, I wanted to point out that whatever he had going with the club and teammates - for the fans he (IMO) was always great. At gather round this year, after the training session, the players hung around and signed jumpers, posters etc. for the fans who turned up. They had been out there a fair while (much longer than the actual training session), and someone came out and yelled out to the players that the bus was heading back to the hotel. Trac yelled back to go and grab one of the trainers car keys because he wasn't going without getting to all the fans first - he Oliver, Fritta and Salem then stayed another 20 minutes or so, and asked if everyone had a signature.

Our pick 66 will come in massively, with Gold Coast for instance, their 3 Acadamey picks will take up at least their 7 first picks, Brissy, Essendon and Carlton will also lose picks, so 66 might end up being 52 or 53, which should be enough points, if White gets an earlier bid. Not unusal for players like White to not be ranked highly on a draft board, but that doesn't mean this draft is weak - it's just very comprimised with the Academy and F/S early picks.

Makes a lot of sense, we still need in and under extrators, so he along with Viney protect Langford - who I think will be out main man but not for another 2 or 3 years - while also allowing Windsor, Rivers, Pickett etc to play the combination of inside/outside without burning them out too young. I wouldn't be surprised if we strech his contract out another 12 months, giving us more space while keeping him in a semi-coaching role like checkers.

Howes could play as a running/mid/smaller back (only 191cm), and given he's played some wing he could be the McVee replacement. This I feel will be more natural for him, than the 3rd tall, but as a bonus he's also a good intercept mark. Turner, Petty, Adams, Lever and Aleer are all over 194cm, so good depth with height down back, with May & McDonald likely to only be around for another season, and being real depth now. If we got Aleer it locks in our tall backs for the next 5 years.

Might be a case where he could be a SSP signing if, as expected GWS delist him. Come back sign for Casey or another VFL team, tell him if a tall goes down over the preseason he's in with a shot, no promises.

Rumor that he might come out of retirement and go over to West Coast to help their younger guys while still playing a little. Probably depends on how much his body has left, he might prefer a coaching role.

I'd be asking for 12 & 44 for Judd, 27 & 41. Equates to around pick 27 (on the draft pick index), which seems about right. Helps us move up with our current first pick, while they don't move back a heap.

Gold Coast will trade Fiorini and Rosas, maybe Budarick as well, so will have extra points from those trades, which then might change what they are prepared to give/take back.

I would think he's a quazi coach, hopefully he's been told it's going to be a non-automatic selction season, but he's to help JVR, Jeffo and Kenterfeild with their leading patters and be happy to play . Mihocek will also help in this regard.

I would suspect our tall backs will then be Petty, Turner, Adams and Lever with TMac and Derksen as back ups. If we get Mihocek as a free agent, we've replaced May at a lower cost, while giving the forwards a taller mentor. I can see this being a last hour trade, but getting done. There are very few teams who are truely set down back, so there will be a market for him, possibly only the Hawks, Geelong, Brisbane, Freo and Adelaide don't have a tall back as a need.

I imagine King would have been involved in the chase for Oliver at Geelong - purely as all senior assistance coaches would have been consulted, so I think that makes it more likey he stays. Not sure where it leaves Trac - with Buckley I feel he would have wanted to prove he was a good coach from the get go, so keeping and trying to get hi back to his best would be the easiest way to do this. I'd still love both to stay, but King doesn't have the win now baggage Buckley would have, so maybe that alters the view on these 2?

Was hoping Alex Davies might have ben given a similar run under King at GC, but he only played the 1 game. Incidently Flanders averaged 18 disposals in his first 7 games of 2023 and then 30 for the 7 King was in charge (he was subbed twice in those first 7 games though).

His brother was a NFL punter, while his father has worked high up in sports for a long time.

This, there's every chance the Saints will want to say thanks to him for playing 150 odd games for them as well. So to put it in with a group who combined played only a small handful of games would have been seen as insincere from us. He would have been close to All Aust in 2017 and again in 2019 if he could kick straight.

Adelaide were allowed to sign a player, and not have it listed until today (surely he would have told his teammates Friday?) Crows sign former Swan as injured ruck moves to inactive list Anyway, it should surely open the door to replace poor AMW.

I'd happily trial may, lever, Petty and TMac in the same team. Have both may and lever play as intercepting/ smaller defenders, without McVee and now AMW, we've only really got Salem and Bowey but I see both being better at rebounding, with the duke and rivers, maybe Lindsay being the mids who can also support. Howes would be the alternative, but think TMac might be ahead at the moment

Don't disagree, but money talks, and potentially the difference between a VFL (and then subsequent lower league team) having their finals impacted by the loss of a good player, could mean that club refuses to let that player go. From memory at the mid season draft there has been talk of compensation for the clubs that lose a player.

The issue is the clubs those players come from. They are likely to come from a VFL, SANFL or WAFL team and that club then plays without one of their good players for the remainder of the season, plus those comps also have salary caps, which would then be impacted. While I'm sure the players would love the opportunity to be on an AFL list, doing so at anytime leaves uncertainty for those clubs. I'm sure the AFL could come up with some compensation scheme, but for the stand alone VFL teams and those in the SANFL and WAFL the difference between playing finals or finishing last makes a huge difference to their bottom line.

He's incredibly inconsistent in the VFL, there was no stage where he had 3 or 4 good games in a row, he might play 1 or 2 OK games that would get people excited but then be down the next week. He was nearly a free hit - a 3rd round pick we weren't going to use on the draft - so didn't cost anything except for the list spot, and maybe we thought he was maturing into his body and AFL life. Hopefully another pre-season and he can push towards a game?

While there are exceptions to this, in general in women's sport, they seem to hit their peak earlier than men. AFL players generally hit their peak in their mid to late 20s - 27/28/29 before that they are building their bodies and after they start to decline - yes I know some come in and make an immediate impact and their can also be those who continue to excel well into their 30s. However, for a number of reasons women seem to be at their best athletically in their late teens/early 20s. I suspect some of this thought comes into our drafting strategy and moving some players on -or in this case letting them go without much fight. I think we might be a little ahead of the curve when it comes to drafting/trading in the AFLW space, the likes of Brisbane and the Crows seem to be ahead with development, but if we hadn't been smashed with injuries this year and the draw was more equitable then we would have been right up in finals again.

I suspect they might want Windsor to do a similar role to Brayshaw, playing both wing and half back as required. XL might be eased in on the wing but be interchangeable with Windsor, but he might also take a little longer than the Duke to get ready for the main team.