Bang Bang Bang

Will be an amazing feat if Tholstrup, Fritsch and Melksham can get on the field together for at least one game. Three games of the most punchable heads you’re ever likely to see in one 50m radius. Glorious. If KT can turn out somewhere near Melksham’s level over the course of his career then I’ll be pleased. Not every first rounder will be a superstar but I think Tholstrup has got regular AFL player and impact player vibes.

[censored] me the draft is painful viewing these days. Do we really need Ben Dixon acting awkward and the kids saying "Yeah nah looking forward to meeting all the boys" and "I model my game on [insert A+ grade player the vast majority will never get near] after every single pick. Can understand it maybe for Harley Reid and leave it at that. The academy bids and pick swaps just elongate it even further. Geelong's pick wasted a good 15 minutes of my life. All that just for us to get the two kids Cal Twomey and everyone else knew we were getting anyway. I remember the good old days of 2003 where you could tune in to the audio on afl.com.au and the first round was done in two minutes. TWENTY YEARS AGO and it was light years ahead of what we get these days.

Yeah I'm not sold on Laurie. Just more making the point that all the future trading hasn't really bitten us yet. Most have worked in our favour. My main concern would be F1 actually being a good pick next year. We have been up for a while and should be up for longer, but the competition is so even that some teams are going to drop next year. It might be us. For me those late round firsties (15-18) aren't very valuable with the way the draft works these days but there are no guarantees F1 becomes one of those. I absolutely love the idea of Watson being a Papley-style antagonist at the Punt Road End and hope we can get him in one way or another. Seems like Windsor is our man though.

Not sure what you mean here. The Weideman draft and Cerra leaving Fremantle were six years apart. We missed out on pick #9 Will Brodie in 2016 (instead of Weideman pick #9 2015) and traded picks that got us Jake Bowey and Bailey Laurie in 2020 for pick 25 in 2020 and pick 20 in 2021. We MIGHT have been able to land Cerra by offering picks 19 and 20 in 2021, but that most likely wouldn't have been accepted and we'd also have no JVR in this alternative scenario.

A lot of the reputable journos start getting it pretty close to the mark around this time and we just keep getting linked to Windsor at 6. Is he our man? Seems like a bit of a reach based on what I’ve read but he fills a need. I’m quietly hoping the Hawks take Curtin and Watson falls to us. Love me a good antagonist. Edit for those wondering: The HS phantom draft has us taking Windsor and Tholstrop.

I saw a comment online that Adelaide tried to get JHF in 2021 by offering three first rounders and were rejected. The three picks ending up being used on Rachele, Rankine and Dawson. Adelaide were MUCH better off in the end not trading. JHF had similar hype to Reid. Ignoring his personality for a minute, JHF looks like an incredible player at times but he only performs in bursts and there’s no guarantees he’ll even make it as an elite midfielder. I still want us to trade for Reid because it’s worth the risk IMO but hopefully it works out either way for us.

It's a very expensive price to pay for pick 1, but I'm still on board with the whole Harley Reid thing. Pick 6 is a very good pick. Pick 11 and F1 are good picks. 42 is worthless to us but a useful pick for a rebuilding club. I think WCE will end up accepting it. People will talk about points and all that stuff, but I find that irrelevant. The same stuff was said in 2019 when we traded with North and nobody has said boo since it landed us Pickett. My main concern would be if Reid ends up being the next Raynor or is injury prone, but if he is good enough and in the Petracca / Dusty class then it won't matter what we pay.

American sports do that but it’s not allowed in AFL trading. Not yet anyway. Cal Twomey has had about 90-100% strike rates with his top 10 phantom drafts in recent years, so if he knows what clubs are doing then I’m fairly certain West Coast will know in advance with 99.9% confidence if Curtin is available at 6 or not.

Those crazy enough to have read 2013 pre season training reports would remember that Billings trained with us prior to being drafted. We would have taken him at 2 (glad we didn't) and there's the Alan Richardson connection. I'm not surprised we were the mystery club. Interestingly all three of our new players didn't have much noise in the weeks prior. I personally don't rate Billings all that highly, but we need depth and he offers a point of difference. Low risk and we are likely to get games out of him.

I stand corrected. Sounds like Hawks aren’t super keen on getting Gunston back despite a trade request.

Adelaide are deluded. He’s OOC and can easily walk to us in the main draft or PSD. Other clubs aren’t going to waste their time on a 28 year old role player who doesn’t want to play there. If it was Rachele then Rankine then yes but McAdam? What dorks .

It happens sometimes. Taylor Adams just did it and I think Jordan Lewis approached us in 2016. It doesn’t get to the trade request point without some reciprocal discussions though.

How does this work? Haven't we lost a truck load of players to delistings, trades and retirement? Who's going to replace them?

We got one of our best ever players with a pick swap. Dude come on, at least the other perennially negative nellies on here put some effort in.

One of the more bizarre MFC careers I can remember but all the best to Brodie. I honestly think it all worked out OK in the end. We tried something, it didn't work, and it was acknowledged and abandoned early enough. Brodie got to get to the club of his choice without a headache and we basically recouped what we paid for him. Salary off the books too. Getting him in the first place needs the microscope placed over it though. A lot of posters had doubts including me, it was looking like Preuss/Gawn all over again and it was. Not too sure what Goody was thinking last year. One star ruckman is more than enough to succeed, some premiership coaches did it with none.

I'm generally pro-Melbourne when it comes to this kind of stuff but this is truly bizarre. Something has to be cooking. Let's say we wanted to move up three picks for a player at 11 by paying WAY overs, then we could have done it on draft night. Makes zero sense otherwise.

So correct me if I'm wrong but our first pick is likely to be #7 on the night now with a Jed Walter bid and North getting 3 for McKay. Reid, Curtin, McKercher, Duursma, Watson all gone by our pick? Who does that leave?

Agreed, I think the market is a bit skewed at present. No current player is generally considered to be worth three first rounders of any kind... but unproven top draft picks are. Strange to me. We would have received less for Oliver! Think I read somewhere the Dogs are keen on Watson.

The guy is a beast. Dropped two legit rumours/facts well before even the best journos caught wind of it.

Perfect signing IMO. Won’t get a game if Gawn’s fit, but a good break glass option on the cheap. Can play a bit. I love the work goodwindees and Chook in Perth do on here, but also find it interesting that some other “ITK” posters didn’t mention this one or McAdam at any stage. Very interesting indeed.

True but I don’t think it can be fixed either way too much in December. Those kicks went through in 2021 and didn’t in 2023. Same players for the most part. Just got to hope for the best. I don’t see players like Trac or Max ever being reliable in front of goal for what it’s worth.

Our boys spent A LOT of time practicing goal kicking last summer. Brodie Grundy mentioned it on the Demonland podcast. Sadly, the pressure cauldron of finals football can’t be replicated and we just need to wait 12 months to hope it doesn’t happen again (assuming we’re good enough).

I know a lot of people are disappointed with our flag being won in Perth rather than on the MCG, but the way we won it is undeniably much more satisfying than what Collingwood dished up this September. Fair play to them though, best team in it all year and there is clearly method to how they win so many close ones. Flat that they won today but not as flat as Geelong winning one and life still went on. No Zorko medal is a bonus.

All these Lions players I hate, I love all of a sudden. Even Zorko is a good bloke today.

I much prefer the way Josh Mahoney (and now Tim Lamb) go about things. We pick our targets and always trade fair currency, if not a little overs sometimes, to secure a deal quickly. Some list managers (like Adelaide's here) are no better than the teenagers on BigFooty.