ChaserJ

Foxsports with a decent summary of the draft state of play with 2 weeks of Champs play remaining: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/draft/afl-draft-prospects-2024-date-national-under-18-championships-results-power-rankings-murphy-reid-isaac-kako-levi-ashcroft/news-story/f5aead6ac91a5ed5da0bc3a4016c9b37

Injury/body concerns or other?

Has played the last couple of CTL games with a lot of the metro players missing for Oakleigh. Looks like he played back on the weekend, numbers don’t jump off the page.

If you can access on a laptop or another device with a web browser, the AFL website has full match replays up on the u18’s page: https://www.afl.com.au/draft/u18s

He’s been very good for Metro. Does well in one one one’s, competitive and hits targets. Really like him as a small or medium defender, can see him playing on a wing as well, probably not big enough to go inside. Defends and rebounds equally well. Oliver could land in the first round, I’d lean toward pure midfield options for Dees in the first round BUT if Riv were to star as a mid the rest of the way through the season and our recruiting focus lands on a back six backfill for Riv, Oliver would be high up the preference list. And Luke is a massive North fan. If his form holds the rest of the way through the season, I def could see North either taking Trainor or splitting the pick with a view to taking him. Don’t think they have a need for Smillie or any of the other top rated mids.

Has gone from a 15-20 range player to busting into the 10 on the back of his Championship form. Harry Armstrong caught the eye too, this year’s Metro v Country clash should be another ripper.

Cats and Hawks have been the ones most keen and leading the pack. Pies get linked because they’re the Pies, but no 1st rd pick to give up this year. Dogs will ask for 2 first rounders, but one inside 10 and a sweetener would probably do the job.

Espn’s current draft rankings are up, there’s a good write up on Bo Allan on the site as well: June 2024 Draft Power Rankings: Basketball prodigy has tough decision to make

Was purely based off RMDC’s power rankings, so not a mock draft, but Whitlock would be handy. Last week it would have been Lalor! Outside of the current top 5, I’m a big fan of Murphy Reid & Toby Travaglia.

Had a quick go at mapping out what the draft order looks like and used Rookie Me’s draft rankings to try and see how things are shaping up (player tiers, pick swaps, etc.). Have tried to pair Academy & F/S players with their clubs so Ashcroft is ranked higher than he appears here (Lombard & Camporeale are actually pretty close to where their clubs would be selecting). Lots still to play out, but bolder the players that have caught my eye for various reasons. North Smillie Richmond O’Sullivan WCE Luke Trainor Adelaide Draper Saints J. Smith Hawks Moraes GC Lalor GC (Dogs) Lombard (GC Acad) Brisbane Levi (f/s) Melbourne M. Whitlock Freo (Port) Marshall (BL Acad)/O’Farrell Cats Gross Giants M. Reid Giants X Lindsay Freo Berry Freo (Pies) Shanahan Carl B. Camporeale (f/s) Syd J Whitlock Syd Kako GC Hotton On the Bubble: Allan, Travaglia, Oliver, Mraz, Langford, Faull, Dodson

Love your work @WalkingCivilWar, thanks for the updates (and selection scoops!).

While on the topic of trades, Oliver & Petty mentioned here:

We’ll need a top 5 pick for the best of those types @whatwhat say what…O’Sullivan, Draper & Smith leading the pack (of quick, skilled mids) at this stage.

@Gawndy the Great the 17 is there as a nod to Gold Coast being the 17th club admitted to the AFL at the time (some of the promotion might have referred to GC17…worked well as it’s stuck!).

Similar to a few talls in the crop, waiting to see a greater body of work against the best players in the country. To date it maybe seems like he’s bullied smaller opposition in the CTL and getting the score on the board at the Nationals will push him up. Charlie Nicholls and Jaunty Faull are kpfs in a similar position, could jump up the order by the time August rolls around.

Media types are speculating on his availability. It’s entirely possible that a couple of clubs clubs think they’re a chance and the chatter’s hit the industry. The thought of Clarry in another club’s colors makes me a little sick, but have a nagging feeling that this could gain momentum.

Elijah Tsatas keeps getting dropped by the Bombers. Wonder whether he gets frustrated and looks around soon.

I heard it was the other way round. We asked whether Toby and Buntine/Bugg could come back in the deal, but one of Toby or GWS list management team said no. At that point Toby was getting squeezed out of the midfield rotation and hadn’t spent a lot of time up fwd.

With the increased cap size I think we have to adjust for inflation with player salaries. $800k will very quickly become equivalent to $900k-$1M in the player exchange market. LDU is probably making the smart call to hold off on making any decisions on his contract year till his FA year in ‘25. I’m not sure he can be extracted from the Roos this off season.

They also have money to spend (and not many others looking to head to Moorabbin for the cash). Stengle, Higgins & Collard would bring some pizazz to a moribund fwd line. Would be pretty good to crumb to Max King. Can see the appeal for Saints.

Big fan of Joel Jeffrey, would bring some much needed pace.

Good to see Zak Johnson & Nash King get a run for Metro but gee Damon Hollow is stiff to drop out. Was very good in wet conditions v the Allies.

Beat me to it @rjay, Casey game is the day after AFL game, so holdover will be available to play (barring disaster and the need for them to play full game in the ones!).

Is that a Sam Taylor related joke?

If NGA accessibility is relaxed, could be good news for us next year. Tairon Ah-Mu is a very promising fwd-ruck prospect coming through in next year’s group.