ChaserJ

This is true, and that’s the reason WCE have had a 2 ruck set up for his entire career. Dean Cox isn’t a bad ruck partner, and Eagles strategy with Naitanui over the journey has been to use him in (powerful) bursts. He probably has been at 60% time on ground for a few years now (when not injured). NicNat was always good in the contest, but if he was sole ruck for a period of time, he’d barely run out a game.

Watts also got drafted just as the forward press, compression of play and increased congestion started to become a feature of the game. Winning your own ball whilst having a good tank became more important than ever (in all areas of the field). I don’t think we took that into consideration when drafting in that period. To make it, Watts was up against it in more ways than one.

Damn it, lid’s elevating: https://www.afl.com.au/news/858823/unique-son-of-a-gun-shapes-as-draft-s-big-late-season-riser

It'd be kinda funny to use the 1st round pick we got from Freo on the son of Freo's inaugural AFL captain. Could reunite him with his old Claremont teammate in JVR to boot.

Sticking with the South Australian theme, Jaiden Magor should be in the mix at 37. Another who likely would have placed higher if not for injury.

Thanks @adonski, Hotton's close to my favourite in this year's class. Have a few ahead of him for our pick, but he's one of the more dynamic players in the crop.

From recollection he’s a Pies fan.

Didn't he bake us for taking Jackson over Green in '19? Now 2 firsts and a second (whilst maintaining our own 1st & 2nd rd picks) is poor compensation for Jackson. Nonsense.

He's gotten some praise for his SANFL u/18's season and some Crow fans with good judgement rate him pretty highly. Haven't seen enough of him myself, but will have a look at that game Daz.

I’ve rewatched a few Oakleigh & Metro games lately.and my observation with Jefferson is that he is willing to chase and put pressure on and do a lot of the team orientated work up forward. A couple of examples stood out, one in the Metro Country game where he made 2 or three efforts resulting in a chase down, smother and scoring shot. The other was in the final minute of the wildcard loss (to Bendigo). The game was well gone, but he still corralled his opponent in the goal square, tackled and won the free kick. The issue with him is the lack of upper body strength at this stage, so quite a few occasions where the tackles don’t quite stick (he was playing injured in the back half of the year as well). I think that creates a perception of his efforts, which aren’t entirely fair. The want is there though, which we don’t always see with young key forwards.

Hawks definitely the threat to Geelong’s thirst for Clark.

Would depend on who’s on the board at the time, assuming Humphrey and those top 5 are gone, I’d happily take Phillipou. Would be a tough choice if he & Jefferson are available at our pick. He’s a good size and is one of the youngest in the pool, so great scope for development.

They're a difficult one for me to predict at this stage. I think they're set in defence, so don't see them grabbing Busslinger. Given their outgoings in midfield, you could imagine them grabbing a mid. I get the feeling they might have really liked Sheezel and Humphrey would be good for them, but both should be gone. Strong argument for Clark or Hollands, but if I was picking for them Phillipou would be the guy. Dual posiiton who will start up forward (reminds me of Stringer inside 50 and his play in mid is in the style of Fyfe...can rush his kicks, but clean hands and good in tight) but eventually join the midfield rotation. They've got some mids (like MacDonald and Butler drafted and Stephens traded in) coming through, so a guy that play multiple positions would appeal. They'll probably go and pick Ginbey now (who would also be a good pick for them).

Will be interesting to see what Hawks do at pick 6. They could send the next few picks in a few different pathways depending on who they select.

Not a phantom draft, but a pretty handy resource if you’re not across all of the prospects in the pool. The podcast also has some discussion on 2023’s draft pool and goes over the five standouts for next year (no surprise that Harley Reid gets a guernsey). AFL Draft 2022: Profiles, stats and latest intel on more than 100 top prospects

I've possibly said this elsewhere, but if we go with a tall or mid with 13, I'd be very keen to draft Luke Teal at 37 if available. His strengths match up with the areas of defence where we were exposed over the second half of last season. If we're looking at a forward/mid at that range, I'd like us to look at Jaiden Magor.

Thanks mate, always appreciate your insight. Can definitely see where the Daniel comparison would come from. Pound for pound, Daniel was easily amongst the best in the ‘14 crop. Jones looks like he can play across all areas of the field as well.

Not one for pick 13, but what are your thoughts on Darcy Jones @Pennant St Dee? I’ve gone back to some of the Champs games and really like his pace and spark. Small, but looks to have some tricks.

Equally intrigued by Gruzewski & Allan @Pennant St Dee.. Shame that both spent a decent time out injured, so we really have only seen slices, but what we’ve seen has been pretty good. Gruzewski looks like a great mark and kicks it well (field kicking when playing back was impressive). Would love to have seen him play more forward than back so we could get a greater sample of him as a forward. His marking is very clean. Those of us outside WA didn’t see much of Allen outside of the final game against SA, but his athletic testing was exceptional. If he’s inherited any of his dad’s footy nous, he could be some player. Seems well suited to the wing, but at his height, could he play a role in the fwd line?

Agree. He definitely has ability, his frame is possibly working against him, but a free hit if it’s as an NGA rookie.

We had a keen interest in medium defenders at the draft last year (ended up with the key fwd in JvR), Stack could fill an absolute need as a speedy defender. Low cost mitigates risk with potentially high return. I hope we’d still back ourselves in to provide a supportive environment (we clearly feel we can in taking on Hunter).

Posted this last week: On 10/7/2022 at 2:20 PM, ChaserJ said: ‘This is very much at the heart of the problem. The AFL have stuffed the equalisation economy with all of the assistance GC received over multiple years (I’ll call it ‘pick-flation’). Theyve had so much draft pick stimulus pumped in, the value of a high pick has just diminished and created a salary cap squeeze in order to retain these highly rated players. Because they’ve taken on too much of that water, so they’re unloading and it’s the well run and well off clubs catching all of the overflow. Even when helping lift the poorer clubs up, the stronger clubs end up benefitting. It’s why equalisation measures are cooked. In order to maintain some integrity of the cap, AFL should have limited the capacity of contractsmoothing for clubs taking on salary dump contracts. E.g. Geelong should take on the full 850 for a two year period, but permitted to negotiate a friendlier extension that only triggers when the original contract has been fulfilled. The measure of when a trade constitutes a ‘dump’ could be measured by the other incentives involved in the trade (I.e. an objectively one sided deal). Funny that Ned Guy is in the role that l’d see assessing this function at the AFL. No wonder dumps were waved through this year. Allowing clubs inheriting the dumped contract and smooth straight away feels like a rort.’ And now this from the Age online last night: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-to-consider-tweaks-for-the-salary-dump-20221013-p5bpmv.html Smarter people than me get paid a lot of money to look after this area, why could this not have been built into the process before approving the one sided salary dump deals? It was completely predictable.

We’d have to trade up to get him I fancy. Ginbey’s gone like a bullet into the top 10. His terrific all round performance at combine has clubs rewatching the tapes as well.

If you look at Sydney, the majority of their backline is made up of players who started in other positions. A lot of their recruiting ethos is around flexibility in position (lots of medium types) and winning your own ball. If you add ball use into the mix, then you can probably slot in almost anywhere.

Well, lettuce is pretty expensive these days, so sounds like great business. #lettuceball