ChaserJ

Old mate Trade Whisperer has just dropped this one on Twitter as well.

Need to see what Blake Howes can do as well.

He was there. Featured on some of the red carpet coverage, looked like he took a mate to the event.

Jon Ralph speculating (both OTC & I assume in HS article that went up at the same time he went to air) that the Essendon contract to McKay may not be big enough to attract band 1 compensation, stating that Essendon were only prepared to offer McKay what they thought he was worth (rather than pay more just to prevent North from matching). He reckons Essendon have offered incentive laden contract worth around 780k, so without AFL ‘massaging’ the compensation, doesn’t seem to rise to band 1 level.

Would be happy to get Jiath in with a second rounder. Would give us some real speed out of defence, pretty good kick as well.

Sydney have some talented midfielders but have struggled with contest & clearance since Kennedy went out of their centre square rotation. Parker can’t do it all by himself (and he’s getting on), Dow would make a lot of sense. He’s a fairly one dimensional midfielder, but just happens to be strong in the area Sydney’s midfield is lacking. JJ has probably been told he’ll get a good crack at CBA’s as well.

Hey mate, yeah, O’Sullivan’s a good user of the ball and a reasonably good decision maker, would be comfortable if we went that way. Much surer with ball in hand than Petty (as an example) and could either play key post or third tall/intercept defender. Overall, Watson’s kicking depth is ok. What I’ve seen over the course of the year is that he can rush his kicks and can be inconsistent by foot. He can do the brilliant (and does so quite often), but I’m not sure if he puts a bit of extra pressure on himself to do too much to make things happen, but that’s when he can get the timing wrong with his kicks. That’s how it looked in the GF. Eastern’s overall depth and scoring power wasn’t great this year, so understand why Watson might have felt that. He plays a million miles an hour all the time, if he drops that just a little and picks his moments a bit better, I get the feeling that his field kicking and overall game will be the better for it.

Oh man, not the riddles…

Take your point, but this year's crop was projected to be lacking midfielders from a long way out. Was all about the flankers this year.

Smillie should go top 10 next year. Typically a Cripps type inside mid, but just was his first game back from injury. Midfield group has a fair bit more quality and depth next year.

Worth noting that the player taken with the pick we sent to GWS for Hogan (we held pick 3 & 4 due to Scully compo traded 3 & used 4 on Toumpas) ended up being Lachie Plowman. Plowman had an underwhelming career, largely at Carlton, and he has now just retired. Not a whole lot of quality out of that 2012 crop as it transpired. Thankfully Viney worked out! Another traded pick that started with Melbourne, moved to Adelaide in the Lever deal and finished with Carlton in the Gibbs trade was pick 10 from 2017. Carlton used the pick to select Lachie O’Brien, who they just delisted. Thing’s didn’t turn out too badly for us in the end.

Read like we’ve asked but he seems a longer way down the track with WC. They’ve probably given him an indication that he’ll get a good look at more regular game time. Especially if Williams will be deployed up forward more often than not.

It was quoting Sammy Edmund. I listened to the segment and thought he meant to say West Coast, but said Melbourne. He might have just had Melbourne on his mind, because he also suggested Dees could still have a go at Pick 1. That said, if Roos would still like to take Sanders, they could probably split pick 2 (or a band 1 compensation pick for McKay) with us and still be pretty certain of getting him with our pick from Freo (would be independent of whether they land pick 4).

Best chance for McKercher is if North go for Sanders early or we trade up. Sanders isn’t the distributer by foot that you’re describing in your post. He’s neat when in space, but not elite by foot. If had that hurt factor with his kick, he probably would have been sitting in the top 3 or 4 in the pool.

Not just the one game, reflective of his overall game. Averaged 10 kicks and 19 handpasses across the CTL season. Across his 4 games at the Champs went at 12 kicks & 23 handpasses. Does most of his work inside to release the outside runners.

Big Bang? Not that many I would have thought. Given a key forward is where we’d try to splash, even fewer. Cameron, Oscar Allan or one of the King twins probably the only one’s Big Bang worthy. Naughton wouldn’t quite get to that level for me.

Watson’s highlights from the CTL GF on Sunday:

The McKay deal has been estimated (by Marc McGowan in the Age) as 750k per year over 6. Not a slam dunk for band 1, don’t have faith that AFL won’t still make it happen though.

Marc McGowan in the Age suggesting that the offer is expected to be around 750k over 6 years: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/north-melbourne-get-three-first-round-draft-picks-in-afl-assistance-package-20230925-p5e7fg.html Could be right on the edge of band 1.

Highlights of Curtin's GF performance:

Set up an early goal, apart from that well held. Rookie range would be about right. Curtin was important in defence & midfield without being completely dominant (23 touches).

24 touches and a goal. Was good, agree that he should go high next year.

WAFL Colts GF streaming on 7 app now. Curtin & Sam Van Rooyen playing.

Also, if you compare their body of work at same stage, Frawley is streets ahead of McKay. Was an AA defender and 130+ games under his belt. Roos played him out of position in his last season and he still was one of our better players up forward (a few games of 10+ marks in a pretty moribund fwd line). Went on to play 100 games for Hawks including premierships. Bizarre that people say Dees were given overgenerous compensation.

Adam Jones (WA talent manager) was on SEN WA this morning basically echoing much of @Pennant St Dee’s observations above. Some insights on Dan Curtain and also what impact (or little) the compulsory 3 year contracts will have on draftee retention. https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/09/21/wa-talent-manager-certain-roos-will-take-tall-at-2-if-reid-goes-at-1/