ChaserJ

A bit more on how that early part of the draft from Marc McGowan (now at the Age):- Bombers shape as draft wildcards in top-10 calculations The link to Jefferson & George a pretty consistent theme now, along with Allan, although seems more likely that Allan won't get to our pick. Suns rounding on Humphrey could shake things up a bit, along with Essendon seeking to push back. The decision point for a club jumping would have to be whether they want to jump up to get either Humphrey or Ginbey. Eagles in a pretty good spot to just sit back and take whomever falls through.

He looks a super talent who might be one of the challengers to Harley Reid to be the first picked next year.

Including a bag of 5 when directly opposed to his Chargers/Metro teammate Max Gruzewski. In fairness to Gru, I believe it was his first game back from injury.

I get some of the trepidation with Jefferson and comparisons some here are making with Weideman. He projects as more of a Sam Reid type. Jefferson reads the ball in flight very well (amongst the best in the crop) and is mobile inside 50. His standing vertical allows him to reach over a lot of the opponents he came up against in the U18’s. Yes, he is skinny and yes, he will take time. The club showed patience with JVR, who has a physique that was further advanced than Jefferson. If the team select Jefferson, they’ll no doubt give him time as well. There is competitiveness and defensive effort in his game. He would have slid in recruiter rankings by now if it was completely absent (see Lemmey’s slide and the uncertainty around Keeler as examples), but the light frame really stops him from throwing weight around in a way Cadman has at times. Clubs will also note that Jefferson played through injury (leg) in the latter part of the season and still performed reasonably well.

An added bonus for our family, the little bloke just got a gig for an Auskick grid game at half time tonight. He’s pumped!

The ever impressive draft guide from the team at Rookie Me Central. Fills the void left by the old Inside Footy Draft Guide:

Tickets secured, cant wait!

Reckon PSD is pretty close to the mark a bit further up the page. Others have jumped up into the space rather than any red flags on Hewitt. Still a good prospect.

While we’re on the topic of powerful midfielders: TWOMEY: In-demand powerful mids dominate draft crop

Bit of an update on Munkara and some context on why he dropped off the radar for a big chunk of his top-age season: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/draft/afl-draft-2022-the-story-of-essendon-nga-prospect-anthony-munkara/news-story/4cf05db652fef4e5a097d200e559eb52 "Munkara has been back home, out bush on Bathurst Island, for most of the past few months, having returned because a series of family tragedies happened in a short period. Determined to impress scouts and realise his AFL dream, Munkara left the Tiwis and went to Melbourne to attend the draft combine at Marvel Stadium on Friday." “He’s enormously talented, but he’s had a year you wouldn’t wish upon anyone,” West Adelaide talent manager Paul Streatfield tells News Corp. “I just hope that a club’s seen enough in him to give him a shot because in the right environment, if he’s got some stability around him, he’s going to be a pretty handy asset. Article goes on to say that his family are all Bomber fans, but he'd happily go anywhere and that Richmond have shown some interest.

Twomey’s final form guide before he does a phantom draft: Cal Twomey's Phantom Form Guide: Top draft prospects' October ranking

Question marks raised about his competitiveness combined with inconsistent performance has seen something of a fall from grace for Lemmey. Some of that is down to Covid & an injury niggle at the wrong time, but he’s unlikely to be inside 30 now. At some point he’ll be too good to leave on the shelf.

Yep, good stuff @Nascent, sound rationale all the way through.

I agree, his exposed form and traits do stand up well when compared to many tipped to go inside the first 10. No known behavioural issues, probably didn’t elevate his standing during (and after) the Champs against some others that jumped up in that period.

It looks like Elijah Hewitt is the one that is going the other way. His range has become quite wide now.

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.