ChaserJ

I think he was still out with injury for the Combine.

I get the feeling his floor is Richmond with pick 10/11. They could jump at 6.

Fair point this. Houston was a vanilla hf flanker & Gulden a ‘death by a hundred cuts’ type of high hf or crumber.

ESPN talk through possible picks for each club:

Yes, yes it is.

When Cal talks about p6. Whilst all the recruiters reckon it’s Smillie @ 6, Cal wonders whether Tiges jump on Allan here knowing both Dees & Saints are interested.

He could still go to Carlton (although Smith favoured) or Adelaide, but the interesting bit of info from Cal is that Draper is in the mix at 2 along with O’Sullivan & Tauru. He was spotted with Todd Viney at Arden Street over the weekend. So many variables. Tiges having an interest in Allan at 6 creates a range of outcomes for Dees as well. Smillie/Reid or even Travaglia at 9 all possibilities if Tauru is our player at 5.

There’s a little bit to take in here:

And only 18 as of 2 days ago, so young for this group. Could still grow a few cms. FWIW when I watched Tauru in NAB League finals I straight away thought he’d elevated himself into that 5-10 range. His aggression & courage in the air combined with his athleticism was high, high level.

My read is that Draper is the one we’d definitely pass on for Tauru, still feels like any of the others would still get the nod.

Cal says it’s out of Langford or Tauru for us (unless Lalor or O’Sullivan get through if the first few go a different way).

I guess they have until 11:59pm...

Dave (aka 'Footy Stuff' on Youtube) has put out a guide to the draft pool:

Cal Twomey tweeted the list f/s & academy nominees a few days ago, Melb nominees were Andrew & Mentha (no Yze).

I think he does a pretty good job. Prefer him to his predecessor (Knightmare) who was contrarian for the sake of it sometimes. I can see the rationale for his thinking in most cases, and always like it when there’s some difference in the opinions of the gurus.

Jasper sees things slightly differently to other draft writers and some recruiters, accepts that his ranking won’t necessarily be reflected in club selections. Murphy Reid is another with a wide range amongst draft writers (and presumably recruiters too).

We’ve had a link to Jack previously (per Marc McGowan in the Age). ABC have had a go at a phantom:

FOS

Yes (can't rule out recency bias here though). Jagga has Parish for agility and sheer accumulation (can't think of a more prolific ball winner in CTL/TAC Cup), probably slightly better at winning the ball in contest at the same age too. Parish was probably a better 'metres gained' player for more of his draft year.

Billings was ostensibly a lead and mark medium forward for Vic Metro. Didn't get an extended run in midfield (injury limited opportunity for extended mf time with Chargers), was speculated that he would eventually become a good midfielder. He and Lindsay not super similar as players at the same point in time, Lindsay has more exposed form in multiple parts of the ground and midfield production at the equivalent stage in his draft year. Maybe Salem is a better comp.

I want to hear commentators adopt ‘weird things’ into the vernacular! Need an alternative to ‘X factor’ and I think you’ve found it @Axis of Bob

In many aspects of their game Smith & Draper are similar players, but Drapers edge in acceleration and top end pace has me leaning his way slightly. Would change the dynamic of our midfield and help us add some speed to transition game.

Thanks for sharing Bob. Being involved in community sports at that age group rams home for me how devastating this will be for the community, never mind poor Jack’s family. Tragic.

This week’s Gettable is up:

I was watching Brian Lara being interviewed by the late, great Dean Jones in St Kilda that night. I had the Fox coverage on mute streaming on my phone. Had to stifle a Riv related cheer whilst Lara was recalling how he retook the test hs record against England.