ChaserJ

If North are comfortable we won’t take Tauru, I reckon they’ll split the pick with Tiges for p6 (+ one of their other bazillion picks).

On the topic of small/medium defenders, Shifter Sheehan’s profiles for this year’s crop of defenders: https://www.afl.com.au/draft/u18s?webview=true

Our biggest issue here is connection from defence/midfield into the forward line. We lack polish and speed with ball movement (partially in order to preserve defence first focus), in trying to change the game plan last year it really exposed our lack of polish by foot. We tried to address at draft by bringing in Windsor (& trade by bringing in Billings), but it takes a couple of periods to reshape your list to facilitate that change in ball movement (when you don’t have the personnel already) Clearly this was at play with our chase of Houston and will probably inform at least one of our selections at the draft. We could have had Carey in his prime up forward and he would have battled with our entries.

Ecstatic. Have zero expectation that we'll get both.

Yep, there was always a high degree of uncertainty on the talent pool due to the loss of underage footy in that period.

Try and get a live trade done.

Joe Berry. Ollie Hannaford slightly further back. I also wonder whether Carlton have a player in mind at 12. Even when they were in the Houston race they were adamant in holding on. Which I’m turn makes me wonder whether we were very keen to get ahead of them (rather than be sandwiched between Carlton picks if we secured p13 from GC).

Not if it was just 9 for North’s F1st. Would have left ESS with just pick 31 and staring at a points deficit. We had points matching capital to add and looks like that put us in box seat.

The issue for Bombers is that Kanga’s future pick, whilst appealing, does nothing to help them match Kako bid in first round.

We could agree beforehand to trade our future first and 28 (and maybe our third rounders to bolster points for Bombers) for 9, but manage via live trading. Our leverage is willingness to bid…we don’t really want to leave that to Saints. We bid, Bombers then have time to trade, we exchange F1st & 3rd rounders via live trade and then they match bid. The remaining Bomber picks get reallocated following the bid match. Then separately we live trade 28 for something like a Bomber future 3rd and they get to select a player in the second round. We would use pick 7 and newly acquired p11 and the Swans 2nd rounder if we still have it at that point.

Love Tauru and wouldn’t necessarily be disappointed if we took him, but if one of Lalor or O’Sullivan were on the board I’d find it very hard to overlook one of them. That said, would not surprise if North took him at 2. They want to split the pick, but reckon they wouldn’t want to slide down too far. I can see them looking at a split with Essendon, but that seems to low for Tauru now. Maybe Richmond or Saints?

We’re capitalising on a poor year in the same way we did in 2019.

From the Age's trade article today: "In other trade news, Melbourne are interested in securing one of Fremantle’s first-round picks to have an even stronger presence in this year’s draft, repeating a formula that worked well for them in their rebuild by securing two top-10 picks. The Demons, who already hold pick five, could get their hands on the Dockers’ No.10 or 11, in exchange for a future first-round selection and other assets to give them two high picks in a deep draft. The Dockers are open to the prospect, having put two of their three first-rounders on the table for contracted Richmond forward Shai Bolton. They are happy to trade picks 11 and 18 for Bolton, but refuse to hand over both 10 and 11." From: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/giants-weigh-up-a-play-for-jake-stringer-as-the-bombers-hold-firm-20241007-p5kgh6.html

Tiges would find it hard to knock back 11, 18 & 28, so could work. We’d hopefully start with an offer of f1 + the Grundy pick, but I’d fall back to 28 to get that deal done.

The way I read it, Fremantle happy to consider trade of whichever of 10 or 11 remains after Bolton trade. Or we jump in first, add a sweetener that helps get Bolton over the line.

West Coast apparently fans of Langford as well.

Getting a cluster of talent in one draft (especially if all can be integrated relatively quickly) is critical to contending. Our list was built around the cluster we brought in 2014 and that demographic and boosted by 2019. 2014's cluster is now depleted, but if we can get (at least) 3 very good players in together this year (to add to Windsor & Kolt last year), we could have another spike. That came through a little with Gawnie's speech last night about the journey and how even 2019, which was [censored] at the time, was an important step in setting us up for the premiership. We've had a horrible year, but the old adage of never wasting a crisis will be very much at play for our list management team.

Slightly surprised that Kako’ linked at 6, but maybe there’s a bit of NGA angst being released there. He is a talent and has kicked some freakish goals this season. Happy to make Essendon pay up, and I suspect they will, small forward position is a glaring hole in their list. Let’s see if we hear about any potential pick swap deals the Bombers are linked to. I know Bombers fans started panicking when Saints got band 1 compo. If we are indeed interested in adding a quality small, maybe Joe Berry comes into the mix if we grab a second 1st round pick as well. Also, good to see we have interest in Cooper Hynes, his range looks like being roughly where the ANB pick would be. If our selections move in those general directions, we would certainly go some way to addressing our forward half connection issues.

Crows bound.

Journos were talking about Geelong’s belief that Clarry could be levered out during the season, so they may been some degree of contact well before now. Sammy Edmund suggested Clarry’s behaviour on Brownlow night wasn’t viewed positively. Not a long bow to surmise that the club gave him prompt feedback (or attempted to), Clarry didn’t appreciate this and subsequently met with Cats, which in turn led to Pert calling clubs later that week.

Don’t think we did shop him to Cats. Cats have been lurking for some time, when Clarry had an initial meeting with Cats (which is what apparently surprised the Dees) Pert spoke to other clubs to see if there was a market. Clearly Geelong is not our trade partner of choice.

They’re in their playing primes and they want to keep winning. Letting this play out the way it has for 12 months has put us in the laughable position of having a player locked into a long term contract and cornering ourselves into making the choice to let them go for unders.

Suspect Clarry is only wanting a trade to Geelong. The other clubs will likely know that.

We’ve mismanaged Clarry to the point where we will be virtually giving him away. Getting rid of him may fix some of the issues/distractions, but we don’t move forward as a club without moving on the folks who mismanaged this so badly. Farcical.