old55

Very good point. 37 from GC is the offending pick right? We could trade it to Richmond for 38 and a 2027 4th 😄

We could trump Carlton's 9 by offering 8 to Essendon for 21, 27 and 30. Then we could offer 27, 30 and 37 to Gold Coast for 15 which is a very nice points bonus for them. That would leave us with 7, 15 and 21 before bids which might be a better spread than currently.

I remain pessimistic about our chances of drafting the players we have been linked to in the top echelon, especially after the rumour that Essendon are going to trade into Carlton's pick 9 immediately after our picks. I'm making two assumptions: WC take Duursma and Duff-Tytler, and we take Nairn with one of our two top picks and therefore are looking for one other of our preferred players to come through. Going by Cal Twomey's "Where does he go?" in his November rankings: https://www.afl.com.au/news/1452082/cal-twomeys-phantom-form-guide-top-draft-prospects-november-ranking The key clubs are linked to the following players: Richmond: Robey, Taylor, Cumming, Grjl - 6 possible combinations Essendon: Robey, Taylor, Cumming, Sharp, Farrow, Schubert (weakly) Melbourne: Robey, Taylor, Cumming, Farrow (weakly) If Richmond takes two of Robey, Taylor and Cumming, then Essendon will take the remaining one. If Richmond takes one of them and Grjl, Essendon can take the other two confident that we don't want Sharp or Schubert and they can take one them after our picks at 9. It seems to me unlikely that Robey, Taylor or Cumming get through to us. Farrow, who appears to be more weakly linked to us, seems the most likely to get through. Looking at our best case scenario where Richmond take Grjl ... Richmond: Robey, Grjl - you can swap in Cumming or Taylor for Robey and it works out the same Essendon: Cumming, Taylor - they don't need to take Sharp because they can get him at 9 Melbourne: Nairn, Farrow? Essendon: Sharp (or Schubert) Essendon would have to rate both Sharp and Schubert above one of Robey, Cumming or Taylor for one of the latter to get through to us. I'm pretty sure Lamb and Taylor are far more over all the possibilities than me and I'll just have to wait and see what pans out on Wednesday.

I don't think that's good news for us ...

Great fighting win. MFC finally wins a final! The drought has broken ...

He's shown he can kick goals from stoppage in the forward line with 3 defenders trying to drag him down, he can block for Kozzie and hopefully the new small fwd we draft, and defenders like Whitfield and Jordon Clark would no doubt feel a little rushed with him lurking nearby.

I don't think it's clubs leaking their intentions. It's probably hard to hide that you've interviewed a player together with his manager, maybe multiple times and also met his family. That’s a lot of potential holes.

I get it, if you were running the show you'd trade into a pick in the 20s because that's where the phantoms say Nairn should go and then watch GWS take him at 17. That could be a strategy that's hard to justify in hindsight.

Equally GC could win the flag and then pick 18 could get pushed back 5 places, like this year with FA compensation, Academy and F/S, to pick 23.

Vlaustuin?

If that description is accurate he'd be #1 in a "weak draft" and a #1 candidate in any draft.

Please don't let this be over. The AFL should run the draft one pick a night for two months ...

Knightmare?

Throw in GC F1, not ours.

I think that's mostly true but doesn't fully explain the differences between Twomey's November Ranking and his Phantom Draft. He does inject his own assessment and opinion in the Ranking.