Whispering_Jack

And that's Round One done and dusted ... ROUND ONE 1 West Coast Eagles Willem Duursma 193cm Utility VIC 4 West Coast Eagles Cooper Duff-Tytler 201cm Ruck VIC 7 Richmond Sam Cumming 184cm Mid SA 8 Richmond Sam Grlj 182cm Mid VIC 9 Essendon Sullivan Robey 192cm Mid/Fwd VIC 10 Essendon Jacob Farrow 188cm Def/Mid WA 11 Melbourne Xavier Taylor 192cm Def VIC 12 Melbourne Latrelle Pickett 182cm Fwd SA 13 Essendon Dyson Sharp 187cm Mid SA 15 GWS Giants Oskar Taylor 183cm Def VIC 16 North Melbourne Lachy Dovaston 178cm Fwd VIC 19 West Coast Eagles Josh Lindsay 183cm Def/Mid VIC 20 Hawthorn Cameron Nairn 188cm Fwd SA 21 Western Bulldogs Lachie Carmichael 184cm Def NSW 22 Adelaide Mitch Marsh 191cm Fwd SA 23 Hawthorn Aidan Schubert 197cm Fwd SA 24 Geelong Harley Barker 188cm Mid SA 25 Fremantle Adam Sweid 176cm Mid/Fwd VIC

Sam Grlj 182cm Mid VIC - now that has made things interesting

Pick 2’s a law student and a paralegal. Can play too!

Well that was a surprise … Duursma. Father and uncle played for us. And a Casey Demons player as well!

Sully Robey’s mother’s uncle is David Allday who played in the ruck for Melbourne. Pity they didn’t invent a great-uncle rule.

We can all relax for a while. I doubt that Melbourne’s first selection will be called out until at least 8.00pm.

People should be aware that Shane McAdam suffered an Achilles injury in February of this year. I'm not an expert but I know of an athlete who took 12 months to recover so it's likely that even if he attends training, he's going to be in the rehab group so it shouldn't be a big deal if he doesn't start till next week.

The Herald Sun today reports on where each club stands ahead of tomorrow’s draft. Here’s the take on the Demons - MELBOURNEPicks: 7, 8, 37, 63, 65 Melbourne has two picks at the top of the order and Cam Nairn is firmly in the Demons’ sights, having received a late invite to night one of the draft. The SA medium forward or winger is highly rated by clubs, offers versatility and is well-rounded with elite endurance and clean hands overhead. WA defender-midfielder Jacob Farrow is also right in contention, with his range set to start at Melbourne’s two picks, while Sam Cumming will be difficult to pass up if Essendon doesn’t pounce first. Eastern Ranges goalsneak Lachy Dovaston will enter draft calculations from Melbourne’s selections onwards, while SA tall Aidan Schubert fills a need as an athletic forward-ruck. The Demons have shown interest in Schubert, but there is a view he slides further. There were also early murmurs Melbourne will partner Kysaiah Pickett with his cousin, Glenelg goalsneak Latrelle Pickett. Melbourne is among the clubs in the 30s who could put bidding pressure on St Kilda for NGA prospect Kye Fincher. Melbourne committed mid-year to taking 201cm developing tall Kalani White, son of Melbourne great Jeff, as a father-son prospect, and he appears unlikely to receive a national draft bid. In that scenario, the Demons could either add him as a rookie or take him with their last national draft pick. The Demons have filled their Category B rookie allotments after selecting college basketballer Oscar Berry, but NGA graduate Toby Sinnema is expected to be a train-on player with the Dees if he isn’t picked as a rookie.

Cal’s Phantom Draft in pictures

I have long been one to shy away from highlight reels so I would suggest that the critics/analysts who have the time catch up with vision of longer pieces of games in which players are involved. It might lead to some reassessment of some of those thoughts. In the meantime, here’s an interesting read about Jacob Farrow that’s been around for a little while but, in light of Cal Twomey’s last draft, I now highly recommend. Aussie Rules Rookie Me CentralFarrow blocks out the noise in golden top-age campaignTop West Australian prospect Jacob Farrow has stormed up draft boards this year, but has remained laser focussed along the way.

It seems that he has a rival …

Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central2025 AFL Draft Preview: MelbourneOn the back of an 11-player turnover, Melbourne once again has the opportunity to make two first round selections at this year's draft.

Never in doubt.

Zero Hanger’s Final Top 40 - lots of trade picks and player nominations (NGA & F/S) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zFloipIadzg ROUND 1 SELECTIONS 1 West Coast Eagles — Willem Duursma 2 Gold Coast Suns — Zeke Uwland * 3 West Coast Eagles — Cooper Duff-Tytler 4 Gold Coast Suns — Dylan Patterson * 5 Richmond — Sullivan Robey 6 Richmond — Sam Grlj 7 Brisbane — Dan Annable * 8 Carlton — Harry Dean * 9 Essendon — Sam Cumming 10 Essendon — Dyson Sharp 11 Melbourne — Xavier Taylor 12 Melbourne — Cam Nairn 13 West Coast Eagles — Jacob Farrow 14 Hawthorn — Oskar Taylor 15 Melbourne — Josh Lindsay 16 GWS Giants — Latrelle Pickett 17 Western Bulldogs — Lachy Dovaston 18 Adelaide — Harley Barker 19 Essendon — Jevan Phillipou 20 Sydney Swans — Harry Kyle * 21 Geelong — Aidan Schubert 22 Essendon — Adam Sweid * 23 Fremantle — Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves 24 Hawthorn — Ollie Greeves ROUND 2 & 3 SELECTIONS 25 North Melbourne — Blake Thredgold 26 Gold Coast Suns — Jai Murray * 27 Carlton — Jack Ison * 28 Collingwood — Zac McCarthy * 29 North Melbourne — Mitch Marsh 30 Sydney Swans — Max King * 31 Western Bulldogs — Marcus Krasnadamskis 32 West Coast Eagles — Tylan Williams * 33 Richmond — Leon Kickett 34 Sydney Swans — Lachy Carmichael * 35 GWS Giants — Archie Ludowyke 36 Gold Coast Suns — Beau Addinsall * 37 West Coast Eagles — Fred Rodriguez 38 Brisbane — Max Kondogiannis 39 St Kilda — Kye Fincher * 40 Collingwood — Jack Dalton * Matched bids They have us trading into a third first round pick (15) which I doubt will happen although it was something I advocated for last year (and might have gotten us a Murphy Reid) but that’s water under the bridge. This year our drafters were somewhat negative about the draft’s strength so I would be surprised if they wanted a third pick in the first round.

The one and only Kevin ‘Shifter’ Sheehan’s Top 40 players ~ afl.com.auKevin Sheehan’s 2025 Telstra AFL Draft top 40 prospectsAFL Talent Ambassador Kevin Sheehan has revealed his top 40 prospects for the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

The clubs have finalised their lists prior to the 2025 AFL National Draft and this is the order with which the clubs will go into the draft meeting - ROUND ONE 1 West Coast Eagles 2 West Coast Eagles 3 Richmond 4 Richmond 5 Essendon 6 Essendon 7 Melbourne 8 Melbourne 9 Carlton 10 Hawthorn 11 Carlton 12 GWS Giants 13 West Coast Eagles 14 Western Bulldogs 15 Gold Coast Suns 16 Adelaide 17 Brisbane Lions 18 Gold Coast Suns 19 Geelong 20 Fremantle 21 Essendon 22 Hawthorn 23 Brisbane Lions ROUND TWO 24 Gold Coast Suns 25 North Melbourne 26 North Melbourne 27 Essendon 28 Gold Coast Suns 29 Gold Coast Suns 30 Essendon 31 Sydney 32 Sydney 33 Western Bulldogs 34 West Coast Eagles 35 GWS Giants 36 Gold Coast Suns 37 Melbourne 38 Richmond 39 Collingwood 40 Geelong 41 West Coast Eagles 42 Sydney 43 Carlton ROUND THREE 44 Brisbane Lions 45 Collingwood 46 North Melbourne 47 Fremantle 48 Adelaide 49 Port Adelaide 50 St Kilda 51 Brisbane Lions 52 Gold Coast Suns 53 Western Bulldogs 54 Carlton 55 Adelaide 56 Collingwood 57 Brisbane Lions 58 Collingwood ROUND FOUR 59 Hawthorn 60 Sydney 
 61 Adelaide 
 62 St Kilda
 63 Melbourne
 64 Fremantle 
 65 Melbourne
 66 Hawthorn 
 67 Collingwood ROUND FIVE 68 Richmond 69 Port Adelaide 70 St Kilda 71 Sydney Swans 72 Fremantle 73 GWS Giants ROUND SEVEN 74 Port Adelaide Note: your eyes aren’t deceiving you, there is no sixth round in the list provided.

ESPN.comAFL Draft 2025: ESPN's final, top 50 power rankingsWith the AFL Draft just one week away, ESPN releases its November power rankings featuring the top 50 junior prospects from around the country in 2025.

This article purports to tell you everything you need to know about the AFL’s First Delisted Free Agency period which begins tomorrow and runs for the entire week. State of play: Delisted free agency, every player available, landing spots, re-rookie list

I made some enquiries with a contact in Ireland who says he’s a promising player, midsized at around 178cm. I still am amazed that the MFC which pioneered the recruitment of Gaelic footballers and had such great early success with Jim Stynes and Sean Wight subsequently completely abandoned the project.

I’m surprised that with one exception when it was raised almost as an aside nobody has asked the obvious question and that is whether our Aidan is possibly related to Franz Schubert, the Austrian superstar composer of classical music. Admittedly, Franz has been deceased for almost two centuries, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that Aidan hails from South Australia which is full of people of Germanic extraction so there might be some connection here. On the other hand, Franz’ bio tells me he was just 156cm tall (5’1”) and that his cause of death was both typhus and syphilis so if there is a genetic connection, he might be ruled out on the grounds of new coach’s no d*ckheads policy. This is going to be a fascinating watch.

This is from an update in today’s Herald Sun on every club’s injury list - MELBOURNEA new-look Melbourne will come together at Casey in the coming weeks, and all of the shiny new toys should be ready to go on day one. Andy Moniz-Wakefield was shaping as a strong contributor in a new-look half-back role before his ACL tear, but should be ready for a full, but managed, pre-season. Jake Lever had a wretched run with ankle issues in 2025 but the club is confident he will be right for a strong pre-season. Shane McAdam is progressing from a February achilles tendon injury, with the forward closing in on nine months of rehab work. He’ll likely be limited throughout the summer as he pushes for a return in early 2026.

I think the philosophy in drafting remains “best player available” and therefore, if Sharp’s still there at pick 11 he’s likely going to be in that category and would be picked up. Personally though, I suspect he will be taken before our pick.

My criticism is that I don’t believe we should be drafting a tall forward unless one presented himself as absolutely outstanding ie a best available player. On that basis I wouldn’t take Schubert ahead of Duff-Tytler who some have as high as top 2.