Whispering_Jack

My understanding is that clubs have to sign up their wanted players by the end of October when they lodge their lists. Unless this has changed, the club would have to enter into new contracts with the 3 unsigned players or they become delisted free agents. Clubs would then have to decide whether to tell the players that they will redraft them at the National or Rookie Draft as the case may be depending on what happens on the day. We’ve already flagged that we’re offering a contract to Michael Hibberd but there’s be no word on the others. My guess is that there’s a balancing act going on and we’ll find out soon enough.

I’m “stealing” my theme for today from the Mongrel Punt article entitled "Where the Dees get even better in 2022" although I actually came across the idea earlier and from a slightly different perspective. There used to be a saying that the “premiership glow” doesn’t last forever i.e at some stage after a team tastes the ultimate in success, the celebration of the victory comes to an end, at which point it’s time to start thinking of what comes next. You’ve reached the crossroads. The question becomes one of coming down from the high of a premiership with the same hunger that you had in the past, to ensure thad you don’t develop a lot of swollen heads and end up going backwards? And how can you get even better?

Some Demonlanders out there will remember the brief appearance of a group of Melbourne Next Generation Academy players at preseason at Gosch’s Paddock in December 2019. The standout was a strongly built tall ruckman, Deakin Pereira who mixed it with the likes of Max Gawn and Braydon Preuss in the ruck and held himself in good stead against the Demons’ tall timber. We were hoping that the young Pereira would try out for a place in the 2020 national draft but Deakin had a long-held dream of making it in the world of professional basketball at its highest level in the USA. Over the past 20 months or so he’s gone a long way to achieving that dream despite the fact that our world is a far different place than it was back then. I reached out to Deakin’s biggest fans, his parents Kylie and Ryan, and they filled me in on his movements in the interim. They report that he’s made it through the world-wide Covid19 storm and is finishing his last year of high school. He has just achieved his first aim by securing a scholarship to a major division 1 college - California State University, Fullerton which is a leading campus of CSU and which serves as an intellectual and cultural center for Southern California. Sholarships are few and far between and Deakin was good enough to get one. He stands around 6 foot 9 inches tall (206cm) and is looking very strong. He says he can’t wait to go to college where he will beef up even more. If things don’t work out, you never know, he might be back at Gosch’s Paddock battling out with our premiership pair of ruckmen one day but in the meantime, we’re looking forward to seeing him proceed to a different draft in the NBA, possibly to join the growing band of Aussies there. Then it could be on to the Olympics in Paris in three year’s time. We all know now how well Demons go in Olympic years.😀 Anyway, Deakin can rest assured that there’s an army of Demons fans following his fortunes in sunny California. Good luck!

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The problem with ruck prospects is that the cupboard is bare. There’s Mac Andrew who is viewed as a longish term fix as a ruckman at best and there’s the Geelong Falcons’ Toby Conway and very little else. If clubs are desperate to infuse ruck talent, they’re going to have to pay overs. Otherwise, wait till next year.

I’ve been watching some of the replays of matches on the Fox Footy Channel including the mini matches. So far, Dunstan’s kicking hasn’t been as problematic as I anticipated. In fact one of his kicks to Max King was a great pass. There were lots of other examples. It wouldn’t surprise if it gets even better when he’s done a preseason with the team.

I thought very much the same and in fact, believed we were on track earlier this year when we were on the eve of the finals. Fingers crossed for this year that the competition can get a smooth start in January.

The AFL’s official trade period for 2021 is done and dusted but there’s still one commodity that remains open for trading all the way up to and including the two draft nights on 24 & 25 November. That is, trading which does not involve players but rather, draft picks. From Monday until a week before the draft, the AFL clubs will be able to trade their existing picks and they can do likewise during the progress of the actual draft. Collingwood is one club that is actually keen to trade its first pick (#27) according to a report on p88 of today’s Herald Sun by Sam Landsberger entitled “Pies still in trade game” (no link available due to paywall). He’s suggesting that the “Magpies are set to spend the next four weeks hitting the phones – to rival clubs …. ”. No doubt, one of the calls will be made to Melbourne’s list guru who has indicated that he’s keen to improve its list position and, in what appears to be a level draft pool, a deal could lead to the mutual benefit of both clubs.

A little flashback to the not so distant past. This is round 23 v Geelong at GMHBA Stadium and highlights Clarrie’s two goals. The first is quite amazing, like Moses he parts the Red Sea and finds the way to the goals. It’s not as if it’s accidental - he’s done it a few times in the past couple of seasons. How does he do it?

Blake Howes would make a very competent understudy for Bayley Fritsch and could be available for our second selection at 39. Comes from the Sandringham Dragons which has been a strong club over the past decade or so.

I hope the fact that he failed to make the cut at Melbourne hasn’t soured relations between Jeff and the club. He always seemed pretty happy as a Demon.

Kevin Sheehan reveals his top NAB AFL Draft Prospects: Medium forwards

… and 26 to 52

Ed Pascoe has also had a crack at a Phantom Draft. Here’s the first 25 selections:-

@rollinson 65 - are you good for a comeback to manage?

@Ash35 is a long time and respected Demonland poster. He’s also respectful of others and is welcome to post here at any time. And given that this is “The Bobby Hill Thread” he was fully on topic. Thanks.

I’ve never been one to really get involved in the discussion about who won the trade period because it’s such a useless exercise. As we all know, the proof of the pudding etc. and it’s about who you end up drafting and how you develop the players you draft so that we’ll never really know until we’re years down the track. However, I think it’s worth pointing out that Melbourne’s trading effort yielded the player who received more Brownlow votes than any other traded. In fact, 10 more than the player considered by many as the prize of the trade period. Let that sink in.

INDICATIVE DRAFT ORDER (at the end of the AFL Trade Period) Points in red ROUND ONE 1. North Melbourne 3,000 2. GWS Giants (received from Collingwood in 2020) 2,517 3. Gold Coast 2234 4. Adelaide 2,034 5. Hawthorn 1,878 6. Fremantle (received from Carlton as part of Adam Cerra trade) 1,751 7. Richmond 1,644 8. Fremantle 1,551 9. St Kilda 1,469 10. West Coast 1,395 11. Essendon 1,329 12. Port Adelaide (received from Sydney as part of Peter Ladhams trade) 1,268 13. GWS Giants 1,212 14. Brisbane Lions 1,161 15. Richmond (received from Geelong in 2020) 1,112 16. Sydney (received from Port Adelaide as part of Peter Ladhams trade) 1,067 17. Melbourne (received from Western Bulldogs as part of a pick swap) 1,025 18. Brisbane Lions (received from Melbourne in 2020) 985 ROUND TWO 19. Fremantle (received from Gold Coast as part of Will Brodie trade; originally part of assistance package in 2019) 948 20. North Melbourne 912 21. Hawthorn (received from Collingwood in 2020) 878 22. Geelong (received from Fremantle as part of Jordan Clark trade; originally received from Collingwood in a pick swap; originally received from Gold Coast in a pick swap) 845 23. Western Bulldogs (received from Adelaide as part of a pick swap) 815 24. Hawthorn 785 25. Carlton 756 26. Richmond 729 27. Collingwood (received from Fremantle in a pick swap) 703 28. Richmond (received from St Kilda in 2020) 677 29. West Coast 653 30. Geelong (received from Essendon in 2020) 629 31. Sydney 606 32. Geelong (received from GWS Giants in 2020) 584 33. Adelaide (received from Melbourne as part of a pick swap; originally received from Brisbane in 2020) 563 34. Geelong 542 35. West Coast (received from Port Adelaide in 2020) 522 36. Collingwood (received from Western Bulldogs in 2020) 502 37. Melbourne (received from Adelaide as part of a pick swap; originally received from Melbourne in 2020) 483 ROUND THREE 38. Richmond (received as compensation for losing unrestricted free agent Mabior Chol to Gold Coast) 465 39. Sydney (received as compensation for losing restricted free agent George Hewett to Carlton) 446 40. Richmond (received from North Melbourne as part of Robbie Tarrant-Callum Coleman-Jones trade) 429 41. Brisbane Lions (received from Geelong as part of Darcy Fort trade; originally received from Collingwood as part of Nathan Kreuger trade) 412 42. North Melbourne (received from Richmond as part of Robbie Tarrant-Callum Coleman-Jones trade; originally received from Gold Coast in 2020) 395 43. Western Bulldogs (received from Collingwood for Pat Lipinski; originally received from Adelaide in 2020) 378 44. Western Bulldogs (received from Adelaide as part of a pick swap; originally received as compensation for losing unrestricted free agent Jake Kelly to Essendon) 362 45. Western Bulldogs (received from Melbourne as part of a pick swap; originally received from Hawthorn in 2020) 347 46. Collingwood (received from Gold Coast in a pick swap; originally received from Carlton in 2020) 331 47. North Melbourne (received from Richmond as part of Robbie Tarrant-Callum Coleman-Jones trade) 316 48. Collingwood (received from Fremantle in 2020) 302 49. Melbourne (received from St Kilda as part of a pick swap) 287 50. Geelong (received from Brisbane as part of Darcy Fort trade; originally received from West Coast in 2020) 273 51. Essendon 259 52. Western Bulldogs (received from West Coast as part of Lewis Young trade; originally received from Sydney in 2020) 246 53. GWS Giants 233 54. Brisbane Lions 220 55. Collingwood (received from Geelong as part of Nathan Kreuger trade) 207 56. Essendon (received from Port Adelaide in 2020) 194 57. Melbourne (received from Western Bulldogs in 2020) 182 58. Collingwood (received from Gold Coast in a pick swap; originally received from Melbourne in 2020) 170 ROUND FOUR 59. Hawthorn (received from North Melbourne in 2020) 158 60. Brisbane Lions (received from Collingwood in 2020) 146 61. Fremantle (received from Gold Coast as part of Will Brodie trade) 135 62. St Kilda (received from Adelaide as part of a pick swap) 123 63. Port Adelaide (received from Hawthorn in 2020) 112 64. Carlton 101 65. Hawthorn (received from Richmond in 2020) 90 66. St Kilda (received from Adelaide as part of a pick swap; originally received from Fremantle in 2020) 80 67. St Kilda 69 68. West Coast 59 69. Fremantle (received from Gold Coast as part of Will Brodie trade; originally received from Essendon in 2020) 49 70. Sydney 39 71. GWS Giants 29 72. North Melbourne (received from Brisbane Lions in 2020) 19 73. Port Adelaide (received from Geelong in 2020) 9 74. Port Adelaide 75. Adelaide (received from Western Bulldogs as part of a pick swap) 76. Brisbane Lions (received from Melbourne in 2020) ROUND FIVE 77. North Melbourne 78. Collingwood 79. Collingwood (received from Gold Coast in a pick swap) 80. Adelaide 81. Hawthorn 82. Carlton 83. Richmond 84. Fremantle 85. St Kilda 86. West Coast 87. Essendon 88. Sydney 89. GWS Giants 90. Brisbane Lions 91. Geelong 92. Port Adelaide 93. Western Bulldogs 94. Melbourne

Final siren sounds.

Looking like no trades for Bobby Hill or Tristan Xerri.

* "I believe the Lynch deal is done - it will see the Hawks trade the Brisbane future third round pick and their own future third pick in exchange for Lynch, Freo’s future third and a Gold Coast future fourth. " — Cal Twomey That’s Collingwood’s Lynch to Hawthorn. No effect on the Cats’ average age.

* DONE DEAL | Peter Ladhams has been traded from Port Adelaide to Sydney. Port will get pick 12 and a future 3rd. Swans will get pick 16 and Ladhams.

Former skipper Jack Hutchins has retired from the VFL. Well played Jack!

* DONE DEAL | The Dockers get their man! Jordan Clark has been traded to Fremantle for pick 22 and a future 3rd. Freo gets back a future 4th. The average age of the Cats’ list goes up again!

* "Jonathon Ceglar and a future fourth-round selection, in exchange for a future round three selection tied to Brisbane next year." — Cal Twomey Yes, they mentioned who the future selection was tied to. Ceglar will be 31 in February and joins Geelong. I haven’t done the maths yet but is it possible the average age of their list just dropped? Surely not?