The Great Pretender

Wholeheartedly endorse this thread but if anyone decides to mention the player known only by the description $ I will blow up!

Round 2 Pick 22 North Melbourne: Rhett Bazzo (195/79, KD, Swan Districts). Pick 23 Hawthorn: Darcy Wilmott (183/75, HB, Northern Knights). Pick 24 Geelong: Mitchell Knevitt (193/81, IM, Geelong Falcons). Pick 25 Hawthorn: Ned Long (192/88, IM, Northern Knights). Pick 26 Greater Western Sydney: Josh Fahey (186/76 HB, GWS Academy). Carlton bid, 729-197=592 points, match with picks 47 and 64, go into 115 point deficit 2022 Pick 27 Carlton: Blake Howes (190/79 M/F, Sandringham Dragons). Pick 28 St. Kilda: Michito Owens (190/85 IM, Sandringham Dragons). Richmond bid, 677-197=480 points, match with picks 54, 58 and 59, have a 68 point surplus Pick 29 Richmond: Zac Taylor (180/74 SF, Calder Cannons). Pick 30 Richmond: Leek Alleer (195/84 KD, Central Districts). Pick 31 West Coast: Angus Sheldrick (179/84 IM, Claremont). Pick 32 Geelong: Sam Butler (184/73 SF, GWV Rebels). Pick 33 St. Kilda: Marcus Windhager (183/82 OM, Sandringham Dragons). Sydney bid, 563-197=366 points, match pick 75 and 68 point surplus, go into 298 point deficit in 2022 Pick 34 Sydney: Judson Clarke (179/69 SF, Dandenong Stingrays). Pick 35 Geelong: Brady Hough (189/71 IM, Peel Thunder). Pick 36 Adelaide: Connor Macdonald (184/77 OM, Dandenong Stingrays). Pick 37 Geelong: Tom Brown (186/71 Utility, Murray Bushrangers). Pick 38 West Coast: Josh Browne (185/77 IM, East Fremantle). Pick 39 Melbourne: Jack Williams (194/95 KF, East Fremantle). Pick 40 Richmond: Kai Lohmann (185/76 Medium Forward, GWV Rebels). Pick 41 Sydney: Charlie Dean (195/86 KD, Williamstown). Round 3 Pick 42 Richmond: Hugh Jackson (181/70 IM, North Adelaide). Pick 43 Brisbane: Paul Curtis (181/71 SF, Western Jets). Pick 44 Port Adelaide: Jase Burgoyne (186/65 HB, Woodville-West Torrens). North Melbourne bid, 362-197=165, match with pick 55, 42 point surplus 2022. Pick 45 North Melbourne: Cooper Murley (178/69 SF, Norwood). Pick 46 North Melbourne: Luke Nankervis (189/76 MF, Sandringham Dragons). Pick 47 Melbourne: Jamieson Ballantyne (183/79 OM, GWV Rebels). Pick 48 Geelong: Charlie Molan (186/78 OM, GWV Rebels). Pick 49 Essendon: Jahmal Stretch (181/62 SF, Claremont). Pick 50 Western Bulldogs: Noah Pegoraro (194/88 KD, West Perth). Pick 51 Brisbane: Corey Warner (182/74 IM, East Fremantle). Pick 52 Essendon: Miller Bergman (188/65 HB, Dandenong Stingrays). Pick 53 Melbourne: James Willis (180/75 OM, North Adelaide). Pick 54 Collingwood: Felix Flockhart (200/79 KF/R, Sandringham). Round 4 Pick 55 Hawthorn: Samuel Banks (187/73 HB, Tasmania). Pick 56 Brisbane: Cameron McLeod (192/78 MF, Murray Bushrangers). Pick 57 Fremantle: Jai Serong (192/80 IM, Gippsland Power). Pick 58 Carlton: Mani Liddy (183/80 IM, Sturt). Pick 59 Hawthorn: Oscar Morrison (193/86 Utility, Geelong Falcons). Pick 60 Fremantle: Eric Benning (196/85 KF/R, Claremont). West Coast bid, 0 points to match, Fremantle match with pick 61, 135 points in surplus 2022. Pick 61 Melbourne: Taj Woewodin (182/77 OM, East Fremantle). West Coast bid, 0 points to match, Melbourne match with pick 85. Pick 62 West Coast: Judd McVee (178/65 HB, East Fremantle). Pick 63 Sydney: Blayne O’Loughlin (171/74 HB, North Adelaide). Pick 64 North Melbourne: Lachlan Rankin (182/68 HB, Oakleigh Chargers). Pick 65 Port Adelaide: Hugh Stagg (179/80 IM, Glenelg). Pick 66 Port Adelaide: Sam Breuer (183/80 IM, GWV Rebels). Pick 67 Adelaide: Lewis Rayson (183/69 HB, Glenelg). Pick 68 Brisbane: Cooper Hamilton (182/69 SF, Bendigo Pioneers).

Without wanting to steal Mad As Hell’s thunder, this is a good one that I found on bigfooty by a regular in eth-dog who says he’s “one of the first mugs to do a draft.” He’s also done write ups on the first round which you can find here. Round 1 Pick 1 North Melbourne: Jason Horne-Francis (184 cm/78 kg, Balanced Midfielder, South Adelaide). Pick 2 Collingwood: Nick Daicos (182/73 , BM, Oakleigh Chargers). GWS bid, 2517x0.8=2013.6 points, matched with picks 27, 36, 46, 48, 55, 31.4 point surplus for 2022. Pick 3 Western Bulldogs: Sam Darcy (204/75, Key Position Swingman, Oakleigh Chargers). GWS bid, 2234x0.8=1787.2 points, matched with picks 23, 43, 44, 45, 114.8 point surplus for 2022. Pick 4 Greater Western Sydney: Finn Callaghan (189/82, BM, Sandringham Dragons). Pick 5 Gold Coast: Josh Gibcus (195/84, Key Defender, GWV Rebels). Pick 6 Adelaide: Ben Hobbs (183/80, Inside Midfielder, GWV Rebels). Pick 7 Hawthorn: Josh Ward (181/79, Outside Midfielder, Northern Knights). Pick 8 Fremantle: Jye Amiss (195/85, Key Forward, East Perth). Pick 9 Richmond: Mac Andrew (200/70, KF/Ruck, Dandenong Stingrays). There's debate where he ends up, but for now they need to get another forward/ruck on the list, and with Nankervis having a few years left in him they get a chance to develop him as a forward rather than a ruck for now. Pick 10 Fremantle: Neil Erasmus (188/80, IM, Subiaco). Pick 11 St. Kilda: Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (188/70, OM, Glenelg). Pick 12 West Coast: Matthew Johnson (192/82, IM, Subiaco). Pick 13 Essendon: Josh Goater (190/79, Midfielder/Forward, Calder Cannons). Pick 14 Port Adelaide: Arlo Draper (186/75, M/F, South Adelaide). Pick 15 Greater Western Sydney: Josh Rachele (180/78, Small Forward, Murray Bushrangers). Pick 16 Brisbane Josh Sinn (186/73, Half Back, Sandringham Dragons). Pick 17 Richmond: Tyler Sonsie (181/77, BM, Eastern Ranges). Pick 18 Sydney: Campbell Chesser (186/83, BM, Sandringham Dragons). Pick 19, Melbourne: Jacob van Rooyen (193/91, KF, Claremont). van Rooyen's last month has put him from the fringe of the first round into definitely going in there. Melbourne's young KPP stocks are an issue and if available here they'll snap him right up I'm sure. Pick 20, Brisbane: Matthew Roberts (183/81, IM, South Adelaide). Pick 21, Fremantle: Jesse Motlop (176/74, SF, South Fremantle).

Debate over.

You can add another dot point in terms of the way the club has gone after a first round draft pick and signed Luke Dunstan. You have to keep improving on your list both internally and externally.

An interesting read. Of the four members of the team still playing in the AFL in 2021, only Nathan Jones was still at Melbourne. Stef Martin played against us in the Grand Final (and passed on the curse to the Bulldogs), Jeremy Howe went to Collingwood for premiership success and to play on the forward line (look how that turned out) and recently retired James Frawley got his flag with the Hawks. A number of other players ended their careers elsewhere. I wonder whether the experience of playing in that team on that day had a defining effect on their careers?

No surprise really. He was on the cusp but very few injuries among the players he was competing with for a spot kept him out.

He’s a good coach but it will be interesting to see now what happens with the philosophy of not rebuilding through the draft. So far, they’ve been low key in trading, having given away a low key player and likely to lose Clark and Fort while possibly bringing in Ceglar and Stengle. Their first pick is currently 30. I can’t see them staying up near the top.

Woodville-West Torrens thrashed Glenelg in today’s SANFL Grand Final and one of its stars was Jimmy Toumpas, still just 27 years of age. The win comes ten years after Toumpas played in his first premiership for the Eagles in 2011 in just his 5th game at senior level. He was a star in the following season for SA in the Under 18 championships earning him a number 4 selection by the Demons in the 2012 draft. We know the rest. Toumpas never lived up to his potential after undergoing major hip surgery before his career began. He ended up at Port Adelaide after 27 games with the Demons and managed 10 more with the Power. Congratulations go to Jimmy!!!

From WJ's excellent article "The Apprentice", this "And the word is that next year’s draft is looms as a big one for young ruckmen."

However, if AFL clubs value Adam Cerra as equivalent to a pick 6 then that's a reasonable measure of the value of the pick.

I’m also wondering how someone with potential who has athleticism but is so raw can be deemed to fit in the number 6 to 8 ranking (let alone top 20) among players who have been highly regarded and producing elite level performances including state representatives etc for a few years now. My take is that there’s talk that Fremantle would be looking for something like pick 6 for Adam Cerra, a veteran of 76 games who was selected at number 5 in the 2017 national draft. Would anyone in their right mind think Andrew* comes near to equalling Cerra in value at this moment? * not knocking young Andrew but trying to get some understanding of how a club recruiter can assess potential vs the worth of a proven player.

Someone posted on FB that SEN is reporting that Joel Smith has done a hammy and is set to be replaced by Hibbo. Anyone know if this is fact?

It should be an automatic 2 game suspension even if the contact was incidental and more if the umpire felt threatened or intimidated by the conduct. There’s a responsibility to the game and to all who play it at whatever level.

How could they do the finals in 3 weeks with 6 teams?

Surely, Weideman puts himself up for trade?

Jack Dyer used to mix them up and often would say that “Townselle played a good game for Melbourne today.”

Why? The Suns are giving up their home game. It’s probably a bit of an advantage to us to play them at a neutral venue.

This should be a quality game. Let’s hope that there’s no further disruption to this competition due to Covid19. It’s such a jumbled mess.

He definitely has concussion issues -

6. Christian Salem 5. Christian Petracca 4. Bayley Fritsch 3. Ed Langdon 2. Trent Rivers 1. Max Gawn

6. Salem 5. Jackson 4. Petracca 3. Harmes 2. Oliver 1. Jordon

No wonder he has his critics. Mac Andrew makes the top 15 in his power rankings off the top of one quarter of football. Isn’t that being a bit premature?

Really? There seems to be an element of exaggeration going on here. The Academy side was flogged to the tune of 20 goals and only scored 2 goals themselves. Remember 2 years ago, an Academy team that included a bevy of real stars including Rowell, Anderson etc. beat Casey. According to Herald Sun’s coverage on it’s subscriber only site, Andrew had 9 disposals, three marks, five hit outs and three clearances. Slim pickings from a supposedly top draft pick.

Knightmare was asked on bigfooty about Taj’s prospects:- “He'll need to keep developing. At this stage not sure he gets picked. But with improvement, he could move up draft boards. Have to see what he can do this year. “A wait and see at this point.”