Lord Travis

Interesting move by Freo to play Jackson mostly as a tall forward. I'm assuming it's out of necessity, since they lost Lobb and Logue (their two main key forwards in 2021). That leaves them with Taberner (injury riddled battler) and Amiss (kid who needs to put on other 10kgs for his role). Jackson is a below average forward. I've said it since before he was drafted and nothing has changed. He's a poor contested mark, two grabber, and only excels when he has a free run and jump uncontested from the side of a pack. With any form of body contact, he's poor and makes Sam Wiedeman look like Wayne Carey at times. If he's going to become the gun player he's hyped to be, it's as a mobile ruckman who becomes a link up option around the ground in the Cox/Grundy mould. If he plays predominantly forward, then they're spending a million bucks a year on a below average forward who will never kick 40 goals in a year. I'm tipping Freo to regress slightly next year. They've got fantastic young talent around and behind the ball, but they lost a chunk of best 22 experience over the trade period, and are completely limp in attack. Jackson playing forward works for us. Play Jackson forward, be an uncompetitive team, and gives us a higher draft pick in return!

Sam Gilbey is worth a go. Classy half back flanker who can intercept and has a good kick (often takes the kick outs). Very much in the Salem mould and stands at 187cms, so decent height. Would need to add a few kgs to the frame though. Had glandular fever this year and likely would've been drafted in the early second round if not for glandular and a broken leg. He could make it as an AFL half back flanker.

Barnett, George, Ryan, Hotton, Hustwaite, Gilby, K Smith would all be good gets in the second round. Outside of them it’s more of a lottery.

Any chance Kaleb Smith will be available at 37? Lightning quick small defender who loves to break lines on rebound. We need more small defenders with Jetta gone and Hibberd heading into his final season.

Do we rate George or Ryan? If so we might trade a future first to kick off tomorrow night. Seems less likely GWS will trade it now though after the early bid for Rowston.

Thought we’d go more ready made since were in our window, but can’t complain as he looks a talent. He’ll need a few years in the gym, but if he can clunk marks like that at AFL level he’ll be a player. Welcome to the Dees Jefferson Jefferson Jefferson Ford!

21. That was an odd draft though as there were so many academy and father son picks that the first round lasted until pick 26!

For those who haven't been following, though we have 4 picks listed, we only have two senior list spots available since we gave Hibberd and Melksham another year. This means we will only be using two picks in this draft. Lots of media discussion around us trying to trade our future first round picks, and potentially pick 13 too, to get into the top 5 in this draft tonight. Nothing has come of it yet, and I doubt it will, but the clubs been aggressive in trying to get high end talent in. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds!

Incorrect. He was well rounded both inside and outside, and in his second year was averaging four clearances and 9 contested possessions a game - same as Martin. No point continuing line of discussion though as it’s derailing the thread. Interesting how many stories have come out about us trying to trade up. It’s really a shame we weren’t able to get more out of the Jackson compo. Having a teen pick and two likely teen picks next year isn’t the best stock to try and land a top 5 pick. I’ll be surprised if any clubs bite. If we can trade up, I’d hope it’s with North to get us Sheezel. We need forward half weapons and he looks the best of them.

Toumpas didn’t work out, but it was most definitely due to poor culture and poor development, and less so due to poor recruitment. You cannot select that many players at the top end of the draft and have them all fail. Pure statistics say you’d nail at least something. The problem has since been proven to be culture and development. So many of those youngsters started their careers brightly, only to go backwards at a rate of knots. Wines obviously had a better career than Toumpas, but the part about attentive is incorrect and revisionist. Trengove dominated underage level, captained his side and won a SANFL grand final off his own boot. He was ready made and was superior to Dusty at underage level. He was the equal to or better than Dusty in his first two years. His first few seasons at AFL level were superior to any player currently on our list bar Oliver. He was, put simply, one of the best young players we’ve had this century. Unfortunately injury ruined him, and being stuck in rehab for years on end at a [censored] club like ours at the time wouldn’t have helped. I feel for Trengove as he is one player who could’ve been a star of the competition, but was unlucky with injury and being drafted to a poor club with bad culture and development. He was not a recruiting mistake. All worked out in the end though as we got others into the club and won a flag!

Not a pretty game but the girls kept going hard and wouldn’t surrender. Harder at the contest and controlled territory nearly all game. Well done! Premiers at last! ♥️💙

Anyone catch JT on afl.com interview today and able to share what he said? All I can see if a small clip talking about key position needs could be targeted at either pick.

Jason Taylor will be on afl.com tomorrow at 12:30. I won’t be able to listen, but I’m sure someone here will catch it and share what they hear :) https://www.afl.com.au/news/864895/live-on-thursday-voss-ashcroft-recruiting-bosses-and-more

We are trying to trade up into the top 5 though, so one of them would be available to us presumably. I agree though, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Clubs in the top 5 will hold and use the picks at draft.

Interesting we're keen on Philipou. We originally may have put a lot of time into him and planned to land him at 13, but now his stocks have risen we want to trade up to get him. If we do trade up, we're essentially burning all the Jackson compo and opting out of the first round next year (bar losing high end talent in future etc) to land this player, so they better be damn sure he'll be an elite player. Anything less will be considered a list management stuff up of the highest order. He'll need to produce and become more Petracca than Weideman. Philipou looks a good prospect as that mid/forward impact player, though his field kicking is hit and miss. The Bont comparisons aren't overly accurate IMO. I'm more hoping we trade up to get Sheezel, who looks pure class and has big impact on games up forward. His kicking and footy IQ is elite.

Cadman and Sheezel would be the right options for us, as we need forward half players who hit the scoreboard. Cadman is pick 1, so he's out of reach. Sheezel will go pick 3-4, so we need to do the trade with North to get one of their pick and a handshake they won't take him with the other one if the pick traded to us is the latter pick. If you were North, would you trade pick 3/4 for two future first picks in the teens and a future second in the thirties? It honestly seems like a poor trade for both parties. I'd be angry giving up that much as a Melbourne supporter. And as a North supporter I'd be angry at trading away a top 5 pick. Maybe that means the trade works after all? I'm stumped! If we don't get Cadman or Sheezel though, then trading up seems a fruitless and costly endeavour.

Hate this if true. Two firsts from a strong draft isn't worth compromising for this weaker draft. If anything, trade two future firsts for one future first tied to a likely lowly team like Hawthorn or North. If we aren't landing a Cadman or Sheezel to add to our front half, then it's not worth compromising for. Those two players will go pick 1-3, so we'd need to land a pick 1-3, which we won't. Hoping the list management team aren't going down this path.

New video up on AFL site with Elijah Hewett. Seems a level headed, confident and ambitious young bloke. Looks like he has all the tools to be a gun mid/forward type. If he isn't a flight risk, then he looks the best option at 13 if he's there IMO. Class of 2022: From baseball to the AFL, explosive mid a hot draft prospect.

Not a fan of this move this year. Next year is supposedly a super draft, and we’d be trading a pick that will be anywhere from pick 10-18 in that draft for pick 19 in a weaker draft. Usually a fan of trading forward as we’ve done previously as it enables you to get a year of development into a youngster. Not this draft period though.

Still don’t understand why Hewitt is potentially sliding out of the top 10. He’s powerful, very agile, quick, composed, hits the scoreboard, wins inside ball, links up on the outside. In terms of physical attributes and potential impact, he’s in the top few of this draft and up there with Philipou as the mid/forward weapon (Dusty, Trac, Bont type) all clubs dream of. Philipou is going as high as 4 now and won’t make it past Hawks at pick 6 (they flew him and his family to Victoria for a meet and greet this week). Is there off field stuff with Hewitt that hasn’t circulated? Can’t understand why else he’s sliding.

He's the best demon in my lifetime and he's still got many peak years ahead!

Kozzie. 21 years old. Back to back 40+ goal seasons. Game changer and match winner. Already read the article this morning so know the answer though.

I'd be disappointed if we traded 13 and 37 for 20 and 26. We lost Jackson for 13 and a future first rounder and had to fight hard to get those two first round picks. To then get rid of one in 13 would further dilute the compensation we got and the possibility of replacing him with elite talent is reduced even further. We should take 13 to draft and grab the best talent available. Whether that's Jefferson, Hewitt, Hollands, Allan etc I don't care, but that top tier talent will be there at 13 and won't be at 20+. We need elite talent now while we're in our window.

Maybe that’s why I’m so keen on him! 🤣 I’d love Philipou, but seems like he’ll be gone for our pick. Could be gone as early as pick 5 now.

One could say you’ve just described Luke Jackson. He’s a big man with small man skills. He’s lauded for agility and ground ball skills for a tall, but ironically his weakness are his big man skills such as marking and using his body in contests. I haven’t seem enough of Keeler to pass good judgement, but his skill set and output seems fine for his size.