Little Goffy

An interesting feature of this draf is just how many clubs were in the 'also attended' category, with very little going on. Only half a dozen clubs did anything that I think was a 'winning move' or would have a major impact on their club.

Adelaide needed and wanted Curtin and got him at a reasonable price.

I think GWS will be happy to have grabbed their preferred bolter and then still selected Leake all the way down at 17, but I don't think either will have a particularl dramatic impact.

Gold Coast are just doing Scrooge McDuck dives into drafts these days. We're all very lucky that club has been a hot mess for a decade. Hopefully Hardwick does a full Malthouse, overcooking the stew and alienating the young players. It is the moral responsibility of all other AFL clubs to probe Gold Coast players with offers that cumulatively squeeze the Suns salary cap.

For Melbourne, Windsor and Tholstrup will over time transform the way we go inside 50 - I have an uncanny confidence in that. Hopefully sooner than later but they will certainly be a part of our 2028 changing-of-the-guard premiership which opens our renewed window. I'm a little anxious about our tall defender succession plan but other than that we probably targeted our biggest immediate weakness and surely between McAdam, Billings, Windsor and Tholstrup we've transformed our options forward of centre.

North must be thrilled to have their captain in place ready for when they move to Tassie. That's good planning. (I'm out of symparthy after the amount of bonus picks they've been handed for their wilful self-destruction). But seriously, I think they now have 5 mids taken in the top 4 picks, plus Simpkin, and I'm not counting Duursma.

One thing that is really noticable is how little draft impact there is for West Coast. To be fair, they went for bulk in 2021 and 2022 and put a lot of games into their first year players in 2023, but young ruck Bailey Williams is their only existing clearance winner under 28 years. Reid will be expected to be their best midfielder in his first season, and after that it will only get harder!

My question would be about the Demons habit of following up on players they studied from previous drafts, and if there are any players he particularly wishes we'd been able to recruit this year and might monitor in coming years?

Also, there's a free-agency bounty coming through in the next few years, ranging from two big rucks in 2024 (English, Darcy) through to a swarm of mids (Brayshaw, Rayner, McGrath, LDU, Worpel), and even Oscar Allen.

How is our salary cap position looking - do we have the realistic option of making a play for some of those top-level and still young restricted free agents?

Also... ruck depth...

Fun fact; West coast don't have a single player with 50 games under the age of 24.

I wonder if Reid will make it before he leaves?

Seems strange to pass when there's players we want, but there's so many notice-board-out-the-back-of-the-kitchen shenanigans in the draft system these days who can tell?

2 hours ago, D Rev said:

Not best pleased about this.  Hertz has a very poor history in regards to ethical behavior, particularly in the way it has treated employees.  You'd think that a club that has finished Top 4 regularly and won a flag could attract someone more in line with our own values.

Unethical sponsors is the go-to for champion clubs.

Collingwood has Emirates, KFC, LaTrobe Financial, and Nike.

An all-flavours ice cream box of worker exploitation, dishonest finance, actual slavery, and fatbergs.

I googled to check something about Emirates airlines; the CEO/quasi-owner is of course a son of the previous god-king of Dubai.

"Ahmed's career in the aviation industry began in 1985 when he was appointed president of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA). Emirates, the national carrier, was launched at the same time, with Ahmed appointed chairman."

Love it. Pure Collingwood. He even married his cousin.

6 hours ago, roy11 said:

As a result of Jaguar leaving I can confirm the next car I buy will NOT be a Jaguar.  Purely out of respect to MFC and not due to my sad looking bank account aha 

Can you rent a Jaguar from Hertz?

Any chance we trade in a future pick to grab a tall?

The Gawn, Verral, Fullarton set-up is... not deep.

Mitch Edwards still available as a ruck who can clunk a mark, and Archer Reid as a 203cm forward who can help ruck.

And what, exactly, is our count of available list spots?

My impression is that assuming Hore and Brown basically means we have just one spot left, and that if Brown is bid on in the main draft then that last spot has to be a rookie listing?

13 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Does anyone know the origin of the family name?  Norwegian? Hope he isn’t pining for the fjords😮

Leans more to Danish, it seems. So.. flat track bully?

Bingo, there's an Australia semi-famous Tholstrup originally from Denmark.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Tholstrup

Gotta feel sorry for the Eagles wasting pick 1 on that Reid guy when they could have had basically the same thing only cooler.

Tholstrup at the 2028 best and fairest night, touched to be finally acknowledged as the best midfielder-slash-forward, and not the other way around.

Looking for upsides;

Not taking Curtin, and Adelaide trading up to make sure they got Curtin, suggests both clubs think Petty will be staying with Melbourne longer term.

Windsor allegedly has speed, agility, defensive work ethic and 'the best delivery in the draft' in both skill and vision.

If the product matches the packaging, it really will change the way we can operate.

He also racks up more running bounces than our whole team does combined!

Haven't seen us take a bolter like that since Clayton Oliver.

Touching wood, shedding a tear for not getting Curtin who has been my stable draft-crush all along.

This panel is tediously over-enthused. Real breakfast television infomercial stuff.

28 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

We've traded pick 42, so if Kynan Brown is picked in the draft we won't be able to match. 

We will get him as a rookie if no one calls out his name. 

They clearly don't love him 

OR we do another pick trade as needed late in the draft, I presume.

Yikes. I'm feeling a bit flat about it but geezus some people crave misery.

8 hours ago, Nascent said:

??

Has this been reported somewhere or do you have some mail?

I'm seeing if I can single-handedly make it a rumour just to troll Essendon. Though McGrath would certainly be a suitable addition for us.

I'd love him and think we got a bonus if we could get him at 11 but feel like we'd be missing out on something better if we took him at 6. I think the 'potentially special' players are deep enough to get to that first pick, while Windsor is more in the 'very good' group from all I can gather.

Besides, not only have we already brought in Billings but we're getting Andrew McGrath as a free agent at the end of next season.

Being Normal with a dose of optimism;

6 - Curtin

11 - Wilson or Windsor

Being abnormal based on North wanting talls and being sure they'll get a suitable one at 6 and maybe also at 11, and taking Duursma with pick 2 because they need firepower more than more midfielders and we'll only do the deal if McKercher is available at 3...

3 - McKercher

18 - Will Green

6, 11 and future first (18 obviously) still seems enormous for pick 1, but Taylor has made some pretty unequivocal statements there about how much impact he thinks Harley Reid can have.

Unfortunately, if things do pan out that way, Petracca and Oliver can probably say goodbye to their Brownlow hopes!

Hmm, or, I guess, there's always the Voss-Black-Akermanis scenario.

Moy-a.

It's not often you get a shot at having a potential top-10 talent of the draft come through late in the second round.

I think he also suits our needs as a point of difference capable of making our attacking movement a little bit unpredictable.

If available at our late pick (nominally 42, probably 38ish) then I think he's worth the risk.

Caveat - only if we're sure we can still get Kynan Brown because I'm a family club kind guy. Coincidentally, Brown is the perfect contrast in that we would be taking him quite sure of the attitude, commitment and workrate, but also knowing the limitations.

For context, here he is in the APRIL power rankings. At 2.

https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/36059902/afl-draft-april-power-rankings-2023-jasper-chellappah-harley-reid-ashton-moir-zane-duursma-high

46 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Speaking of cricket..

 

What are the best rock songs with some Saxophone in them?

I've got dibs on Baker Street.

Probably the kids don't even know this beautiful classic.

I suspect many googled it after it was used in Rick & Morty.

Like how suddenly everyone had a deep appreciation of Mazzy Star.

This thread is getting ready to take over from NoT$NoB$ thread when it tips 30,000 and is put out to pasture.

If Nick Watson falls to us he'll be the next Brent Harvey.

If Dan Curtain comes to us he'll be the next Paul Roos.

If McKercher slides all the way to us he'll be a speedier James Hird.

If it is Sanders, let's not overdo it and just welcome the new Lenny Hayes.

Conor O'Sullivan will of course be the new Dustin Fletcher if we take him or the new Simon Prestagiacomo if we don't.

Caddy won't be quite what we expected and end up just being the new Warren Tredrea.

So, with all that in mind, I think pick 6 should be a winner.

5 hours ago, BLWNBA said:

Incredibly generous r.e., Pickett. 

Pickett is a top-3 small forward in the AFL at present, in the mix with Green, Cameron, Breust and Rankine.

Rankine was taken at pick 3 and traded to the Crows for pick 5 despite him being a Gold Coast traditional wantaway and nominating only one club.

There's maybe a 10% margin between Pickett and Rankine, and I say that with my Rankine Ranking being very high.

Pickett definitely ahead of Weightman, while Young and Ash are very good but not yet outstanding in roles which are more suited to younger players to begin with. Being a 'true' small forward with serious pressure responsibilities, especially in a very disorganised forward line lacking tall structure, is a very hard gig.

He'd be rated around 6 to 8 in any one of those re-run drafts and his stocks may yet rise.

Truly [censored] the bed today.

Would take a freak occurance in the final quarter to make this respectable, let alone steal an undeserved win.

Ugh.