DeeSpencer

Not a surprise, strikes me as a JT type of player, he’s been my preferred option at 11 for a while but might to be picked at 6 if we want him.

If I’m west coast and I rate Curtin as either the 2nd best player or the best option for them I’m trading; pick 1 to the Roos FOR 2 and ideally North’s future first (or another first) and a late first trading pick 2 with Melbourne FOR 6 and 11 or 6 and a future first. That way they end up with 6 and 3 other firsts. Not sure a team has ever traded anything for 4 first round picks. And if it includes Norths future first and pick 11 from us then it’s a good collection of them too, not just later ones

Watson to the Hawks at 4, Sanders to the Dogs at 5 is the early mail, which makes it Curtin the only one standing from the so called top 6 (non-academy). But I always stress at this stage of the process the narratives about sliders and bolters are always nonsense, it's a small sample size of both media and games for these kids. Cal Twomey and the Rookie Me guys are about the only ones who are seriously studying the draft and clubs are tight lipped about their orders. Most of the other journos just repeat the same stuff. For all we know Curtin might have been overvalued the whole time, Caddy might be undervalued and there could be a stack of other names in the 6-11 range I remember Twomey never had Jackson near his top 3 and was surprised by it when he learned of Melbourne's intentions and then after the draft a number of clubs confirmed they had him very highly rated too.

Trent Williams was a huge loss for the Niners. He gives them a lot in the run game, but also provides Purdy and Kyle confidence in the pass game that the backside is locked down. So I wasn't totally shocked to see the Niners offense struggling. My guess is they kind of have some up and down weeks for the next stretch of the season whilst they contemplate how much they can ask of Purdy in the playoffs. The Vikings offense surprised me, but Kevin O'Connell knows the Niners D from his time at the Rams and is a good coach, so I guess it shouldn't have been a total shock that they had some chances. The big surprise was Kirk didn't go full prime time Kirk and was making plays late in the game.

He makes sense for both clubs but I wouldn’t be surprised if Freo don’t try to trade either Collingwood or Port’s future first round pick to North for 17 or 18. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for North to have 5 picks in the same draft and Freo will be desperate to get a first rounder in rather than wait for 3 next year.

I wouldn’t be sure of that, we’ve still only moved 7 players out and bought 3 in. 2 picks and 2 rookies is just as likely, with the flexibility to take Kynan Brown in either draft. Id be pretty surprised if we used 42 straight up. If it doesn’t go in an earlier deal I’d expect it to either be traded out for future picks or possibly a trade up for a slider

I think you’re underselling Caddy’s athleticism, his agility is great and his pace is good given he’ll have a powerful frame and won’t be matching it with skinny back flankers. His kicking penetration looks fine to me too, but he’d be in for a fair amount of work with Choc Williams to get consistency. Would be nice if he was a little taller or a little cleaner with the ball but to me it comes down to how sticky his hands are. If the belief is he’ll hold a good share of his marks then I’m fully on board.

Towards the middle of the year we were using the rucks less and less in the forward line but the reality was we then had a pretty youthful JVR and were short on rotations. Given Gawn could do 90% we didn’t need the 2nd ruck. Playing 2 rucks who mostly sit on the bench is fine. Pies did it in finals, but you need key forwards who can do the game time. Women’s game has more on the bench so you can get away with it. Plus Zanker, Bannan and Hore could handle the forward line too. GC is great fun but I’m still not sure she’s in the best team once Harris is back barring other absences.

I assumed he was Indigenous but a search says his eligible as his mother is from East Timor

They effectively used one on Fisher and Stephens which isn’t unreasonable, they then spun the other 2 in to picks 17 and 18, which shows how silly the AFL were because there’s just no need to give a team with picks 2, 3 and 15 those 2 picks. And my guess is barring a Reid trade they’ll be very likely to trade 17 or 18 back a year for either a future first or a pair of seconds because there’s no reason to draft a 5th player in the first round. Effectively banking the priority pick by moving it up and then back.

I disagree, the biggest mistake would be abandoning best available for an inferior player. Whilst we do need some young midfielders on the list there’s other options to get them this year and in the next few years. When we drafted Oliver we were loaded with mids and taking Clarry pretty much ended Tyson’s career and impacted on Gus and Tracc’s midfield time at various stages, but of course it was worth it. Meanwhile going for need for Weid because he was theoretically a great fit with Hogan ended badly.

Has another year of eligible as a cat B rookie so I doubt this makes any difference. Expecting them to make a decision on him soon though

Unlucky, showed a bit of promise in the early VFL rounds then his body broke down. I thought he’d get another year given how hard it is to find athletic tall defenders but they might have other options in the draft pool.

Got take care of business against Freo first but geeze that final round will be a big game for a lot of reasons. Would be nice to see the blokes get behind the girls, but one sign of the poor culture at the club has been how little our men seem to care about the girls.

Raiders Bills Niners

I don’t think North trade us 3, not when they have so many picks. It would be WC trading us 3 after swapping 1 with North. I’m also on board with 6, Future 1 and 42 for 3, but not a fan of 6 and 11 and certainly not convinced by the need to trade 3 early picks. We need 2 quality kids coming in if we can get them

So what about his game isn’t key forward if height isn’t your issue? He draws the ball and competes strongly in the air to my eyes

I’d strongly disagree. If Caddy was listed as 195cm would you question him as a key forward? The way he plays is as a key forward, I’m not worried by a couple of centimetres. Similarly I don’t see O’Sullivan or Curtin as great aerial players. O’Sullivan especially has great size but I see both of them as much stronger zoning players than they are as aerial contesters.

Is a kid originally from Launceston with all his school mates and Sandy Dragons mates in Melbourne really going to be significantly more likely to move to Hobart than any other player? Id say the odds are in favour of him staying. Same goes for Curtin. I’d only overlook guys who don’t want to move to begin with. Sanders isn’t even moving!

Forward: Petty, JvR, ?J. smith, ?Jefferson Backs: May, Lever, D Turner, Adams, ?K Turner I think we can replace veterans with cheap depth pieces. But we have a decision to make in the draft whether we target talls with the doubt hanging over Petty or if we think we can land a trade target if/when he goes as a like for like. I think these picks are too important, especially pick 6 to bring needs in to the equation. We need quality, we can address the needs as they come

Westy still off her game but our mids stepped up and matched it with a good midfield. Gillard was back in peak form, Goldy had more positive moments and Wilson was a find. I reckon that’s the best our forwards have ever sustained pressure. Certainly this year. Wave after wave of tackles and smothers. Loved Zanker’s game in the second half coming up the ground as an outlet.

That was a get out of jail job that last 5 minutes, awful decision making with turnovers in to the corridor when the plan surely had to be just use the shorts and boundary. Wasnt always pretty but we’ll done to Charlotte Wilson with a number of huge contests

Paxy knows we are red and blue right?

The additions of McAdam and Billings mean we don’t need any more medium forwards. Im pretty sure he was out of the Hawks side before he got injured. He’s the type of player who has to kick 2 a week because he doesn’t do enough else and 2 a week is hard.

I don't think we'll be thinking short term, the plan surely is to find the best player long term. The hope will be to find an elite player so we don't have to bottom out over the next few years. That can be a somewhat vanilla option like Sanders, you can be a genuine midfield star without too many tricks. But I suspect the plan will be to go for someone with more upside either by a trade up or going for Caddy.