DeeSpencer

Half the draft pool hasn't played and another half is tied up with other clubs so how could you rate this draft? At the same time - we're in a window right now with Gawn, May, Oliver, Petracca - to really win some games. We can't be sitting back waiting. And the available trade talent is mostly poor or overpriced. Another Jackson, Pickett, Rivers draft with some short term results and a pathway to strong medium term success for both the young guys and the side is our best way out of this mess. So it appears we're diving in to the deep end of the most compromised draft in recent history. Over to you Jason Taylor.

1. Gambling on good ladder finishes that seem unlikely 2. Giving away good 2nd round picks for short term wins - Frost, Hibberd, Melksham, the Howe trade to get the Weid pick 3. Develop a list heavy on top end talent but with huge holes 4. Profit?

Don’t we need a future second to trade our future first? Could be 18 and future second for 25 and a future first. We’d be taking a big risk to do that

Makes sense from the point of view of: Trade an asset with value, take on a free experienced player to cover so your kids aren’t massively overexposed. The worst possible thing for clubs to do is get so young they lose all structure and leadership. The problem is North have some smart people in their footy department who are looking at ways to use cap space and list spots creatively. Front loading deals, buying cheap on Stephenson, grabbing Young from the dogs.

Id settle for Lachie Henderson. Another player who’s body and spirit looked pretty well broken before a Strong comeback this year

If said key forward is slow enough and we get enough up field pressure it could work. And if Tom doesn’t butcher it. Pretty much the same set of conditions needed for Oscar to play with some success in a few games. I think we’ll be better off with Hore, Tomlinson or possibly Smith but at least it’s an option.

I think it would be back to the future with Tom down back. If we play a Richmond or to the next level Geelong style of fold back defending where we almost always keep a spare at ground level to cover he could play that role. We’d have to ask him to never ever play on and kick the ball. And it would hamper our chances of playing up tempo footy but it would at least give him a fresh look at things. True defensive depth right now is nonexistent so we need the cover. And Steve May would at least try to provide him some leadership.

We did, but we’re riding Anthony Van Dyck

Watch us slip in a future 2nd for a future 4th. You know, late picks and all

Uncontracted players should be some form of free agent. We have bonkers rules that say a player without a deal is somehow traded. It makes no sense. Free agency should start and the race would be on to sign players as quick as possible. Contracted players should be traded at any time until the start of the season, but with deadlines before the draft, before Christmas and before the last preseason game.

We finally got the answer of what Chris Dawes would look like if he played on the wing or half back flank. The man moves like a bath tub.

They just got a really nice deal for Fogarty. They took Saad pretty much until the situation was looking like breaking down, Essendon did toss in pick 48 but otherwise never flinched and they caved. But they can probably justify it with the Fogarty deal. If Melbourne really have nothing else left to do that impacts the Brown deal we should wait until the deadline.

Gowers is delisted and Dale is the only pure forward there and he’s out of favour. With Cavarra a pressure type. Hannan’s either handy depth or allows them to move Richards to the backline, wing or on ball. Richards is very talented but ordinary as a forward Smith (wing/back) and Duryea (back) are the kind of depth who would be handy for us. Although not as handy as the top dogs in those roles.

No club is going to go in to a draft with less than 4 list spots tho. You need 3 minimum and it's pretty easy to find the 4th worst player on your list and re-rookie them. Forget 65 it has no real value, so 11, 29 and 47 for pick 1. It's an absolute dream. We gave that up for pick 8 last year!

Both us and Brisbane did a nice job inflating Elliot's price last year. Probably not to 600k but certainly wouldn't be cheap. They have a really deep list of mature players, it's not all mismanagement. But they've been borrowing from the future years to get under the cap and that's a nasty cycle. I've always been dubious of Phillips' skill but he had a huge ball winning season, somewhat inflated by the Magpies game plan that sees wingers push back hard and then sit deep for slow easy kicks. There's no doubt he deserved a decent contract. But if it was right after his peak year and also involved backending to get under the cap that's how you get to such a big number.

There's no way North are giving up Ben Brown for less than Preuss. Well not right now anyway. I hope this gets done with 30 seconds to go in the trade period. Because it will show Mahoney put it all on the line. We've got nothing else to do of any importance. What's the rush?

I have to say I was wrong on this one. I thought a pick upgrade in to the 40's was about the best we could do. Pick 31 will blow out possibly even until 40+ come draft night and GWS have no use for later picks really, so we might've been helped there, but it's still more than I thought was worth.

Spot on. It’s really only worth that much for teams who need to use points like the Dogs. Any other team trying to trade up in the order always has to pay a premium. Teams have (foolishly) traded picks like that for pick 21 on draft night. The maths they used to determine pick values doesn’t factor in a lot of variables IMO. Without even getting too abstract pick 12 will slide 1 spot due to academy bids whilst 26+33 will slide multiple spots as well. That said, it’s still to much for Brown imo. We’ve got the upper hand here, no reason not to push

Essendon and Collingwood are the big logjams. I expect Essendon will eventually get moving. Carlton's offer for Saad is fair, the bombers just don't want to take it and want to maximise it. Same with Fantasia. Once that goes they can up their offer on Caldwell and then get serious on Dunkley. Someone's going to take at least 1 of those Pies players I reckon. But there's no rush to help the Pies out, the longer everyone waits the bigger the fire sale.

I can’t see any path to it being a great success that gives us an advantage. If I had to set up a game plan to make it work: Jackson - wing McDonald - forward/ruck Weid - full forward Brown - CHF - big tank and nice kick stagger those 3 to only have 2 on at any stage

If the club had offered Tom anything less than 4 years at 700k I'd imagine he would've asked for a trade back then. So at the same time as we were rightly getting Hogan out of the club we would've been left without any proven key forward options. I can't remember anyone on here saying we should've done that. It's just a reality that guys lose form and fitness and now that the contract numbers are so high it looks bad. I don't think it's a matter of 100 or 200k, I think it might be up to 350k we need to pay of Tom's wage per year and that's fine by me. 550k is apparently what we have offered Ben Brown. A player we still think is good and want to bring in. Tom's value is far less than that. Any team bringing him in is doing so for insurance depth or experience with the possibility of trying him in different roles. Mitch Brown - the quicker we walk away from that cat the better. Got dropped twice and played 1 decent game chasing chest marks on the wing. Complete waste of a list spot the moment we bring in Ben Brown.

Are the Saints desperately looking for speed and X factor? They bought in Hill and Butler last year to go with Billings, Gresham and co but this year they’ve recruited Brad Crouch to thicken the soup. They might be stuck with Lonie and Kent. Clearly they have interest in Higgins but speed is just a part of his game to go with class They might’ve decided Butler, Kent and Lonie/Higgins is enough. Can we say the same about Pickett, Spargo and Bedford or are we better off to keep searching?

I don't agree with the first part. Saad does more defensively and his pace is a weapon. Agree with the second to an extent. Yes and no. Line breaking is a gamble that often doesn't pay off if you just run in to trouble. Houli when fit and healthy is the best at quickly breaking a line but still hitting a short pass rather than the big long run. That's what I want to see from Salem and he's not far off it. Burst run in to hit up. We lack at least one penetrating kicker from the backline. May can do it. Hore's one to watch with his boot which is sometimes shaky but has upside. Rivers hopefully. Salem can do the short hit up corridor kicks but these days it's the big 60m diagonal switch or 45m dart that unlocks gaps as much as any.

Have you seen him play recently? Could be the worst footballer in the AFL. Genuine space cadet.