DeeSpencer

Lily Mithen you are now on the hate list

She’s dead scared of winning a hard ball and - whilst it might be fitness related - she’s slow. You take a small forward at the top of the draft it’s not unreasonable to want them to have some wheels

Mucking around with it because they’ve lost faith in hitting tall targets inside 50. Come on girls, pick a target out, put some air in the kick, it’s not too hard

These holding the ball decisions are yuck.

Pisano

The meatball has been a disappointment so far. Hopefully it clicks for her soon

Dees getting an exceptional run with the umps for once! Huge quarter for Zanks, Banno and Gall to go big

Is there any evidence they want him as a forward? He was out of contract last year and we didn’t get him. Maybe his defensive form is the interest?

I think some of what Richo was referring to was how young our side got at the end of the season. Young flankers, trying new guys on ball, really inexperienced tall forwards. ANB is the only best 22 player we’ve lost since the end of the year. Our best backline is still experienced and the young flankers have more seasoning. Tracc back in hopefully does a lot for the midfield/forward line. Spargo and Sharp hopefully cover some of what we lose from ANB. Maybe add a delisted free agent too. And it’s at least another year for our young key forwards. Plus perhaps we can still get Derksen. Can we get something from McAdam and even Fullarton? The side should have a nice smattering of youth including at least 1 kid taken high this year but ideally doesn’t reach the levels of youth we hit late in the season.

Mentha is in our Next Generation Academy, just as AMW was. NGA players can have bids matched at any stage of the draft, but if they go undrafted in the main draft they are also eligible to become Cat B rookies to increase NGA players on a list (Cat B is for international, NGA, other sports). Andy was a multicultural player from a Darwin zone we had. Ricky would be the first player taken from our Alice NGA zone. Not sure if AMW gets elevated to a main list or stays cat B. I think our plan is for Mentha and/or an Irish lad to be added as additional cat B rookies in 2025.

Sid has the most advanced stoppage craft of any non Ashcroft player in this draft, he looks really good getting in and out and through traffic. He looks like a right footed Zach Merrett when he’s up and running. He’s balanced, quick, attacking. But his ball use struggled at SANFL level in amongst the bigger bodies and in less space. Whether that’s something that will fix with time or not will be a big question for recruiters. I suspect North won’t muck around and will grab Tauru with pick 2. Elite intercept markers are just too valuable and they need one. Smilie’s one of the trickier players to rate, he does some stuff that looks like pick 1 but he needs a lot of development. Tom Green fell way too far in his draft, teams might be repeating the mistake if Smillie falls too.

Nothing says serious football club like handing out token debuts to kids who haven't earnt them.

If Carlton can get 12 to the Saints pick 8 using a combination of late picks and players (which won’t be easy as they have no middle round picks and no high quality players on the market) they could potentially do 8 and 14 for 3. The Eagles might consider that if it nets them Draper (rumoured Eagles target) and Liam Baker. Realistically I doubt it happens. They’d probably need a FOS slide to get him in range where 12 and 14 for the Saints pick 7. And even then I’m not sure the Saints are giving up quality for quantity.

Assuming the top 8 are gone: Lalor, Langford, FOS, Smith, Draper, Armstrong, Tauru, Smillie. Plus exclude academy and Ashcroft. Talls: Trainor, Shanahan, Faull, Whitlock x2, Sims Med/Smalls: Hynes, Berry, Reid, Lindsay, Travaglia, Allen, Hotton, Dattoli We’d get at worst the 5th best guy from those guys. No doubt a good player, but I think you want someone who’s got special upside and falls or is a hidden gem. Is it Hines? Is it a gamble of Hotton?

Neal Bullen and what could be a top 5 pick for what probably ends up at 16. Its a heck of a gamble. Effectively asking JT to really out draft his rivals. I know the recruiters love this draft but personally I’m not seeing where the talent is off the charts at 16? Better talls in that stretch than a lot of years but otherwise?

I don’t think they’re going to have a live pick in the draft. Match Lombard and that’s it. Even still, paying with peanuts and trading back in is a better option.

You’d be hard pressed to find a less important opinion on the draft https://www.sportingnews.com/au/author/kieran-francis

You don’t match a bid for Lombard with a premium pick of 19, you do it with junk in the 30’s and 40’s. If they took the Swans deal they’d probably trade both those picks in different deals.

If I’m the Dons I’m inclined to call our bluff and see if we pick Kako at 5 (6). Could happen, but I’d say odds on it doesn’t. They probably have to flick St Kilda something to get 9 to 8 or guarantee a non Saints bid.

I agree, but the Hawks chucking a future first in the Eagles/Richmond pot diminishes the likelihood Freo or Richmond end up trading one out. It might be 9 or bust

I think the Eagles will want the Carlton first rounder (not the Hawks one) and more. Honestly it’s the perfect deal to change the rules and let the Eagles get the best of the 2 first rounders (Carl or Hawks) next year but the afl rules don’t allow that. Eagles would be mad to offer their own first but they’ll on send the Carl/Haw first rounder for Baker. It’s smart from the Hawks. They didn’t want to offer more than 14. Can now offer a future first and future 2nd. It’s worth the same thing but reads better!

With Wilkie and Howard the Saints don’t need to play 3 experienced talls, depth would help but the smart long term play for them is to expose some kids.

Honestly a little surprised we didn’t jump at that. Must be either more up in the air with other deals or a degree of confidence that we can do better. Let’s hope so

You don’t think anyone watched Tomlinson the last few years and thought he was a best 22 player right? Moving from Steve May’s back up to competing with Billy Frampton would be a smart move for him though.

So Brisbane have made their moves and now have 32 and 34 and some other junk (43, 45, 60). We have 28, 40, 49, 54 and 65 I doubt we go backwards but we could just give them all 5 of those picks for 32, 34 and Sharp Most likely result is we combo 2-3 of the 40/50’s later picks for one of 32 or 34 and Sharp. We have to keep flexibility for Oliver trades and getting another first round pick in this draft but I do wonder just what pick GWS can’t turn down for a guy they’ve never played (or what offer we can realistically make).