DeeSpencer

HF: Melksham Petty/Weid N Jones/ANB/C Wagner/Spargo FF: Fritsch T Mc Pickett/Chandler/Bedford Int: wildcard - Jackson/Hunt/Hannan Some combination of that is your 7 forwards. If Jackson plays a fair bit of ruck and even mid and if C Wagner or Hunt maybe rolls up to the wing rotation you can get an 8th forward in. Probably the one missing link is the classy mid who can play on ball, wing and half forward. In other words we really need a Harley Bennell type!

Hoping he's on a list of many - including 18 year olds not drafted - that we get down to train and have a closer look at. 2 free spots on the list, we can't have allocated them both to Mitch Brown and a bloke who hasn't played in 5 years.

The entire reason we didn't have a pick in the 20's was because we structured the Langdon and Frost trades to maintain future picks in the 2-5th rounds allowing us to trade our first. Carlton live traded on the night to move back from what was pick 9 to get Kemp and a pick in the 20's. We clearly wanted to keep our first pick ahead of the Bulldogs and other teams in that range to get our man. Trading up becomes more and more expensive on trade night when teams have the lure of the players sitting right in front of them that's for sure. And given the thing we wanted to do more than anything was trade up and get a small forward the best thing to do was to do it early. I certainly think we should target those early 20's picks in the future and get value with trade back deals, but priority number 1 this year was trading up and we paid a lot less for a lot more than the other clubs that did it.

Port traded a future first for pick 16. Gold Coast a future pick 11 for 27. Yes it cost us future flexibility but trading early for pick 8 was a far better move that I imagined. I think it was better to get that pick 8 in our hands and go from there than keep a low 20’s pick and go the other way.

Brisbane have done very well from the McCluggage and Berry and Witherden Vic Country draft. Plus pairing up Lachie Neale and Linc McCarthy later in their careers. I'm not sure this was intentional at all. Rivers just happened to be best available in the eyes of our recruiters.

Maybe Rivers swapped teams late because he's listed as Bullcreek-Leeming all through pre draft stuff and there's stats for him playing a lot of juniors there. But might not have crossed paths with Jackson until WAFL juniors?

Pretty much. They also have a limited time frame, I’d say 3 years, to get it together. If the big 6: Rankine, Luko, Ben King, Rowell, Anderson, Flanders - don’t get it together in the next 3 years the whole club will fold. Sharp is a ready made wing/half back. Get him in now and they’ll have the best chance to be successful before these guys contracts run out in 3-4 years (they’ll all stay longer than 2)

I reckon we thought long and hard about Taylor and maybe Perez. The riskier picks. But Rivers had fallen enough to be the right call. I thought he was best on in the game against Vic Country to win the champs

Up until round 21 the only finalist we’d played were Hawthorn, Richmond and Sydney who we all couldn’t score on, the Pies who we only put up a score through accurate kicking and a Geelong team that were the exception. The stats might not be exactly accurate but it looked a lot like we could score for fun against the lesser teams but would bomb our way for nothing against the top sides. I think we saw last season with the complete lack of scoring and mid year changing of the forwards coach that it was more than just an underdone midfield. Anyway, Pickett should provide classy delivery not just goal scoring and Jackson can help scoring as either a ruck or forward. If we don’t draft another classy mid/forward player tonight it will be interesting to see if the run of Tomlinson and Langdon opens room for mids and forwards. Goodwin mentioned today they plan for Oliver to get out running in space more which in turn will have him kick more.

We'd score 120+ on bad teams and 60 on good teams though, our system wasn't sustainable against good teams for most of the year. Only the last round against GWS and the first 2 finals pointed towards it working against top clubs. That said.. I don't think long bombs to Hogan (as a full forward), ANB's flat track specials or Garlett really worked against good teams, so it was relying on Tommy Mc, Melksham and maybe Hannan . There's a chance we get Weid (like in the finals), Petty or Jackson as the 2nd tall, a big dose of Fritsch, Pickett crumbing alongside T Mc and Melk for a better forward line that makes so much more of the opportunities. Then the wings didn't seem to work until Vanders came back in. He could be the missing ingredient but Langdon and Tomlinson might help. And more midfield Petracca to create high quality and quantity chances. Sustainable defensive plan + the best parts of 2018 ball movement without the worst part (inefficient inside 50's) = success.

None of Petty, Weideman or Preuss have locked down a spot, in fact there will be a 4 way battle with Jackson for 1-2 spots depending on how the team wants to play. Jackson has speed and skill for his size that will create opportunities for the little guys. I'm not sure that the SANFL is the second best comp outside the AFL, but sure it's a good state league. Stephens had 1 excellent game but averaged 18 disposals in a fairly open competition. Langdon knows what he needs to do to win the ball against AFL players, most outside mids struggle with that transition early. Whitfield - who is bigger, faster, more skilled than Stephens - took a number of years to truly be comfortable at the top level. Good clubs win games with senior players whilst developing kids at the same time. If they stop developing kids it's only because they run out of good draft choices. There will be plenty of opportunities to develop our kids.

Reliable if not flashy ball winner, solid as a rock skills, good size and decent athletic potential that should easily take to AFL conditioning - he missed all preseason with glandular fever. He's exactly the kind of player Brisbane have been drafting for a while now. Only thing he's missing is he's from WA not Country Victoria!

There’s more chance Jackson plays round 1 than doesn’t play at all next year. 94kg and runs a very solid 2km time trial. He’s raw but has the size and endurance to play against men straight away. If there was a betting line on games played I’d put it at about 8.5 if not higher. Stephens was my pick of the rest but he’s 183cm and very light. A lack of aerial ability or contested ground ball ability could see him struggle to play inside or outside early. He projects as a half forward early in his career in my opinion. Every year a number of top 10 picks thrive early and plenty don’t. And you get guys who don’t debut who go on to be Tom Mitchell and you get others who play every game and become Lewis Taylor. That’s why you draft best available and develop a list instead of attempting to fill gaps.

Yeah was told his game against WA was far from flattering. I think that and lack of pace. If you aren't bursting off half back and breaking the lines then there's only so many places you can kick the ball. Even at 100% efficiency good teams don't leave huge gaps the same way the under 18's do. The Grant Birchall comparison probably is about right and people forget how good Birchall was but at the same time are you racing out to use pick 3 on Birchall? The most interesting part of the comments about Young was the recruiter who loved his midfield game and thought he could be Pendlebury based on one game. 30 touches of sublime ball use and decision making across the ground sure does sound nice - but why wasn't he given more midfield time in the NAB League?

Sydney have a vested interest in clubs not making academy bids. Whilst Blakey was bid on by the Giants last year it was at pick 10, far after he should have been. With so many academy players next year there seems to be a sense that less bidding is better for many clubs and Sydney are one of them. The Crows have enough one paced mids so probably didn't want any risk but apart from that their trade with the Giants likely came with stipulations. For the life of me I can't understand Freo not bidding. It would've pushed each of their picks back one and made the price of Liam Henry slightly less. Nothing to lose, the Giants were certainly matching by pick 7. Green is a beauty but I think he's also slightly overrated. One paced mids are a dying breed and you have to be Paddy Cripps good to make it. If you're even 80% of Cripps then you go from a weapon to a liability. We've seen that with Gus Brayshaw - just a little off his game and he falls from (an undeserving) Brownlow contender to a player I now have serious doubts about.

He's a beautiful kick and has incredible balance. Different types of players but if Sydney Stack can go undrafted after some character concerns - possibly similar to EJ - and then light up the comp across half back as an 18 year old then why can't EJ do the same? If you're 188cm, skilled as can be and a bit inconsistent with forward pressure and ball winning then show me you can compete down back and stay in a game that way and I'll draft you. Similar to Frtisch, show some ability learning the game on a wing and half back and once you've matured and can handle physical defenders and off days and stay in the games then you'll be a gun forward. That would be my first question to him. If he can't handle the half back flank he won't make it as a forward these days. All the talent in the world won't make it at AFL level if you don't have a defensive game or a hunger for the contest.

Kosi's lack of height might help him tuck in under opponents and prevent him knocking their heads in to next week! Ricciuto was the only one really standing up to Pickett in that video, although Goody had a decent crack and wasn't too worried about Tredrae and co.

I'm a Rivers fan, just seems so solid and I think our backline needs versatile that all round quality type who can play any of about 5 roles back there. I'm also interested in the idea of taking Williams and making him play half back to light a fire under him, very Sicily/Hardwick at Hawthorn like. Otherwise if they want to go Taylor that's fine by me. Same with Sharp, Gould, Bianco, although those 3 are kind of positives and negatives with attributes, less versatile. The only one who I haven't seen but I'm just fascinated by is the idea of Perez. A junior soccer star with elite kicking skills. Have you seen much of him J?

In the highlights video he's playing for: WWT reserves WWT seniors SA under 18 v Glenelg SA under 18 AFL rising stars game - white AFL academy v Casey And there's nothing from school games there. I know most young guys go through a similar thing but for an instinctive player who clearly feeds off and works well with team mates there's potentially a heap of improvement for settling him in the same side - Casey if not the AFL team - and letting him play with team mates who know his game. His possession totals could quickly elevate by a couple of kicks and handballs and at least dispel any concerns that he doesn't get the ball enough.

Our coaches haven't shown any great ability to train front and centre or pressure. We've trained up ball winning and I think we've trained up a pretty fit squad (up until last year). And rightly or wrongly we've trained a team that can get the ball inside 50. Yeah I'd rather use pick 20, and yes I wonder if the mid sized Bergman or the slightly bigger Weightman were better picks but the speed to the drop of the ball, the taps on, the pressure. There's so much to like. He's not just flukey and flashy, he does all the defensive stuff.

I think the only thing we are allowed to do is trade a future 4th round pick to move up. 30 and a future 4th to Sydney for 27 - gives them some bonus academy picks for next year? I don't think they are accepting that. 30 and a future 4th to North for 28? If they know who we are taking they'll do that given they have 29. But probably isn't worth it.

Now pick 30, probably moves to 31 and effectively pick 9 of the second night. 10 names: Mids: Robertson, Sharp, Schoenberg, Ralphsmith, Rantall Backs: Worrell, Bianco, Rivers, Gould, Perez Forwards: Taylor, Williams, Mahoney

Yeah I guess the Tigers shouldn't have drafted Rance when they were crap. Or Hawthorn when they were damn ordinary, what they hell were they doing drafting Buddy Franklin. Geelong with a great culture obviously were right to pick Tim Kelly, he was always going to stay right? Time to make the culture in to one of success and that starts with recruiting the best talents and keeping them.

They should have enough champs footage for the first round kids at least. If Fox could borrow Cal Twomey and pump up Matt Balmer and have them go head to head for a decade they’d have good tv. Instead both are babies in media terms and probably are years away from finding their voices as draft experts. And the very skilled but still somewhat overrated Neroli Meadows has been let go. We’ll get perfectly nice interviews but it’s also some boring kids mostly. The background stories just don’t compare to those of NBA and NFL draftees.

5 minutes a pick for at least 21 picks, it has to run for 105 minutes. And I think it should. Add in 15 minutes of introductions and you get 2 hours. Plus a wrap at the end. Unfortunately to make it great tv you need 3 things: 1. Excellent HD highlights package 2. Draft experts with knowledge and presentation skills. Ideally 2 of them to bounce off each other. 3. An interviewer with skills and kids with charisma and stories to tell.