DeeSpencer

And achieve what exactly? Harmes - McAdam. I'm more than happy with that. We've had nothing for Harmes to do for 2 years and have been crying out for a guy like McAdam to provide a mix of what Fritsch and Kossie do. JJ - Billings. JJ might go on to be a player for the Swans but he was a free agent, we replaced him with a player who could be an immediate upgrade in a needs position. Grundy - Fullarton. Personally I'd have liked to get in on the Brandon Ryan deal but Fullarton has a fair bit of upside and I'd rather have him than an unhappy and expensive Grundy. 33 was worthless in this draft. Would've ended up pick 40 on the night of the draft. We ended up with a spare pick 42 (44 come draft night) which we dealt for a future 3rd. 25 became 34 on draft night. Ended up at Carlton for Billy Wilson. 18, 34 and a pick we'd never use for 13 to get Tholstrup. Doesn't look so bad when Essendon and GWS gave up 2nd rounders to move 1 spot on draft night. We've replenished our depth with better fits and drafted 2 talented kids. It's not flashy but the flashy moves often don't work out. Plus surely we're reloading with list spots and salary cap to be more aggressive next year.

Great interview Andrew. JT never gives too much away. But I think there are things you can deduce if you listen carefully. He somewhat gave away Windsor was at least a little needs related, and watching how slow we’ve been between the arcs the last 2 years it’s not a surprise. Why do I get the feeling they wanted Windsor at 11 but he kept rising? When JT does he due diligence on a player the word probably gets around and other sides start circling. I get the sense he’s excited by Tholstrup’s potential in a range of roles but also they really like the character and early indications are so do I! He was probably a little more excited for Kynan Brown than I expected. Aside from the 2 early picks I get the sense Jed Adams might be a favourite of JTs. Hope he gets through preseason healthy.

Within 10, no points discount and only one first rounder per year and we’re nearly there. Same for fathers sons. Time to restore some sanity to the draft.

The three that caught my eye today: 1. Woey. On a similar path to Sparrow as someone who for a couple of years (not so much now for Tom) has just come back noticeably thicker. We might have our answer for who can go on ball if we're shorter on depth after losing Harmes and JJ. 2. Rivers. He just looks cherry ripe. Leaner than before without losing strength. No idea how much they'll try him in the midfielder but if nothing else he'll be covering more ground. 3. The 2nd year talls. Jefferson is the obvious one because he was skinny to begin with and isn't now. But KFW is a unit. Jed Adams looks good. And Verrall for a 199cm ruck is looking strong without losing mobility.

Jefferson has added some bulk but he’s still a fair way off the size, speed or endurance of JVR last year from a limited look today. I’d have him more on par now with JVR in 2022. Of Chris from camby’s favourites it would be AMW - if nothing more than being healthy to start preseason - who could be in line to make a huge improvement next year

The first rounders usually get the best available numbers, followed by the rest of the draft getting the high numbers no one wants. If Billings, McAdam and Fullarton took 14, 23 and 33 there wasn’t a lot left but I knew there had to be a reason for 39 rather than 27 or 34. That’s awesome that Koltyn chose 39 for Nev

Oh good, the answer to academies is more academies if the NGA switches back to inside 40. Apart from being a total disaster for fairness and draft equality if we slowly shift to a heavily ‘academised’ sport we’ll end up cooking a bunch of kids childhoods be making them semi pro sportsmen at the age of 14.

That was definitely Jetty

I thought I saw him on track but certainly wasn’t in any drills after 10:30, in fact I’d say it’s likely he was either in the tent or in aami

100m or so boundary timed jogs for the young boys. Longer, quicker runs for the main group up the middle of the ground. McAdam, Sestan, Gawn with the 2nd year talls in the slightly shorter distance group. KFW is leading them out well Laurie, Judd, Spargo, Bowser maybe some others and with some effort the Tracc are in the group doing the furthest by a few extra metres. Obviously many of the best runners aren’t on deck today. Everyone out there looks good tho

Cold tin just kicked a checkside over the fence and possibly in to the sun. It hasn’t helped, the weather is still foul. I’d have the trade request in by the end of the day if I didn’t think 40 degrees in November was far worse

New fellas joined in the second rotation of that set of drills. Koltyn seems to be pursuing a strategy of following Tracc everywhere. Kynan had a couple of inside 50 kicks that looked good. Windsor had some nice one touch gathers. Might be because he’s dressed like an 18 year old girl about to hit a wall King street nightclub but he seems to have really long arms From the new veterans for want of a better word: Shane Mc looks comfortable out of the square and snaps on both sides. Fullarton has a tan that won’t survive Melbourne winter

Neither are here, try new questions

Josef is here doing some individual drills that would roughly rhyme with soot jihad

thought I saw Petty but think it was fake Petty (Jed Adams). Adams, Verrall and Sestan have all made physical progress Might be nothing but in a handball, handball across half forward then kick to leading forwards inside 50 drill T Mc started as a defender. 3 new young guys watching with Choco now

Absent: 1, 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 29, 30, 36, 37, 50 Edit; forgot 13 not here either, oops

Billings 14 Shane Mc 23 Fullarton 33 Windsor wearing a dress length 6 Hore 18 Kolt 39 McVee 4 K Brown 41

El Jefe ok! Got to buy him one of those shoulder posture devices but he’s bigger. Taj Woewodin whoa. He thick

Pats Jags Ravens really should’ve done my tips before thanksgiving!

Anyone got a time and place? Can we say Gosch’s with confidence?

Early returns suggest he’s not great at the whole football part of being a footballer but KFW is nailing the being tall and an imposing athlete part.

The AFL will want him to serve the 3 months rather than 1, plus a club games ban, to avoid the confusion around WADA v AFL issued suspensions for the likes of Elijah Hollands. As always managing the optics will take priority over getting a fair result for the individual. And of course the AFLPA will keep their heads in the sand as per usual. I hope Joel can be back at the club as soon as possible but I’m also fine with him getting a good club imposed ban when the time for it comes.

In terms of shocking haircuts when they arrive at the club he’s just following in his fathers footsteps

Oh good, flip the NGAs back to 20 and distort the draft more. All for what? Players who have local teams, elite junior rep teams and most of the time school programs but we pretend the AFL clubs have developed them? The admission criteria is rubbish. Kids born when their Australian parents were working overseas. Kids who came here when they were infants. Indigenous people who (no comment). Kids with one parent born overseas, why is that a thing? There’s surely ways to invest in Indigenous and migrant communities and have the rising tide lift all boats. It seems like a way to placate the 14 non Northern clubs but it will only distort things further. It’s only increasing the extent with which your zone matters and we saw how dangerous a recruiting zone based comp was towards the later decades of the VFL. There’s easy changes to the bidding process that would restrict the Northern Academies and Father Sons from massively distorting the draft which is much fairer than fighting academies with more academies.

Just thought of something on a completely different train of thought than the draft questions because I imagine JT is generally keen to only answer so many and give away so much on that topic. I'd like to know: What does JT and/or the recruiting team do to develop their scouting? Has he met with teams from some of the bigger leagues in the world? And a recommendation, if he's looking for inspiration he should go meet with the OKC Thunder who have absolutely crushed the NBA draft recently (aside from some recent concerning Josh Giddey rumours)