Dee-licious

A nice read: https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/2020/05/27/marquee-matchups-joshua-clarke-vs-bailey-laurie/ Other thing that I keep reading about Laurie is that he set himself to play finals in a really hard team to crack last year (Oakleigh with Rowell and Anderson) and got there and had an impact. Ended up as one of the best on ground in the grand final and it was his best game all year. Clearly an upward trajectory and works hard.

This is really worth a read: https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/2020/06/02/marquee-matchups-jake-bowey-vs-errol-gulden/ The more I am reading about Jake, the more I am realising, sheesh I know why he went round 1. NAB league in 2019, he was one of the reasons the Dragons made it so deep into the comp. Named in the best across the Dragons' year, including in the finals. Named in the best in the Futures game as well in 2019. And the thing I keep reading is that he is a winger, not a forward. Maybe Taylor does know a thing or two.

Maybe he will get an invitation to train (as he seems to already have one) and he can try and make the list as we can add 2 players to it now at any time as we have the spots open. I think that a few clubs will have 3-4 guys training at the start of the season to see if they can make the list. Not a bad way to do it if you have a group of guys that are speculative. Or maybe he is going to uni in Melbourne next year and looking to play for Casey.

Cal really needs to get closer to the Melbourne team as he always seems to be guessing what we are doing, and he gets much better mail from other clubs :p All seriousness, picking the draft looks like a dart board right now. I've read up all the bios, there are plenty of players that suit our mix at the picks we have and any combination will be great and a good addition to the team. I know that we are keen to trade out our second rounder, but I'd love to see us take the 3 best kids we can and see what happens.

As he is a father son my understanding is that he can only be a rookie listed if no one places a bid. Looking like rookie at best at this point. which is not bad - see what he can do in the system.

Where we stand: 35 players on the senior list (max 38) 3 on the Rookie A list (maximum 6) 1 on the Rookie B list (max 2) We can have up to 44 players, we have 39, so 5 spots open - 3 senior list (3 draft picks?), and then 2 rookies. But we can just take one player in the draft and then we have hit our minimum number. The minimum list size for each club will be 37, which can be made up by as little as 36 senior listed players and one rookie. To reach 44, clubs can carry 36-38 senior listed players, four-to-six Category A rookies and two Category B rookies.

Thing I'm learning from the NBA draft - no one knows who is taking who and top 5 picks are ending up at 12, guys outside the top 20 in some boards inside the top 10. And the NBA has way more vision and way more scrutiny then we do. Good luck anyone doing a phantom this year...

We have pick 50 and 89 as well. This year you can as many picks as you want into the draft and only use one of them if wanted (NGA stuff) all because of list sizes, weird year, etc. So you'll see some teams take 7 picks into the draft but only use 3. It is an interactive set up so there is no way that I'll be able to post them all. If there are a couple that you want though I can post them up.

Herald Sun have a nice little piece on the top 60 draftees. AFL are only expecting around 50 picks to be taken this year (as per AFL website) https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-draft-2020-dossier-interactive-profiles-stats-and-draft-range-on-all-the-top-prospects-from-around-the-country/news-story/b6eff3e0139aed53c9867837030577cb What I noticed looking at these, then with Twoomey, Knightmare, AFL Draft Central is a lot of discrepancy between picks 8-25. The more and more I read, the more and more I agree with Mahnoey's decision to have 3 picks in the top 28 and see what shakes out. As we are only taking 3 picks to the draft (AFL website), I can see a case for using 19, 28 + 50 (equal to pick 5/6) to move up, but I don't know who takes it. Collingwood have 14 and 16 and I dont think that Reef will be taken before then, and they'd be happy to sacrifice points on their pick next year. Maybe just maybe they'd be keep to swap out 16 on the night if they are confident Rich and Melb wont bid on Reef and then they get the extra points they need. But it is a long shot. Essendon have Brand who is mid-20s pick and they dont have the points for him, but I cannot see them parting with pick 8 for 19, 28 + 50 though. Which gets me to why I dont think it matters. Tall wingers / half back flankers / guys who can deliver a ball, come on down - Perkins, Henry, McCrae, Cook, O'Driscoll, Poulter, Carroll, you could even throw Chapman in there as well (all picks 10-30). Laurie is a small forward with an elite kick, Winder and Ford could be drafted into our forward line (25+). It just feels like this is one of those drafts that people will look back at and ask how recruiters got it so wrong. So lets back Taylor and see how it all shakes out in a few years.

I personally love Eddie Ford’s highlights. Tackles like a beast and jumps a mile high. I know he isn’t going to be taken early - but I’d love to see him make it.

I think it was Mahoney which said that due to the lack of exposure of players this year, players that we rate at 7 might still be there at 18, 19 because what we saw at age 16 can be very different than others. Cal Twoomey joked he isn’t going to do a phantom because he has no idea who will pick who and who are the top performers. great point about Oliver and Bont on trade radio. If they were in this year, they wouldn’t have been first rounders because they used their final year to press their claims as top picks. my guess is that Taylor believes that he has a couple of guys that he thinks will be there around 20 and two top 20 picks is nothing to scoff at. 2021 draft is being talked up as deep because they are expecting a heap of players not to be picked up, come back as 19 year olds and show they are Afl standard. I’d be keeping that mid season draft pick ready to go as that will be ‘good’ next year. at the end of the day, who knows. There are going to be players that no one thought of in the top 20 this year and those who we though would be drafted won’t be. I’d be waiting till round 1 to see how it all shakes out. It’s not going to be an easy year to draft.

Just checked the NGA / Father sons. There probably arent that many in the top 20 that will be NGA father sons - maybe 5? So there arent a lot of people that we can trade with to get up the order. It is really only Dogs, unless someone wants to move back. Mahoney said that there is likely to be people that different clubs rate because of the weird year that end up dropping a little lower - so plenty of options for us on the board.

If you package 19 and 28 that is worth the same amount of points as pick 7 - so for those who need more points, we are very attractive right now.

Exactly - Phillips and Polec are still out there - there is no shortage of left-footed wingmen this year and as long as we get 1, we walk out a better side than we were in 2020.

@Dr evil's mail wasnt any different from the rest of insiders here and in the AFL as well. When Dr Evil posted it originally it was early and good intel. And we saw it play out in the media that the "Cats came late" and that "Hawthorn upped their offer". Yes, the double down was probably too much, but I'm happy for him to keep those insider tips coming!

Interesting how the signings have gone in the offseason. Maybe they are all done in batches and we are just announcing one by one, but in October Smith signed for 1 year (2 October) Petty and Sparrow for 2 years (2 October) Fritch for 2 years (5 Oct) Rivers for 3 years (5 Oct) Viney 5 years (7 Oct) Hibberd 1 year (27 Oct) Jones 1 year (28 Oct) Hore 1 year (29 Oct) Spargo 2 years (29 Oct) I'd assume that Jordan, Nietchke, and Bedford are waiting on list size announcements (could imagine 1 or 2 could be rookied if need be) and Hunt is anybody's guess right now.

You can go back and look at his posts, and yes he is pretty good with his intel. Plus - he is part of a "group" of about 3-4 posters who seem to get the same information at the same time. So either he is very good at reading tea leaves, or he has a What's App group with people at the MFC.

My understanding is that you then get access to the doctors, services, support etc. from the AFL and football club. It is a right thing to do, rather than the smart thing to do by the sounds of it. But everything is speculative.

With The Age you can go in an incognito window and copy and paste the link and it usually comes up. But the gist is what Lord Nev told us last week - he met virtually with the dees and we are asking for a medical.

Agree - Especially at that stage of his life, he needs to make sure that Melbourne fit him and his family. Think back to May talking about Melksham's kid running around in the hub. If he feels supported and that his child (they were meant to have twins) can spend the first few years of their life in this environment as well, will be important factors. I think that football wise he fits at the club for all the reasons discussed, he is the right age for our list as well, and we have the picks/players to get him. The question is culture, and if he and we believe this is the place for him to finish his career. Lewis thought so, Landgon thought so, Tomlinson thought so. I hope that Brown does as well.

Always liked Hamish - hope he comes back to Melbourne to continue his studies and play for Casey and see what happens.

I think you make a really good point @Axis of Bob - what I loved about 2017 Jayden was his defensive work - getting to contests he had no right getting to, being a 3rd man up, run down tackles, and then rebounding off half back. I dont see any of that with him playing forward. I think he has abilities that are different from the rest of our team, but I feel they are lost in the forward line. Wherever he is next year, I'm looking forward to watching him.

I think it might have been sexual and nothing to do with May…

Booooo! I love that you went early with it! I'm just waiting for the table that has Saad, Polec, Hogan, Brown, Smith, Merrett, (who else am I missing) in it :) I do love the rumour mill in the off season. And thank you for all the work you do putting this table together each year. This is the first place I go to (over FootyWire) as it is always accurate and clear!

See, I'd argue that opposite. We could have easily rolled over and given Smith a 2 year contract as is pretty standard. Instead, it seems we've questioned if he will be in our best 40 in 2 years time and only offered him a 1 year contract (or Smith didnt like what we offered in the second year). I'm happy that he is signed up so we have someone to play key back if someone gets injured, but is not signed on for a second year if he becomes surplus to needs. Lists are incredibly hard, and we dont have all the information at the moment. I acknowledge that it feels like some of these decisions are mind-boggling, but I think it would be tough to find a better replacement for Smith as a key back, on the money he is on, with the picks we have, and our list demographic. I hope Smith makes it, I'm not confident he will, but I am glad that we have someone there if May/Lever goes down.