Lucifers Hero

From today's session: But the premiers haven’t finished their wheeling and dealing just yet. “We’ll look at every opportunity to try to get as high as we can. We’re certainly having a little bit of look at some things,” Demons list manager Tim Lamb said on Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio “We've had a habit of trying to get back into the first round of the draft or improve our position in the draft and that was something we wanted to do again this year. By being back in the first round again that will give us five first-rounders over the last three years. “We’d seen the impact at Hawthorn of a group of young players that come in together over a two- or three-year period and they can really grow together, their relationships become really strong, and they go on the journey together. So that was our real focus.” That looks like another 'drafting cluster.' The first cluster was under Roos over three drafts from 2013, when we took Salem, (Tyson), AVB, ANB, Stretch, Hunt, Harmes, Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, Weideman, when Roos' goal was to build the midfield first and have 10-12 on-ballers. Some have moved on but they are our core players now in their prime. The second cluster started 5 years later and is the one we are in now: Jackson, Rivers, Pickett, Laurie, Bowey, x and y from this year's draft. And a few choice picks in between: Spargo, Petty, etc etc.

From The Age: Melbourne is talking with the management of Rising Star winner and premiership big man Luke Jackson with the Demons categorically denying they have had any talks with Fremantle about the WA native. Jackson is out of contract at the end of season 2022 and Melbourne wants him to extend his stay with the former Australian under-17 basketballer developing faster than many expected culminating in his ruck work in the grand final helping to turn the game to the Demons in the third term. Demons list manager Tim Lamb shot down any suggestion they had talked with the Dockers about Jackson. “At no time, has there ever been a conversation internally, or with Fremantle, about Luke Jackson,” Lamb told AFL trade radio. “I can categorically say that has never occurred. “He’s out of contract at the end of next season, we’re talking with his manager and happy with where it sits.”

My reservation is that we will have almost zero flexibility to add players in the PSD or the MSD. There will probably be very good Vic players who miss the draft because they have very little exposed form. By next year they will have a chance to perform but unless we get LTI we won't have the room to draft them.

I am 99.9% certain that Jordan was effectively made a senior player in April this year: Club announcement JJ signs on It doesn't state he has a senior spot but we would not have been able to recruit Declase and Turner in the mid-season draft if he remained a rookie as we would have exceeded the 6 allowed rookies. Using a draft pick (94 or 112) is a mere formality.

How to upgrade pick 17. We have 4 'live' picks with value: 17, 37, 49, 57, (and later picks 94 and 112 which can be used to promote players from the rookie list). We won't have enough list spots to use all 4. Hypothetical: GWS and Freo are playing a bit of cat and mouse re Lobb. GWS have picks 2 (untradeable), 13, 53, 71. 13 is too much and 53 not enough. We can 'help'! We get GWS #13 and give #17 and #49 (or 37 and something back to us if we really want to sweeten the deal). GWS will have a better hand to deal with Freo. We improve our hand and still have 3 'live picks' if we want to fill all our senior list spots. Freo have a fistful of picks and if they were to get #17 as part of the Lobb deal they could then deal with Geelong for Clark. As an aside Geelong would take out the 'grandstanding' award by demanding a 1st round pick for a player they have had for several years but haven't played very often.

Thank you. Are we sure they had it right? The club was specific on: "Baker and Bedford have been retained on the senior list, while Brown, Daw, Smith and Turner will remain on the rookie list for 2022" but was moot on Chandler so for now I'll leave him as a Rookie. On my next Contract thread update I'll note the uncertainty on Chandler's status.

I didn't see the 2 years in the announcement. Did I misread? Agreed under the new rules he can do a 4th year on the rookie list. For the 'Contracts' thread I usually wait until there is something 'official' so for now I'll stick with Chandler as a Rookie in that thread.

Thank you. Good analysis. From what I can see the only difference between our respective lists is that I have Chandler as a Rookie and on your list he is in the Seniors. Without him and with Hore included in the Seniors we both have 34. Again Chandler is the difference in our count of Rookies. Include him and we both have 6. Total 40. We have maxed the A Rookies at 6, so have 2 senior spots to get us to the max allowed of 42 but no A rookie spots for now. Agreed we can open more senior and A rookie spots if we lose Hore and or Declase. If we lose both that gives us 4 list spots. The number of senior/ A rookie spots depends on how Chandler is classified.

Last year the rules were a bit different. This year Hore would need to go into the NAB Draft first and if not drafted he can be rookied.

I found the club's announcement a bit vague so have taken the Chandler re-signing as an A Rookie for one year, not as an upgrade to the senior list. What did I miss? Is there another report somewhere?

Thanks BMj. Not sure if I'm reading your post correctly. I'm still including Hore and Declase as they are officially still on our list. The mfc announcement is a bit vague on Chandler's status but for now have included him as a Rookie. So I make our count: 34 Senior players and 6 A Rookies. As an aside, B Rookies are additional to the max total allowed of 42. We can't substitute a senior or A rookie player for B rookies. So at this stage our total will be 42. Unless we move on Hore and Declase we have only 2 senior list spots and zero A Rookie spots.

Updated for today's signings: Baker and Bedford as senior players. Chandler, Turner, D. Smith, Daw as Rookies. All have been assumed to be for one year. The club's announcement is a little vague. If anyone has seen other official info on the above please let me know. This leaves Hore, Declase and Hibberd as unsigned altho it is reported that Hibberd has been offered a one year deal. On what I could find, today's signings don't change the List numbers or mix. We have 34 senior players and 6 A Rookies for a total of 40. The max allowed across those two categories is 42 so we have two (Senior) vacancies. To open more vacancies we would need to lose Declase or Hore.

I wouldn't put to much store on Dunstan's Brownlow and AFLCA votes. Other than Steel there was no competition. At the Demons he may get no votes as they are more likely to our top 6 players but will he be a better and more valuable player than when he plays than at the Saints..

Anyone know if he has nominated us as F/S and where he is likely to be called in the draft?

Got it! Will go back and fix. ;-)

Can't recall the exact details but the AFL require a club to use a 1st round pick every rolling 3 yr (i think) period. We had traded out 3 years of first round picks for Lever and May so were not allowed to bring forward the 2019 future pick. Or something like that. We were lucky that timing coincide with us finishing 17th.

I saw a snippet of a footy chat show where they said Demons are so far in front of other contenders. The latter need to do something significant in the trade period to even go close to catching up. But so far the contenders hadn't yet done much of significance to threaten next year. On a different note, Essendon is very quite. Hatching something?

GCS are stockpiling a mountain of 2022, 2nd, 3rd and 4th round picks (Their ownn, Pies and Freos).

This has the updates for: Mitch Brown 1 year Rookie contract Recruitment of Luke Dunstan for 2 years List and Draft details Posters have noted above some players have been offered contracts but not yet confirmed by the club. These are shown in green. An important thing to note are the List size Rules at the bottom. The overall allowed is 37 to 42 comprised of 36 to 38 Senior spots and 4-6 'A' Rookie spots. In addition 2 'B' Rookie spots can be added for 44. As we currently have the max allowed 6 'A' Rookie we have only 2 Senior list spots for a total of 40. More list spots become available if those rumoured to not have a contract, Hore, Smith and Chandler were to depart. However, we currently have 5 live draft picks. Pick 94 will go to upgrade Jordan. He was contracted for 2 years in April but we still need to use a draft pick to officiate he being a Senior player. This leaves us with 17, 37, 49, and 57. These picks may well change and/or 37, 49 and 57 are used for Woewodin and our NGA players. If so, we will need to free up more list spots. Will add Dunstan to the list of 'Ins' with the next update.

Agreed it is overplayed. As odd as it may sound our ball movement (especially overlapping hand ball chains) do not need accurate disposal skills. Our ball movement depends on players getting to space rather than accurate delivery by hand or foot.

I think our split was Performance (Richardson) and Operations (Mahoney) as the latter included List Mangement, Recuriting, Casey, VFL, AFLW. When Mahoney left the Operations role was split further. The List Management went to Lamb (the Brady Rawlings role) and the latter part went to McPherson. Not sure what title he had. It may be just terminology.

The NM restructure north-to-bolster-football-department

Our medi subs this year have usually been JJ, Sparrow, Jones, Melksham and Chandler. While Dunstan may not be a first 22 there is a likely to start as the medi sub in most games. I'm confident he will get senior games with us.

By then we might have a few flags and everyone will have forgotten the trading forward.

North have split their 'GM Football' into two streams as we did last year. McPherson has the same job Alan Richardson took up a year ago with us. It is a promotion for him and with it extra income. Up to last year when McPherson picked up some of Mahoney's role (the VFL/AFLW part), he was Football Manager which was largely an admin job (but important job) supporting the players and football department. He has a very good and diverse football background and am sure he will do well.