Ted Lasso

I just listened and that sounded to me like a bit of a "do the deal eagles" jab. mind you i wouldn't be completely unhappy if we did happen to grab Curtin at 6, though i'm one of the people who really like the look of him as a key forward, he's a good key back, but just something about him as a forward really caught my eye

The McKercher vs Duursma battle is interesting although not really related to pick 1 at this stage, I honestly think the pending Tasmanian license would be a thought in the minds of teams looking at Tassie guys in this draft, they'll come in with an open cheque book and you'd think that Colby McKercher with a few years development is going to be right up the point y end of their targets. I don't know if this is significant enough to lean one way or the other with the above pair, but i think the two recent expansion teams have shown that really good, big name players can be lured out by expansion clubs and big deals. Hense the MFC locking up all their players long term and the Pies getting the Daicos boys locked away early

I take your point, i think 13 and 11 could easily go either way, and i don't think many at the MFC would be dissapointed with Windsor or O'Sullivan

The Dwight phantom draft for 2023 - assuming no live trading, which there will be. Harley Reid (WCE) Jed Walter (GCS) Colby McKercher (NM) Zane Duursma (NM) Daniel Curtin (Haw) Nick Watson (WB) Ethan Read (GCS) James Leake (MFC) Nate Caddy (GWS) Riley Sanders (GEE) Caleb Windsor (ESS) Darcy Wilson (AFC) Conner O'Sullivan (MFC) I think Essendons greatest list need now is a classy, quick, pure wingman so they'll target Windsor with pick 11 Adelaide apparently really like Darcy Wilson and i expect their next pick they'll target Ollie Murphy and get another key back I have Conner O'Sullivan sliding due to Wilson, Leake and WIndsor all flying up the ranks I fully expect West Coast to trade pick 1 and us to attempt to move up the draft order in some capacity.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the strong likelihood is that pick would be top 2 in 2024 draft and could well be pick 1. the likelihood West Coast somehow improve well enough for us to not get a better return than pick 6 is very low in my view

We were a whole lot closer to the mark than a semi final exit would suggest in my view, we probably SHOULD have won both finals, but didn't handle the big moments all that well and missed some big chances. also one of our better players getting knocked out early in a final by an action that was at best, ridiculous doesn't help anything. i know it's a controversial view but i think it speaks directly to the integrity of the AFL competition that they forgot about Brayden Maynards duty of care to Gus conveniently because he's an important player to Collingwood during a finals series. I would be very very confident that would have been a suspension if it was a St Kilda player and it was during the season

I'm very sold on Leake at 6 and Windsor at 11. i think that's a great outcome

That is elite.

He's a lot like Gussy Brayshaw, probably more silky, and not quite as bash and crash, but the way he swings onto his left and a lot of his movement has some Gus about it.

His footy IQ is through the roof, the thing that really stands out to me watching his highlights is how much faster he reads the play than anyone else on the ground!

What planet are you on? haha

Pick 2 alone is worth our two picks this year, and given next years pick will likely be the same as either one of Norths extra picks, they're ahead of us on value by a long way. Especially considering whoever their target is besides Reid, they'll be able to get them guaranteed with the North deal. Ours is a strong offer, but theirs is significantly better

Honestly James Leake looks like a better forward than Nate Caddy. re-watching his highlights i'd definitely take him 6, he looks like he could be a really good player in any area of the ground. reminds me of Shaun Burgoyne in that way

Why would West Coast accept an offer now? unless it's 2,3, 15, 17, 18 for pick 1 they are just going to wait and see the best offers with a clear idea of who will slide to where and what they might actually get out of the package.

I honestly think the money was a huge factor in this rather than just pure go home factor, not that he'd admit it publicly, i suspect we will be putting a lucrative extension in front of him fairly soon and if he chooses not to sign on, we'll look to trade him at the end of 2024 I also expect we'll look to extend Van Rooyen out early next year as well long term

If Sanders is earmarked by the Dogs for 5, which may well be true, because the kid is a gun, it means one of Curtin or Watson is going to slide to us. i suspect that's who we will take. there is definitely talk the club rates Caddy highly though so i wouldn't rule out a trade up. if we could flip 11 into 7 we could get Caddy and Curtin and that'd be a pretty good result overall.

He just isn't that sort of player, he's much more like Jake Stringer as i said earlier, he's a hybrid small/tall forward. the style he plays is closer to Bailey Fritsch than it is to Jacob Van Rooyen.

Yes, because i have seen him play... he's actually a similar height to Jacob Van Rooyen but they're very different players

Both Curtin and O'Sullivan can play the key forward role better than Caddy can. he's not a key forward, he doesn't quite fit into any of the traditional player catagories, he's not good enough to be a pure mid, and he's probably a 3rd tall as a forward which we already have covered with Smith/Fritsh/Melksham/McAdam

I think it's going to be a two pronged approach, i think we will draft Sanders and someone with a bit more X factor with pick 11 and continue to build our cap space. i think the plan will be to be pretty aggressive post 2024. we weren't miles off the pace this year and could have won the flag with a better injury run, you'd expect JVR and Petty will be better, Kozzie and co will continue to develop and some tweaks to the game plan should see us be around the mark again.

A better comparison is Jake Stringer, i don't think we will take Caddy unless he is there at pick 11. there is no universe where he's a better player than Riley Sanders

I don't think we'd put ourselves into the position we will be in with a huge amount of cap space to spend and also trade out our future first, we will want the assets in the event we get a big name on the hook. I'd say it'll be one of two scenarios, 1. we take 6 and 11 to the draft 2. we trade 6 and 11 for a pick higher up the order for example 2, and take 2 and 42 to the draft

I think the order would be different for everyone, but i'd have Duursma as the second best player, he's a match winner. but it'd be very close.

In my view the best 4 players in this draft are Harley Reid, Zane Duursma, Colby McKercher and Riley Sanders, the fact we can almost certainly get Sanders with our pick 6 does make just keeping those picks appealing. if we could bring in Sanders and add some key back depth with Murphy i think that's a really solid outcome with these two picks. having said that i think trading up is a very real possibility

In: about 1 million in cap space, 3 players who fill clear needs and have significant upside, a strong draft hand with two of the top 10 live picks. Tim Lamb is a master of the trade period