Grade your team's draft 2023

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You're a hard mark Birdy.
Wilson is one l wanted so I'm happy with that and though a bit meh on Collard he's definitely got talent and at p28 was probably the best still there.
Hastie looks excellent.
Garcia looks good for a pick 50
Shoenmaker an opportunistic roll of the dice.
From our rather average starting position trading up and landing Hastie was a great outcome.
Ditto getting a future 2nd for basically nothing.
I can't see what more we could have gained from this draft.
I think a B+ is a pretty good score

Their are plenty of pros about the draft but I can’t pretend there are no cons.

We won’t know for sure for at least 5 years. If Collard ends up a star and doesn’t get home sick, Schoenmaker can get his attitude right and Wilson ends up the quality mid we are crying out for than I’ll be happy to come back and give us an A+
 

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I think a B+ is a pretty good score

Their are plenty of pros about the draft but I can’t pretend there are no cons.

We won’t know for sure for at least 5 years. If Collard ends up a star and doesn’t get home sick, Schoenmaker can get his attitude right and Wilson ends up the quality mid we are crying out for than I’ll be happy to come back and give us an A+
Fairy nuff but that's over thinking it imho.
We could get anything from A+ to an F over enough time.
 
Harsh. In reality, especially given the available picks, I think you guys killed it
Yeah - given the picks Freo did well. But it's not exactly Walter, Read, Rogers, Graham.

Giving an overall grade for each team is like judging the winner of a marathon where most runner ran the 42 ks, some of the runners only ran the last mile, and a few blokes did it with an egg and spoon.
 
Yeah - given the picks Freo did well. But it's not exactly Walter, Read, Rogers, Graham.

Giving an overall grade for each team is like judging the winner of a marathon where most runner ran the 42 ks, some of the runners only ran the last mile, and a few blokes did it with an egg and spoon.
No it isn't but going by that reasoning, the point of this thread would be mute (moot). It'd basically come down to who had the highest value in points. I look at it as an overall thing.

You upgraded some shrapnel to allow you to get a huge slider in Murphy. A lot of respected people rated him much higher, great fit for needs too.

Cooper Simpson has flashes of Luke Shuey and you got one of the smartest and gifted forwards in the draft with Delean.

I'd be ******* wrapped if I had that result with your picks.
 
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No it isn't but going by that reasoning, the point of this thread would be mute. It'd basically come down to who had the highest value in points. I look at it as an overall thing.

You upgraded some shrapnel to allow you to get a huge slider in Murphy. A lot of respected people rated him much higher, great fit for needs too.

Cooper Simpson has flashes of Luke Shuey and you got one of the smartest and gifted forwards in the draft with Delean.

I'd be ******* wrapped if I had that result with your picks.
moot .... not mute, FFS :)
 
You're a hard mark Birdy.
Wilson is one l wanted so I'm happy with that and though a bit meh on Collard he's definitely got talent and at p28 was probably the best still there.
Hastie looks excellent.
Garcia looks good for a pick 50
Shoenmaker an opportunistic roll of the dice.
From our rather average starting position trading up and landing Hastie was a great outcome.
Ditto getting a future 2nd for basically nothing.
I can't see what more we could have gained from this draft.
Agree the Saints did very well with the draft hand they had.
 
There's no way Cats picked up 26 year old Shaun Mannagh to sit in the VFL?
A guy coming off 28 and 6 goals and BOG in VFL Grand Final no less.

The last time they picked up a mature aged bloke from Weribee who was way older than his cohorts was James Podsiadly and that seemed to work out ok?

He'll be pushing for best 22 right away.

I think Geelong have an excellent setup and wouldn’t be surprised if they get a far better than expected outcome with that pick.

However the expected outcome is that for a reason. Those picks don’t work out all that often and what that pick was worth in trade to Essendon is based on the player they (Essendon) would have selected.

I have no knowledge of who that would have been. Perhaps one of the players they took, perhaps someone taken before their first selection.

If you add the edwards trade package as part of the equation, Essendon gave up something like 10 draft spots (in the 30s ) and a future 4th for the opportunity to take caddy over O’Sullivan.

Given the desperate need not to get a key defender and the overall value of 4th round picks that’s a fairly insignificant loss for Essendon so seems like a win win
 

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Happy with our draft. Addressed the age gap in the midfield, in particular another pure inside beast whom we do not have outside of Libba. Losing Libba hurt us way more than losing Bont does. He is the biggest cog to the Bulldogs midfield. Really rate Sanders work ethic on and off the ball. Plus his ability to find a team mate from inside the packs.

Not sure what is up with the cockiness of Essendon fans over Lual. Don't recall seeing any big melts on our board over him. And you didn't "steal" him. Dogs were not even interested full stop. They made zero attempts to move up despite having the ammunition to do so. Club made it clear we were focusing on fixing up skills and speed in the forward half of the ground in the lead up to the draft. Not adding to our glut of HB flankers (our most stacked position).

Freijah was high on our draft board, even if Lual was bid on at 41, we would not have matched as we wanted a winger. I didn't want him personally. He kicks at a shocking 57% efficiency by foot off HB, where you get some of the easier kicks. Happy he got a chance elsewhere though, very nice guy and worked hard to get where he has.

Friejah gives another needed wing option for the Dogs. And a tall one which seems to be a bit of a trend these days. Whilst not super quick, does have the motor to run all day. Is a matter of whether we can get him to be more consistent. He was up and down at times. Still not condident in our wing group regardless, for the lack of leg speed.

Like Smiths physicality as a Ruck. Over seeing tall players being too timid. You got the size, use it. Will be a long term project though. Hopefully no ruck injury crisis this year. Not sold on his aerial ability and tap work vs guys who have a bigger leap. Will he get his hands on it first or be outjumped each time?

O'Driscoll is interesting. Small, but rates highly in many athletic attributes.

7.8/10 for me. Addressed speed and two way running across 3 of the four draftees. Probably the most content I have been with our draft in years.
 
C/C+ considering where our picks were at.

We've invested on a hybrid tall in ZZ and medium talls in Lloyd, Morris. If one of these come good to become best 22, we would've done well out of this draft.

Reece is a late arrival to footy so hoping for a high upside punt. Lets see how it pans out.
 
I'd give our draft a D+ but this is giving consideration to our trade period.

We entered the trade period with (before bids, compo etc.) pick 5, 14 and two second rounders. The club had a major hard-on for Harley Reid but couldn't get a deal done. Our backup plan was to trade into the top 4 by offering our pick 6+FRP to do it but no one took the bait.

In an act of charity, Tim Lamb helped enable the Suns take 4 kids in the first round by exchanging picks 14, 27 and 35 for pick 11.

After bids our first pick fell to 7 and the club took a winger that no one had in the top 10 on their big board. He is kinda quick, sometimes his kicking is excellent but other games it is pox. He also struggles to win the ball at u18s so who knows how well his game will translate to AFL.

I think he would have still been on the board if we traded back our pick to one of the clubs that were frothing for Curtin, which would have given us more draft capital for next year. I think not exchanging this pick for the Weagles FRP will be a mistake.

With our next pick we got Tholstrup. He looks ok. Not sure if the vision for him is to be a HF or onballer. Highlights were kind of underwhelming. He wasn't really part of the elite junior pathway so there might be some untapped potential. Physical traits and competiveness seem good.

I still think he would have been on the board if we burn all our draft capital to move up 3 spots though.

And then our rookie picks.

Melksham looks like an absolute jet. He will be tearing up the competition for years to come.

Kynan Brown as a F/S is a free hit. He played well at u18s but he is a short and scrawny inside mid and I don't think he has the physical tools to continue in that role at AFL level. He might be able to re-invent himself as a defensive forward or dour backpocket.
 
I'd give our draft a D+ but this is giving consideration to our trade period.

We entered the trade period with (before bids, compo etc.) pick 5, 14 and two second rounders. The club had a major hard-on for Harley Reid but couldn't get a deal done. Our backup plan was to trade into the top 4 by offering our pick 6+FRP to do it but no one took the bait.

In an act of charity, Tim Lamb helped enable the Suns take 4 kids in the first round by exchanging picks 14, 27 and 35 for pick 11.

After bids our first pick fell to 7 and the club took a winger that no one had in the top 10 on their big board. He is kinda quick, sometimes his kicking is excellent but other games it is pox. He also struggles to win the ball at u18s so who knows how well his game will translate to AFL.

I think he would have still been on the board if we traded back our pick to one of the clubs that were frothing for Curtin, which would have given us more draft capital for next year. I think not exchanging this pick for the Weagles FRP will be a mistake.

With our next pick we got Tholstrup. He looks ok. Not sure if the vision for him is to be a HF or onballer. Highlights were kind of underwhelming. He wasn't really part of the elite junior pathway so there might be some untapped potential. Physical traits and competiveness seem good.

I still think he would have been on the board if we burn all our draft capital to move up 3 spots though.

And then our rookie picks.

Melksham looks like an absolute jet. He will be tearing up the competition for years to come.

Kynan Brown as a F/S is a free hit. He played well at u18s but he is a short and scrawny inside mid and I don't think he has the physical tools to continue in that role at AFL level. He might be able to re-invent himself as a defensive forward or dour backpocket.
I also found Melbourne's pick trading very confusing. It looked like it was part of some grand plan that never eventuated. Harley was always out of reach, but I thought you may end up doing a trade with us to get Duursma and leave us Curtin.
 
Hawthorn filled needs with all three picks. Who knows how good they will be, but at least the LM responded to the gaps we clearly have.

Quire lucky that we needed KPP and both our F/S were tall.
 
Happy we took Reid in the end. Eagles rarely get a crack at a #1 pick.

Unhappy we couldnt strike a deal for Curtin. Stars didnt line up for us and we still hold our F1st.

Unhappy to miss the opportunity to match on Collard.

Ok with A Reid at 30. KP forward / ruck will take time but highly rated.

Happy with Hall, not happy we needed to add a F3rd to move up one spot in the mid 30's..

Qk with Johnson at 54ish, seems like a solid kid.

Happy we signed Trey Rusco and Jason Gilbee to come through the WAFL team. A LTI spot or a mid season spot comes open thats what they are fighting for. Good to have hungry players at every level.

So overall Harley is the star of the draft for sure. But after that I have mixed feelings of opportunities missed.

But you can only control so much and the kids we brought in all seem to be hard workers and of good character. Exciting times. Half the list now under 21.
 
Tom Stewart - Pick 40
Brad Close - Rookie Pick 14
Jack Henry - Rookie Pick 16
Mark O'Connor - Cat B Rookie
Gryan Miers - Pick 57
Mark Blicavs - Cat B Rookie
Zach Guthrie - Rookie Pick 33
Jake Kolodjashnij - Pick 41
Tom Atkins - Rookie Pick 11
Jed Bews - Pick 86

All Premiership players and all taken Pick 40 or lower. I'd say he's pretty good at what he does.

Wells is a gun from the 2nd round onwards.

Has blown a few 1st rounders though.......
 
Would give Essendon a B.

Caddy was a need and perhaps we gave up a little bit too much but I am happy to finally give something up to get what is needed.

Loul and Roberts give us the flankers we also needed.

Big Visentini in the rookie draft gives us the ruck prospect we probably needed.

All were needs and none were reaches.
 
In a shallow draft we’ve continued to strengthen our hand in next years draft, and added two exciting youngsters.
We’ve also had Hopper for 12 months.
A+
A+ more than a bit extreme but I was extremely happy with what we managed to do with what we had, after trading out the previous year. Next years draft is said to be pretty strong (as is said every year!!) but to trade into it, very happy. McAuliffe looks a very likely type too.
 
A+ more than a bit extreme but I was extremely happy with what we managed to do with what we had, after trading out the previous year. Next years draft is said to be pretty strong (as is said every year!!) but to trade into it, very happy. McAuliffe looks a very likely type too.

Next year's draft is midfield heavy though I believe. Is that what you need after investing in Taranto/Hopper?
 

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