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Analysis 2025 Draft watch

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Fox Footy Phantom draft Monday morning …


As to Eagles, they are said to genuinely want Harry Dean at Pick 3 (of the Phantom):

“In the mix/trade watch: This is why Carlton has moved out of Picks 9 and 11, for the Dean bid is set to come a lot earlier than the Blues had hoped. Yet the Eagles genuinely want Dean as he is no doubt the type of player that would fill a list need, so they’ll ask the Blues to pay up. While it’s meant the Blues have had to move quickly in recent days to find more draft points from other clubs, sources spoken to by foxfooty.com.au believe the Eagles’ move is justified, with Dean ranked at the pointy end of many club draft boards. This all means Cooper Duff-Tytler will now likely wait another pick before being officially drafted.“

Ison at Pick 22 in predicted first round of 29.
I put the picks in this exact order (including all bids) until Ison is matched by us into the draft simulator Pommy made.

Also assumed the trades were:
9 and 43 for 21, 27 and 30 (with *)
11 for 25 and F2 (with North)

After the Ison match we would be left with Picks 47 and 49 in this draft. These might come in a bit when any other bids are matched post-Ison.
 
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Not disagreeing at all, just hoping that Austin and co have a line for Dean where they won't overpay. But if they rate him best in the draft then any bid is a bargain.

I'm purely coming at the discussion that we stay true to our own rankings, because what may be left could still be very good business.
Hey Ninja boy, since you’re disagreeing with everything I’ve said. Care to elaborate what you’re disagreeing with on this post? Thanks in advance… 🥷
 

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I doubt any recruiting manager is wasting a top 3 selection to be "tactical". If Dean is selected in that range, it's because a club rates him there.
The advantages of upper echelon picks are too highly guarded to risk being diminished for a risky strategy. If you bid on a player, you better be willing to accept him at that selection.
 
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Who is suggesting anything like that?

It's an exaggeration, but there's a little nugget of truth in there. Once the footy stops, the focus turns to winning trade week. Once trade week is done, the focus turns to getting as many shiny new toys as possible, with a mix of "we need to take a bunch of first round picks" and "I reckon this guy nobody is talking about and who is barely rated for the rookie draft has the potential to be the steal of the draft".

There's clearly a portion of the fanbase who feel that walking away with Dean and Ison is a poor result because "we were always going to get them - so failing to get more is a failure in strategy". I can sympathise with that approach a little, but contextually people need to just understand that our two "reserved" players exceeded expectations this year and as a result their value increased. It's a double-edged sword - we pay more, but they're probably more progressed and ready to play than we thought, and there will be more confidence in their long-term prospects than if they'd been scratching around the school leagues doing not much.

I can also understand those suggesting we consider passing on Dean if the bid is too early. Or...I would if I felt the draft warranted it. I've got massive doubts even over the "consensus number one pick" in Duursma.

When you look at the names "before" Dean - Duursma is a utility with question marks over his best position, Duff-Tytler is a specialist ruck and a lot of clubs are hesitant to invest big in those at 18yo, Uwland/Annable/Patterson are all tied to other clubs as well, Robey has bolted from local footy to top 5 chance, which is a great story but who's to say it's not a flash in the pan and a reversion is on the cards. Calling Dean's name ahead of any of those is hardly an aberration. Those wanting to pass on him at 3 or 4 are assuming that 9 and 11 will then get us two very specific players, with no guarantees that would be the case. And even then, those players in the 10-15 range have plenty of question marks as well.

But, you know, passing on Dean, taking two speculative picks in the teens, and maybe needing to carry a deficit into 2026 after matching a bid for Ison could be described as "bold", or even "brave". Or something like that.
 
Happens every year. No matter what we do people want more.

We have got Hayward, Reidy, Florent, Ainsworth, Chesser and a heap of first round picks plus others. We will get Dean & Ison (both highly rated) in a weak draft and will probably pick up two more players via rookie or SSP that we need. We have so many under 21s, we don't need more at the moment

We will get Jagga in (like a new draftee), have a whole new development program supporting a group of young kids that is as deep and as good as any in the AFL

It is Jagga, Wilson, Carroll, HOF, HOK, Charleson, Cowan, Campo twins, Moir, Lord etc that we should be excited about. They now have 2 -3 pre seasons under them and with new development and depth should start to shine.

We have cut out the cultural issues and are setting new standards

We now have picks for Walker next year (likely No.1 pick) plus a heap more to do whatever we need. This on top of 2 first rounders in 2027. This on top of a Salary Cap with heaps of room.

If you had offered me this at end of September I would have jumped at it and run
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Whether we like it or not, Dean is not only the best key defender in this draft, he's also arguably the best key position player in this crop. He is also one of the safest players in the upper echelons of this draft class. There aren't many players that I see as being bust proof 200 game AFL players, but Dean is one of that select group.

He's absolutely worth a bid in the top three of this draft. It will hurt in the short term, but we will forget the pain soon.
 
I put the picks in this exact order (including all bids) until Ison is matched by us into the draft simulator Pommy made.

Also assumed the trades were:
9 and 43 for 21, 27 and 30 (with *)
11 for 25 and F2 (with North)

After the Ison match we would be left with Picks 47 and 49 in this draft. These might come in a bit when any other bids are matched post-Ison.

Bids coming earlier then expected. Makes sense why we've gone the route of amassing points.

I wonder if we give Sydney back as much as we did in the Curnow trade if we knew this would be the scenario? Its kind of hamstrung us.
 
Bids coming earlier then expected. Makes sense why we've gone the route of amassing points.

I wonder if we give Sydney back as much as we did if we knew this woukd be the scenario? Its kind of hamstrung us.
Teams have finally caught on that letting the likes of Daicos and Ashcroft go through the first few picks was extremely stupid the year Carlton finally have a top father-son/academy pick. Nothing surer
 

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Pommy has us likely taking a third player in the 25-35 range, who is everyone's preference?

Can't claim "finding" him, but someone dropped the name Oudshoorn-Bennier earlier in the year and I've kept half an eye out for any little updates and highlights packages on him. Think he'd be a very suitable pickup for us in that range - and while it might be something of a "reach", this seems to be a draft where a player's ranking is incredibly subjective and varied.

He's a quick, agile mid with an attacking mindset, clean hands, accurate and penetrating kicking, good decision-making and strong leadership creds. Defensive game is probably where he falls away a bit, but I think that's more "teachable" than taking a defensive-first mid and trying to turn them into an evasive and classy attacking weapon.

OB probably coexists quite well with Jagga, Walker and Lord as a long-term midfield group - he'd be a great outlet for Jagga and Walker to be feeding the ball to, and Lord will likely be groomed as our defensive on-baller to allow the others to play more aggressively.

Was also a Port fan....so getting him in and spending some time with Boak could be a really profitable approach.
 
So lets get this right from Twomey. We are looking to help with Scum.

Ok i have heard it all. Come right up, Come right up. Bargains at Carlton.

Far out when are we gonna be ruthless.

Teams pay a premium for 1st round picks and we are giving them up for late 1st rounders and seconds.

As for WC, who embarassly asked the AFL for assistance after not long winning a grand final as they are inept. And we never got any help. And they have been helped by getting pick 2 for an ordinary but good player.

And now they are being tough and wanting to stuff Carlton up?

Wish we had that two faced mentality and shameless mentality.
 

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So lets get this right from Twomey. We are looking to help with Scum.

Ok i have heard it all. Come right up, Come right up. Bargains at Carlton.

Far out when are we gonna be ruthless.

Teams pay a premium for 1st round picks and we are giving them up for late 1st rounders and seconds.

As for WC, who embarassly asked the AFL for assistance after not long winning a grand final as they are inept. And we never got any help. And they have been helped by getting pick 2 for an ordinary but good player.

And now they are being tough and wanting to stuff Carlton up?

Wish we had that two faced mentality and shameless mentality.

Mate, relax. We're not going to help them unless it also helps us. Simple as that. Mutually-beneficial trades are the preference for pretty much all List Managers - find something that helps us both and leave all the dick-measuring to idiots like Dodo and Macky.
 

Arguably the best in the business draft expert content creator and he is a Blues supporter. He is very good
 

Arguably the best in the business draft expert content creator and he is a Blues supporter. He is very good

Okay. Thought is was someone on here I hadn't heard of
 
Will we have pick then? If we trade 9 & 11 and Dean is picked by WCE not sure we will have any picks in that range left

And it's not even Dean so much that is affecting our next pick, it's Ison.
If we were confident that h'e make it till the 3rd round, it would make a pretty dramatic change to our strategy. But it's looking like he's going to get called night 1.
So we're getting 2 First rounders.
 

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