List Mgmt. 2025 GWS Giants List Management - Academy, Free Agent, Trade & Draft

[Giant Strides]

Jake Stringer

20

Jake Stringer

Age

31

Ht

192cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.9

3star

K

8.5

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.5

4star

G

1.8

5star

D

8.5

2star

K

7.0

3star

HB

1.5

1star

M

2.8

3star

T

3.8

4star

G

2.5

5star

D

7.2

2star

K

4.8

2star

HB

2.4

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

1.4

4star

G

1.4

5star

selected!

That's us out.

 

[Andre the Giant]

Ludowyke went to Adelaide.

Yes I know but it was the pick just before ours, I wonder if we still wanted him

 

[Orange crush]

Jake Stringer selected!

That's us out.

Stone in the rookie draft?

 

[Giant Strides]

Stone in the rookie draft?

Yes, that's what I presume.

 

[Danny88]

That's what they said about us. Everyone assumed we would have the retention problems and the Gold Coast would be fine.

We ended up with a much better retention rate than they did in the first decade.

It's not about location, it's about club culture. Tassie gets that right and they'll be fine.

They all live in Bondi or the inner west

Who the hell wants to live in Hobart? All their young kids want to leave tassie

It’s not really an apt comparison

 

[Comedy Capers]

Caruso is on borrowed time.
Only a 1st and 3rd rounder in next years draft.

IF Leake and Gothard don't kick on next year, their 3rd year, he should be out.

Signing Muff to a two year extension when he still has a year to run was madness.

People will say we have depth but most depth players arent even C graders.

 

[Orange crush]

Caruso is on borrowed time.
Only a 1st and 3rd rounder in next years draft.

IF Leake and Gothard don't kick on next year, their 3rd year, he should be out.

Signing Muff to a two year extension when he still has a year to run was madness.

People will say we have depth but most depth players arent even C graders.

Strong name to content correlation

 

[Giant Strides]

Only a 1st and 3rd rounder in next years draft.

We traded our second round pick this year with Suns for Melbourne's second round pick next year, didn't we? Before trading out our own second round pick to Hawks?

So, we should have our first round pick and a much earlier second round pick next year. Third gone for Clarry, fourth gone to move up for Davis.

Yeah I don't 100% agree with some of Caruso's moves, but those are not the biggest crimes. Albeit, potentially unnecessary.

 

[Bjo187]

Caruso is on borrowed time.
Only a 1st and 3rd rounder in next years draft.

IF Leake and Gothard don't kick on next year, their 3rd year, he should be out.

Signing Muff to a two year extension when he still has a year to run was madness.

People will say we have depth but most depth players arent even C graders.

Just looking today at when Caruso got the gig, it was post 2016 the year in which the club was regularly said to have the most talented list in the history of the game.

 

[Giant Strides]

Yep, those pick trades confirmed:

2026 draft order: Where your club's picks sit as Hawks, Blues load up

Check out the draft order for next year after the pick swaps in the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

FUTURE SELECTIONS TRADED​

	IN	OUT
GWS Giants	- 2026 second-round pick from GC (tied to Melb)	2026 second-round pick to Haw 2026 third-round pick to Melb 2026 fourth-round pick to Coll

So, deathride Melbourne in 2026!

 

[Andre the Giant]

No

Yep, those pick trades confirmed:

2026 draft order: Where your club's picks sit as Hawks, Blues load up

Check out the draft order for next year after the pick swaps in the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

FUTURE SELECTIONS TRADED​

	IN	OUT
GWS Giants	- 2026 second-round pick from GC (tied to Melb)	2026 second-round pick to Haw 2026 third-round pick to Melb 2026 fourth-round pick to Coll

So, deathride Melbourne in 2026!

That’s not a bad bet they should struggle next year

 

[Giant Strides]

From Gold Coast’s golden academy, to the club that didn’t pick at all: Analysing every club’s 2025 draft

All up, 60 footballers found an AFL home in the most compromised national draft in history. We look at each club’s haul and hear from recruiting and list managers to explain their strategies.

www.smh.com.au

National recruiting manager Adrian Caruso: “We draft on traits, and those guys have got the traits. So while right now, you look at Finn Davis as a hybrid back, and Oscar Taylor as a running back; their traits indicate to us that there’s scope for them to play other roles. Whether that’s Oscar in the midfield or on the wing, or Finn in the midfield, or on the wing, or as a running back, rather than that more hybrid back.”

 

[dlanod]

Signing Muff to a two year extension when he still has a year to run was madness.

That's not Caruso BTW.

 

[captainMyCaptain]

 

[captainMyCaptain]

Just looking today at when Caruso got the gig, it was post 2016 the year in which the club was regularly said to have the most talented list in the history of the game.

That's also when our list size and academy zone was greatly reduced.

While I haven't agreed with every move Caruso has made, he has done more good than bad.
With his work including bringing in Sam Taylor, Idun, Jones, Daniels, Ash, Green, Cadman, Finn, Riccardi, Buckley.

 

[Giant Strides]

If Hamilton comes in as Cat B, then one of the current Cat Bs must be getting promoted to Cat A - presumably Joey Delana, rather than Nathan Wardius.

Cat A list would then be: Madden (already there), Delana (coming up from B), Stone (selected in rookie draft) and Jayden Laverde

15

Jayden Laverde

Age

29

Ht

193cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.8

3star

K

6.3

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.8

4star

MG

152.8

2star

D

8.8

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.5

3star

MG

116.5

2star

D

11.2

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

5.8

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

3.6

5star

MG

141.2

3star

(presumably selected in PSSP).

So, we're going into 2026 with just the 2 tall defenders as backup, but add another medium forward to our burgeoning list of small/medium forwards.

 

[captainMyCaptain]

If Hamilton comes in as Cat B, then one of the current Cat Bs must be getting promoted to Cat A - presumably Joey Delana, rather than Nathan Wardius.

Cat A list would then be: Madden (already there), Delana (coming up from B), Stone (selected in rookie draft) and Jayden Laverde (presumably selected in PSSP).

So, we're going into 2026 with just the 2 tall defenders as backup, but add another medium forward to our burgeoning list of small/medium forwards.

The way we have gone into so many drafts where we still think guys are Cat B but it turns out that's no longer the case.
Starting to wonder if as soon as they sign their second contract they are no longer a Cat B rookie.

 

[Capital hawk]

How does the long-term injury clause work? We are going into a season with three players who will not be available for most of the year.

 

[PaythePerryman]

That's not Caruso BTW.

I don't really get the Caruso hate in here?

Hasn't drafted that badly. The risk to go get Cadman.
Darcy Jones.
Callaghan.

The only one that I really hate is Gothard but
1. We haven't seen him yet
2. You are going to miss on guys....it happens.
3. He's got a tougher job than most with picking guys he thinks will stay long term.

 

[dlanod]

Starting to wonder if as soon as they sign their second contract they are no longer a Cat B rookie.

It's not an automatic thing - different clubs have kept players as Cat B rookies for years.

 

[captainMyCaptain]

I don't really get the Caruso hate in here?

Hasn't drafted that badly. The risk to go get Cadman.
Darcy Jones.
Callaghan.

The only one that I really hate is Gothard but
1. We haven't seen him yet
2. You are going to miss on guys....it happens.
3. He's got a tougher job than most with picking guys he thinks will stay long term.

Given your profile pic that's far too much self loathing

 

[GWS Goose]

That's not Caruso BTW.

and the coach loves him.

We have made the finals 8 out of the 10 years he has been the list manager.

In that time, we completely changed how we wanted to play and revamped the squad completely.

Not picking the guys high on the fox ratings or rated in media doesnt make you a bad judge.

This time last year he was being criticised for picking Angove. By about April we figured out he is a pretty good player.

Ditto Jones 2 years back

 

[GWS Goose]

I don't really get the Caruso hate in here?

Hasn't drafted that badly. The risk to go get Cadman.
Darcy Jones.
Callaghan.

The only one that I really hate is Gothard but
1. We haven't seen him yet
2. You are going to miss on guys....it happens.
3. He's got a tougher job than most with picking guys he thinks will stay long term.

And internally they are still positive on Gothard.

The hit rate at picks in the teens is not even 50/50, so even if he is wrong, it is not unexpected.

The Caruso hate is crazy.

 

[captainMyCaptain]

Explaining why the Giants chose to trade higher up into the draft, Caruso explained: “It was a little bit about Harry Kyle as well, (we thought) maybe there was the potential that he might not have been matched and obviously we wanted him. And then I suppose the gap for us between Oskar and our next best player was pretty big so we didn't want to run the risk of missing out on him.”

"Draft on traits": GWS express excitement over addition of versatile half-back pair

The Giants selected two Victorian defenders at the AFL National Draft.

www.zerohanger.com

 

[GWS Goose]

Our picks
2016: Taranto and a bunch of academy players, Perryman, Cumming and Setterfield. Tizani and De Boer late. That is a fantastic haul by any measure aided by the academy kids
2017: Bonar, Taylor and Daniels (both in the late 20's), Zac Langdon

7

Zac Langdon

Age

30

Ht

177cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

6.3

2star

K

3.3

1star

HB

3.0

3star

M

1.3

2star

T

3.3

5star

G

0.3

3star

D

6.3

1star

K

3.3

1star

HB

3.0

2star

M

1.3

1star

T

3.3

4star

G

0.3

3star

D

6.3

2star

K

3.3

2star

HB

3.0

3star

M

1.3

2star

T

3.3

5star

G

0.3

3star

(who was useful) late and Nick Shipley as an academy.
Taylor and Daniels alone make that a great draft.
2018: Jye Caldwell

6

Jye Caldwell

Age

25

Ht

183cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.3

3star

K

6.8

3star

HB

6.5

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.7

5star

CL

1.8

4star

D

14.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

7.3

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.3

4star

CL

1.8

4star

D

13.6

4star

K

7.0

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

3.8

5star

CL

1.6

4star

(whose 2 second round trade picks became Finn) Hately, XOH, Hill, Briggs and Idun Late A terrific bunch of players selected, unfortunately we lost Hill and Caldwell, but got a bit back for them. The only criticism of that draft is that players selected were not retained. But still, Briggs, Idun and XOH are mainstays of our team.
2019:Ash, Green, Riccardi and Hutcheson. Green an academy helps, but that is a terrific draft haul.
2020: Bruhn, Stone, Angwin, Wehr and Fleeton. (COVID Year) We got a first rounder for Bruhn back, Stone, Angwin and Wehr have given value with Stone and Angwin on the list. Given how weak the draft is proving to be, that is at least a pass.
2021 (Getting to the point where it hasn't played out): Finn C, Leek and Fahey, Finn is a super star, Leek still on the list. Finn alone makes it a great draft
2022: Cadman, Jones, Gruz, Rowsten and McMullen Very early to tell, but they love all of them internally and are very open about how bullish they are on all with the exception of Gruz (who they may like, but havent been as vocal)
2023: Gothard, Leak, Fonti and Thomas This is the one that people talk about, but worse case Gothard bombs, Leake has resigned, Fonti and Thomas are handy and it is still a decent draft.
2024: Hannford, Oliver, Angove, Ough and Smith. Way too early to tell, the one who Caruso copped heat on was Angove, it looks like he is a ripper.

That is some very good drafting that would be as good as any club.

hence a really deep list and perpetual finals