Game Day The 2025 Draft Day Thread

[UseR2006]

And a song to sing as we watch,

Hey Matty Clarke by Kevin (Random260) Wilson :

Hey Matty Clarke you campaigner, where the **** is Sharp
I’ve looked at all these other spuds and there’s no one that I like
I wrote you a ****ing letter and posted about it twice
You dopey ****ing Richmond fart, you forgot my ****ing Sharp

If I wanted a stupid ruckman type, I would’ve bloody asked
And this half back flank and temu mid, you can shove right up your arse
You’ve stuffed the bloody order up, it’s enough to make you spew
But it’s not just me who’s snakey, SGIO is dirty too

Next time I come to see ya, I’m going to punch you in the guts
And I’ll sack the other recruiting knobs and kick Toddy in the nuts
You just wait 'til next year when you go back to the draft
And me and me little GIO come stomping through the door
And we'll say, yeah, you wait for it

Hey Pyke and Woosh you smell his breath
And check his bloodshot eyes
And don't listen to him eagles fans 'cause he tells ****ing lies
He's just a ****ing useless campaigner and he's not even very bright
'Cause the stupid ****in' w***er, forgot me ****in' Sharp

Hey Matty Clarke you campaigner, where the **** is Sharp
I’ve looked at all these other spuds and there’s no one that I like
I wrote you a ****ing letter and posted about it twice
You dopey ****ing Richmond fart, you forgot my ****ing Sharp

A Quick Ai rendition: https://suno.com/s/blQP3cSnulhqYb5g
It's funny how it interrupted the lyrics XD

 

[WCE_4_EVER]

Far out give it a break you lot
Complaining and whining at not getting kids who got drafted in the 40s in a supposedly weak draft class.
Eagles had first hand access to these kids, if we don’t rate them so be it. Maybe they don’t fit what we are trying to do on the field with our game plan and all that.
Iam disappointed like the rest of yous
But it really isn’t the end of the world
Like there’s reasons why both Evan’s and banners got drafted in the 40s
So just suck it up
and get around our new blokes

 

[Shueygod]

****ing lol at the melts over losing blokes rated 40 in the worst draft possibly ever. These blokes are barely RD worthy last year.

 

[SAweagle]

Here you go, Some Draft Melts for everyone to relax to now that it is all done.

West Coast Draft Melts

Listen and make your own on Suno.

suno.com

Still better than the birds of tokyo abombination

 

[WCE777]

I’ve been on the should’ve rookied Cripps for a long time. Longer than most if I’m honest, so I’m not going to defend that piece of list management as we’d have either Evans or Banfield had we done so. I’m especially disappointed we’ve missed Banfield, it’s a massive fumble

A lot will depend on how Sam Allen develops given we ranked him higher than Banfield and Evans. Possibly Williams as well who we obviously rated the highest of our club tied players

That said, have a look at who’s still on the board:
• Hibbins-Hargreaves
• Rodriguez
• Krasnadamskis
• Greeves
• Ainsworth (Sam)
• Ainsworth (Oscar)
• Hetherton
• Onley
• Blamires

We have first pick of that group - some of them were being talked as options for us at pick 29. So there’s good choices there,assuming we use the pick which we absolutely should

Wes Walley, who was the highest rated of our NGAs to start the year will also be added as a cat B

Could we have delisted Barnett? Possibly, but we’ve decided to give him another year as big men can take time

I really am pissed we lost Banfield but over the offseason we have/will brought in

• Starcevich
• Young
• Robertson
• Macrae
• Schoenberg
• Duursma
• Duff-Tytler
• Lindsay
• Allen
• Williams
• Walley
• RD pick 1 - TBA

It’s far from a train wreck

100% agree with this.

Not going to defend the inept list management decisions that cost us Banfield and Evans, our best ever NGA/FS prospects.
I needed a beer quick after that 2nd night and will reflect over coming days.

The rookie draft looks very enticing for a shallow draft and feel there is a bargain or 2 in there.

Sam Ainsworth looks an exciting KP/KPD prospect and would be super excited to draft a prospect like him over some overlooked other positions. He has that athletic trait that we have drafted this year which seems to be our draft go to 2025.

 

[ghostbat12]

We didn't cut hard enough, it's not as if we had an issue with points. We made choices and I think they're incorrect decisions.

I can't speak to Allen as a talent. He's obviously a great athlete but as far type goes he's another uncontested outside type. Not something I think is a pressing need, hopefully he keeps fit and shows his value.

ok so you don't have any issues per se on the players taken? apart from Williams. but other clubs rated Williams high enough. so its not completely an obscure pick. thats 5 picks in a weak draft.

now this Banfield fellow, is he really less speculative than dev to fix this need?

 

[SAweagle]

****ing lol at the melts over losing blokes rated 40 in the worst draft possibly ever. These blokes are barely RD worthy last year.

Worst draft ever? source for that please

 

[Jootube]

Sure he could've.

Maybe Massey told him he was fine with 5 spots?

Maybe he wanted the extra rookie list up his sleeve so we only make a one year commitment to a new player instead of 2 years?

Maybe Jamie Maddocks had input into the exact number of young vs senior players he thinks is the right balance for development purposes.

Maybe Gepp said he'd rig Clarke's car with a bomb if he didn't guarantee Cripps one last year on the senior list?

We'll never know, other than what's public.

Here we go again with mental gymnastics to justify yet another **** up from the Eagles.

Maybe
Maybe
Maybe

Maybe, Occam's razor says the simplest answer is usually the right one.
Maybe our back office is incompetent.

 

[twadds]

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[Eastern Rangers]

Thats a BS framing.

It's not that we preferred other players in this draft. We didn't have to choose between other players in this draft vrs Banfield/Evans because we could match bids.

The choice was between the players currently occupying list spots and Banfield/Evans.

BZ is taking the position of trusting in the club, a club that has run itself into the ground and has made more than one list management blunder in each of the last two trade and drafts periods (2024 and 2025).

 

[isthiswhereitype]

Remember when gws burnt a second rounder just to troll Sydney? Simpler times

 

[stallon]

Here he is.

What can you do Gosling?

Well you can actually respect the position enough to draft midfielders at the pointy and and not rely on magic beans and NGA's to fill clear list holes for one.

Before you pipe up with Duursma being a mid... He's a utility, and it'll be long ass time before he plays inside the contest as a midfielder, so we get no relief there.

If the club adds Greeves tomorrow I'll feel a bit better. A proper grunt. Knowing them they'll do something stupid like pickup a small defender or something.

I hope we dont take a mid in the rookie draft just to see people like yourself melt even harder over an issue you made up in your head.

 

[Shueygod]

Worst draft ever? source for that please

Every draft watcher/expert/AFL club in the league.

 

[Goroyals22]

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Looking at the positive side, at least we have a consolation prize in Wes Walley.
Genuinely hope he just had a bad year. If he had kicked 14.9 in 8 games rather than 9.14, it would have looked a lot better. Also almost 15 touches a game.

 

[EaglesOz]

Yeah this is it.

• The Baker “commitment” and trade.
• The Brisbane trade.
• The Chesser trade.
• Extending Cripps on the main list.
• Keeping Barnett (but drafting CDT anyway, making Barnett totally redundant).
• Extending Cole after bringing in Starcevich.
• Committing to signing three(!) mature midfielders, limiting our rookie list options.
• Telegraphing our interest in Addinsall and then only making a half-arsed bid assault on Gold Coast - allowing them both the time to get points and the ability to match more comfortably by not bidding on Patterson.
• Spending the entire Liam Ryan compensation on a one pick upgrade

All potentially defensible decisions in isolation, but together they paint a picture of a recruiting team that lacks a coherent strategy or long-term plan, and might be a little too nice.

They just seem to be making it up as they go along. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are differing views between Woosh, Mini, Clarke and Massey and this is the result.

We collect future assets but then waste them. We compromise young talent acquisition by making short-term decisions. We bemoan the compromised draft but then fail to capitalise on our own crop.

I usually give them the benefit of the doubt but I’m really struggling to understand much of what they’re doing.

Well said. Great things rise and fall in little steps, and i just see the WCE not taking advantages of little gains. Realistically, we probably could accumulate all of the mistakes above into incremental gains that end up with Cumming/Sharp being on the list instead of Allen, at a minimum, plus probably someone like Schubert/Barker. I think this draft is where i stop believing in the new administration.

 

[ghostbat12]

haven't seen this amount of melts since Alec Waterman got delisted. we also called for heads then.

 

[new breed]

Anyone know what time the rookie draft starts tomorrow? I have searched the AFL website but can’t see a time.

4pm , over in 5 minutes dont be late .

7Sport said tomorrow morning but its 4pm WA time .

 

[Proeagle]

The true footy guys on youtube were rapt with Sam Allen pick. Saying he is Finn O'sullivan 2.0. Says he can be a great one.

 

[bzparkes]

Here we go again with mental gymnastics to justify yet another **** up from the Eagles.

Maybe
Maybe
Maybe

Maybe, Occam's razor says the simplest answer is usually the right one.
Maybe our back office is incompetent.

You've decided it's a ****up without any of these kids even playing AFL football.

The kids we've picked could all end up great and the ones people desperately wanted may never play an AFL game.

See Arlo Draper vs Brady Hough.

I'm simply prepared to wait and see what the outcome is before losing my shit over something I have zero control over, for no ****ing reason whatsoever other than I had a massive hard-on for a particular kid late in the draft(gee, that sounds bad... ).

 

[TY24]

What do you men lack of bigmen. We have archer/jwill and now cdt. He was so shite he was moved away from rucking duties

Was he moved down back? That's where the stocks are thin.

After Sandy and Edwards the cupboard is pretty empty. I hope Bazzo makes it but he needs a good year.

FWIW I'm disappointed to miss out on Banfield but the reaction on here would have you thinking we traded out Pick 1 for a future 3rd.

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

Lots of real head scratcher moments

- Take out the actual trade period having all these little losses where we slightly overpaid... Or slightly didn't get enough back. All good though, it's all about strengthening our draft hand ya see.

- Take out the Liam Ryan walking for unders and everyone on here saying "Don't worry gaiz, F2's are going to be so so so valuable next year, everyone is banking them, it's a good trade"..

- There was then the list lodgement deadline and the very obvious decision we all knew about on here to rookie Cripps and/or Barnett to give us the flexibility for this EXACT situation, which we didn't do.

- Then comes night 1 of the draft, the 3 players we walk away with are all fine but the Hawthorn trade up, attempted bid and fail not realising Fold Coast would match and burning of the Liam Ryan F2 which was apparently so so valuable only a few weeks ago is now totally fine...

- Then along comes draft night 2. Oh boy. Wowee. Disaster. Ignoring adding a bloke coming off an ACL.. The sheer ineptitude of not realising that other clubs might actually rate our NGA's and Banfield is really unforgiveable. Losing 1 of the 3, fair enough but 2 of 3?? And the best 2 no less?? The 2 mids?? Inexcusable and very much avoidable. All goes back to the off season list management decision.



Not a good offseason I reckon. It's nice having the shiny new toys like CDT, Durrsma and Lindsay, but it's all the little pieces that add up to a successful rebuild.

We burnt so many picks, made so many basic errors, lost so many trades (just slightly), and to cap it off just put all that time and effort into our club tied players for nothing.

I also think committing to Schoenberg and not taking an extra rookie pick has gone under the radar a bit as well. What an odd thing to do. Unless I'm missing something there? At least wait until the draft is finalized to see what talent is still on the table before doing something like that ffs. NHH/Fred/Greeves who could potentially have upside... Or a delisted ex crow midfielder after you've already added 2x other delisted ex midfielders in Macrae and Dev?


2025 offseason is going to be a juicy topic on here for years to come I reckon. Even if all our players turn out amazing, you can't look past all the clear errors that were made.

Well said, I can't help but feel it could've been a much better trade/draft period.

I said it after the trade period, we don't seem on top of our game on and off field. You need need to eek out every ounce of opportunity in the trade and draft period in a rebuild. We haven't done it to best of our ability.

 

[SAweagle]

Every draft watcher/expert/AFL club in the league.

Cannot find anyone saying that sorry

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

It's not a BS framing whatsoever.

WCE clearly rated Williams and Allen higher, as well as being willing to have Barnett see out his contract(after finally showing something in the back end of this season), as well as keeping a senior player around for one more season. The same senior player who also happened to be our leading goalkicker for the year.

I understand people will disagree with that, as is their right and I myself would've been happy to punt Cripps to the rookie list, or retire him altogether but I don't make those decisions, the football department as a collective does. That means list manager, coach, head of development, National recruitment manager, head of football and CEO.

This is the plan they've set and whether we agree with it or not is irrelevant.

Time will tell if it's the right call obviously but none of these kids have played AFL yet, so crying and moaning over missing out on late picks in a weak draft is irrational.

I will state my point again. We didn't have to choose between Williams and Allen Vrs Banfield/Evans. The choice was between the fringe/almost retired players currently on the list Vrs Banfield/Evans.

 

[Shueygod]

Cannot find anyone saying that sorry

Have a read of the D&T board.

 

[Bender_]

This thread is f*cken great.