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

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Just on Walley. Some immature behaviour during the year has obviously come back and haunted him.

Popping up in random places around MRP dressed up as Where's Wally?

 

[eaglevision]

Just on Walley. Some immature behaviour during the year has obviously come back and haunted him.

And not the only one…

 

[KERRPOW]

Just on Walley. Some immature behaviour during the year has obviously come back and haunted him.

Explain please?

 

[WCErevival]

If we don't prelist Walley that means another team can get him as a rookie right?

 

[pantskyle]

Explain please?

Missed sessions etc. With the down year, injury suppose it caught up with him and the club has erred on the side of caution.
I think he is a real talent if he gets it right, free hit as well so if we are not taking him then it's clear where we stand with it.

 

[JoshWoodenSpoon]

If we don't prelist Walley that means another team can get him as a rookie right?

Yeah. Quick scan around and from the looks of things I think the crew in the West Coast control room might pull the trigger.

 

[BartBart]

One of my only criticisms of our drafting is if we really wanted Addinsall we needed to bid Gold coast 1 and 2.
It is however a bad look if we didn't pick Duursma at pick one.
The fact that everyone knew at what point we would bid meant that Gold Coast could adjust and trade to get points.
Moving up and burning a future second just made it worse.

Once we decided not to go all in to chew up GC points and then GC did heaps of pick swaps to gain points we should have realised it was forlorn.

The ONLY "if" was if we were so desperate for Lindsay and knew Hawthorn would take him.

But Hawthorn doing the trade probably tells us they weren't.

 

[amazingjoshy]

So what happens with that list spot?

The CatA/B thing never made sense to me

 

[Jeremy McLovin]

In the cold light of day the initial melts have subsided and I'm just - confused? What exactly were we doing last night? Is it possible that we just didn't rate them? Well, no, because if we just didn't rate them the ability to pre-list them wouldn't have been requested as part of the assistance package. Were we just being ruthless, as many people (including myself) have cried out for? Possibly, but if we were actually being ruthless Cripps would have been rookied and Barnett delisted entirely, and surely we'd take Ah Chee in the PSD. Could it simply be that, as Clarke said, we want older, more experienced people rather than more 18 year olds? Decent argument, but is the combined total of 130 odd afl games played by DevRob, Macrae, and Schoenberg really adding that much to the team? Especially given that we surely wouldn't be playing all of them at the same time. Feels like just one of them + Titch would have added more, and left another available rookie spot.

As plenty of other people have already said, it just feels like the club is a few percent off the mark in every aspect at the moment, with the combined effect being that in totality we're just an absolute basket case compared to others. We slightly overpay in every trade, we get slightly underpaid in every trade, we don't hold required players to contracts, we don't take advantage of oppo players being out of contract to get a good deal, we make trade and draft decisions that don't seem to have a clear strategy behind them, we consistently fail to bring in high end midfield talent despite it being the single most obvious and glaring weakness out of the many that the team has.

And the thing is, it's reached the point that we can't just have faith in the club. We can't just say trust the process, the club knows what it's doing, etc, etc, because the last four/five years have made it blatantly clear that we can't and they don't. We're not just bad. We're back breakingly, jaw droppingly, historically bad. We're one win season bad. We're so bad that we had a player break down crying in a post match interview because of the constant crushing defeats. Geelong can draft Michael McLiterallywho and it's fine, because they've got the track record that shows that they know what they're doing. We no longer do. Some people are melting over passing on our linked players, others are pointing out that we're not the only team who did so, and that's fine - but when the best team of this decade passes on one of their own academy players to then take one of ours (in a position they're strong in, no less), you can't just be saying trust the process because based off all the evidence available to us, their process is a hell of a lot better than ours.

I dunno. This was probably rambling and not clear at all. The gist of it is - I'm ****ing tired. I remember when I was a smarmy little teenager, if I was talking footy to someone and found out they were a freo fan I would always say "My condolences". And now the worm has turned so hard that if I'm talking footy and have to admit I follow the eagles I don't even get a joke, just a sort of pitying, uncomfortable look. I ****ing hate it. Still love the eagles, still gonna watch every game, but it's gotta turn around soon or I'll have to stop for my own good.

 

[Cornelius Roy]

Just on Walley. Some immature behaviour during the year has obviously come back and haunted him.

Thanks for all your tidbits across the draft. It’s nice to get some inside word here and there amongst the pages upon pages of shite.

 

[Keys]

Club has brought in three players as rookies plus Starc because our age profile is too young.
There is a tipping point when we are too young.With a dozen new players this year i suspect Evans and Banners were unlikely to get games anyway.

From our 2025 list we lost:
• McGovern
• Sheed
• Hunt
• Ryan
• Allen
• Petruccelle
• Jamieson
• Chesser
• Rawlinson
• Livingstone

And added Starcevich and Young via trade

Mostly older players being replaced by draftees - 5 so far plus Walley today and maybe 1 more in the RD

An already young list got younger

Schoenberg has not cost anybody a main list spot. he is going on the rookie list.
You are the second person to get this wrong.
People may not be happy about our three mature age rookies but they are free hits and not costing anybody a spot on our main list.
Not delisting a extra player may have cost Banners/Evans a spot but the recruiters might still have gone BPA.

From the moment we got those 4 extra rookie list spots the club identified those as allowing them to add some mature aged players and/or our NGAs

There was a clearly identified need to bring in experience which we’re doing with Robertson, Macrae and Schoenberg

Had Banfield not attracted a bid, he would be getting added to the rookie list which appears was always our intention

Had Evans not attracted a bid, he’d would be going on our Cat B list instead of Walley

The plan, whether people agree with it or not, was to bring in some top end talent through the draft with 4-5 picks, then build the age profile of the list through the rookie spots and add some extra young talent from our F/S and NGA players if they were available. Unfortunately they weren’t

And we decided not to create an opening by cutting deeper because it would make us even younger still

Other clubs haven’t come off the worst year ever and the worst combined 3 years ever

We need to be turning over our list as much as possible while still keeping “some” mature bodies to help the kids through the transition. Keeping Cripps who is doing sweet f all, and Barnett who is lucky to be getting a game for the Beagles, is doing nothing to help this

We need to be turning over our list far more than any other team, and that is why, we should be taking the discounts on offer for our players

There’s only 8 players on our list from 2021 - we’ve swapped out 36 of 44 over 4 years with some players coming and going in that time span

We’ve turned over our list plenty and at some stage we need to take a breath and give those new faces time to develop

As of now 28 players have joined via the various drafts from 2021-25

You can’t just keep replacing older players with draftees because their development becomes compromised

Our terrible WAFL team has absolutely compromised the development of younger players, Barnett is probably a great example.

Hence the need for those mid aged players to improve our depth - it creates competition for senior spots and improves the standard of our WAFL side, which helps development

If we don't take anyone today or as a train on, then we have an MSD spot, yes.

Yes we do, but I doubt we wait until mid season to fill a spot

Latest would be early next year when the SSP window closes like we did with Brock

 

[pantskyle]

Thanks for all your tidbits across the draft. It’s nice to get some inside word here and there amongst the pages upon pages of shite.

Cheers. I say what I can and sometimes too much.

 

[FatPizza]

So what happens with that list spot?

The CatA/B thing never made sense to me

I think players chosen in the rookie draft go to Cat A, whilst prelisted/academy players can go Cat B. I'm probably wrong though...

 

[archiemoses]

It would make zero sense to have an open Cat B spot

 

[Mr Q]

Once we decided not to go all in to chew up GC points and then GC did heaps of pick swaps to gain points we should have realised it was forlorn.

The ONLY "if" was if we were so dedperate for Lindsay and knew Hawthorn would take him.

But Hawthorn doing the trade probably tells us they weren't.

Not quite.

That should read: The ONLY "if" was if we were so desperate for Lindsay and knew Hawthorn would sell the pick to a club that was interested in taking him.

It may well be that the Hawks were shopping the pick around to clubs we were sure were interested in Lindsay (the Dogs have been suggested). Which makes sense - the Hawks were going to give it to whoever gave them the best deal.

 

[Elite Pete]

It would make zero sense to have an open Cat B spot

Yep, why even nominate him, if you weren’t taking him as a Cat B?

 

[Keys]

Might as well have kept Livingstone on the list and what was the point of nominating Walley then

Makes very little sense

 

[BartBart]

Not quite.

That should read: The ONLY "if" was if we were so desperate for Lindsay and knew Hawthorn would sell the pick to a club that was interested in taking him.

It may well be that the Hawks were shopping the pick around to clubs we were sure were interested in Lindsay (the Dogs have been suggested). Which makes sense - the Hawks were going to give it to whoever gave them the best deal.

Good point - that is an alternate scenario.

 

[Mr Q]

In the cold light of day the initial melts have subsided and I'm just - confused? What exactly were we doing last night? Is it possible that we just didn't rate them? Well, no, because if we just didn't rate them the ability to pre-list them wouldn't have been requested as part of the assistance package.

Maybe we just wanted to pre-list Williams? Worth remembering we did actually match a bid on one of our NGAs. The prelist thing might have been insurance against the threat we kept hearing that someone was going to bid on him in the first round. An invalid threat in the end, but still a threat.

 

[suntagonal]

Might as well have kept Livingstone on the list and what was the point of nominating Walley then

Makes very little sense

This

 

[Keys]

Trying to think this through

I think it is possible to add NGA players to the Cat B list post draft if they don’t get picked up in the rookie draft

So maybe we’re intending to make Walley earn his spot or give Darcy Montgomery and/or Jake Caton an opportunity

 

[TOA.]

In the cold light of day the initial melts have subsided and I'm just - confused? What exactly were we doing last night? Is it possible that we just didn't rate them? Well, no, because if we just didn't rate them the ability to pre-list them wouldn't have been requested as part of the assistance package. Were we just being ruthless, as many people (including myself) have cried out for? Possibly, but if we were actually being ruthless Cripps would have been rookied and Barnett delisted entirely, and surely we'd take Ah Chee in the PSD. Could it simply be that, as Clarke said, we want older, more experienced people rather than more 18 year olds? Decent argument, but is the combined total of 130 odd afl games played by DevRob, Macrae, and Schoenberg really adding that much to the team? Especially given that we surely wouldn't be playing all of them at the same time. Feels like just one of them + Titch would have added more, and left another available rookie spot.

As plenty of other people have already said, it just feels like the club is a few percent off the mark in every aspect at the moment, with the combined effect being that in totality we're just an absolute basket case compared to others. We slightly overpay in every trade, we get slightly underpaid in every trade, we don't hold required players to contracts, we don't take advantage of oppo players being out of contract to get a good deal, we make trade and draft decisions that don't seem to have a clear strategy behind them, we consistently fail to bring in high end midfield talent despite it being the single most obvious and glaring weakness out of the many that the team has.

And the thing is, it's reached the point that we can't just have faith in the club. We can't just say trust the process, the club knows what it's doing, etc, etc, because the last four/five years have made it blatantly clear that we can't and they don't. We're not just bad. We're back breakingly, jaw droppingly, historically bad. We're one win season bad. We're so bad that we had a player break down crying in a post match interview because of the constant crushing defeats. Geelong can draft Michael McLiterallywho and it's fine, because they've got the track record that shows that they know what they're doing. We no longer do. Some people are melting over passing on our linked players, others are pointing out that we're not the only team who did so, and that's fine - but when the best team of this decade passes on one of their own academy players to then take one of ours (in a position they're strong in, no less), you can't just be saying trust the process because based off all the evidence available to us, their process is a hell of a lot better than ours.

I dunno. This was probably rambling and not clear at all. The gist of it is - I'm ****ing tired. I remember when I was a smarmy little teenager, if I was talking footy to someone and found out they were a freo fan I would always say "My condolences". And now the worm has turned so hard that if I'm talking footy and have to admit I follow the eagles I don't even get a joke, just a sort of pitying, uncomfortable look. I ****ing hate it. Still love the eagles, still gonna watch every game, but it's gotta turn around soon or I'll have to stop for my own good.

Exactly this. When I was younger and we were a strong club, I would always defer to "trust the process". The clear problem is that, at the moment, the process has got us to one of the worst teams of all time. So the club doesnt deserve the benefit of the doubt when it manages to slightly bungle or misjudge things.

 

[Ilkka Sinisalo]

I dunno. This was probably rambling and not clear at all. The gist of it is - I'm ****ing tired. I remember when I was a smarmy little teenager, if I was talking footy to someone and found out they were a freo fan I would always say "My condolences". And now the worm has turned so hard that if I'm talking footy and have to admit I follow the eagles I don't even get a joke, just a sort of pitying, uncomfortable look. I ****ing hate it. Still love the eagles, still gonna watch every game, but it's gotta turn around soon or I'll have to stop for my own good.

Ultimately the Eagles aren't going to continue to be losers because they messed up a couple of things during the draft. What really matters is if they nail the high-impact draft picks in the first round and develop them properly. I at least feel encouraged with the signings of three mature-aged midfielders that the club has identified the Beagles' dreadfulness as a serious detriment to player development, so hopefully we we will be better in that area. Then it just comes down to whether players like Bo Allan, Duursma, CDT and Lindsay were the right players to take in those spots. If so, then missing out on Addinsall (who's far from a sure thing and most rankings rated him lower than Lindsay) and losing Banfield and Evans won't make much difference at all.

 

[Elite Pete]

Trying to think this through

I think it is possible to add NGA players to the Cat B list post draft if they don’t get picked up in the rookie draft

So maybe we’re intending to make Walley earn his spot or give Darcy Montgomery and/or Jake Caton an opportunity

Or does Walley have rookie list interest and asked the Eagles not to take him? 4 clubs were reported to have interest

 

[PRANKSTER666]

Can they re-rookie Coen? Perhaps happy to do so after Evans didnt make it through and they don't rate Wes.