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

 

[WCE777]

Pies took Angus Anderson from Sturt not long after Banfield came off the board, so I am not surprised that they were into Charlie Banfield, IMO Angus and Charlie have some similar trait that they bring to the game.

What I found annoying ( polite version ), with us not acquiring Banfield, was the huge amount of growth and improvement that he showed post Championships, with each game he just got better and better.

I also am of the opinion that he will continue this trend as he was an emerging accelerating talent in the Colts, the Saints may well have a really good player on their hands after pickpocketing us.

Charlie is a scrapper and wills himself to the contest and invariable wins it, or at least negates it.
He is an old fashioned style player, that puts his head over the ball and wins it at the coal face, because he plays with a hard edge, we don't have too many of that sort.

So when you get the quality of player he was projecting to be, and couple that with him playing with a style and role that we are both in need of and short on, then I would have thought it would have been a no brainer to have made sure that we did what ever was necessary to ensure that he ended up on our list.

Alas, sadly I think he will be the one that got away.

I agree with your analysis.

Feel post draft that the club wanted someone like Banfield in this draft and didn't get them and this is why when he got drafted they quickly pivoted to Rodriguez as that player available and most likely had few options available of that type.

I also think WC are thinking B Allan is also that player on our list.

I can understand the position of the club and age demographic that they are trying to rectify with not drafting another stack of 18yo's.

But the growth and improvement he has showed has been enormous.
He might find it hard to break into STK midfield for the next 2 years so hopefully yhey can develop him for us as a favour for drafting him

 

[Lyyynnnchy]

I can understand the position of the club and age demographic that they are trying to rectify with not drafting another stack of 18yo's.
ha

Yay another year of Cripps

 

[WCE777]

I guess when this thread is closed we can start debating the list strategy for 2026.
I feel this will be a defining draft and trade also.

We have drafted and traded in some real quality and our list is far better but we have some heavy lifting to be done still to set us up for a big run of success.

 

[maverick001]

It’s comments like these that constantly defend the clubs stupid decisions that are a big reason why they don’t give two shits about fans.

We are the worst team in AFL history, we had the opportunity to add 2 really solid prospects for peanuts and chose to run it back with several absolute potatos instead.

We are shocking on the margins, it’s little things like this that add up, like how we also included a F3 in the Ryan deal, then burnt the F2 to move up 1 spot meaning we quite literally traded Ryan and a F3 to move up 1 spot, but all is good!

Then traded 34 for 2x F3s
So we’ve given Ryan and 34 for 1 draft position and a F3 in 2027 where it will push back to 60+

 

[Mr Q]

Imagine typing all of this, when you could just say "the plan was a mistake"

Imagine typing this, and thinking you're uniquely capable of judging the outcome of a plan less than 24 hours after the draft finishes.

 

[bzparkes]

Imagine typing this, and thinking you're uniquely capable of judging the outcome of a plan less than 24 hours after the draft finishes.

Gather your crayons friend, you're about to enjoy the most delicious of meals....

 

[Keys]

Then traded 34 for 2x F3s
So we’ve given Ryan and 34 for 1 draft position and a F3 in 2027 where it will push back to 60+

Pick 34 was pushed back to 52 plus those two F3s. Pick 52 was then used to match the eventual bid on Williams

Effectively we got those two F3s for nothing

The use of the F2 from the Ryan trade to shift up one spot looks bad, particularly if we still could have taken Lindsay anyway - that bit is unknown as other clubs like the Bulldogs and/or Geelong may have been on the phone with Hawthorn trying to do a trade

The next question is whether the gap in talent between Lindsay and Nairn, Msrsh, Schubert, Carmichael or Barker worth torching a F2 pick

 

[bzparkes]

I guess when this thread is closed we can start debating the list strategy for 2026.
I feel this will be a defining draft and trade also.

We have drafted and traded in some real quality and our list is far better but we have some heavy lifting to be done still to set us up for a big run of success.

I think, and yes this is my opinion, that for the first time in a while we actually have a plan in mind about who we're going to draft over a few years. In the past, it seemed we just went BPA whenever our pick was up and our list was really out of balance. Now it seems we actually have a plan, I'm keen to see what it delivers.

It may be a shit plan and not work out. I get it. At least we actually feel like we're finally building towards something though and I'm excited to see how it ends up.

 

[TerryFilk]

Hard to put into words how exciting Sam Allen’s tape (albeit limited) is.

Athletic and endurance freak, his leap is otherworldly.

Hopefully the ACL hasn’t taken away anything from him from an athletic standpoint.

Get him right and hope he plays 8-10 WAFL games next year before we unleash him in 2027.

 

[Mulldogg]

Hard to put into words how exciting Sam Allen’s tape (albeit limited) is.

Athletic and endurance freak, his leap is otherworldly.

Hopefully the ACL hasn’t taken away anything from him from an athletic standpoint.

Get him right and hope he plays 8-10 WAFL games next year before we unleash him in 2027.

Here’s hoping he’s more Joel Selwood ACL than Anthony Morabito ACL in the medium to long term.

Has some nice looking attributes from the highlights but always a risk picking a draftee coming off a serious injury.

 

[Jootube]

Imagine typing this, and thinking you're uniquely capable of judging the outcome of a plan less than 24 hours after the draft finishes.

Apologies, Comrade Womble.
I forgot that 9 wins in 4 years is the sign of a flawless operation. I will stop questioning the State immediately.

If we can't have an opinion until 2029, close the thread now mate

 

[eaglespremiers]

Duursma as good as he is is behind Uwland Dean & Annable possibly Patterson. Reality is he's a pick 4 maybe pick 5 in an uncompromised draft. I know blokes don't want to hear it and the truth hurts but it is what it is.

Surely you don't honestly believe this dribble?
Duursma was far far better in 2025 than Lalor was in 2024.
Uwland barely played all year. Annable doesn't have nearly the amount of tricks and athletic ability that Duursma has and Dean came from the clouds due to his performances from late July onwards.

 

[Mr Q]

Apologies, Comrade Womble.
I forgot that 9 wins in 4 years is the sign of a flawless operation. I will stop questioning the State immediately.

If we can't have an opinion until 2029, close the thread now mate

You can have an opinion, but at least base it on the obvious stuff that's right there in front of your face. The club has pretty much explained exactly what's gone down - that they stuck to a pre-draft plan (5x draftees +1 rookie, and get some mature bodies around the kids while they build). And that Banfield was earmarked as a rookie if he got there. If.

I'm not going to declare it a failure or a success right now, and certainly not going to melt down and scream "incompetence!!" because we didn't get a player who went at #41 in a supposedly weaker draft.

 

[TerryFilk]

Surely you don't honestly believe this dribble?
Duursma was far far better in 2025 than Lalor was in 2024.
Uwland barely played all year. Annable doesn't have nearly the amount of tricks and athletic ability that Duursma has and Dean came from the clouds due to his performances from late July onwards.

I loved Lalor last year but he missed significant time and wasn’t even the clear number 1 pick for nearly the entirety of the year nor was his junior career remotely as good or decorated as Willem’s.

I’ve said it time and time again, but it’s clear some fans have no idea how special Willem is, the ceiling is terrifying.

 

[InTheWings]

 

[plays tall 1]

Pretty much.

The list just got into such an appalling state by the previous admin that they basically have to bring in some middling state league players to right the ship.

If that didn't happen, we could've used the spots to speculate on young players instead but we had so many drift misses from '18 onward that the list became a complete and utter shambles.

And yet you applauded everything the previous administration did?!?

 

[plays tall 1]

In also a bit confused that the club talked about the contest all year and has drafted players with predominantly uncontested bias to their game. It's an area we really neglected the whole way through.

Exactly.

 

[Elite Pete]

Exactly.

Lions list team member said this week their list plan is trade for need and draft best available.

I’d suggest we are doing very similar traded 3 x contested mids. Went hard at a top quality ruck.

 

[C4[2]Yo`DooR]

Another curiosity with bidding , do teams have to be formally notified to expect a bid or can teams ambush them ..It seems GCS had the playbook of WCE bidding strategy in front of them and same for Carlton ..
I presume we warned them or the AFL leaks openly .

Can confirm WCE informed Carlton they would be bidding on Harry at 3

(I posted it on here at the time).

 

[Wooshaaaa]

This is all sound rationale for the path we took. pantskyle says we asked for the pre-listing, it’s disappointing this wasn’t granted. As many have pointed out knowing the players you’re getting helps shape your overall drafting strategy.

The Beagles will be instantly better, perhaps this accelerates the development of Gross, Grego et al and offsets the loss of the broad NGA/FA net that could have been cast.

This I consider pivotal. It is entirely the purpose. WAFL winning, creates winners, creates positivity, creat competition for spots.....creates.

A large part of our problem is between the ears, not football talent.

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

Surely you don't honestly believe this dribble?
Duursma was far far better in 2025 than Lalor was in 2024.
Uwland barely played all year. Annable doesn't have nearly the amount of tricks and athletic ability that Duursma has and Dean came from the clouds due to his performances from late July onwards.

Yep, by the end of the year Duursma was clearly out in front. If the draft was open I reckon all 18 clubs would take him if they had pick 1.

 

[EagleEgo]

Can confirm WCE informed Carlton they would be bidding on Harry at 3

(I posted it on here at the time).

"If you don't trade the pick 9 to us, I shall bid Harry at pick 3" was the message?????

 

[Elite Pete]

Do we have the most players who were in a teams Academy/Father Son program but now playing for other teams?

Jones
Humphries
Collard*
Evans
Banfield
Kickett

Plus the Erasmus situation.

Let’s hope Walley doesn’t do a Latrelle Pickett

 

[wirra44]

Do we have the most players who were in a teams Academy/Father Son program but now playing for other teams?

Jones
Humphries
Collard*
Evans
Banfield
Kickett

Plus the Erasmus situation

Jones?
Please tell me Darcy Jones wasn’t in our academy?

 

[Elite Pete]

Jones?
Please tell me Darcy Jones wasn’t in our academy?

Nah thankfully I don’t think so and even if he was at that stage we couldn’t match due to the rules.

Darcy was from Swan Districts so in our zone though.

Arthur Jones from the Dogs.