Resource 2025 AFL Draft prospects and discussion.

[Brenton Davy]

Keen to see how this P.Ass bloke turns out.

Apparently he's sh*t.

Apparently a bit of a non-entity…

 

[1970crow]

This is a fallacy that has been disproven a dozen times over

Has it? I can’t think of many recent premiers or grand finalists that played 3 key forwards.

 

[Crow till I die]

Has it? I can’t think of many recent premiers or grand finalists that played 3 key forwards.

West coast 2018. Kennedy, Darling and Vardy

 

[1970crow]

Crows don't have anymore picks later on, so what's the point in making Sydney pay up

I think we stick to our talent order very strictly.

 

[crowutopia]

If he plays more than 5 games we’re having a bad year.

Let's see what he produces on the training track

 

[MrBarry]

What are the actual criticisms of Welsh, is it literally just 'he has more fat on him than others therefore delist'...?

I thought we were sick of players who ran around a lot but do **** all.

 

[crowutopia]

Welsh doesn't have another two years here. He may not even have all of next season to save his career here seeing right now, Tyler is the last person on the depth chart and we are already considering abandoning him.

He needs to get his shit together, fast and he probably needs Marsh/Ludowyke to not stand out as a forward option in their first year.

I think Archie will take some time, but yes the bison will add some pressure to Welsh. Honestly though, if Welsh is feeling any pressure he only has to look in the mirror. So many young kids enter the draft each year hoping to live out their dream as an AFL star but only a small percentage achieve it. A fellow poster pointed out that Tyler has had 2 seasons at the crowd ( if you count his year in our SANFL team). The responsibility to at least meet training standards is on him as a bare minimum, from what I hear he has not taken his opportunity professionally. I hope this changes as he is a good mark overhead and a good luck on goals. I look forward to Big man's training reports throughout the pre season.

 

[1970crow]

Why didn’t we trade the last pick even if it was for chips next year.

Wouldn’t that have been what we were doing in the 5 minutes?

 

[1970crow]

Why did Port even turn up lol

They could have been trying to trade in at various points but no takers.

 

[Bay62]

Why is Marsh called Bison?
Thanks

 

[FR0GGY]

Wouldn’t that have been what we were doing in the 5 minutes?

Depends if it was Nicksy in charge or not.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Why is Marsh called Bison?
Thanks

Mitch Marsh the cricketer is called Bison.

Ps. Dizzy Gillespie started it because he figured Mitch has a large head like a Bison.

 

[1970crow]

We've got 2 first round midfielders

We're good.

So why don't we play them

Why did we try and trade for a midfielder?

I like how you support the club but consider yourself a hostage and still love the club

There's a phrase for that

I still recall his “nah, we’ll be fine” confidence pre the Pies game when a poster suggested we’ll struggle without Rankine. So cool, so calm, so collected.

 

[1970crow]

Better to let him win an AFL spot at half back and giving him a couple of years to breathe. Not like that position hasn't also become a need for an upgrade in recent years.

My expectation would be that come the end of 2026, Charlie has locked down one of our half back roles.

Which of Laird, Milera, Hinge or Max do you reckon he sends to the 2s?

 

[Cromulant]

I still recall his “nah, we’ll be fine” confidence pre the Pies game when a poster suggested we’ll struggle without Rankine. So cool, so calm, so collected.

Rankine not playing wasn't the reason we lost the game.

Also, this was 3 days ago.... you really need to start keeping up.

 

[George CantStandYa]

There was zero point spending a later draft pick on a mid given we have so many drafted mids who can’t get near our midfield, some who are high draft picks.

A small crumbing forward or a developing ruck would have been handy, I’m assuming none were available again…..

 

[adelaidecrows]

There was zero point spending a later draft pick on a mid given we have so many drafted mids who can’t get near our midfield, some who are high draft picks.

A small crumbing mid or a developing ruck would have been handy, I’m assuming none were available again…..

Considering we took a tall forward at 197cm I suspect it would be with the long term view to perhaps shift Thilthorpe into the middle at some point in a more permanent role due to his athletic ability.

As for a small crumbing mid, we do have a glut of depth mids who could fulfill that role. Draper is probably ideal to fill that role. Excellent speed to hit the front of packs at the ball drop once he gets going.

 

[Cromulant]

Considering we took a tall forward at 197cm I suspect it would be with the long term view to perhaps shift Thilthorpe into the middle at some point in a more permanent role due to his athletic ability.

As for a small crumbing mid, we do have a glut of depth mids who could fulfill that role. Draper is probably ideal to fill that role. Excellent speed to hit the front of packs at the ball drop once he gets going.

Thilthorpe wont be a full time ruck, as much as I dont hate the idea by any means

 

[adelaidecrows]

Thilthorpe wont be a full time ruck, as much as I dont hate the idea by any means

I dont think he should be either. But never under estimate the want to win the contest in the middle and we simply do not have another option if ROB goes down. So everything right now is pointing to Thilthorpe being gradually moved to increased Ruck duties.

 

[DaKids]

It’s funny to see this is still going - where will big Riley play

I said when he started - he’ll be one of best in the competition. He already is. Certainly the Crows best. He’ll play wherever he is needed to impact the game. You can’t pigeon hole him. He is doing this already.

 

[Carmo]

Carmo are you saying Welsh is going to make it, or are you saying he deserves more than 1 year?

Yes, he definitely deserves a couple more years in my view. Not so much that he's def going to make it. There was a reason why he was listed as high as pick 5 in phantom drafts, he has some attributes.

I think we will really dial back on the amount of draftees we bring on board in 27/28/29. I won't be surprised if we only bring in one main draftee in each of those years. We only did two last year and two this year, so we're already dialling it back. We've only got a couple more older players to lose and after their spots are filled it's all young talent that has years to run on their career so we just trade or jettison the worst performer on the list, even if they're doing ok. If we finish up high on the ladder in those years, our second pick will be around the 40 mark. If you have a big bunch of young talent already, is pick 40 going to be a good chance of displacing any of them (and then dial in the effect of having tasmania in as well?). So if we have a high end talent but one that may take a bit of time we'll be better off retaining them than going with the new draftee.

On the subject of taking very few draftees, there's the trick of how you get around the AFL's rules of having to take 3 picks at ND. If you were clever you could, after their first year, delist and re-rookie your least valuable (and therefore least likely to be poachable) player/s and then the year after return them to the main list, thus satisfying the AFL's picks plus rookie upgrades must = 3 rules and allowing you to draft only one or two players. I think this is more the reason why Welsh was put on the rookie list rather than poor performance as some are interpreting it.

 

[Crow till I die]

Depends if it was Nicksy in charge or not.

Well we could be like brisbane, get to the second round and pass as 2nd rounders are worthless (a nod to the Ah Chee thread on the main board)

 

[adelaidecrows]

It’s funny to see this is still going - where will big Riley play

I said when he started - he’ll be one of best in the competition. He already is. Certainly the Crows best. He’ll play wherever he is needed to impact the game. You can’t pigeon hole him. He is doing this already.

True. As I said, I think he will end up there in that role. Curtin probably most likely to end up filling that TT tall forward role by floating down there to stretch the defence during games. Ludowyke could be the longer term solution which will free up Curtin to roam all over the field.

 

[FR0GGY]

It’s funny to see this is still going - where will big Riley play

I said when he started - he’ll be one of best in the competition. He already is. Certainly the Crows best. He’ll play wherever he is needed to impact the game. You can’t pigeon hole him. He is doing this already.

Unfortunately the only reason he’ll be quiet up forward is because of our midfield

 

[Golumless]

Which of Laird, Milera, Hinge or Max do you reckon he sends to the 2s?

There is an extra bench spot in 2026, seeing we've moved to a 5 man bench instead of 4 + sub. Mid-to-longer term, it'll be which one out of of Laird/Milera/Hinge who cops an injury which sees them sidelined for an extended period of time first.

Mind you, I wouldn't be too surprised if we see Hinge get shifted into a mix of a wing/half back role in 2026.