Review 2025 National Draft Thread | Dovaston #16 / Thredgold #26 / Mikunda #48

[Pres]

Archie Ludowyke (Mock drafts but no real reported interest from us)

We are keen but feel he won't last till our second pick. Think Adelaide or Geelong will get him before it's our turn.

 

[King Hansen]

A lot of six foot nothing players in this draft.

You mean like every single draft?

 

[Kanga Glory]

Herald sun latest

NORTH MELBOURNE - AIDAN SCHUBERT​

197cm Forward/Ruck, Central District​

---

This is a pivot point in the first night of the draft. The Kangaroos have been linked to a number of players here, including small forward Latrelle Pickett, halfback Josh Lindsay and forward Jevan Phillipou. But Schubert is also firmly in the mix - if he gets past Essendon earlier in the order - and makes some sense as an athletic tall who is strong in the air and kicks goals.

NORTH MELBOURNE - HARLEY BARKER​

188cm Midfielder, Sturt​

---

Some clubs would have had Barker pegged as a potential top-10 pick had he not suffered an ACL injury in early July. That injury came soon after a big under-18 national championships campaign for South Australia, where the wingman showed himself to be a dynamic and damaging centre-forward player with a quality kick. While he might not play at all next year, this could be a steal for the Kangaroos in the long-term.

 

[Krakouer Bonar]

Not sure why we would want Dovaston when we traded for Spargo and already have Banch and Konstanty.

Plus the Bumbers look like snaring him at 9.

I get a feeling X Taylor may slip through to us. Thats why we've traded up. He is what we need. A genuine defender.

A combination of X Taylor, Barker and a tall later on will make me wet my pants.

 

[Heaps of fun]

You mean like every single draft?

I feel like almost every player I am researching this week is a 184cm midfielder. Most years there seems to be a lot more 186cm+ players looking to get drafted in the first three rounds.

 

[chubbspeterson]

We are keen but feel he won't last till our second pick. Think Adelaide or Geelong will get him before it's our turn.

I haven't read anything suggesting that. We have been more keen on Emmett.

 

[Twangler]

Not sure why we would want Dovaston when we traded for Spargo and already have Banch and Konstanty.

Plus the Bumbers look like snaring him at 9.

I get a feeling X Taylor may slip through to us. Thats why we've traded up. He is what we need. A genuine defender.

A combination of X Taylor, Barker and a tall later on will make me wet my pants.

He’d be perfect but it’s a long shot. If Richmond or Melbourne don’t take him Essendon definitely would with one of their three picks. More realistic ‘sliders’ would be Farrow, Grlj or Dovaston.

Second pick I think there is a good chance that at least one of Schubert, Lude, Thredgold or Barker will be available. I’d be happy with one from each of those brackets - wouldn’t mind if we went Lindsay, Pickett or O Taylor with our first either.

 

[Karanicolas]

Yes well it makes sense to me, drafting him twice. If one breaks down...

Can we do a redraft and do this with Wardlaw?

 

[King Hansen]

Amazing how quickly the "pick 3, Whitlock, Caleb Daniel

5

Caleb Daniel

Age

29

Ht

171cm

Wt

72kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.3

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

3.5

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

19.5

4star

K

11.1

4star

HB

8.4

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

CL

1.0

3star

D

16.4

4star

K

7.2

3star

HB

9.2

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.2

2star

" live trade **** up chat has completely dried up in here now that pick 3 comes to be pick 8 plus us essentially getting pick 11 for a second rounder.

 

[the big lebowski]

My arm chair “expert” draft thoughts

I have watched very little underage footy this year, so am just going off highlights and what I’ve read

1: Schubert

What an interesting prospect. Firstly, that ball drop is close to the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen (and I’ve spent a lot of time watching terrible things on the internet). Firstly it’s almost 2 handed. Secondly he seems to constantly hook his kicks.

The highlights don’t seem to show an ineffectiveness to his kicking, but sanfl u18 stats say he’s 57% with his goal kicking and 59% disposal efficiency.

The positive his he’s a genuine KPF. Knows when to lead, has fantastic hands and also sound body on body work. He seems to be a very strong runner, so I’d see him as a larkey (up the ground version) with Trembath playing deeper.

I read an article about how he deals with pressure and the mental aspects of performance. That was interesting, though I’m not sure if it’s a positive or a negative.

Told his sanfl coach we wanted to play seniors really in the year and was told he wasn’t ready, went back and worked on his game and played in a senior reserves final and then got his senior sanfl debut the week after in a cut throat elimination final (kicking a nice set shot from outside 50). So seems he got better and better as the year went on, which is a good sign.

Lastly, just qualified for a draft by a week or so. Being a late December bday, which is another good sign.

2: Lindsay

I’ve seen people watch his tapes and say he’s like sheez in his first year. I don’t see that. Sure he is used to kick the footy, which he looks extremely adept at. But, there’s just no vision of him doing anything defensively minded. We just can’t afford guys that can’t defend.

I’m not saying it’s a deal breaker. But we’d have to be close to certain he can improve that side of his game to not be a liability. He averaged 3.5 tackles a game at u18 level which is decent for a defender. But hardly laid a tackle at nationals.

Can’t argue with his production across all levels, especially against men at vfl level.

3: Summner Pickett

Not a lot of footage available. But what there is is very promising. His 4 goal senior debut is a little misleading in that 2 goals were Joe the goose’s. But he also set one up early which was very impressive. Didn’t see a stack of defensive pressure.

But his goal kicking looks fantastic. He looks like a team first player. He’s not from Adelaide so I think his go home factor is lower than normal.

Fits a definite need for us. Some argue we have heaps of small forwards but do we?

Harvey and RHJ are likely to be gone by seasons end. Konstanty has looked promising but is a poor finisher. He could be gone come seasons end.

Then there’s 2 game Banch and some say Curtis (who is obviously elite but not really a “small forward”).

 

[New_Roo]

Not sure why we would want Dovaston when we traded for Spargo and already have Banch and Konstanty.

Plus the Bumbers look like snaring him at 9.

I get a feeling X Taylor may slip through to us. Thats why we've traded up. He is what we need. A genuine defender.

A combination of X Taylor, Barker and a tall later on will make me wet my pants.

Dovaston is a totally diff player to Spargo, Banch and Konstanty. Probably all they have in common is that they are all small...

Also think * will take X too

 

[King Corey]

Amazing how quickly the "pick 3, Whitlock, Caleb Daniel" live trade **** up chat has completely dried up in here now that pick 3 comes to be pick 8 plus us essentially getting pick 11 for a second rounder.

Its more a write off than anything.

The whole thing probably could've been done better (I blame Clarkson fwiw) but it's done now and we've recovered well to get back into the 1st round.

Over a 3 year period 2024-26 we'll have 5 instead of 6 top 30 picks. So i maintain the net damage will be us being short by 1x 2nd rounder.

ie the debt for Daniel finally catching up next year.

 

[Heaps of fun]

Amazing how quickly the "pick 3, Whitlock, Caleb Daniel" live trade **** up chat has completely dried up in here now that pick 3 comes to be pick 8 plus us essentially getting pick 11 for a second rounder.

Look how much you have to obfuscate to try and justify that trade though. If pick 3 is 8 then pick 11 is 16.

 

[New_Roo]

My arm chair “expert” draft thoughts

I have watched very little underage footy this year, so am just going off highlights and what I’ve read

1: Schubert

What an interesting prospect. Firstly, that ball drop is close to the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen (and I’ve spent a lot of time watching terrible things on the internet). Firstly it’s almost 2 handed. Secondly he seems to constantly hook his kicks.

The highlights don’t seem to show an ineffectiveness to his kicking, but sanfl u18 stats say he’s 57% with his goal kicking and 59% disposal efficiency.

The positive his he’s a genuine KPF. Knows when to lead, has fantastic hands and also sound body on body work. He seems to be a very strong runner, so I’d see him as a larkey (up the ground version) with Trembath playing deeper.

I read an article about how he deals with pressure and the mental aspects of performance. That was interesting, though I’m not sure if it’s a positive or a negative.

Told his sanfl coach we wanted to play seniors really in the year and was told he wasn’t ready, went back and worked on his game and played in a senior reserves final and then got his senior sanfl debut the week after in a cut throat elimination final (kicking a nice set shot from outside 50). So seems he got better and better as the year went on, which is a good sign.

Lastly, just qualified for a draft by a week or so. Being a late December bday, which is another good sign.

2: Lindsay

I’ve seen people watch his tapes and say he’s like sheez in his first year. I don’t see that. Sure he is used to kick the footy, which he looks extremely adept at. But, there’s just no vision of him doing anything defensively minded. We just can’t afford guys that can’t defend.

I’m not saying it’s a deal breaker. But we’d have to be close to certain he can improve that side of his game to not be a liability. He averaged 3.5 tackles a game at u18 level which is decent for a defender. But hardly laid a tackle at nationals.

Can’t argue with his production across all levels, especially against men at vfl level.

3: Summner Pickett

Not a lot of footage available. But what there is is very promising. His 4 goal senior debut is a little misleading in that 2 goals were Joe the goose’s. But he also set one up early which was very impressive. Didn’t see a stack of defensive pressure.

But his goal kicking looks fantastic. He looks like a team first player. He’s not from Adelaide so I think his go home factor is lower than normal.

Fits a definite need for us. Some argue we have heaps of small forwards but do we?

Harvey and RHJ are likely to be gone by seasons end. Konstanty has looked promising but is a poor finisher. He could be gone come seasons end.

Then there’s 2 game Banch and some say Curtis (who is obviously elite but not really a “small forward”).

and add Spargo and Stevens

 

[zoomba23]

Not sure why we would want Dovaston when we traded for Spargo and already have Banch and Konstanty.

Plus the Bumbers look like snaring him at 9.

I get a feeling X Taylor may slip through to us. Thats why we've traded up. He is what we need. A genuine defender.

A combination of X Taylor, Barker and a tall later on will make me wet my pants.

Number one: Spargo and Konstanty are definitively not at the acceptable level for small forwards in today's game. Banch comes across as driven but rough around the edges. We do not have a good small forward (Paul Curtis is a medium having to play as a small), while almost everyone else does

Number two: Taylor isn't getting anywhere near us in the mock drafts. That includes Twomey's

Number three: Would Barker really be a good choice given we're already using resources on a bloke who's almost in the exact same situation and will probably be a bust if he gets one more long term injury

 

[the big lebowski]

and add Spargo and Stevens

Agree on Stevens (in that he’s a small forward), but he’s not any good imo. Certainly not a dynamic quick goal kicking small forward.

I don’t see spargo as a small forward either. He’s like the forward version of Simpkin

 

[King Corey]

Bold move.

Normal you make a non de plume like Curious L Deidre for this kind of thing.

 

[tales129]

View attachment 2479503

Bold move.

Normal you make a non de plume like Curious L Deidre for this kind of thing.

Jevan and Mattaes pre draft

 

[chubbspeterson]

Amazing how quickly the "pick 3, Whitlock, Caleb Daniel" live trade **** up chat has completely dried up in here now that pick 3 comes to be pick 8 plus us essentially getting pick 11 for a second rounder.

It's still a R1 price paid for Whitlock once you add up all points/picks, depending on what the picks end up.
R1 downgrade (8 (4) to 16 (11)), R3 downgrade (*46 to *54) and *F2 could add up to a top 10 pick points loss.

 

[chubbspeterson]

View attachment 2479503

Bold move.

Normal you make a non de plume like Curious L Deidre for this kind of thing.

They certainly don't lack any confidence. Maybe we need a bit of arrogance though.

 

[perplexed]

Amazing how quickly the "pick 3, Whitlock, Caleb Daniel" live trade **** up chat has completely dried up in here now that pick 3 comes to be pick 8 plus us essentially getting pick 11 for a second rounder.

We are getting pick 11 for two second rounders. And we could have still done this trade if we did neither of those other trades - we would just have pick 4 instead of 26 as well. Not sure why people think things look better when they conflate these trades. It doesn't make it palatable; it just reminds us how awful that Daniel trade was.

 

[Heaps of fun]

They certainly don't lack any confidence. Maybe we need a bit of arrogance though.

It all comes down to the Daniel trade. We just didn't sweat Power hard enough. We knew we wanted Whitlock, we must have had an inkling he could have still been there at our second, we knew the 2025 futures were devalued and we knew Daniel was on the outer at the Dogs and had played significant amounts of VFL. But we blinked, and then we doubled down. Now, due to a bit of luck, we have regained a small amount of value and there's some on here that are acting like it was all part of the plan, 555-Come-On-Now.

 

[Dinkers]

Can we do a redraft and do this with Wardlaw?

Ha- I think in 2 years he will explode, fyi- in a good way

 

[King Hansen]

We are getting pick 11 for two second rounders. And we could have still done this trade if we did neither of those other trades - we would just have pick 4 instead of 26 as well. Not sure why people think things look better when they conflate these trades. It doesn't make it palatable; it just reminds us how awful that Daniel trade was.

So you'd rather not have Matt Whitlock at have 2 early picks in a shit draft? Doesn't make sense

 

[perplexed]

So you'd rather not have Matt Whitlock at have 2 early picks in a shit draft? Doesn't make sense

We'd still have Whitlock, we would just take him with the pick we wasted on Daniel.