Recruiting AFL Trade & Free Agency XIII

[Lore]

Spoiler: 2025 Draft Order

Spoiler: 2026 Draft Order

Spoiler: 2027 Draft Order

 

[FootyGuru]

I posted about potentially this happening around trade period last season, but tauru finds himself out of the side. I’d love Essendon to be into him offering more money/opportunity. Super talented player.

 

[IHurley]

We should consider throwing a big fat bag at Pendles for a year to be an on field coach for us like Hodge was at Brisbane.

Be hard to have a team huddle when our players refuse to go within 30 metres of him.

 

[Phone]

my gut feel on the F/S & Academy changes, and I hope some more clued in people can speak on it, is that this will have an interesting impact on player movement. The soon-to-be-abolished had the impact of making 1st round picks disposable (see: us trading our pick 6 in 2024), which added liquidity to the trading market by having more first round picks flying around in trades. now teams who are trying to trade their player for a first round pick are going to be competing with a team with a F/S & Academy player prospect to get a first round pick. so it seems to me the demand for first round picks will increase and the supply of 1st round picks available in trades will decrease which presumably will have down-stream impacts

 

[BeeZurk]

I think we need to trade in 2-3 leaders into the club. We don't have enough. Particularly on game day. I think we need one in the back line and the forward line. Like a Hodge/Parker type if we can. Both exceptional players if we can just bring in some really strong onfield leaders to hold everyone accountable and coach onfield this is a no brainer for mine.

 

[Keystone agony]

I think we need to trade in 2-3 leaders into the club. We don't have enough. Particularly on game day. I think we need one in the back line and the forward line. Like a Hodge/Parker type if we can. Both exceptional players if we can just bring in some really strong onfield leaders to hold everyone accountable and coach onfield this is a no brainer for mine.

Some want leaders

Some want teens

Club cant win or do right in everyones mind

 

[Call Me Cake]

Reality is

We win or lose by a bit
Things are going swimmingly

We get smashed
We need things

It's a known cycle through all rebuilds. Very predictable.

 

[Keystone agony]

Reality is

We win or lose by a bit
Things are going swimmingly

We get smashed
We need things

It's a known cycle through all rebuilds. Very predictable.

This is why those in charge are in charge

 

[ant555]

I posted about potentially this happening around trade period last season, but tauru finds himself out of the side. I’d love Essendon to be into him offering more money/opportunity. Super talented player.

We actually watched him pretty closely in his draft year and interviewed him a few times, but we ended up trading to gain a few more picks so he ended up out of reach. You would think they would be still looking but in saying that the word is we are not looking for any trades that would involve our first pick. I mentioned him before the draft as one I liked.

 

[ant555]

Reality is

We win or lose by a bit
Things are going swimmingly

We get smashed
We need things

It's a known cycle through all rebuilds. Very predictable.

 

[Keystone agony]

Saints are not letting Tauru go

Reality

 

[FootyGuru]

Saints are not letting Tauru go

Reality

Yeh why does he re sign though? They are playing him out of position or not in the side, and they have nearly maxed their cap room. We offer him opportunities and more money, how do they keep him.

 

[Keystone agony]

Yeh why does he re sign though? They are playing him out of position or not in the side, and they have nearly maxed their cap room. We offer him opportunities and more money, how do they keep him.

Sure if this continues for another 18 months

We have no idea about cap room, assume theyre well off considering theyre looking at L.Neale and others

Its a discussion for 18 months not now

 

[bombersim]

Be hard to have a team huddle when our players refuse to go within 30 metres of him.

My mail is they were all ageist.
And also don’t like basketball.

 

[bombersim]

So reading these rule changes, and all things possibly happening, for the next two drafts we could have a serious bounty on our hands. With current ladder positions and not counting trades like Merret &/or Ridley.

2026:
Essendon 1st rounder
Essendon 2nd rounder
Essendon 2nd compensation pick
Essendon 4th rounder
(potential player outs; Zac Merrett, Jordan Ridley)
(Club Tied: Blake Justice, 15 - 40), Jad Naim (rookie) Gabriel Tangata (rookie)


2027:
Essendon 1st rounder
Essendon 2nd rounder
Essendon 3rd rounder
Essendon 4th rounder
(Club Tied: Koby Bewick (5 - 15), Moustafa Darwish (15 - 30), Tevita Rodan (15 - 30), Ronan Yow Yeh (rookie)
(key out of contracts: Nic Martin)

Needing points to match in 2027 is going to be the tricky part, get the feeling Koby wont be as high as many are predicting, with Tassie taking so many under 17s may see him rise into that top tier of prospects. We're likely only going to match 2/3 national draft NGA's (Bewick and Darwish)

If we finish bottom 3 in 3027 and Bewick is around that mark is there a possibility that our first will be wiped out by picking him up?
Would effectively negate the advantage of getting a player tied to the club via F/S, particularly if we have a very low finish. If we have a KPP available at that pick, do we still go Bewick?
Ideally, we can get in front of the pick and double dip - ideally without wiping out our first for following year.

 

[King Patty]

I'm going to flag this early, Kayle Gerreyn requests trade at end of season. He's being played out of position for 18 months and looks to be giving up a bit as FB now. He'll chase a FWD role at another club as a depth option over staying with us.

Nah needs to stay another year, get some AFL games and higher trade value, then can be packaged up as part of deal for one of Harley Reid, Willem Duursma or Jobe Shanahan

 

[boncer34]

Hey Lore

One minor suggestion for your 2027 spreadsheet, maybe have the picks that Tassie have to trade in a colour other than black?

Just to differentiate between the priority picks they keep and the ones they cant?

 

[Yoda_]

If we finish bottom 3 in 3027 and Bewick is around that mark is there a possibility that our first will be wiped out by picking him up?
Would effectively negate the advantage of getting a player tied to the club via F/S, particularly if we have a very low finish. If we have a KPP available at that pick, do we still go Bewick?
Ideally, we can get in front of the pick and double dip - ideally without wiping out our first for following year.

the notion of "getting in front of a bid" is now well behind us unless a club is bankrolling picks.

Having Koby 'slide' to pick 5 with our pick 3 for example means we would still likely need to move out assets to get picks 6 + something else to match.

Feel clubs in our position will invariably "split" these picks or trade back into drafts after they have matched bids on the night. Just to make keeping up even more difficult

 

[King Patty]

Koby having Osteitis Pubis and a back injury so far, doing everything he can to slide I guess.

My hope is AFL will see how much Port / Blues give up this year and say they are going to make it esier in 2027 because of Tassie.

Maybe we should just change St kilda muppett whos behind the harsher changes

 

[Milanista28]

You hear our players talk about the culture of the group is great and the 'best it's ever been' and that sounds nice, I'm sure the group are close and friendly, but no one on our list actually knows what good culture is, none of them have played senior football in an elite environment for an extended period of time, they don't know what it's meant to feel like, how do we fix that? Do we offer Dangerfield a big pay packet to play 25 games over the next 2 seasons to show us?

I think the club had this in mind with Fiorini, but even he doesn't know what it should look and feel like.

 

[Keystone agony]

With 1.3 as the mark for King

Have to be offering him 2 mill a year over 3-4 years with an extension at the same rate if he wants it for upto 6 years

Same for Zac Bailey

33

Zac Bailey

Age

26

Ht

181cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.9

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

CL

0.9

3star

D

12.9

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

5.6

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.4

3star

CL

0.7

3star

D

13.4

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.8

5star

M

3.2

4star

T

2.8

5star

CL

0.6

3star

 

[Milanista28]

King would struggle here, wouldn't touch him.

 

[Call Me Cake]

You hear our players talk about the culture of the group is great and the 'best it's ever been' and that sounds nice, I'm sure the group are close and friendly, but no one on our list actually knows what good culture is, none of them have played senior football in an elite environment for an extended period of time, they don't know what it's meant to feel like, how do we fix that? Do we offer Dangerfield a big pay packet to play 25 games over the next 2 seasons to show us?

I think the club had this in mind with Fiorini, but even he doesn't know what it should look and feel like.

Duursma played in 6 finals and 2 prelims...

Yeah we have a hole in terms of experience but that's what a rebuilding side is and a lot of them lack said experience until they get good enough to achieve it or fill holes through trading at the later stage

 

[Keystone agony]

King would struggle here, wouldn't touch him.

Why would he?

 

[Keystone agony]

George Hewett

29

George Hewett

Age

30

Ht

187cm

Wt

87kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.7

4star

K

7.4

3star

HB

10.3

5star

M

2.7

3star

T

4.1

5star

CL

3.3

5star

D

13.8

3star

K

4.8

2star

HB

9.0

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

2.8

4star

D

11.2

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

3.4

4star

T

4.0

5star

CL

0.4

3star

Jake Kolojashnij
Jack Crisp

25

Jack Crisp

Age

32

Ht

190cm

Wt

91kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.2

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

9.7

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

4.0

5star

CL

2.2

4star

D

17.7

4star

K

10.7

4star

HB

7.0

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

3star

CL

1.0

3star

D

14.4

4star

K

8.4

4star

HB

6.0

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

3.0

5star

CL

1.4

4star

Are our 3 leaders who can come in and help. Maybe even be best 23 at our club in 2-3 years time

If we got some/one of these guys and didnt land any big fish like Butters, Bailey, Ben King

34

Ben King

Age

25

Ht

202cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

7.2

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

2.2

2star

M

3.5

4star

T

0.5

3star

G

1.3

5star

D

7.5

2star

K

5.6

2star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.3

1star

G

1.5

5star

D

6.8

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

2.4

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

0.2

3star

G

1.0

4star

then we should feel more comfortable about letting Zerrett go for Cmack/Dear, Hustwaite and this years 1st

 

[Red Black and Blue]

You hear our players talk about the culture of the group is great and the 'best it's ever been' and that sounds nice, I'm sure the group are close and friendly, but no one on our list actually knows what good culture is, none of them have played senior football in an elite environment for an extended period of time, they don't know what it's meant to feel like, how do we fix that? Do we offer Dangerfield a big pay packet to play 25 games over the next 2 seasons to show us?

I think the club had this in mind with Fiorini, but even he doesn't know what it should look and feel like.

Culture stuff is overstated. If you were to break down our senior players into categories of ability to kick, run, win hardball, mark overhead they would be below AFL average for starting mids in most categories. Can have an amazing culture but not have players who are physically suited to executing premiership standards.