Preview 2022 Mid Season draft - Hawks take Ramsden and Blanck

[Strapping Young Lad]

 

[CHUBBSS]

Can Blanck be a key defender for the next 10 years with dgb / Sicily / scrimshaw / cj / impey and Hardwick all giving him a chopout?

If his strong, fast and has a good fist all he needs to do is stop the big forwards and the company around him will shine

 

[Blackhawk42]

Can Blanck be a key defender for the next 10 years with dgb / Sicily / scrimshaw / cj / impey and Hardwick all giving him a chopout?

If his strong, fast and has a good fist all he needs to do is stop the big forwards and the company around him will shine

This is how I view it. Appears to have the athletic profile.

Still hoping for Blanck and a ruck, however if we receive word in the next 6 days that Reeves and Lynch will be available then I'm not as fussed on the ruck selection.

 

[BIGHAWK23]

Ramsden with First
Blanck with Second

Job done

 

[Blackhawk42]

Ramsden with First
Blanck with Second

Job done

I feel Blanck will gone by our second.

 

[BIGHAWK23]

I feel Blanck will gone by our second.

Blanck is in because we have obviously told him we would like to pick him up

Noone else has really shown interest it seems

 

[CobberRodgers]

Blanck is in because we have obviously told him we would like to pick him up

Noone else has really shown interest it seems

The Hawthorn Syndrome will have kicked in by then, and the media will have Blanck a certainty to be the next Brian Lake, so someone will take him out of cold fear.

Always paranoid about what's cooking at Hawthorn.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Ramsden with First
Blanck with Second

Job done

Have you seen much of Ramsden?

He’s very raw. Wouldn’t expect much from him for the next 2-3 years, which is fine, but there’s some mids in amongst the top few who could have a Newcombe-like impact at AFL level.

 

[Dewwwww]

Have you seen much of Ramsden?

He’s very raw. Wouldn’t expect much from him for the next 2-3 years, which is fine, but there’s some mids in amongst the top few who could have a Newcombe-like impact at AFL level.

What would their ceiling be like though? It’s very rare to be able to grab a potential A grade mid like Jai. And if their only going to come in and reach a B grade level then I Feel we‘re better off giving game time to Ward / MacDonald / Long etc and picking up more potential A grade mids with our first 2 picks in this years draft

 

[theiaofseed]

Have you seen much of Ramsden?

He’s very raw. Wouldn’t expect much from him for the next 2-3 years, which is fine, but there’s some mids in amongst the top few who could have a Newcombe-like impact at AFL level.

Ramsden could be Jackson like... big if/could though.

Sadly Carmichael and Culley will be gone by our pick.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[rei154]

Ballenden with our first would be a missed opportunity.
I don't mind us nabbing him with one of our later picks if he's around then, but realistically he's not the kind of player I'd think we'd be looking to invest in long term.

 

[burner1]

Carmichael interests me. Seems one of those guys from the outside the pathways who’s just steps up each time he goes up a level. But probably gone before our pick.

 

[BIGHAWK23]

If we take a ruck, it should be a project ie Ramsden

In potentially 2 weeks we have 2 rucks available anyway

Worst case 1

 

[Bugs1977]

Ramsden with First
Blanck with Second

Job done

Ramsden Blanck sounds like a beautiful white wine

 

[Coathanger]

These guys are contracted until the end of the season.
Why people are losing it over "the future" is weird.
Someone is already inactive and no spot is being taken.

Just sign a ruck,any ruck and say goodbye after rd 23.
Wow it's not that hard!

 

[Blackhawk42]

I'm not super keen on Ballenden if Blanck is still available. I actually think the latter has a better chance of making it long term and we are one Frost or DGB injury away from having key defensive stocks as shaky as our ruck line.

 

[TylerDurden]

These guys are contracted until the end of the season.
Why people are losing it over "the future" is weird.
Someone is already inactive and no spot is being taken.

Just sign a ruck,any ruck and say goodbye after rd 23.
Wow it's not that hard!

Or you pick up a 10 year high end midfielder in Jai. It's an opportunity to improve our list. We need to make every post a winner, considering we ignored the draft for the best part of 3 years under Clarko.

 

[BIGHAWK23]

These guys are contracted until the end of the season.
Why people are losing it over "the future" is weird.
Someone is already inactive and no spot is being taken.

Just sign a ruck,any ruck and say goodbye after rd 23.
Wow it's not that hard!

Thats a contender way to look at things

The wrong way from our perspective

 

[Guardian Hawk]

Ballenden with our first would be a missed opportunity.
I don't mind us nabbing him with one of our later picks if he's around then, but realistically he's not the kind of player I'd think we'd be looking to invest in long term.

I'm not super keen on Ballenden if Blanck is still available. I actually think the latter has a better chance of making it long term and we are one Frost or DGB injury away from having key defensive stocks as shaky as our ruck line.

Nothing is guaranteed but I think it is very likely we take Blanck. Trained with us through the pre-season but was not eligible as a SSP selection. Played at Box Hill all year and again training with the AFL side as of late. Nominated by us (I hear) to receive an exemption to be available for the mid season draft. Hartigan not being selected (and even Frost being thrown forward a week or two before the mid season draft) all add credence to the suggestion that he is in our plans.

Ballenden should be available with our second pick for consideration. FWIW, he is not necessarily just a 'short term' solution given he is the same age as both Reeves and Lynch. He has the capability to both fill in straight away (unlike the other 'project' rucks) but can also be longer term back up/insurance (especially with McEvoy likely departing the list in the near future and Lynch facing some recurrent concussion issues) but even has the potential to compete with the other 2 for a spot.

I still think Hawthorn could tack another way if one of the highly touted mids slip through to our first pick (we would love to end up with the next Jai of course and mids are still the #1 need) but Jai is easily the best mid season draft pick ever (Snelling probably the next best) so expecting to find another of similar quality (especially one that is not taken by the teams before us) is really very slim.

Be interesting to see how it pans out - I think the above scenario is the most likely - either way, I trust the Hawthorn recruiting team to get it right.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Not sure why we would take a ruck unless we felt one was available that would pass Max Lynch. It is probably good experience for our young mids to learn to compete at stoppages without a dominant ruck and Reeves is due back soon.

If Blanck is deemed good enough and grow enough to be a gorilla key defender, I would take him first, otherwise the best mid. Please no more half back flankers !!

 

[BIGHAWK23]

The Mid Season Draft is a surprise only to fans

The clubs will know who is being taken where

Every player in the national draft arn't stars, some are role players

You cant make a list up with just stars, it dosent happen

To claim that role players are somehow a bad thing to draft is just short sighted

 

[Guardian Hawk]

Not sure why we would take a ruck unless we felt one was available that would pass Max Lynch. It is probably good experience for our young mids to learn to compete at stoppages without a dominant ruck and Reeves is due back soon.

If Blanck is deemed good enough and grow enough to be a gorilla key defender, I would take him first, otherwise the best mid. Please no more half back flankers !!

You take best available (of course). If one of the impressive mids slips through that we think will make it, I expect we take him. Other wise, I think it is very likely we are planning to pick Blanck first. Our second pick will depend on who's left but I genuinely think a ruck, such as Ballenden, will be on the radar.

I'm not sure why we wouldn't take a ruck to be honest. McEvoy is undoubtedly close to retirement. That leaves 2 rucks on the entire list (and it's clear we intended to play 2 rucks in the team). No other list in the competition has only 2 rucks on it - even the ones who play a sole ruck. We had 4 last year and had to carry a 30 y.o Brooksby around. Using a late mid season pick on a competent young (but mature enough to compete) ruck makes perfect sense to me. Keep the National draft for other positions, like the midfield, etc as an 18 y.o ruck is almost always of little use and high draft picks should be spent on prime AFL roles (not support positions). The fact that neither of our young rucks are established yet and both are injury prone only adds to the argument.

 

[Brishawk]

You take best available (of course). If one of the impressive mids slips through that we think will make it, I expect we take him. Other wise, I think it is very likely we are planning to pick Blanck first. Our second pick will depend on who's left but I genuinely think a ruck, such as Ballenden, will be on the radar.

I'm not sure why we wouldn't take a ruck to be honest. McEvoy is undoubtedly close to retirement. That leaves 2 rucks on the entire list (and it's clear we intended to play 2 rucks in the team). No other list in the competition has only 2 rucks on it - even the ones who play a sole ruck. We had 4 last year and had to carry a 30 y.o Brooksby around. Using a late mid season pick on a competent young (but mature enough to compete) ruck makes perfect sense to me. Keep the National draft for other positions, like the midfield, etc as an 18 y.o ruck is almost always of little use and high draft picks should be spent on prime AFL roles (not support positions). The fact that neither of our young rucks are established yet and both are injury prone only adds to the argument.

Yeah best available but a ruck is a great need going forward. Won’t solve our current season issues but if we added Ramsden now and another bargain mature body on the rookie list in the offseason we are good to go next year with three mature rucks and a developing rookie. Would love a ruck/forward too but I’m not sure ballenden is the right player.

 

[Rocket72]

James Blanck has some great attributes. He's not the answer to any of our AFL questions this year, and is a good late rookie gamble. This talk of him going early just doesn't match the publically available information. Maybe some know something the public doesn't?