Player Watch 2023 AFL Draft Pool Discussion Thread

[Strapping Young Lad]

Same rule applies to this thread as other years, keep it on topic about the kids.
Don’t get bogged down on what other teams might do or where they will finish.

Trade speculation belongs here.
That's also where you can discuss your mock drafts or pick trades.

Any McCabe, Dear or Maginness talk belongs here.

 

[excitingnews]

We were definitely interested in Phillipou.

I’m sure we were, but despite giving every indication publicly and to the player that we would draft him, we ultimately passed and took mackenzie instead

 

[TDS7]

Connor O'Sullivan attended a few CBAs as a mid by the way. What him and Curtin both bring is excellent endurance, class, and cleanliness around the contests, a far cry from the Frostball days of our current backline. Getting both might be a bit much, but if we rate them as players there's no reason not to bring them in. If either of them are good enough, either as Key Backs or somewhere else, they'll make the team. Curtin's composure is otherworldly, and COS has the running flair and aerial presence to lock down a wing or provide some attack from the backline. Both are in the mould of some great Centre Half Backs, and living then up across Half Forward could finally give us a target on the counter attack with some composure that isn't Mitch Lewis. I'd be happy with either, and honestly I'd be happy with both if that's what the club decides.

Imagine a world where we line up Reeves, Nash, COS, and Curtin at a centre bounce. I'd love to see it in a preseason game, just for shits and gigs.

 

[TheFourPillars]

I’m sure we were, but despite giving every indication publicly and to the player that we would draft him, we ultimately passed and took mackenzie instead

Yes we do our due diligence. Get all the information you can, clear any doubts and pick the player you want. You make a decision. It's how most ppl make decisions including list managers.

 

[excitingnews]

Yes we do our due diligence. Get all the information you can, clear any doubts and pick the player you want. You make a decision. It's how most ppl make decisions including list managers.

I’m sure there’s an element of DD, but this is two years in a row that we’ve made a fairly public show of flying over an interstate draftee that teams ahead of us might be considering trading back to pick up.

 

[KeeperLeaguer]

No disrespect, he’s pretty involved with the board rather than recruitment so he could well be wrong. But those are the exact words

Yeah fair enough, it was just the 'going hard' that was a bit wrong because it gives the impression that's our main priority. Right now it isn't - if it eventuates then great but it's up to Eagles to accept our offer, in the meantime we're trying for that later pick in case the WC doesn't go through, and most doubt it wil (although you never know).

 

[VandoHawk]

The problem is I don't think COS or Caddy will be available even if we trade in our future first. Looking at the draft order, Geelong at 8 is probably where is starts being genuinely considered. We also need a F3 back which doesn't sound like much but recruiters can spend ages haggling over that.

Leake, Wilson, Windsor likely on the board around there. All nice options but risky given the price.

 

[excitingnews]

Yeah fair enough, it was just the 'going hard' that was a bit wrong because it gives the impression that's our main priority. Right now it isn't - if it eventuates then great but it's up to Eagles to accept our offer, in the meantime we're trying for that later pick in case the WC doesn't go through, and most doubt it wil (although you never know).

I getcha mate, he’s very excitable so his wording makes sense

 

[hawkinoz]

I’m sure we were, but despite giving every indication publicly and to the player that we would draft him, we ultimately passed and took mackenzie instead

Why should the interview be linked to pick position.

We may be interviewing Curtin to see feasibility of picking him at Pick 6, not pick 4.

We may trade 4+62+63 for 6+11+42( the Deal Dees offered) if a specific target we have is no longer available at 4.

Then we pick Curtin at 6.

Same logic for CMac. If CMac was not available we may have traded that pick and take Pou with the later pick, hence we did our due diligence.

 

[sohsam]

What is the downside to picking a player this year v next year? We would know exactly who we get this year if we do a live trade.

that is the whole issue, you do not know exactly who you will get this year. Sure, if you had a crystal ball and could see say a player pick 37 will be better than pick 4 you would do the deal. If it was not because of McCabe and if we proposed pick 4 for GWS pick 7,16 GWS most people would not do it. If we are to say we still finish bottom 4 next year, you want to give that pick away for a pick 8 this year, surely most people see that as a downgrade. you would also go into next year with empty feeling of no f1 or 2nd round. If say next year you had a pick 3, why wouldn't you next year split into say pick 8 & 15 as example, pick up 2 good players. We still have a number of positions to fill, whether we get a caddy/O'sullivan this year with say a pick 8/10 or Watson/curtin, they are all good, if with a trade down end up with another good player even better. For example if WC picks reid with pick 1, we think they will finish last again next year and comes to get Curtin with our pick 4 plus a sweetner (especially if can pick up another good player), it would be hard to ignore, you would be ahead. At the end of the day, the way to be ahead of other teams is to nail your pick. However, if most people think draft order is important, what you are proposing, seems like going backwards.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Hope not. F1 for pick 8 is putrid. How else would we get pick 8 ?

How is pick 8 for what would hopefully be around pick 8 or closer to 10ish next year if we likely improve again putrid exactly?

 

[unitedhawk]

I’m sure there’s an element of DD, but this is two years in a row that we’ve made a fairly public show of flying over an interstate draftee that teams ahead of us might be considering trading back to pick up.

What would you have preferred? Zoom interviews?

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I really don’t understand the ‘why get Curtin if we are getting McCabe?’ comments. Ignoring the fact that Curtin will be ready made for senior footy and MCCabe won’t be, that Curtin is more versatile than McCabe and it’s a positional need that’s never had a team suffer by having two quality tall defenders - it’s like saying ‘why would we draft Franklin when we just drafted Roughead?’. If Curtin is viewed as the best player at 4 then we absolutely get him at 4.

 

[sohsam]

How is pick 8 for what would hopefully be around pick 8 or closer to 10ish next year if we likely improve again putrid exactly?

that is the whole thing, if you think we will finish with pick 8 or 10, then it is fair deal. We would also have to get that person on needs basis, thinking that type of player will not be available next year.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

that is the whole thing, if you think we will finish with pick 8 or 10, then it is fair deal. We would also have to get that person on needs basis, thinking that type of player will not be available next year.

Next year is reportedly going to be midfield heavy in the top 10-15 - if we can get Curtin/Watson and then another quality player in at 8 then there’s every chance we don’t want another 18 year old mid next year. If we have identified someone, ala Weddle last year, that we absolutely want to move up for then I’ll gladly back in the recruiters.

 

[LegendLewis]

that is the whole thing, if you think we will finish with pick 8 or 10, then it is fair deal. We would also have to get that person on needs basis, thinking that type of player will not be available next year.

but we get who we want this year not next year and therefore fast track the build.
Add to that we can start pick purchasing next year and with our ample bank balance we will have many picks.
So if we like someone use the F1 for sure. it just makes sense...well to me it does.

 

[unitedhawk]

that is the whole thing, if you think we will finish with pick 8 or 10, then it is fair deal. We would also have to get that person on needs basis, thinking that type of player will not be available next year.

Don't forget the extra year's development if we draft a player this year by traading a future pick.

I'll be happy to back our recruiting team's judgement with whoever we get if we decide on a live trade of our f1, given our success with live trading for Weddle in last year's draft.

 

[excitingnews]

What would you have preferred? Zoom interviews?

The info was made public by twomey the day of, why would we make that information public if we didn’t want it to be

 

[Brishawk]

Umm no. We've told Eagles we're still available to talk and they have our offer but atm our focus is in getting a later pick. We've talked to COS today and in the next few days we'll be talking to guys like Caddy, Wilson & Leake.

Wilson

 

[Platten44]

You would think it would also take 2 of our picks in the 40’s to trade a future 3rd in to allow us to trade our future 1st. This would leave us with a deficit next year. Anyone know where the deficit comes off in this case as none of our 2024 picks would be ours. Would it then be our 2025 1st?

 

[daniel23]

I'm all for trading an f1. Obviously there is a clear top 5 , but in the next bracket from 5-10 there are players that definitely fill positional needs for us. Next year's draft also looks stacked with mids.

 

[HawksILove]

If we do get 2 picks I would take Watson and Connor O'Sullivan

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Brishawk]

that is the whole issue, you do not know exactly who you will get this year. Sure, if you had a crystal ball and could see say a player pick 37 will be better than pick 4 you would do the deal. If it was not because of McCabe and if we proposed pick 4 for GWS pick 7,16 GWS most people would not do it. If we are to say we still finish bottom 4 next year, you want to give that pick away for a pick 8 this year, surely most people see that as a downgrade. you would also go into next year with empty feeling of no f1 or 2nd round. If say next year you had a pick 3, why wouldn't you next year split into say pick 8 & 15 as example, pick up 2 good players. We still have a number of positions to fill, whether we get a caddy/O'sullivan this year with say a pick 8/10 or Watson/curtin, they are all good, if with a trade down end up with another good player even better. For example if WC picks reid with pick 1, we think they will finish last again next year and comes to get Curtin with our pick 4 plus a sweetner (especially if can pick up another good player), it would be hard to ignore, you would be ahead. At the end of the day, the way to be ahead of other teams is to nail your pick. However, if most people think draft order is important, what you are proposing, seems like going backwards.

Things you havent considered:
1. The possibility of finishing higher up the ladder than the pick we trade for.
2. That we might rate the player we take higher than the pick we trade for.
3. That we rate the draft pool next year lower than this year so pick x this year might be multiple picks better than next year at the same number.
4. An extra year of development is worth a lot.

What you are really describing is loss aversion, which is irrational and the reason why insurance companies make so much profit! Time to put that fear in the bin and get on the expected value train. Toot, toot!

 

[tl92]

If we do get 2 picks I would take Watson and Connor O'Sullivan

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

I’d love Watson and caddy, plus McCabe. Sam Mitchell said late in the year that we were lacking in 4 positions. with the trade and draft periods I think we can come a long way in filling these roles:

Small forward: Watson Ginni
Key forward: chol caddy gunna
Key defence: McCabe and maybe Ethan Phillips?
X factor mid: I think cam mackenzie can be this in a sense, suspect the club were more thinking a degoey, petracca, Harley reid type here though.

 

[HawksILove]

I’d love Watson and caddy, plus McCabe. Sam Mitchell said late in the year that we were lacking in 4 positions. with the trade and draft periods I think we can come a long way in filling these roles:

Small forward: Watson Ginni
Key forward: chol caddy gunna
Key defence: McCabe and maybe Ethan Phillips?
X factor mid: I think cam mackenzie can be this in a sense, suspect the club were more thinking a degoey, petracca, Harley reid type here though.

I agree

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[unitedhawk]

The info was made public by twomey the day of, why would we make that information public if we didn’t want it to be

What makes you think we made it public?

If you reckon seasoned journos like Twomey will fail to notice high-profile draftees flying inter-state for interviews in the week leading up to the draft, perhaps you're doing Twomey an injustice.