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Opinion 2023 AFL Draft Prospects

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Who do you want for our first pick at the AFL Draft?

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Smiley Boy said:
Jordan Croft needs to calm the fck down

Second best on ground on the weekend and kicking another 3 goals
Click to expand...

I think someone mentioned on here he has serious off field issues šŸ˜‰, which I'm sure you can confirm?!
Anyone would be mad to spend any more than a 4th rounder on the kid, I suspect we'll draft him more out of pity than anything else. šŸ˜†
 
doggies ftw said:
Agree to disagree, Bont is absolutely on the level of those guys with his non-dominant, thereā€™s not many that can hit a laser beam 50m pass out of congestion on their opposite, Bont does it weekly.
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Open to having my mind changed so I'll make an effort to watch for right footed kicks in the next few weeks. I have seen way too many opposite footed shanks in the last year to consider him anything better than poor on his right. There was a particularly bad one in the Geelong game that led to a turnover after he barely managed to make contact with the ball at all, resulting in Geelong scoring. He just looked so unnatural
 
Nat Fyfe said:
Open to having my mind changed so I'll make an effort to watch for right footed kicks in the next few weeks. I have seen way too many opposite footed shanks in the last year to consider him anything better than poor on his right. There was a particularly bad one in the Geelong game that led to a turnover after he barely managed to make contact with the ball at all, resulting in Geelong scoring. He just looked so unnatural
Click to expand...

His right knee was twisted in a tackle in the Ballarat game v Crows, was in some doubt for the following week vs Suns and still carrying it vs Cats.
Fair chance that contributes to his kicking ability, as he's been playing under duress for weeks.
 

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The Western Bulldogs may need to match a first-round draft bid on a father-son or academy prospect for the third time in four years this November.

Calder Cannons prospect Jordan Croft, the son of ex-Bulldog Matthew, who played 186 games for the club between 1991 and 2004, has surged into top-15 calculations with a strong start to the season.

Matthew Croft, left, pictured playing for the Bulldogs, and draft prospect Jordan, right.


Matthew Croft, left, pictured playing for the Bulldogs, and draft prospect Jordan, right. Credit: Getty Images

The 200-centimetre forward kicked four goals for Victoria Metro in their trial game against the Young Guns ahead of the mid-season draft ā€“ which he was not eligible for ā€“ and added 3.2 in Metroā€™s 68-point drubbing of South Australia on Sunday.

The Dogs matched a bid on father-son swingman Sam Darcy (son of Luke) at No.2 in the 2021 draft, after doing the same with Next Generation Academy graduate Jamarra Ugle-Hagan with the top selection the previous year.

Several recruiters who spoke to Money Talks on the condition of anonymity believe Croft is a genuine first-round contender, with Metro coach Rob Harding also raving about his work-rate for his size.

It presents an interesting dilemma for the Bulldogs, given they are blessed for young talls at both ends, including Darcy, Ugle-Hagan, Aaron Naughton, Jedd Busslinger and new category B signing James Oā€™Donnell.

That doesnā€™t even include ruck star Tim English, another one of their excellent draft decisions in recent years.

They already have two first-round picks this year after scoring Brisbaneā€™s in the Josh Dunkley trade, and would hope any bid on Croft comes after those. Otherwise, the Dogsā€™ recruiting team will have to weigh up whether Croft is right for them.


ā€œHe gets up and back, works really hard, and is a real challenge to defend. He wears his defender down through that work-rate and gets to good spots to generate opportunities to score,ā€ Harding told Money Talks.
ā€œHe marks well on the lead, and is an on-the-move sort of player, but as he matures and fills out more, he will keep adding to his contest side. He will get an opportunity in the [under-18] champs to do some relief rucking as well.ā€
 
Bulldogs85 said:
The Western Bulldogs may need to match a first-round draft bid on a father-son or academy prospect for the third time in four years this November.

Calder Cannons prospect Jordan Croft, the son of ex-Bulldog Matthew, who played 186 games for the club between 1991 and 2004, has surged into top-15 calculations with a strong start to the season.

Matthew Croft, left, pictured playing for the Bulldogs, and draft prospect Jordan, right.


Matthew Croft, left, pictured playing for the Bulldogs, and draft prospect Jordan, right. Credit: Getty Images

The 200-centimetre forward kicked four goals for Victoria Metro in their trial game against the Young Guns ahead of the mid-season draft ā€“ which he was not eligible for ā€“ and added 3.2 in Metroā€™s 68-point drubbing of South Australia on Sunday.

The Dogs matched a bid on father-son swingman Sam Darcy (son of Luke) at No.2 in the 2021 draft, after doing the same with Next Generation Academy graduate Jamarra Ugle-Hagan with the top selection the previous year.

Several recruiters who spoke to Money Talks on the condition of anonymity believe Croft is a genuine first-round contender, with Metro coach Rob Harding also raving about his work-rate for his size.

It presents an interesting dilemma for the Bulldogs, given they are blessed for young talls at both ends, including Darcy, Ugle-Hagan, Aaron Naughton, Jedd Busslinger and new category B signing James Oā€™Donnell.

That doesnā€™t even include ruck star Tim English, another one of their excellent draft decisions in recent years.

They already have two first-round picks this year after scoring Brisbaneā€™s in the Josh Dunkley trade, and would hope any bid on Croft comes after those. Otherwise, the Dogsā€™ recruiting team will have to weigh up whether Croft is right for them.


ā€œHe gets up and back, works really hard, and is a real challenge to defend. He wears his defender down through that work-rate and gets to good spots to generate opportunities to score,ā€ Harding told Money Talks.
ā€œHe marks well on the lead, and is an on-the-move sort of player, but as he matures and fills out more, he will keep adding to his contest side. He will get an opportunity in the [under-18] champs to do some relief rucking as well.ā€
Click to expand...

Too good to pass up. Will help relief ruck with Darcy long term as well from the sounds of things.


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hatescaptcha said:
Too good to pass up. Will help relief ruck with Darcy long term as well from the sounds of things.


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Click to expand...
I agree the club will just have to go point hunting by the looks of it
 
A brief interlude in the discussion of this year's draft ...

The reason we have Jordan Croft as a F/S prospect is of course because his dad Matthew played 186 games for us. So how did we get Croft Sr?

Many here weren't even born then but he came to us from Mildura Imperials via pick 2 in the 1989 National Draft. That draft didn't run all that deep so we did well to select Croft. Anthony Banik (Richmond) went at pick 1 and only played 49 games. Of the top 25 the only ones to reach 100 games were Croft, Peter Matera (#4, 253 games), Gavin Wanganeen (12,300) and Ben Allan (14, 145). However further down the order there were some decent players like Wayne Campbell (pick 29, 297), Shaun Hart (33, 273), Paul Williams (70, 306), Brett Heady (92, 156) as well as F/S pick Ash McIntosh (242 games). It goes to show how rough the scouting and player evaluation processes were back then. We also picked up Glen Coleman from Sydney in that draft.

The selection of 191cm Croft came on top of the 1988 draft where we picked up a couple of gangly kids in Leon Cameron (pick 7, 172 games for us) and famously at pick 105, Chris Grant (341 games). A pretty handy pair. Grant and Cameron didn't debut until 1990. Croft didn't debut until 1991 and only played 8 games in his first three years. His breakout game was in Rd 1 1994 (his 9th career game) when he kicked 5 goals against Richmond, a feat he wasn't able to replicate until his final career game in 2004. From memory he was playing on a wing or HFF at that early stage of his career but if others have better memories of it I'd be happy to be corrected.

The arrival of these three helped propel the club to one of its best decades in its league history.

Unfortunately our run of draft success ended abruptly in 1990. It turned out to be an utter flop. Paul Gow (pick 7, 8 games) was the only one out of 6 draftees to play a senior game. Holy crap, we'd be burning the joint down if we had 6 picks in any modern day draft and got a grand total of 8 senior games out of it!

In our defence that 1990 draft must have been the weakest ever. The only one out of the first 50 drafted who played 100 games for the club that selected him was Nick Daffy (pick 49) who played 165 games for Collingwood. A few others did manage to play over 100 games via different routes, such as Jason McCartney, but not at the club that first drafted them. The one standout success was James Hird at pick 79 (253 games). How the hell did he slip that far? Those early draft years were so unpredictable and the junior and country leagues hadn't evolved into the feeder programs they are now.

Drafting was a black art back then. These days it's a carefully calibrated and much scrutinised science.

Anyway, carry on ...
 

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noobermensch said:
Not sure if this is the correct thread on your board to post this, let me know if not.

Jordan was super impressive in the first half before fading a bit in the second.

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Love your work mate, these videos are always welcome! I only managed to get glimpses of this game so getting a highlights package of Croft is great
 
hatescaptcha said:
View attachment 1712046

Have to say, Croft has a glorious mop on him.

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Click to expand...
His dad was an old favourite of mine. Watched him destroy Geelong in defence down at GMHBA stadium one day as we came back from a huge deficit of around 35 points.
 
noobermensch said:
Not sure if this is the correct thread on your board to post this, let me know if not.

Jordan was super impressive in the first half before fading a bit in the second.

Click to expand...

Looks like he's been taking our goal kicking training sessions by the look of those first half shanks
 
I know very little about AFL scouting or talent evaluation etc and have only seen Croft a few times, but something about him screams defender to me. Maybe similar to Darcy Moore when he came in and looked promising as a fwd, but then something clicked to turn him into an elite defender.

Long way away, but will be interesting to see if that's something that he gets a look at early on in his career.
 

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With all this chat about mids imagine if we picked 207cm Mitch Edwards with our first... (I think he is going to be an absolute gun and likely to be best available when itā€™s our pick).


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I would love for Croft to spend some time at CHB in the championship or the Coates league. I think he has the ā€˜toolsā€™ to make it there with his athleticism and attack on the ball.

We seem to be assembling a team full of super athletic big forwards that canā€™t kick for goal.
 
I agree everything I see about him screams CHB to me. All his attributes look like theyā€™d transfer better to the backline. Super athletic 200cm CHB sounds great.

Plus I just canā€™t hack another poor set shot in the forward line, we just canā€™t have all our main targets inside 50 be poor set shots it doesnā€™t work šŸ˜‚
 
His set shot goal kicking has been very good other games (e.g. VM v Young Guns), I wouldnā€™t draw any conclusions based just on that one outing.

Watched him a few times and his stand out quality is his speed and agility for his size. Thatā€™ll make him useful in a number of roles eventually. Iā€™m not sold on his contested marking as a KPF yet.

That SA team is pretty bad. Weā€™ll get a better read on him after the games against Country and Allies. Still think heā€™s currently only 50-50 to get nominated before our current picks. But could see us trading up just to avoid a team doing to us what Sydney did to GWS last year with Rowston.
 

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