Preview 2024 AFL Draft General Discussion

[Davo-27]

Who is the best ruck in next years draft? Or are they usually later known (maybe mid next year)?

I think the 2 best rucks for next year will be Kayle Gerryn from West Perth 198cm and Flynn Penry from GWV Rebels 200cm, both seem like stand out talents so far, 1 or 2 others might develop late though? Especially from Sandringham/Oakleigh

 

[Futbolista]

As far as ruckmen go, I want to keep a very close eye on Lucas Ravenhill from Claremont.

In one of the 2022 national 16's games he was best 3 or 4 on the ground.

He's mobile, runs hard to impact contests and is already 199cm according to his WAFL bio.

He was based in Albany in the South-West of WA this season and only traveled up to the city for two matches and that saw his profile go under the radar somewhat.

That said, he has been named in the WA state 18's summer squad, so the selectors saw something and maybe he has made the decision to relocate to the city.

Well worth keeping tabs on.

 

[Tivva29]

The Vic boys got their invitations earlier this week. Announcement in the next few days.
The names I heard were the usual suspects. If it’s correct there is one ridiculous omission, a guy that will end up going top 10. Wait and see

The Vic Metro hub invites went out yesterday. Have heard some of the names from Oakleigh and Sandy..no real surprises.

 

[ROYAL EAGLE]

Yeh next years WA crop will be interesting, looks pretty poor at this stage

With the 2 named above

Outside of that i think theyll be relying on a few under aagersyo help in the carnival which isnt a good sign

Otis Harvey
Hamish Davis

As 2 that could atleast be something and worth keeping an eye on, ontop of the 2 named in academy

No WA boys in the top 20
But 20 to 40 there will a lot taken there

 

[PMBangers]

No WA boys in the top 20
But 20 to 40 there will a lot taken there

Think Bo Allan is at the very least in the conversation for going into the season as a top 20 prospect

 

[ROYAL EAGLE]

Think Bo Allan is at the very least in the conversation for going into the season as a top 20 prospect

Fair enough I dont rate him at all

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Almost time for this thread to be front and centre.

 

[Keystone agony]

No WA boys in the top 20
But 20 to 40 there will a lot taken there

Who you talking about in that 20-40 range

Bo Allen will be around that mark right now imo, who else?

 

[RUNVS]

Almost time for this thread to be front and centre.

Yep, in 2 weeks the 2023 crop will be old news

 

[Haggas]

Malakai Champion and Kayle Gerreyn and maybe Chayce Martinson will be around that mark

 

[GC2015]

WOW!

Crows prise highly-touted father-son gun from SANFL rival

Tyler Welsh will leave Woodville-West Torrens to play with Adelaide's SANFL team next season

www.afl.com.au

Significant announcement when you really think about it because it essentially means the Crows get early access to a 17-year-old and he gets an extra year of AFL standard development with the trade off being that he can't play in the AFL until 2025 and he'll obviously need a few weeks off to represent SA in the U18 National Championships as well. Reminds me of the mini draft concessions we saw back in 2011-12 but this is different because it's a father-son concession as opposed to a start up concession.

 

[Crow till I die]

Significant announcement when you really think about it because it essentially means the Crows get early access to a 17-year-old and he gets an extra year of AFL standard development with the trade off being that he can't play in the AFL until 2025 and he'll obviously need a few weeks off to represent SA in the U18 National Championships as well. Reminds me of the mini draft concessions we saw back in 2011-12 but this is different because it's a father-son concession as opposed to a start up concession.

Yep - Brad Crouch played a year in the SANFL before he was eligible to play for the crows seniors. But this is great news for us as the whole package of strength, conditioning, injury management, fitness etc + getting to play against men AND becoming familiar with the crows game plan could really help fast track him AND he already looks a real quality player

 

[Haggas]

Does Port get to play their F/S next year aswell? Or is this the SANFL looking after the Crows and shafting Port again?

 

[briztoon]

Significant announcement when you really think about it because it essentially means the Crows get early access to a 17-year-old and he gets an extra year of AFL standard development with the trade off being that he can't play in the AFL until 2025 and he'll obviously need a few weeks off to represent SA in the U18 National Championships as well. Reminds me of the mini draft concessions we saw back in 2011-12 but this is different because it's a father-son concession as opposed to a start up concession.

That’s not a trade off. He wouldn’t be able to play at AFL level until he’s drafted any way. So 2025.

 

[PMBangers]

Does Port get to play their F/S next year aswell? Or is this the SANFL looking after the Crows and shafting Port again?

Port did the exact same thing with Jase Burgoyne and NGA prospect Nathan Barkla

 

[1990crow]

Port did the exact same thing with Jase Burgoyne and NGA prospect Nathan Barkla

Port fans: why are they always trying to tear us apart?!
Everyone else: you are treated like everyone else.

 

[marcmurphy3]

Looks like they are waiting until after the 2023 draft to release the 2024 academy intake. Makes sense.

 

[GC2015]

Yep - Brad Crouch played a year in the SANFL before he was eligible to play for the crows seniors. But this is great news for us as the whole package of strength, conditioning, injury management, fitness etc + getting to play against men AND becoming familiar with the crows game plan could really help fast track him AND he already looks a real quality player

I like it. I think it builds club culture to bring in highly rated juniors that have an intrinsic link to a club through father-son/academy. Collingwood really showed that this year with Captain Moore and the Daicos boys leading them to a flag. It really means something to those guys to pull on the black and white because it's in their blood and I suspect Welsh would feel a similar way about playing for the Crows. We're seeing it more and more these days with the Ashcrofts in Brisbane, Horne-Francis at Port, Croft who is about to get drafted to the Bulldogs and McCabe is about to be drafted to the Hawks.

I know some will disagree on this point but I think the academy serves a similar purpose for Gold Coast and GWS in lieu of having to wait for father-son picks to come through. Instead of having the family connections that have been built over multiple generations at other clubs, an academy player like Jed Walter has a city connection to the Suns. He grew up on the GC and seemingly wants to play for the Suns as well as wanting to achieve success here. You need that kind of passion to achieve great things in footy and it's also a great way of evening the distribution of talent throughout the league to create these intrinsic links at all clubs. Ideally you'd have at least a few really talented players who are deeply passionate about playing for each individual club in the AFL. That increases the likelihood of competitiveness and unpredictable results throughout a season.

That’s not a trade off. He wouldn’t be able to play at AFL level until he’s drafted any way. So 2025.

Surely you can see the potential benefits that come from training in a professional AFL environment vs a local SANFL club - having access to higher quality facilities, coaches, game plans, recovery, nutrition etc all year round as well as playing for a better resourced AFL reserves team a year before he's draft eligible. Sure, he won't be playing in the AFL in 2024 but he will be developing in a more professional way than he would have at WWT. That should accelerate his development and pay dividends for their AFL team later.

 

[Son_Of_God29]

Hi All,

Anybody know anything about a Joshua Sanders (Geelong Falcons) played i think 6 games as an under age player this year

 

[briztoon]

Surely you can see the potential benefits that come from training in a professional AFL environment vs a local SANFL club - having access to higher quality facilities, coaches, game plans, recovery, nutrition etc all year round as well as playing for a better resourced AFL reserves team a year before he's draft eligible. Sure, he won't be playing in the AFL in 2024 but he will be developing in a more professional way than he would have at WWT. That should accelerate his development and pay dividends for their AFL team later.

I agree 100% with all that. There was never any disagreement from me about that.

All I said was, there is no trade off in moving over to Adelaide and gaining all the benefits.

An actual trade off would be, moving to the Crows a year early, but not being allowed to play senior AFL footy until 2026.

 

[GC2015]

I agree 100% with all that. There was never any disagreement from me about that.

All I said was, there is no trade off in moving over to Adelaide and gaining all the benefits.

An actual trade off would be, moving to the Crows a year early, but not being allowed to play senior AFL footy until 2026.

Fair enough. Trade off was probably the wrong way to describe it. Maybe restriction is a better word for it? He's essentially being drafted into the club a year early without permission to play in the AFL for a year.

 

[briztoon]

Fair enough. Trade off was probably the wrong way to describe it. Maybe restriction is a better word for it? He's essentially being drafted into the club a year early without permission to play in the AFL for a year.

Not really. He's just gaining all the benefits that a top prospect from a Northern academy would also receive.

 

[GC2015]

Not really. He's just gaining all the benefits that a top prospect from a Northern academy would also receive.

Not sure how they do it at Brisbane but at the Suns we have an academy specific program that is separate from the reserves. They train separately, learn separate game plans, are mentored by separate coaches etc. It's not until the U18 National Championships conclude in late July that they are integrated into the VFL program and even then it's not immediate or at all. Walter played zero VFL games for our team this year, Read played one VFL game for us and Rogers managed three VFL games. Welsh on the other hand should end up playing at least 10-15 SANFL games for the Crows reserves next year and will train with them all year. Pretty big difference. FYI I'm not complaining, just pointing out the difference between the two pathways.

 

[briztoon]

Not sure how they do it at Brisbane but at the Suns we have an academy specific program that is separate from the reserves. They train separately, learn separate game plans, are mentored by separate coaches etc. It's not until the U18 National Championships conclude in late July that they are integrated into the VFL program and even then it's not immediate or at all. Walter played zero VFL games for our team this year, Read played one VFL game for us and Rogers managed three VFL games. Welsh on the other hand should end up playing at least 10-15 SANFL games for the Crows reserves next year and will train with them all year. Pretty big difference. FYI I'm not complaining, just pointing out the difference between the two pathways.

Our academy program is the same as the Suns.

However, in past years, our top academy and father son kids have done preseason with the senior team, gone back to their respective programs when school starts, and then come back to the VFL team after the U18 championships have finished, availability and health depending.

Pretty sure Walter didn't play VFL for you, because he was rehabing something.

 

[GC2015]

Our academy program is the same as the Suns.

However, in past years, our top academy and father son kids have done preseason with the senior team, gone back to their respective programs when school starts, and then come back to the VFL team after the U18 championships have finished, availability and health depending.

Pretty sure Walter didn't play VFL for you, because he was rehabing something.

IIRC the top academy players and father-son prospects still have to get permission to train with an AFL senior team over the preseason but that appears to be commonplace these days. I remember Nick Daicos was given permission to train with Collingwood in the 2020-21 preseason period and you're obviously already aware of Ashcroft doing the same with Brisbane a year later. Not sure about Walter or Read but I know Rogers did a portion of this year's preseason with our midfield group (before returning to the academy program in February) because there was an article released last week about him learning a lot from Touk Miller and Noah Anderson during that period of time. It's important to point out that not all northern academy players are given that privilege though, just the top prospects.

For Welsh he gets that standard preseason training block with an AFL team plus the rest of the season (excluding four weeks for National Championships) to reap the benefits of being involved in a professional AFL environment. That's massive for his development and should put him in a fantastic position to be developed into a top draft prospect (if he isn't already). By the way, Walter hurt his PCL during the victorious Allies campaign this year which is why they shut his season down in late July but he was only going to play a maximum of two games for our VFL team this year anyway. Read was healthy all season and played just one VFL game for us. Welsh should get at least 10-15 games for the Crows' SANFL team next year.

Do you see what I'm saying in terms of the difference between Welsh's development pathway and a player involved in a northern academy?