List Mgmt. 2024 Draft & Trade Hypotheticals

[liz]

Really pleased for Lewis.
Over the journey I have been a critic of his skills and would not have been too disappointed if he had moved on. This is one of those times that it is wonderful to be wrong. His skills have improved no end to match his physical abilities and at last his body is holding up .
More strength to his arm!

His skills and his pace have always been good enough. It's just his ability to string games together that has held him back.

That said, I reckon he's worked on (and improved) both his pace and his skills over his recent extended periods of rehab. There was one moment in a VFL game last season, while he was on the comeback trail, where he blew me away with how quickly he made up ground on an opponent to reach a contest.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

I posted a little bit back that he was offered 3 years by St Scum , so good this is

Is Saints a ex swan factory?

 

[Kiama Chris]

His skills and his pace have always been good enough. It's just his ability to string games together that has held him back.

That said, I reckon he's worked on (and improved) both his pace and his skills over his recent extended periods of rehab. There was one moment in a VFL game last season, while he was on the comeback trail, where he blew me away with how quickly he made up ground on an opponent to reach a contest.

His problem used to be slow reactions rather than a lack of speed. He has really sharpened up. Perhaps trusting himself more. Who knows? But great to see.

 

[bedford]

His problem used to be slow reactions rather than a lack of speed. He has really sharpened up. Perhaps trusting himself more. Who knows? But great to see.

Great call , no confidence , so happy he's going well

 

[Superstar swan]

It really is amazing how well melican is travelling this year. Been an absolute rock and does not make a mistake. Well deserved extension

 

[SGBeach]

His skills and his pace have always been good enough. It's just his ability to string games together that has held him back.

That said, I reckon he's worked on (and improved) both his pace and his skills over his recent extended periods of rehab. There was one moment in a VFL game last season, while he was on the comeback trail, where he blew me away with how quickly he made up ground on an opponent to reach a contest.

There was a game this year where he chased and from a long way back, nearly caught Rioli!
He's always been quick, but agree hes worked on and improved that sprint.

Superstar Swan wrote above... 'He does not make a mistake'..
Absolutely! Every game I find myself saying 'Look, that was good from Melican again'.. and I say it many timesaver game.
I heard a stat 2 weeks ago that Melican had not lost a one on one contest!
Melican is playing bloody good footy

 

[SGBeach]

Without reading through the last 55 pages..
Has there been chatter about trading for a KPD?

Personally, I was very impressed with Harry Arnold.. hope he gets back from injury and plays well enough to earn a contract extension.
Ive also been very impressed with Snell - just a bummer that KPDs take a few years
It would be great to draft and develop another tall defender or two rather than spending waaaay overs to trade a good one in.

 

[Bloods86]

Without reading through the last 55 pages..
Has there been chatter about trading for a KPD?

Personally, I was very impressed with Harry Arnold.. hope he gets back from injury and plays well enough to earn a contract extension.
Ive also been very impressed with Snell - just a bummer that KPDs take a few years
It would be great to draft and develop another tall defender or two rather than spending waaaay overs to trade a good one in.

Young (Blues) and Battle (Saints) have been mentioned.

I think we will look at extending Francis another year if he's at least performing ok at VFL level, doubt he'd get another AFL offer. Arnold maybe if he can get back and show some form.

If we do that, we probably have a full set of senior/reserve KPDs next year, but need to be mindful that Rampe is gone after 2025, Francis maybe, Hamling soon after. So we may just draft one, especially given we have Cochran as a likely academy pick.

Melican's form/fitness and Snell's promise has me a bit more positive about our key defensive stocks in the medium term at least. Though defenders (not half backs) of any size are probably higher on the needs list than most positions still.

 

[Kbroome]

We have Key defenders coming through and i rate Edwards & Snell and also Cochran coming out of the academy. Add that to McCartin who is 24 and Melican who is 27. This group of 5 is pretty strong and we can always just do like we do and pick up backup 25-30 year old KPD if these guys don't push on like most of us hope so.

 

[Dubai Quacker]

We have Key defenders coming through and i rate Edwards & Snell and also Cochran coming out of the academy. Add that to McCartin who is 24 and Melican who is 27. This group of 5 is pretty strong and we can always just do like we do and pick up backup 25-30 year old KPD if these guys don't push on like most of us hope so.

I’d love the share your optimism Broomy, however:

* Edwards is still to prove he’s AFL standard

* Cochran is a long-term moon shot

* Snell has shown glimpses this year, but could still go either way

* McCartin could be 1 concussion away from retirement

* Melican has been injury prone - and players tend to get more so as they age

We are reliant on luck and the “maybes” coming good. It’s the area of the ground that remains (in my view) our biggest risk.

 

[Kbroome]

I’d love the share your optimism Broomy, however:

* Edwards is still to prove he’s AFL standard

* Cochran is a long-term moon shot

* Snell has shown glimpses this year, but could still go either way

* McCartin could be 1 concussion away from retirement

* Melican has been injury prone - and players tend to get more so as they age

We are reliant on luck and the “maybes” coming good. It’s the area of the ground that remains (in my view) our biggest risk.

This is such a horrendously poor take that you almost need to remove the comment. Our ruckline has been one of the best this year right. Well Ladhams is suspension prone McAndrew is still ultra Raw and so is Green. Therefore if Grundy gets injured we are screwed. When you start using confirmation bias to prove a point and you go past 1-2 things you opinion starts to become a pinch of salt worth of meaning.

Another example, look at the Dogs midfield lauded as the best in the comp. Bont is in his prime but has had ankle problems meaning he has to spend games as a forward, libba might not play again, Sanders isn't trusted in the middle, Treloar does 2 soft tissue injuries a year, Richards is being brought into the midfield as a makeshift midfielder before Harmes and Macrae. See how using confirmation bias can totally flip how something looks.

Back onto the Swans Melican has had injury issues in the past but he is currently fit atm.

Edwards at VFL level has shown he is already a better 1v1 defender than Francis and imo given the role Francis is playing in the 1s compared to the 2s it should have been Edwards that got the run last week

Every draft player is an unknown but Cochran is tracking well so it is pretty poor to use language such as long-term moon shot given he is in the AFL Academy.

Same thing as Edwards applies to Snell but these guys are showing promise in their first year of footy in the 2s.

To sum up what i have said i think the language you use to describe some of the youngsters is pretty poor and disingenuous to the young lads.

 

[SeanM]

It is difficult for every team to have elite KPD depth waiting in the reserves. We have done ok to have 2 experienced players as backups as well as a few younger players with the size to play there.

It is always going to be a vulnerable area of the ground. Because you quickly concede goals if your opponent dominates or you make mistakes. Apparently Daniel Curtin, Adelaide's early KPD draftee got subbed off at half time at the weekend because he conceded a few goals.

 

[Tedeski]

His skills and his pace have always been good enough. It's just his ability to string games together that has held him back.

That said, I reckon he's worked on (and improved) both his pace and his skills over his recent extended periods of rehab. There was one moment in a VFL game last season, while he was on the comeback trail, where he blew me away with how quickly he made up ground on an opponent to reach a contest.

He has definitely changed his body shape to a much leaner one. Hopefully this has rectified some of his movement.

 

[Adnico26Parker]

Latest ESPN power rankings for May

Draft Power Rankings: Key position twins rocket up the top 20

In an AFL draft crop top-heavy with midfielders, a pair of key position players -- twins, in fact -- have made their move up ESPN's May Power Rankings, writes Jasper Chellappah.

www.espn.com.au

 

[Dubai Quacker]

This is such a horrendously poor take that you almost need to remove the comment. Our ruckline has been one of the best this year right. Well Ladhams is suspension prone McAndrew is still ultra Raw and so is Green. Therefore if Grundy gets injured we are screwed. When you start using confirmation bias to prove a point and you go past 1-2 things you opinion starts to become a pinch of salt worth of meaning.

Another example, look at the Dogs midfield lauded as the best in the comp. Bont is in his prime but has had ankle problems meaning he has to spend games as a forward, libba might not play again, Sanders isn't trusted in the middle, Treloar does 2 soft tissue injuries a year, Richards is being brought into the midfield as a makeshift midfielder before Harmes and Macrae. See how using confirmation bias can totally flip how something looks.

Back onto the Swans Melican has had injury issues in the past but he is currently fit atm.

Edwards at VFL level has shown he is already a better 1v1 defender than Francis and imo given the role Francis is playing in the 1s compared to the 2s it should have been Edwards that got the run last week

Every draft player is an unknown but Cochran is tracking well so it is pretty poor to use language such as long-term moon shot given he is in the AFL Academy.

Same thing as Edwards applies to Snell but these guys are showing promise in their first year of footy in the 2s.

To sum up what i have said i think the language you use to describe some of the youngsters is pretty poor and disingenuous to the young lads.

You seem to be under the impression this is Edwards’ first year in the VFL.

He was playing in the VFL side as far back as 2022.

So I’d suggest a bit of fact checking might be in order.

Anyway, I’m sorry for saying someone who hasn’t played an AFL game is yet to prove themselves as AFL standard. How terribly disingenuous of me.

And as for your statement that Edwards “has shown he is already a better 1 vs 1 defender than Francis” - you clearly see something that the senior coach doesn’t.

And I apologise for not recognising the Dog’s midfield as the best in the comp. What it has to do with our key defender stocks I’ll never know. But thanks for the psychology lesson nonetheless.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

You seem to be under the impression this is Edwards’ first year in the VFL.

He was playing in the VFL side as far back as 2022.

So I’d suggest a bit of fact checking might be in order.

Anyway, I’m sorry for saying someone who hasn’t played an AFL game is yet to prove themselves as AFL standard. How terribly disingenuous of me.

And as for your statement that Edwards “has shown he is already a better 1 vs 1 defender than Francis” - you clearly see something that the senior coach doesn’t.

And I apologise for not recognising the Dog’s midfield as the best in the comp. What it has to do with our key defender stocks I’ll never know. But thanks for the psychology lesson nonetheless.

Other thing is do people realise how many players who were well touted AFL Academy players and don't make it, it's easier doing it against 16-17 year olds than AFL players. Look I'm not saying he WON'T but we are in a window right now where we have Grundy and for that matter Adams, Parker, etc. If we think a mature defender will help that we would be negligent to not at least try. These youngsters might be really good and for the record I love Arnold as a prospect but they are all lets say a minimum of 3 years away as KPD's.

 

[Kbroome]

Other thing is do people realise how many players who were well touted AFL Academy players and don't make it, it's easier doing it against 16-17 year olds than AFL players. Look I'm not saying he WON'T but we are in a window right now where we have Grundy and for that matter Adams, Parker, etc. If we think a mature defender will help that we would be negligent to not at least try. These youngsters might be really good and for the record I love Arnold as a prospect but they are all lets say a minimum of 3 years away as KPD's.

And thats why we have Melican and McCartin playing atm as by the time they get out of their prime some of the Snell Edwards Cochran will be ready and worse case scenario we can trade in someone to play the role. Pretty poor as a Swans fan that some fans just automatically think players who are developing will all fail and not work out. Like we currently have (when a fully fit stock of KPD) Hamling (?) Arnold Francis Snell Edwards in the twos. Thats not even counting Cochran who will come in next year and all we need is 1 of those guys to develop into AFL standard in the next 18 months and a further 1 in the next 4 years when Melican starts to decline. When you start planing for career ending injuries you need 70 squad members rather than the 44 we have available.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

Alot of chatter about how it makes sense for Parker to move on from us. My heart says hell no, my brain says if he can't get back into our side, them it makes sense both from his point of view and the club's.

Personally, I'm backing him in as best 22. I really think the acquisition of Brundy will help his game alot.

 

[Millky95]

Alot of chatter about how it makes sense for Parker to move on from us. My heart says hell no, my brain says if he can't get back into our side, them it makes sense both from his point of view and the club's.

Personally, I'm backing him in as best 22. I really think the acquisition of Brundy will help his game alot.

We are 1 midfield or 1 lose away from him coming back in

 

[LukeParkerno1]

And thats why we have Melican and McCartin playing atm as by the time they get out of their prime some of the Snell Edwards Cochran will be ready and worse case scenario we can trade in someone to play the role. Pretty poor as a Swans fan that some fans just automatically think players who are developing will all fail and not work out. Like we currently have (when a fully fit stock of KPD) Hamling (?) Arnold Francis Snell Edwards in the twos. Thats not even counting Cochran who will come in next year and all we need is 1 of those guys to develop into AFL standard in the next 18 months and a further 1 in the next 4 years when Melican starts to decline. When you start planing for career ending injuries you need 70 squad members rather than the 44 we have available.

You still are putting way too much faith in draftees and one that hasn't even been drafted! Edwards a year before he was drafted was a sure thing top 10 pick remember. We need to remember and this is coming from someone who follows the draft a fair bit, these are still kids, they are punts. We don't know if they are AFL standard till they get into the system. Arnold has looked the best of the lot for me but any of these options aren't helping us for 3 years. Resign Francis and maybe adding 1 more is good business.

 

[dosser]

You still are putting way too much faith in draftees and one that hasn't even been drafted! Edwards a year before he was drafted was a sure thing top 10 pick remember. We need to remember and this is coming from someone who follows the draft a fair bit, these are still kids, they are punts. We don't know if they are AFL standard till they get into the system. Arnold has looked the best of the lot for me but any of these options aren't helping us for 3 years. Resign Francis and maybe adding 1 more is good business.

I don't get excited about any of them untill they start being named in the 'bests' on a semi-regular basis. If they are not, then they are simply VFL-standard. If they are, then it is just possible that they could become AFL-standard. This is why I am not as excited as some others by players like Konstanty, Edwards or Magor yet, as they are currently VFL-standard. Some of them are on a promising development trajectory while others seem to plateau, and that is one of the reasons why we delist a number of them each year - they were all promising at some stage or other. I just hope they can continue progress.

 

[Kbroome]

You still are putting way too much faith in draftees and one that hasn't even been drafted! Edwards a year before he was drafted was a sure thing top 10 pick remember. We need to remember and this is coming from someone who follows the draft a fair bit, these are still kids, they are punts. We don't know if they are AFL standard till they get into the system. Arnold has looked the best of the lot for me but any of these options aren't helping us for 3 years. Resign Francis and maybe adding 1 more is good business.

I think for someone that follows the draft its pretty poor of you to automatically say these KPD take 3 years to be ready. The guys still need to get games in the AFL to get the experience that they can't really get whilst being in the twos. Your still also just being straight up negative with your comments we can't have 10 KPD on the list so we have gone with 3 Quality defenders 2 thats serviceable and the rest are developing and we have it spaced out so that only 1 is needed to be developed enough to be able to get games into within 18 months and another 3-4 years down the line. And this is after we lost Paddy McCartin who was basically replaced by Hamling. So i don't think its the worst thing that we had 1 guy medically retire and another close to retirement and we are worried that ontop of that, that another KPD gets medically retired and also another gets back to his injury history just for us to be in trouble. Thats 4 injuries/outs and we would still have a KPD line of probably Fox/Edwards/Blakey Hamling Francis

 

[LukeParkerno1]

I don't get excited about any of them untill they start being named in the 'bests' on a semi-regular basis. If they are not, then they are simply VFL-standard. If they are, then it is just possible that they could become AFL-standard. This is why I am not as excited as some others by players like Konstanty, Edwards or Magor yet, as they are currently VFL-standard. Some of them are on a promising development trajectory while others seem to plateau, and that is one of the reasons why we delist a number of them each year - they were all promising at some stage or other. I just hope they can continue progress.

100%, and the gap between juniors to the VFL/SANFL/WAFL is huge let alone the AFL. You need to remember that not every kid is Harley Reid! Whilst I've been impressed with Konstanty he's got a really important year next year we have to see him pushing for a spot, and I hope to see some development in Arnold, etc. I'm not sold on Eadwards at all.

 

[dosser]

I think for someone that follows the draft its pretty poor of you to automatically say these KPD take 3 years to be ready. The guys still need to get games in the AFL to get the experience that they can't really get whilst being in the twos. Your still also just being straight up negative with your comments we can't have 10 KPD on the list so we have gone with 3 Quality defenders 2 thats serviceable and the rest are developing and we have it spaced out so that only 1 is needed to be developed enough to be able to get games into within 18 months and another 3-4 years down the line. And this is after we lost Paddy McCartin who was basically replaced by Hamling. So i don't think its the worst thing that we had 1 guy medically retire and another close to retirement and we are worried that ontop of that, that another KPD gets medically retired and also another gets back to his injury history just for us to be in trouble. Thats 4 injuries/outs and we would still have a KPD line of probably Fox/Edwards/Blakey Hamling Francis

I'm a bit confused here. Are you saying that we should be developing them in the seniors before they have finished developing in the reserves?

 

[LukeParkerno1]

I think for someone that follows the draft its pretty poor of you to automatically say these KPD take 3 years to be ready. The guys still need to get games in the AFL to get the experience that they can't really get whilst being in the twos. Your still also just being straight up negative with your comments we can't have 10 KPD on the list so we have gone with 3 Quality defenders 2 thats serviceable and the rest are developing and we have it spaced out so that only 1 is needed to be developed enough to be able to get games into within 18 months and another 3-4 years down the line. And this is after we lost Paddy McCartin who was basically replaced by Hamling. So i don't think its the worst thing that we had 1 guy medically retire and another close to retirement and we are worried that ontop of that, that another KPD gets medically retired and also another gets back to his injury history just for us to be in trouble. Thats 4 injuries/outs and we would still have a KPD line of probably Fox/Edwards/Blakey Hamling Francis

Bar Weitering who was in a unique situation with Carlton being that bad and taking him at pick 1, most KPP take a good 2 years if not 3 to genuinely come in. Look around the league, they just don't come in to take key posts. People will say well Logan did, well he played as a 3rd tall and was dropped for a GF. Buddy was an all time great so he was one that did. It's even rarer in defence where they go up against top quality and big forwards. They just will not be ready for a minimum of THREE AFL pre seasons, it takes that long. We are in a window we aren't going to gift games to kids unless we are playing North so what is the point. Let them develop in the VFL, but if a player like Josh Battle who would be a significant upgrade on Francis for instance was available we'd have to look at it.