List Mgmt. 2025 AFL Draft - Draft Analysis

[ShereKhan]

I know why some people are a fan of academies for the northern clubs, but I just find it strange calling it an open draft and having all these players attached to it.

We have:

• Northern Academies
• NGA
• Father-sons

Gold Coast and Brisbane for example don't need to think much about the draft anymore because they have their own talent pathway outside of the draft. Some teams had great results from NGA, others did not. Some clubs like Brisbane and Bulldogs had great success in the father-son rule. Geelong basically built a premiership side off of that rule in the late 2000s.

Other clubs like us get nothing. We have no academies, our NGA has produced dust so far, and our father-sons are busts more than they're gold nowadays. How easy would this rebuild have been if we were able to select all our first-rounders in 2017-2022 by matching bids placed by bottom 4 teams?

The draft needs to be revamped IMO

It’s getting fixed for 2026. Rumour is you can only use 2 x picks to match a bid, and 10% discount gone. So for Carlton to match Walker at #1, they’d need something like 2 and 17. Or 5 and 7.

So the days of stockpiling loads of picks in the 20’s and 30’s to match will be gone, and there’ll be lots more non-matching of bids, and if a bid is matched, teams will pay full freight.

The good thing is this will heck up the Blues and Port next year, then the Bombers with Bewick in 2-years.

 

[The Mighty]

Do we know if Gold Coast went into deficit?

Doesn't matter CFL are hell bent on getting them a Flag within the next 3 seasons so GC can do whatever they like.

 

[prodigy]

How's Michaels pulling a draft night interview with Sam Grlj!?!?
Don't forget us when you're famous lol

 

[Wooden Robot]

It’s certainly not a perfect system, but I do know the Uwlands for example don’t come from a strong footy background and first came across the game via mates and subsequently the academies once talent was identified. Thus bigger picture the academies are excellent in attracting & producing talent in regions where it’s not a given you play footy in the winter, and living up this way now recognise the importance of having these local kids playing for their local AFL clubs to generate interest and participation in the game, not unlike Jack dyer in Richmond in the 1930’s. It wasn’t an issue when Victorian clubs including ours raided the Suns & GWS picking off their ‘homesick’ talent so suggest we cop the same medicine, get better at developing the talent we have and not give a fk that Richo has 3 girls…

Refreshing to read quality posts like this with a solid understanding of the bigger picture at play.
Can spend a lifetime bemoaning what others do and have available to them, doesn't mean a thing if you don't have your own house in order.
The last two drafts have been a nice start.
Great post, Flea (and without the seemingly standard put downs of players drafted by other clubs as if we need to vindicate ourselves).

 

[Michaels]

How's Michaels pulling a draft night interview with Sam Grlj!?!?
Don't forget us when you're famous lol

Had Sam Cumming too a few minutes after.

Huge thanks to the club for letting them jump on for a chat!

 

[tigers12]

I couldn't do 2km in a car in 5:59.

Particularly in Melbourne

 

[mad_tiggy911]

Can’t believe Geelol redrafted Josh Bootsma.

 

[THE_GUN]

It’s getting fixed for 2026. Rumour is you can only use 2 x picks to match a bid, and 10% discount gone. So for Carlton to match Walker at #1, they’d need something like 2 and 17. Or 5 and 7.

So the days of stockpiling loads of picks in the 20’s and 30’s to match will be gone, and there’ll be lots more non-matching of bids, and if a bid is matched, teams will pay full freight.

The good thing is this will heck up the Blues and Port next year, then the Bombers with Bewick in 2-years.

I am hoping for a Carlton v Swans GF with Swans winning by 101 points

 

[THE_GUN]

Had Sam Cumming too a few minutes after.

Huge thanks to the club for letting them jump on for a chat!

When are you putting them up ?

 

[Wooden Robot]

Hey Guys,

Happy to put my hand up and say that my source inside the club got the Sharp call wrong, but otherwise the info was largely correct.

As I mentioned very early on, Cumming was our man and we didn’t rate Robey as high as others.

The plan all along was to try and tempt the bombers or Melbourne into packaging something to move up. I think the club became aware that it wasn’t going to happen last week and then had to make the call on whether to take Sizzler or Sharp (who we genuinely rated). They obviously went with the sizzle which my source didn’t know about. Last they had heard it was pairing the SA boys.

For what it’s worth, I spoke to the someone at the club this arvo (pre draft) and I know that the KGI team are heading away to Yarrawonga with the whole club for a training camp on Monday and from what I understand it’s a welfare support for a draftee so I’m assuming (and yes this is just my thoughts) that Kickett is still in play either with our next pick or as a rookie.

Anyway that’s all I got this arvo and it was pre draft so not sure if the clubs thinking has shifted at all with some of the names on the board but thought I’d share what I know.

Great intel.
Happy to hear the club rated Sharp so highly (as I do), but have backed themselves in the belief Grlj is the better fit or will have a bigger impact.
Positive stuff.

 

[DontArgue4]

Anywhere you can see who's still available?

 

[ShereKhan]

Ah the Royal Oak. I used to drink there on game days around that time. Never saw Buddy, unless he was tearing the anus out of the Tigers at the game. Watching Frankling & Pavlich for decades was not fun

And if we picked either of Pavlich or Buddy we wouldn’t have been sh*t enough to get Cotchin or Dusty. Individual decisions in isolation are not important … it’s the sum of ALL decisions over a 7-10 year period that decide if you’ll put together a team to win flags or not.

Every club makes more errors in drafting than not. Cats have basically balls’d up nearly every top-20 pick they’ve had for 15-years. But they make enough good decisions in other areas of list mgt to remain successful and win flags.

So long as we stay the course and make enough good list mgt decisions in and around our inevitable bad ones, we should be holding up more silverware before too long.

 

[Michaels]

When are you putting them up ?

9am tomorrow

 

[We are back baby!]

I think the bigger mistake was not grlj but cummings over both.

We should have went robey and grlj

Robey will be a bust ... neither the speed or the endurance for the AFL game .... he is miles behind Taranto and Hopper .... and he is a nowhere near Lalor or Smilie either.

Cumming is a hell of a footballer ... you are going to be surprised.

 

[Michaels]

NHH, Phillipou, LeRay, Allen, BOB, Rodriguez, Kickett, Greeves, Dalton, Thredgold all a possibility at our pick 31.

Some fantastic options there.

Have heard we have interest in BOB!

 

[richoatthedisco]

Sam Lalor, Sam Cumming, Sam Grlj.

Imagine the last round of votes in the Brownlow in 2029.


Richmond v Geelong


1 vote Richmond S... Cumming


2 votes Richmond S...................Grlj


3 votes Carlton P.............................. Cripps

FTFY

 

[JR82]

NHH, Phillipou, LeRay, Allen, BOB, Rodriguez, Kickett, Greeves, Dalton, Thredgold all a possibility at our pick 31.

Some fantastic options there.

Have heard we have interest in BOB!

we are guaranteed a shot at a few of those...

 

[ShereKhan]

It would have been the Saints F2 surely.

Apologies, it was. Someone else wrote they’d given up first pick of night 2 … but it was the Saints. Doesn’t really change my thoughts …..

 

[Reservoir tiger]

NHH, Phillipou, LeRay, Allen, BOB, Rodriguez, Kickett, Greeves, Dalton, Thredgold all a possibility at our pick 31.

Some fantastic options there.

Have heard we have interest in BOB!

NHH for me but think he will be gone

 

[ShereKhan]

We all got caught up in Robey hype, but now the dust has settled …

Cumming won the U18 SA MVP in 2024 … his underage year! He averaged 27 disposals and kicked 11 goals in 10 games. His disposals dropped off a bit this year as more time split mid-fwd. he has awesome character, is a great leader, has great athletic traits, is hard as nails, can kick it a mile, is a terrific mark and will get absolutely everything out of himself. He’s got the tools to be a gun.

Grjl is an elite athlete. But more than that, on watching VFL highlights he’s a long kick, and more than good with his disposal (watch his VFl debut on YouTube … he used it well and smashed three blokes with tackles that really hurt). He’s got a good dose of mongrel and is also hard as nails. Great character as well and will also leave no stone unturned to become the best he can be.

I’ve got no idea how good, bad or otherwise everyone we bypassed will become, but I’ve got no doubt Cumming and Grjl will be excellent players as they’ve got the athleticism, hardness and attitude to take them places.

Others I’ve seen people comparing them to like Tsatas (not hard or athletic), Hobbs (slow and can’t kick over a jam tin), Dow (can’t kick and slow), Sonsie (not quick, attitude issues and soft) etc… have very obvious reasons why they’ve struggled to become quality AFL
players.

I’ve got no concerns with either Cumming or Grjl. And a midfield of:

Cumming
Grjl
Smillie
Lalor
Hotton
McCauliffe
Campbell

Is an absolutely perfect mix of skill sets. I wanted Robey, but I’m super pumped to watch us blitz teams with elite speed from Campbell, Grjl, Hotton and Cumming. Whilst smashing them into little pieces thanks to Lalor, Smillie and McCauliffe.

 

[The MUF]

Hopefully Norf and doggies can bid on Ison & Williams tomorrow!

 

[Wooden Robot]

Robey will be a bust ... neither the speed or the endurance for the AFL game .... he is miles behind Taranto and Hopper .... and he is a nowhere near Lalor or Smilie either.

Cumming is a hell of a footballer ... you are going to be surprised.

Robey would have been old school Richmond recruiting; seduced by two big performances or a few good moments on the highlight reel, a-la Lounder, JON, Todd Menegola, Conca.
Thankfully we do a lot more due diligence these days and aren't swayed by glimpses of potential.
Nothing beats sustained performance. Small sample sizes are most often misleading.
The guy was like the 50th in line in the Melbourne Cup order of entry four months ago. There's a reason no matter how well he finished, But good luck to the kid.
Would be interested to know over the years how many of these 'draft bolters' kick on and become absolute stars. Besides Bont of course. RCD was a draft bolter

 

[PetterdHoisted]

We all got caught up in Robey hype, but now the dust has settled …

Cumming won the U18 SA MVP in 2024 … his underage year! He averaged 27 disposals and kicked 11 goals in 10 games. His disposals dropped off a bit this year as more time split mid-fwd. he has awesome character, is a great leader, has great athletic traits, is hard as nails, can kick it a mile, is a terrific mark and will get absolutely everything out of himself. He’s got the tools to be a gun.

Grjl is an elite athlete. But more than that, on watching VFL highlights he’s a long kick, and more than good with his disposal (watch his VFl debut on YouTube … he used it well and smashed three blokes with tackles that really hurt). He’s got a good dose of mongrel and is also hard as nails. Great character as well and will also leave no stone unturned to become the best he can be.

I’ve got no idea how good, bad or otherwise everyone we bypassed will become, but I’ve got no doubt Cumming and Grjl will be excellent players as they’ve got the athleticism, hardness and attitude to take them places.

Others I’ve seen people comparing them to like Tsatas (not hard or athletic), Hobbs (slow and can’t kick over a jam tin), Dow (can’t kick and slow), Sonsie (not quick, attitude issues and soft) etc… have very obvious reasons why they’ve struggled to become quality AFL
players.

I’ve got no concerns with either Cumming or Grjl. And a midfield of:

Cumming
Grjl
Smillie
Lalor
Hotton
McCauliffe
Campbell

Is an absolutely perfect mix of skill sets. I wanted Robey, but I’m super pumped to watch us blitz teams with elite speed from Campbell, Grjl, Hotton and Cumming. Whilst smashing them into little pieces thanks to Lalor, Smillie and McCauliffe.

yes! forgot to say on the other thread, besides elite lateral agility, Grijl can kick an extremely long way for an undersized player, and off just a step or two!

 

[Coach_Required]

NHH, Phillipou, LeRay, Allen, BOB, Rodriguez, Kickett, Greeves, Dalton, Thredgold all a possibility at our pick 31.

Some fantastic options there.

Have heard we have interest in BOB!

Knowing us it will be none of them lol
Poo will be the only one we are keen on and I bet he gets taken just before our turn. lol

 

[zakazano]

Well.... it is their job. So they cant really use that as much excuse. You can tho, as your completely unqualified & have shit for brains.

At least I know grammar and punctuation ****knuckle...