Player Watch 2025 AFL Draft Thread (Welcome to our new Central Districts overlords!)

[Mercy Seat]

I feel better today (I was so confused yesterday), a mate of mine is involved in football development at Central District, and he feels we couldn't have selected two better lads. I've been reading posts that they would be trade bait to secure Butters, but as much as I'd love to have Butters, I'd be very disappointed if that were the case. Let's hope they are both a vital part of future Hawthorn success.

I highly doubt the club are that cynical. Unlikely we see much if any of either of those players next year given we could barely fit our current tall forwards in the side, and we'll be competing at the top end next year. So it's hardly like they'll be able to show their wares to extract much value from Port.

 

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

Still not the character we need around young lads

lol, he IS a young lad.
He comes from a good family. Nothing to worry about.

 

[Ashman23]

I feel better today (I was so confused yesterday), a mate of mine is involved in football development at Central District, and he feels we couldn't have selected two better lads. I've been reading posts that they would be trade bait to secure Butters, but as much as I'd love to have Butters, I'd be very disappointed if that were the case. Let's hope they are both a vital part of future Hawthorn success.

Nice to hear and we aren't getting Butters (which I know you haven't suggested as happening) anyway.

 

[mustang]

I wonder if Schubert could play the role Nick Holland

Nick Holland

Age

51

Ht

195cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.8

4star

K

9.2

4star

HB

4.6

3star

M

6.8

5star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

0.6

3star

G

0.4

3star

used to play pushing up onto the wing, with his strong hand and endurance.

 

[cryptor]

I wonder if Schubert could play the role Nick Holland used to play pushing up onto the wing, with his strong hand and endurance.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Jeez glad we didn't select Xavier Taylor. Just said he got rinsed at Crown last night on SEN.

Edit: Okay apparently that means losing money. I didn't think I was that old.

ahhhhh is a boring old biddy.

Your thoughts on Ginnivan and Watson, and what they get up to when they're cutting loose and enjoying themselves?

 

[danielG]

lol, he IS a young lad.
He comes from a good family. Nothing to worry about.

This prevailing thought that all our players are saints themselves is really strange.. I’m sure we’ve got our share of hero’s and Larkins and douche bags just like the rest of the world has..An 18 year old isn’t a bad egg for going out and having a night out after the biggest event of his young life.

 

[yeahmate]

Not intending to be critical of the club but trying to objectively assess the success of our trade and draft period:

1. Our preferred and publicly stated strategy was trade for a ready-made A grade mid. We targeted Merrett and also reportedly Petracca and Humphrey, ultimately prioritising Merrett. We were prepared to pay three first rounders and a second round pick for Merrett but ultimately walked away at Essendon's request for four first round picks. Prioritising Merrett meant we lost our chance at Petracca although we may not have been able to compete with the Sun's offer in any event. Humphrey was never going anywhere. We didnt achieve our preferred strategy but in my opinion rightly walked away from Essendon's requirements. I still think there are lessons to be learned from this period as we wasted alot of energy and resources targetting Merrett given Essendon's response and we also backed down on our ultimatum to Essendon 24 hours before the end of the trade period when I think we should have known the deal was doomed. Backing down on the ultimatum led to ultimately I think was a bad trade of pick 9 to Carlton for pick 10 and an upgraded second round pick at 22 for this draft to try to satisfy Essendon's unreasonable demands.

2. Although not publicly stated, it seems we then pivoted to the draft period and our preferred strategy was to draft in a young midfielder, reading between the lines one of Sharp, Grjl or Farrow possibly in that order of preference. We also may have had in mind as part of the strategy trading up to grab Nairn with our second pick. Unfortunately none of the first three were still available at our pick 10. Ironically if we hadn't of traded out pick 9 to Carlton we would have had access to one of the above three and therefore achieved our preferred draft strategy with still at least a chance to trade up and grab Nairn with our second pick. Of course in that scenario we would not then have been taking Schubert as well and we would not have ended up with any additional F2s for next year.

3. Once we couldnt achieve our preferred draft strategy on the night I think we did well to ultimately get Nairn in line with draft plan B and then I think we were clever in picking up two future F2s but really just got lucky with Schubert sliding to our pick 22.

So all in all I think objectively we failed to achieve our two preferred scenarios (Plan A and Plan B) but at least we made the most of plan C. Given there are still a lot of variables and luck in the final objective outcome of improving the playing list short and long term there is at least a realistic chance that Plan C ultimately ends up more favourable given the potential of our two new draftees.

 

[ahhhhhh]

ahhhhh is a boring old biddy.

Your thoughts on Ginnivan and Watson, and what they get up to when they're cutting loose and enjoying themselves?

Why bring Watson into that? Don't think he's ever represented himself poorly off-field (apart from not rocking up to the kids clinic)?

 

[arupist]

Not intending to be critical of the club but trying to objectively assess the success of our trade and draft period:

1. Our preferred and publicly stated strategy was trade for a ready-made A grade mid. We targeted Merrett and also reportedly Petracca and Humphrey, ultimately prioritising Merrett. We were prepared to pay three first rounders and a second round pick for Merrett but ultimately walked away at Essendon's request for four first round picks. Prioritising Merrett meant we lost our chance at Petracca although we may not have been able to compete with the Sun's offer in any event. Humphrey was never going anywhere. We didnt achieve our preferred strategy but in my opinion rightly walked away from Essendon's requirements. I still think there are lessons to be learned from this period as we wasted alot of energy and resources targetting Merrett given Essendon's response and we also backed down on our ultimatum to Essendon 24 hours before the end of the trade period when I think we should have known the deal was doomed. Backing down on the ultimatum led to ultimately I think was a bad trade of pick 9 to Carlton for pick 10 and an upgraded second round pick at 22 for this draft to try to satisfy Essendon's unreasonable demands.

2. Although not publicly stated, it seems we then pivoted to the draft period and our preferred strategy was to draft in a young midfielder, reading between the lines one of Sharp, Grjl or Farrow possibly in that order of preference. We also may have had in mind as part of the strategy trading up to grab Nairn with our second pick. Unfortunately none of the first three were still available at our pick 10. Ironically if we hadn't of traded out pick 9 to Carlton we would have had access to one of the above three and therefore achieved our preferred draft strategy with still at least a chance to trade up and grab Nairn with our second pick. Of course in that scenario we would not then have been taking Schubert as well and we would not have ended up with any additional F2s for next year.

3. Once we couldnt achieve our preferred draft strategy on the night I think we did well to ultimately get Nairn in line with draft plan B and then I think we were clever in picking up two future F2s but really just got lucky with Schubert sliding to our pick 22.

So all in all I think objectively we failed to achieve our two preferred scenarios (Plan A and Plan B) but at least we made the most of plan C. Given there are still a lot of variables and luck in the final objective outcome of improving the playing list short and long term there is at least a realistic chance that Plan C ultimately ends up more favourable given the potential of our two new draftees.

You are thinking too much about it mate. Seriously not worth the angst.

Let me simplify it for you:

The Scum are C***s. The Academies are screwing the level playing field. We just keep on going - refer post in the Dingley thread showing photos of all the cups.

 

[DrAbs]

DrAbs

Which gift was given to Geelong

Was it Greeves ?

Clearly said it before they picked. Harley Barker's not a bad pick either. For their purposes that is.

 

[Wingnut19]

SA coach compared Shubert
To Thilthorpe at same age. He was 8 days away from being too young to be in draft. If he was born 8 days later he would be a top 3 pick in next years draft

 

[The Golden Glenferrie]

This prevailing thought that all our players are saints themselves is really strange.. I’m sure we’ve got our share of hero’s and Larkins and douche bags just like the rest of the world has..An 18 year old isn’t a bad egg for going out and having a night out after the biggest event of his young life.

Just don't brag about that shit. Geez

 

[mustang]

To find that on one word impressive very impressive.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Ok, not trade for merrett. Even though we needed to improve our midfield and he offered himself to us.

Then who were we meant to go after? What would you have offered?

How about Petracca ? He was there for the taking . Going after Merrett was a mistake when you have a better player ready to kit up for ya. It's 'ok' for people to have different opinions , it doesn't mean they are not invested in Hawthorn having success.

 

[Bugs1977]

Nice to hear and we aren't getting Butters (which I know you haven't suggested as happening) anyway.

I know the talk is that he's Doggies bound but if they can't gather the draft collateral that Port will want then that's all it is… talk. IMO there's still a lot to play out with that scenario.

 

[MrPremiership]

SA coach compared Shubert
To Thilthorpe at same age. He was 8 days away from being too young to be in draft. If he was born 8 days later he would be a top 3 pick in next years draft

sssshhhhh......we failed because we didn't get a mid

 

[danielG]

Just don't brag about that shit. Geez

Let boys be boys.. let them have fun on a special night of their lives. If he gets rinsed (pissed) on his draft night, good on him.
X Taylor is supposed to be a good kid from all I’ve heard..

 

[TazHawk15]

How about Petracca ? He was there for the taking . Going after Merrett was a mistake when you have a better player ready to kit up for ya. It's 'ok' for people to have different opinions , it doesn't mean they are not invested in Hawthorn having success.

I would argue very strongly that Merrett is a better player than Petracca, but you are a bit of self confessed recruiting and drafting guru.

BTW it’s only my opinion that you come across as a wannabe expert and a captain in hindsight.

As you stated, it’s ok to have different opinions.

 

[Dewnior]

Having 3x F2's means we would be best positioned to target bombers and blues firsts next year as they'll want to trade for points with Bewick and Walker.

No thanks. I hope our club never deals with that s**tstain of a club again.

 

[Dewnior]

Is this AFL going to release a 2026 draft order since last night? That plus not being able to see who was bid on or how they matched is genuine amateur hour. Not to mention how hard it was to determine what trades actually happened last night.

Honestly, wtf are they doing.

We shouldn't be surprised, the current and recent AFL administrations are a blight on our great sport.

 

[Since 2001]

How about Petracca ? He was there for the taking . Going after Merrett was a mistake when you have a better player ready to kit up for ya. It's 'ok' for people to have different opinions , it doesn't mean they are not invested in Hawthorn having success.

Yes pettacca was an option that we were pursuing. You can critise not going after him, however, if we didnt get him people would be saying we dhouldve went after merrett.

Hawthorn knew they couldn't get both and decided to pursue merrett, the better player imo. We did everything we could and it didn't work out.

When did I ever state it isn't ok to have differing opinions. Some fans are reactionary and short sighted.

Yes we missed out on merrett, but just the year before that we got barrass and battle, that is huge.

In life you take risks, sometimes it doesn't pay off. Doesn't mean it is a fail. A fail is not attempting to do something or not giving it your best go.

 

[MasterSamurai]

I would argue very strongly that Merrett is a better player than Petracca, but you are a bit of self confessed recruiting and drafting guru.

BTW it’s only my opinion that you come across as a wannabe expert and a captain in hindsight and as you stated it’s ok to have different opinions.

What a weak argument.

 

[TazHawk15]

What a weak argument.

It’s not an argument it’s my opinion, two different things and I would also be confident in lots of people saying Merrett is the better player.

After all you just said it’s ok to have different opinions.

Or do you mean it’s ok to have a different opinion as long as it aligns with yours?

Actually I have a very strong opinion thst you are a bit of a guru in hindsight.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Yes pettacca was an option that we were pursuing. You can critise not going after him, however, if we didnt get him people would be saying we dhouldve went after merrett.

Hawthorn knew they couldn't get both and decided to pursue merrett, the better player imo. We did everything we could and it didn't work out.

When did I ever state it isn't ok to have differing opinions. Some fans are reactionary and short sighted.

Yes we missed out on merrett, but just the year before that we got barrass and battle, that is huge.

In life you take risks, sometimes it doesn't pay off. Doesn't mean it is a fail. A fail is not attempting to do something or not giving it your best go.

Our midfield struggles against good teams. There's a big hole there that even our coach has worries about . Trac would've been perfect as a experienced big body to help out.