2025 Draft Thread

[Mojorisin]

A look at Sellwood if any of you are interested:

Love your work!
Would you possibly have anything on Ewan Mackinely?

 

[noobermensch]

Love your work!
Would you possibly have anything on Ewan Mackinely?

I don't, I'm focused on the guys getting a lot of buzz at this stage, I've only seen Mackinley's name mentioned in the local SA outlets. Do you have mail that he's being looked at?

 

[JohnnySteel]

Sellwood would fit us nicely. Hopefully WC don’t nab him early.

 

[Mojorisin]

I don't, I'm focused on the guys getting a lot of buzz at this stage, I've only seen Mackinley's name mentioned in the local SA outlets. Do you have mail that he's being looked at?

Only this article linking him to dogs and Port.

Bont talks heat up, Eagles close on VFL Tiger, Docker's new deal

Check out all the latest trade news from around the League

www.afl.com.au

EAGLES FIRM FOR TALENTED TIGER​

RICHMOND VFL prospect Tom McCarthy is widely expected to be taken as the No.1 pick in next Wednesday night's AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft, with West Coast now guaranteed to hold the first selection.

As revealed on AFL.com.au's trade and draft show Gettable last month, the 24-year-old McCarthy has long been viewed among AFL recruiters as the top prospect in this season's mid-year rookie pool.

The 187cm midfielder, who is also capable of playing across half-back, continued to impress at VFL level at the weekend to finish with 24 disposals and three clearances in Richmond's two-point loss to North Melbourne.

Subiaco's 20-year-old key forward Archer May is another likely to go early, with the 198cm goalkicker attracting interest from North Melbourne, Carlton and Collingwood among others.
Essendon has tracked 27-year-old Claremont tall Oliver Eastland as it searches for potential ruck depth, while 20-year-old North Adelaide ruck Alex Van Wyk is another tall prospect that clubs have watched.

North Adelaide forward Ewan Mackinlay also has fans, with Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs linked, while Carlton has been strongly paired with Norwood small forward Jacob Newton.

Gold Coast has been linked with high-flying forward Caleb Lewis after an exciting stint with Dingley in the Southern Football Netball League, while the Suns have also monitored Eastern Ranges defender Rod Ali.

Richmond VFL forward pair Massimo Rasoand Sam Toner, and Peel Thunder midfielder Michael Sellwood are others that clubs have tracked closely through the start of the season. – Riley Beveridge

 

[noobermensch]

Only this article linking him to dogs and Port.

If those kind of rumours pick up over the weekend I'll get something done for him early next week.

 

[Mojorisin]

If those kind of rumours pick up over the weekend I'll get something done for him early next week.

Much appreciated.

 

[DiamondDogs8]

Who’s picking in between us and West Coast? Either Sellwood or McCarthy is a good consolation prize

 

[Ash1337]

Who’s picking in between us and West Coast? Either Sellwood or McCarthy is a good consolation prize

North and port I believe

 

[weltschmerz]

North and port I believe

Surely North goes for Archer May

 

[Mojorisin]

Surely North goes for Archer May

They've recently done a medical on him, they'll likely grab McCarthy if Eagles don't though.

 

[goodcop badcop]

Who’s picking in between us and West Coast? Either Sellwood or McCarthy is a good consolation prize

Could be this potentially (according to the herald sun)

OPEN LIST SPOTS: West Coast, Western Bulldogs
CLUBS THAT CAN OPEN SPOTS THROUGH LONG-TERM INJURIES: 4 – Essendon (Nick Bryan, Sam Draper, Tom Edwards, Lewis Hayes), 1 – Carlton (Brodie Kemp), Collingwood (Reef McInnes), Gold Coast (Charlie Ballard), North Melbourne (Miller Bergman), Port Adelaide (Xavier Walsh), St Kilda (Paddy Dow), Western Bulldogs (Cody Weightman)
POTENTIAL DRAFT ORDER (BASED ON CURRENT LADDER, SUBJECT TO TEAMS OPENING LIST SPOTS):
1 – West Coast
2 – North Melbourne
3 – Port Adelaide
4 – St Kilda
5 – Carlton
6 – Essendon
7 – Western Bulldogs
8 – Gold Coast
9 – Collingwood
10 – Essendon
11 – Western Bulldogs
12 – Essendon
13 – Essendon

 

[goodcop badcop]

Ewan Mackinely looks lightning fast going off the few snippets I've found

Him at the 20 sec mark

 

[Northernsoul74]

A look at Sellwood if any of you are interested:

Don’t get too attached, I’d be surprised if he’s there at our pick.

 

[Rookie]

Hope we take both Sellwood and Mackinely if available at our picks. Both fill pressing needs.

We're also clearly in a potential premiership window and will need to rotate our depth, especially with a few guys like Poulter, Coffield and Baker being outside the best 22 for most of the year and not having really set the world alight in their time.

Retire: Jones, Duryea, potentially Libba/Treloar
Potential delists: Scott, Coffield, Arty, Poulter, Baker
Plus a trade or two

Even if we retain a couple of those guys, we're not going to replace all the outs with draftees while we're challenging for a cup and having two shots at adding to our depth seems a worthwhile risk.

 

[Mojorisin]

Don’t get too attached, I’d be surprised if he’s there at our pick.

I think if anyone will pick him ahead of us it'll be Saints, should they open a spot.

 

[doggie dog]

AFL Draft Power Rankings: May 2025

Rookie Me Central's first Power Rankings instalment for 2025 has dropped, featuring 20 of the nation's top AFL Draft prospects.

central.rookieme.com

Just looking at the May AFL power rankings, damn with the current Acadamies/FS picks, even if we stay at 6th our 1st pick may be around pick 18-20.
It's also been stated on Gettable that there is no real top end talent, do we look at trading the pick for established talent to teams looking for points, or moving into the 2026 draft?

 

[goodcop badcop]

AFL Draft Power Rankings: May 2025

Rookie Me Central's first Power Rankings instalment for 2025 has dropped, featuring 20 of the nation's top AFL Draft prospects.

central.rookieme.com

Just looking at the May AFL power rankings, damn with the current Acadamies/FS picks, even if we stay at 6th our 1st pick may be around pick 18-20.
It's also been stated on Gettable that there is no real top end talent, do we look at trading the pick for established talent to teams looking for points, or moving into the 2026 draft?

Yep, It's not looking like a good draft at the moment and I'm not excited by the names at that point. Still a long way to go though. We should be trying to trade it for Bergman, Butters or Rowell anyway IMO. There's been some talk of trading up in the top 5 by some in the knows too. If all that doesn't happen, trading into 2026 might be the go and may make it a bit easier to land Butters the following year.

 

[DognBones]

What's the bet Essendon screw us by taking the player we want before our pick.

 

[manutd/dogs]

What's the bet Essendon screw us by taking the player we want before our pick.

Sure worked out for us the last time they did that.

 

[Mofra]

AFL Draft Power Rankings: May 2025

Rookie Me Central's first Power Rankings instalment for 2025 has dropped, featuring 20 of the nation's top AFL Draft prospects.

central.rookieme.com

Just looking at the May AFL power rankings, damn with the current Acadamies/FS picks, even if we stay at 6th our 1st pick may be around pick 18-20.
It's also been stated on Gettable that there is no real top end talent, do we look at trading the pick for established talent to teams looking for points, or moving into the 2026 draft?

Everyone else will try that too. Plus teams with FS and NGA picks will be trying to slide down

We may actually be able to slide up a bit this year for little cost. And next years' FS kids for us may attract bids so trading into next year might get us nothing.

If we can lure Bergman across this year we won't have a first rounder anyway.

 

[Mofra]

What's the bet Essendon screw us by taking the player we want before our pick.

They owe us for Tory Dickson

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Everyone else will try that too. Plus teams with FS and NGA picks will be trying to slide down

We may actually be able to slide up a bit this year for little cost. And next years' FS kids for us may attract bids so trading into next year might get us nothing.

If we can lure Bergman across this year we won't have a first rounder anyway.

Worth also noting that the default assumptions about gaining advantages through the draft through the F/S or NGA points (and therefore the discussion in operating in that space if other teams have these tied players) is less strong, because this is the first year that they've updated the points to each finishing positon.

Obviously, it still exists, because you still get a 20% player on discount, and the points per later pick is still too high than reality (even if lower than before) and the idea that you can draft one player with more than one pick is still an advantage.

It's just less egregious as the last 10 years.

Ideally if the system worked perfectly you'd have teams not bothering to trade at all because there would be no meaningful change in their ability to have an overall better draft hand (if they assume a bid is coming in pick 10 and they had pick 14, they would simply use the pick 14 to match the bid on pick 10 with exact points plus the 20% discount, as trading the pick 14 would make no difference to their overall draft strength as a collective in terms of what other teams would be willing to pay the pick 14), but we're not there yet, but we're closer than we were before.

A simple way of explaining this is to consider pick 35 and consecutive.

Old draft points you could match pick 1 with almost 5 consecutive picks from 35 onwards and match pick 10 with less than 3 picks from 35 onwards.

New draft points you can match pick 1 with 8 picks from 35 onwards (no team has 8 list spots, you would need to use an earlier pick), and match pick 10 with almost 4 (as opposed to almost 3) consecutive picks from 35 onward.

Of course a team would still trade pick 35, 36, 37, 38 for pick 10 if it was a live trade with zero players to bid on in reality (hence the advantage and the trades will still exist), but the previous system only required them to trade pick 35, 36 and like 40 for pick 10, which was ridiculous.

 

[VitalDread]

For the MSD

I hope we aim for long term instead of a short 2025 plug

 

[VitalDread]

I haven't had a chance to do a deep dive into this year pool

I'm hoping we focus more on Key Defenders this year to reduce the gap between our veterans and emerging players

 

[Mofra]

I haven't had a chance to do a deep dive into this year pool

I'm hoping we focus more on Key Defenders this year to reduce the gap between our veterans and emerging players

Busslinger + Will Darcy is a decent starting point, especially with JOD playing well and Croft around as well