List Mgmt. 2026 Draftee/NGA/FS Discussion

[eaglevision]

With another draft come and gone attention turns to the 2026 crop. Arguably the two best talents in Dougie Cochrane (Port Adelaide) and Cody Walker (Carlton) are already club linked along with possibly the best WA talent Lucas Robinson (Fremantle), who was surprisingly overlooked for an AFL Academy spot alongside Koby LeCras, Heath Mellody, Benji Van Rooyen and Eagles NGA Garrison Kenh.

Forward Lachlan McGlade (NGA) and father/son midfielder Harper Banfield also loom as possible second round selections, whilst tall defender David Shanahan and forward Robert Farmer may also attract interest.

We hold all our natural selections, as well as Sydney’s 3R and the Bulldogs 4R.

 

[eaglespremiers]

Hopefully we've improved enough next year that we don't need to worry about bidding with pick 1.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Who are the top five projected players in the open pool, and what are their positions?

 

[eaglevision]

Who are the top five projected players in the open pool, and what are their positions?

Stars of the future: 10 draft prospects to watch in 2026

Callum Twomey looks ahead to the best prospects for the 2026 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

 

[squashface]

Looking forward to seeing what new and exciting way Clarke can infuriate this board this time

 

[eaglespremiers]

Stars of the future: 10 draft prospects to watch in 2026

Callum Twomey looks ahead to the best prospects for the 2026 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

Just FYI, this is last year's variant: https://www.afl.com.au/news/1256448...among-the-10-draft-prospects-to-watch-in-2025

Whilst this list included Duursma, Uwland, Duff-Tytler, Annable and Sharp it also included Louis Emmett (pick 27), Max King (pick 49), Archie Ludowyke (pick 50), Matt LeRay (pick 56) and Riley Onley (rookie).
So don't get too fixated on the proposed players as there is likely to be some variations from the rated players at this time (they went at 50% last year at identify the absolute top talent).

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Stars of the future: 10 draft prospects to watch in 2026

Callum Twomey looks ahead to the best prospects for the 2026 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

2 midfielders in open pool of the top 10. Not the greatest two years to be crap and in desperate need of midfielders

 

[eaglevision]

2 midfielders in open pool of the top 10. Not the greatest two years to be crap and in desperate need of midfielders

Lucky we had this year to address that..

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Lucky we had this year to address that..

Dev, Macrae and Schoenberg. The new cousins, judd, kerr

 

[garlic munchers]

Looking forward to seeing what new and exciting way Clarke can infuriate this board this time

Will be goneski if Banfield gets games for Saints and shows he will make it.

 

[eaglevision]

Will be goneski if Banfield gets games for Saints and shows he will make it.

Charlie is big enough and fit enough to play games next year. Likely competing against guys like Wilson, Boxshall maybe Wood and Travaglia.

Hope Charlie has a ripping season.

 

[Keys]

A note regarding this thread and the intent behind it before people start going too far down unrelated rabbit holes

The purpose of this thread is to discuss the 2026 draft cohort as we watch their development throughout next year. It’s designed to be an informative thread, contributed to by posters who are keen watchers of underage football and have excellent knowledge/insight for the rest of us to learn from.

If you’ve got questions on the cohort overall and/or a particular player(s) this is where you can raise them. Obviously, anyone who has their own thoughts/observations are more than welcome to share them

What this thread is not intended for, is unhelpful discussion/arguments over past events - the thread will be more tightly moderated than elsewhere and repeat offenders who can’t follow a simple instruction won’t have a long lifespan here.

So discuss away, but stay on topic because I don’t want an endless stream of messages from AsterixTheGaul about posters that can’t stay in the correct lane

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

With another draft come and gone attention turns to the 2026 crop. Arguably the two best talents in Dougie Cochrane (Port Adelaide) and Cody Walker (Carlton) are already club linked along with possibly the best WA talent Lucas Robinson (Fremantle), who was surprisingly overlooked for an AFL Academy spot alongside Koby LeCras, Heath Mellody, Benji Van Rooyen and Eagles NGA Garrison Kenh.

Forward Lachlan McGlade (NGA) and father/son midfielder Harper Banfield also loom as possible second round selections, whilst tall defender David Shanahan and forward Robert Farmer may also attract interest.

We hold all our natural selections, as well as Sydney’s 3R and the Bulldogs 4R.

After this post-season, I'm gonna try my best to not become too attached to our NGA/FS next year. Don't wanna be disappointed.
At this stage, taking anyone else apart from Kenh or whoever is our highest rated NGA/FS by the draft would be a bonus...

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Not sure about whether Harper Banfield will be training at Lathlain or the Saints get special exemption for him to be at Morrabin

 

[bzparkes]

I'd advise people to not get particularly attached to any particular NGA/FS, because we now know we'll pass on them if the club rates another player higher.

I don't expect that to happen though...

Having said that, if Shanahan and McGlade come on, those 2 will go a ways to addressing some holes in our list(small forward/KPD).

Kenh's the interesting one. We have quite a lot of options off HB now(queue board memes...) so will WCE go for him, despite potentially not playing in a position of any great need? I wonder if he gets played in other roles next year? I like the look of him and hope we pick him up(assuming he continues his development and doesn't do a Wes Walley) but will the Eagles think the same way?

 

[chaddy22]

You would expect we have a top ten pick but with few midfielders and a few club linked players do we still go best player available. Long way to go but hope a few midfielders move into the top ten.

 

[txbyhull]

Arki Butler, Benji Van Rooyen, Mitchell Stirling, Kale Matthews-Hampton, Gabriel Patterson, and Heath Mellody all types I can see us going after

 

[txbyhull]

For those interested, the last available ranking can find from Haggas

 

[eaglevision]

The one for me I’d be targeting is Arki Butler. Damaging mid/fwd for Sandringham. Very clean hands, kicks goals and is versatile. Didn’t shower himself in glory in the futures match but produced week in, week out as an under ager for Sandringham.

Other teams at our level North (pretty much only drafted mids/medium forwards until recently and are stacked in that area) and Tigers have loaded up on mid/fwds (Lalor, Cumming, Smillie) and may show less interest.

Archie Van Dyk I also suspect Massey has been following for some time. Alternatively let’s hope Butters stays at Port and no one trades them a 1R pick to match a bid on Dougie. Although that will mean that we’ve won another wooden spoon.

Of the WA kids I really like Heath Mellody. BVR is a talent but we’ve just taken CDT and I’d rather wait for Axel Walsh.

 

[chaddy22]

For those interested, the last available ranking can find from Haggas

View attachment 2483528

It is a bit early but looks like a better crop of west Aussies.

 

[Keys]

For those interested, the last available ranking can find from Haggas

View attachment 2483528

Nice to see a much better representation from WA on that list

Not so nice to see 5 of the top 11 (and 15 overall) tied to clubs - albeit there’s 3 tied to us which is a positive

Expect the bidding rules to be tightened even further for 2026 which will make it harder to match bids, particularly on multiple players. The main potential adjustments I’ve seen mentioned are:
• Reducing/eliminating the 10% discount
• Only being allowed to use a maximum of 2 picks to match a bid
• Extending the required 1:1 ratio of draft picks to list posts into the draft itself rather than discarding it once the draft starts - would mean all those pick swaps Gold Coast did would be either impossible to do or far more difficult

If those changes were brought in for this year, Gold Coast would have seriously struggled to match the bids on Uwland and Patterson, let alone Murray and Addinsall.

New rules will make it harder for us unfortunately, but I think it’s better for the competition overall

My understanding is the new rules will be announced this year

 

[Elite Pete]

Assuming we will get Kenh and Lecras training with us as part of the AFL academy, The Claremont boys to Freo?

 

[bzparkes]

Assuming we will get Kenh and Lecras training with us as part of the AFL academy, The Claremont boys to Freo?

LeCras isn't tied to us. He's Mark's nephew.

One to watch though. He's actually mates with Duursma.

Edit: Never mind, you said AFL academy.

 

[Monocle]

Surely a bid on Lucas Robinson by us has to be on the cards.

 

[Mr Q]

If there's anything I could say here, it's don't get your hopes up too much about any NGAs/FS picks. Apart from their being a whole year before they are up for selection, none sound like the sort that are definitively going to make it.

We don't need a repeat of the massive meltdowns when a player you've invested in (because they're in the NGA or FS) doesn't end up getting picked up by us.