My opinion is that Marchbank is worth a second round pick and Tomlinson is worth a third and a fourth.
Seeing as both supposedly want to come home to Victoria tell me what Vic clubs you think would use their first round selection on these two? Don't forget Collingwood, Geelong and Melbourne don't have first round selections in this draft.
But the national draft is irrelevant, once a player chooses a club then GWS only deal with that club, the player does not have to accept any other deal regardless of how good, im sure you know this. So if either of them choose us then where they would go in the draft is irrelevant.
The general consensus on here is that Tomlinson will be available for a pick in the 30's seeing as though our third will be around 41-43 and our forth will be around 59-61 or the dogs third at around pick 50. Pick 42 and pick 60 = pick 34, 42 and 50 = pick 29 both i think are reasonable.
So if we finish the year in the position we are currently in and we don't factor in any bidding we will have pick 8 (I suspect it to drift out to about 12 at this stage). If there were no other bids in the draft our picks would look like 12, 30, 48, 64, 82 (not including the dogs third). I think 30 is a little bit too high for Tomlinson. Suspect the Giants would expect something in the range of 15-25.
Marchbank, although he was a high draft pick, won't get gws the same return as his draft value. I believe he was pick 6 and from all reports, they see him as a vital player. We would need to pay something 12-18 for him imo. If we get him, our back line looks set for 10 years. That's one less gap we have to think about.
Add to the mix Steele (who looks the goods) and Stewart (who didn't look out of place in their forward line when played previously) and it looks a major coup for our club going forward. Our first pick approx 12 satisfies Gws re Marchbank, 30 is close to the mark for Tomlinson and then they throw in Steele and Stewart for (let's be honest) nothing. It looks a clear win to me.
I understand what you are saying re: Once a player chooses a club. But GWS have been our money pit (especially last year) and to not deal fair with them (when it looks like we win this trade scenario) would be foolish.
Everyone is screaming out for mids and rightly so. But a sure back line and the addition of Steele and Tomlinson (who would get mid time) will help us big time in going forward. I say take the gws 4, give the 2015 forwards another year and then take all mids in 2017 and possibly a free agent. 2018 will be the time we really see the fruits of this reset to become aggressive. Especially if we added a free agent to the likes of Danger.
Stay the course Sos and Co