I think the club is trying to position itself so it can promote all 3. They are all ready to play Senior football,have proven their ability and are better than anyone would be able to pick up in the draft with our picks.
Wells and co will try to find a KPB and a ruckman with our 1st and 2nd picks. Then try to find a hidden gem after that,ala Stokes and Egan.
Lets face it we have up to 6-8 players on our list that would be getting regular games at most clubs and these youngsters need game time and experience.
I completely agree.
A lot of people seem to be suggesting that the "hidden gem" with #44 might be Scott Thompson - probably not a bad pick up and certainly likely to be better than anyone else available at that stage.
Interesting to see what Wells does with our first pick. Decent chance that at least one of McEvoy or Bellchambers will still be there, and both are fairly highly rated in the ruck. Good chance that Pears, Myers or even Rance will still be there as well, and I would love to pick one of them up. Would possibly be a steal at #17. So which do we choose - KPB or ruck?
At the second pick our options for both are probably likely to be more speculative and require greater development time, and for that reason I'd be leaning towards getting the ruck first. We only have three of those now and desperately need coverage. Our need for a KPB is much longer term given we already have Scarlett, Egan, Harley, Lonergan, maybe S Thompson, and at a pinch can use Milburn or Mackie to cover a tall. Grima has also played a bit down back in the VFL and could be used there if needed. (I think Spencer and S Hunt will be delisted so haven't included them.)
I'd also seriously look at a fifth ruckman in the rookie draft, as insurance if one of the others doesn't end up being any good by the time Ottens has gone. I'd go for a long term project here - as a fifth option he could almost certainly sit in the VFL for 3-4 years and develop.