Recruiting Draft Watch 2021

eDPS

Premium Platinum
Nov 4, 2010
24,967
41,173
Melbourne - Eastern Suburbs
AFL Club
Essendon
eDPS's 2021 Draft Rankings
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Lore's 2021 Provisional Draft Order
Any issues with it please tag Lore in this thread: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2021-provisional-draft-order.1251001/
 
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ghostdog

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 18, 2008
16,006
11,851
gondawanaland
AFL Club
Essendon
Disappointed we missed out on Draper by one pick, but the reality is Collingwood played it perfectly.

It looked like for us that one of Draper or Taylor was going to slide to our pick, with Geelong seemingly keen on someone else. Collingwood realised they were going to miss out (with Adelaide and us likely to snare them) and then waited until Adelaide were taking their pick to trade up, meaning there was no way to jump them. We were screwed.

Also another interesting wrinkle, if Daicos is bid on at 2/3 like every one thought, Collingwoods pick 49 gets used up and they probably can't trade up. GWS helped to stuff us as well by not bidding on Daicos.

TL;DR - the draft is 2 hours of continual sliding doors. It hurts to get so close to Taylor/Draper but that's how the cookie crumbles. If we took Lord at 46, we probably were going to take him at 50, so it is not the pick is still a good one for mine
The Adelaide trade up seriously did my head in. I was all in on Taylor by that point as the small forward we need, but he also could have developed into insurance for Merrett should the injury gods one day grimace.
 

ghostdog

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 18, 2008
16,006
11,851
gondawanaland
AFL Club
Essendon
No look in for Fejo Jr or Jahmal Stretch. Surprises me no one, including ourselves can even find a rookie spot for talent like that. Especially us as we were looking at Rosas Jnr from GC and willing to part with an F2 for Bobby Hill.
Fejo played more as an outside runner with his agility and skills with ball movement is my understanding, but yeah, I would have thought his evasiveness might translate well to a small forward role. Not sure he defends well or runs both ways, or even of his marking ability. I had high hopes but he didn't even get drafted.

Does anyone know the shortfalls in his game that explain why he wasn't drafted? Can we still invite him to train?
eDPS
 

ghostdog

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 18, 2008
16,006
11,851
gondawanaland
AFL Club
Essendon
Interesting that Voss was keen to play a midfield role this year at Oakleigh. Says he'd been working on his craft and recognised he needed cleaner hands and to develop his skills on both sides of the body. 194cm mid? Surely more likely wing or ends of the ground.
 
Jul 23, 2018
6,479
7,553
AFL Club
Essendon
Fejo played more as an outside runner with his agility and skills with ball movement is my understanding, but yeah, I would have thought his evasiveness might translate well to a small forward role. Not sure he defends well or runs both ways, or even of his marking ability. I had high hopes but he didn't even get drafted.

Does anyone know the shortfalls in his game that explain why he wasn't drafted? Can we still invite him to train?
eDPS
Shortfalls shouldn't matter when you're talking late/rookie picks. Look at what they can do well and see how it translates once they're in the professional environment. May not make it but id prefer to take a punt on pure talent with some elite attributes over another Ned Cahill/ Lachlan Johnson.
 

ghostdog

Brownlow Medallist
Oct 18, 2008
16,006
11,851
gondawanaland
AFL Club
Essendon
Shortfalls shouldn't matter when you're talking late/rookie picks. Look at what they can do well and see how it translates once they're in the professional environment. May not make it but id prefer to take a punt on pure talent with some elite attributes over another Ned Cahill/ Lachlan Johnson.
Well that's what I would have thought too, so maybe some other reason; emotional or psychological or mental readiness etc. Fejo seems to have natural ability in abundance, so there must be some reason.
 

Ants

Premiership Player
Sep 27, 2005
4,535
2,124
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Essendon
Reality is we have been giving away second rounders in years where the second round has offered good value both in talent and in live trades. We have been slow on the uptake there.
We've often kept our second round. And even with hindsight, last year's deal looks good if Caldwell can play like he did in the EF for four quarters and stay on the park. We got Caldwell (originally pick #11) and pick #44 for #29 and our second this year. We used pick #44's points to 'pay' for Eyre, a second round pick. So we effectively got first and second round pick players at the cost of #29 and our 2021 second. On the face of it, that seems a good deal.

Someone posted our 2nd rounders for the last 5 or so years and it's really not that bad a run as you're suggesting.
Yep. Since 2015:
  • 2015: Morgan & Redman
  • 2016: Ridley & Begley
  • 2017: none
  • 2018: Mozzie
  • 2019: Jones & Bryan
  • 2020: Eyre
  • 2021: none
So over that 7 year period we have taken 8 second rounders.

From the last 5 years including this one we have, Jones, Eyre and Bryan. 1 hit and two to be determined.

In the same period Melbourne has Fristch, Jordon, Sparrow, Bowey, Laurie, Rivers. That is the premiership level drafting we should be aspiring to.
Bowey and Laurie were first round picks.

and Begley.

The period before then was quite good Redman, Merrett as well. That helps prove we should be taking second rounders with much higher regularity than we currently are. Especially considering we have been a pretty poor team throughout that period.
One of those second rounders was used on Saad, who got us pick #10 back. Two were used on Stringer, who is likely to be vital to any short-term ambitions we have. And one was used on Caldwell and points for Eyre, which could be a very important pickup.

There is no point moaning over the picks lost without considering whether the related trades were good value or not.
 
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