Remove this Banner Ad

Draft Winners and Losers

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Richmond are unsurprisingly the big winners of the draft. They had a lot of picks and did really well with them. Essentially, they have formed the nucleus of their next contending team. Then to add another top 8 pick to go with the pick 1 in 2025 and they are off and flying. Hopefully they get a fit Gibcus and some growth from the other kids on the list.
Jeez, their supporters are a bit punishing though!!
The other winners would be West Coast, Brisbane and Port.
 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

really concerned when I heard that Langford had the 4th slowest sprint time at the draft combine. The games only getting quicker, not slower. And if you're the 4th slowest in a draft combine, then he'd be hands down the slowest starting mid in the afl.
 
Yeah absolutely, their selection of talls makes sense from a list build perspective and it's what Carlton did to set themselves up - you take the talls first because they take longer to develop and then you supplement with mids and flankers because they come on quicker - giving you a tighter list profile when your team is all peaking at the same time for a longer period. However, this was not the year to do it. They reached for talls when this was a midfield draft and effectively wasted all their later first round picks on 2nd round talent. They really wasted their opportunity here.
I’m keen to hear more about how this was a midfield draft. Which of the pure mids did we miss around our picks that we should have picked?
 
really concerned when I heard that Langford had the 4th slowest sprint time at the draft combine. The games only getting quicker, not slower. And if you're the 4th slowest in a draft combine, then he'd be hands down the slowest starting mid in the afl.
Almost an identical 20m sprint time to Bont and a touch quicker than Cripps- although he recently admitted that he was very out of shape in his draft year. Living away from home and just eating any old thing that was in the fridge.

To be that lacking in speed you need to be really really good though, which he seems to be.
 
really concerned when I heard that Langford had the 4th slowest sprint time at the draft combine. The games only getting quicker, not slower. And if you're the 4th slowest in a draft combine, then he'd be hands down the slowest starting mid in the afl.
Think he's still running.

Worst case he has the skill set to be an elite half forward or half back if he doesn't end up as a pure mid.
 
For its depth, but not its top end quality. Ask any draft expert, they’ll tell you at least 3 players last year would have gone #1 this year (Reid, Walter, McKercher). A few top 10 selections would not have gone top 10 in recent years.
Even if the top end was weaker than some other years, it’s still a great draft to load up on as A-Grade and B-Grade players are also important. Premiership sides don’t only consist of A+ Grade players. Richmond 2013-2015 failed because we had like five A+ grade players and little in that A-B range. Too many were C-grade and below.

For a rebuilding side like Richmond, loading up on many potential A-B grade players in a deep draft is sound strategy. We’re likely 18th again next year, and the 2025 draft crop already looks like it’ll have some A+ grade players at the top end.

Not to mention, quite a few of these players can still end up in that A+ range. Our first 3 picks in particular (Lalor, Smillie, and Hotton) could end up there.

Hence, Richmond are definitely the winners of this draft if we’re looking at strategy.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

I’m keen to hear more about how this was a midfield draft. Which of the pure mids did we miss around our picks that we should have picked?

It depends if you count Lalor and Smillie as pure mids at AFL level.

There's question marks for sure.

Jagga and Draper are are the obvious ones.
 
Richmond probably missed a trick not taking our deal on the first night of night 2 based on Twomey's article.

Knocking back 2 x F2's for Sims seems crazy, particularly after taking Faull, Armstrong and Trainor.

Could have carried another mother load into 2025.
 
Richmond probably missed a trick not taking our deal on the first night of night 2 based on Twomey's article.

Knocking back 2 x F2's for Sims seems crazy, particularly after taking Faull, Armstrong and Trainor.

Could have carried another mother load into 2025.
2 x future 2nds in a weak, super compromised draft? No thanks. Just having the F1 is fine ;)
 
Richmond probably missed a trick not taking our deal on the first night of night 2 based on Twomey's article.

Knocking back 2 x F2's for Sims seems crazy, particularly after taking Faull, Armstrong and Trainor.

Could have carried another mother load into 2025.
I would have been ok with that, but I also like the Sims pick.

North obv saw some players worth 2 future seconds in the early 2nd round this year. So too the clubs that held their picks after the Richmond pick.

One of Sims, Whitlock, Shanahan would have been great for the Roos.

But Port, Rich and West Coast reaped the benefit of holding.
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

I'm not going to predict how well each of our picks will pan out but I definitely like the types we've picked.

Kako is the best player for us in the draft. Trading out the first for the bounty we got made complete sense, especially considering it dissuaded the two clubs most likely to bid on him from doing so with the trade with St Kilda to move them up the board. Now we have two firsts and two seconds in next year's draft.

Gerreyn was the best key forward left in the draft. Sure, would have been nice to trade up to take Shanahan but we didn't so I'm not too fussed. Athletic key forward who's better deep than up the ground will pair well with Caddy IMO.

Clarke is aerobically fantastic (won our 2km TT), and we need another intercept medium. Currently we have Ridley (injury prone), Cox (questions over whether or not he makes it), Laverde (not really damaging) and now Prior as well.

Unwin is a terrible surname but he runs hard and looks like a good flanker to pair with Kako as a deeper option.

Johnson is a bit of a utility and can play anywhere on the ground. Hoping he ends up as a Durham inside/outside type that can plug holes.

Day-Wicks is another forward flanker but could end up on a wing as well. Seems like the perfect player to take a chance on the rookie list.

Nguyen is handy as Cat B. Gets 3 years to develop as a small defender which I reckon he will.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Draft Winners and Losers

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top