It's bye week for us, so for something a bit fun to pass the time I thought I'd look at our current playing squad and what their draft/trade route was here to the Crows. Some players were bargains, some were fair value, some cost way too much. Often the players we've taken with trade knives from more elaborate trades have turned out to be better than the actual trade targets.
I'm intending to focus primarily on best 30 players or those close to selection, so obviously the most egregiously bad selections won't get covered - no McAsey's or Gallucci's here. I've loosely listed our current best 22 is as follows:
B: Butts, Murray, Worrell
HB: Smith, Michalanney, Jones
C: Milera, Dawson, Hinge
HF: Pedlar, Walker, Rachele
F: Thilthorpe, Fogarty, Rankine
RR: Keays, Murphy, Sloane, Sholl, (McHenry sub)
EMG: McAdam, Gollant, Schoenberg, Hamill, Berry, Cook, Parnell (I know there are only three emergencies normally but whatever)
INJ: Doedee
Whoops, I forgot: O'Brien
I'll drag this out for a few days:
Day 1 - Straight-up draft selections taken with picks we were awarded just from our ladder position
Day 2 - Free hits and rookie selections
Day 3 - Simple trades
Day 4 - Elaborate trades
Day 5 - The 2017-2020 trade saga
For today, the draft picks taken directly from our ladder position without any kind of trade or bid matching etc involved. Unsurprisingly, almost all of these who remain on our list are first-round selections, both because they should be good enough to stick around, and also because we seem to have a pathological need to horse trade anything from the second round onwards.
Rory Sloane - 2008 draft pick 44 (finished 5th)
Brodie Smith - 2010 draft pick 14 (finished 11th)
Tom Doedee - 2015 draft pick 17 (finished 7th)
Chayce Jones - 2018 draft pick 9 (finished 12th)
Riley Thilthorpe - 2020 draft pick 2 (finished 18th)
Josh Rachele - 2021 draft pick 6 (finished 15th)
With Jones finally coming good this year, there don't seem to be any egregiously poor selections here. The obvious value-for-money pick on this list is Sloane, the only one taken outside of the first round, but his time has pretty much come and gone. Smith and Doedee have both been quality players for the Crows but it's not clear how much longer either of them will be playing for us, with Smith now 31 years old and Doedee's ACL injury rudely interrupting his refusal to extend his contract.
It is clear by now that we could have done better than Jones in 2018, but at least that pick looks like producing a player who can stay in the best 22. Not quite the return you'd hope for from pick 9, but then again if he continues improving like he has this year, who knows?
Obviously it's still early days for Thilthorpe and Rachele, but both appear to be players with very high ceilings who have come in early and have produced some high-quality (albeit incosistent) footy. Both seem to have bought into the club, and both fill very important roles for us.
Interested in your thoughts. I'll be back tomorrow to discuss the rookie selections and free hits we've been able to take!
I'm intending to focus primarily on best 30 players or those close to selection, so obviously the most egregiously bad selections won't get covered - no McAsey's or Gallucci's here. I've loosely listed our current best 22 is as follows:
B: Butts, Murray, Worrell
HB: Smith, Michalanney, Jones
C: Milera, Dawson, Hinge
HF: Pedlar, Walker, Rachele
F: Thilthorpe, Fogarty, Rankine
RR: Keays, Murphy, Sloane, Sholl, (McHenry sub)
EMG: McAdam, Gollant, Schoenberg, Hamill, Berry, Cook, Parnell (I know there are only three emergencies normally but whatever)
INJ: Doedee
Whoops, I forgot: O'Brien
I'll drag this out for a few days:
Day 1 - Straight-up draft selections taken with picks we were awarded just from our ladder position
Day 2 - Free hits and rookie selections
Day 3 - Simple trades
Day 4 - Elaborate trades
Day 5 - The 2017-2020 trade saga
For today, the draft picks taken directly from our ladder position without any kind of trade or bid matching etc involved. Unsurprisingly, almost all of these who remain on our list are first-round selections, both because they should be good enough to stick around, and also because we seem to have a pathological need to horse trade anything from the second round onwards.
Rory Sloane - 2008 draft pick 44 (finished 5th)
Brodie Smith - 2010 draft pick 14 (finished 11th)
Tom Doedee - 2015 draft pick 17 (finished 7th)
Chayce Jones - 2018 draft pick 9 (finished 12th)
Riley Thilthorpe - 2020 draft pick 2 (finished 18th)
Josh Rachele - 2021 draft pick 6 (finished 15th)
With Jones finally coming good this year, there don't seem to be any egregiously poor selections here. The obvious value-for-money pick on this list is Sloane, the only one taken outside of the first round, but his time has pretty much come and gone. Smith and Doedee have both been quality players for the Crows but it's not clear how much longer either of them will be playing for us, with Smith now 31 years old and Doedee's ACL injury rudely interrupting his refusal to extend his contract.
It is clear by now that we could have done better than Jones in 2018, but at least that pick looks like producing a player who can stay in the best 22. Not quite the return you'd hope for from pick 9, but then again if he continues improving like he has this year, who knows?
Obviously it's still early days for Thilthorpe and Rachele, but both appear to be players with very high ceilings who have come in early and have produced some high-quality (albeit incosistent) footy. Both seem to have bought into the club, and both fill very important roles for us.
Interested in your thoughts. I'll be back tomorrow to discuss the rookie selections and free hits we've been able to take!
Last edited: