Opinion Priority Picks

[Dinkers]

I'd be shocked if other clubs disagree. We can certainly sort the wheat from the chaff. Makes their jobs easier.

 

[LB2Snake]

Let's take off the royal blue and white tinted glasses and look at this objectively. We'll include national, rookie, and mid-season drafts, starting with the 2020 National Draft;

2020
National Draft
#3 Will Phillips
#13 Tom Powell
#36 Charlie Lazzaro
#42 Phoenix Spicer
#56 Eddie Ford

Rookie Draft
#2 Patrick Walker
#18 Connor Menadue

Overall, pretty average. I personally love Phillips but even I'm not going to argue we got value at pick #3 with him. Same deal with #13 and Powell - there's a very real chance that by the end of this season or next season, neither player are on our list. Add to that that Lazzaro and Spicer are out of the AFL and Ford is about to be, and the 2020 Covid draft is shaping up to be particularly poor

2021
Mid Season Draft
#1 Jacob Edwards
#16 Charlie Ham

National Draft
#1 Jason Horne-Francis
#22 Josh Goater
#35 Paul Curtis
#38 Miller Bergman
#59 Jackson Archer (father/son)

Rookie Draft
#1 Jared Polec

Horrible MSD, but the arguably the 'strongest' national draft result you'll see in this entire post. The JHF situation sucked, but he was the best available player at pick 1 with Naicos and Darcy both N/A with father/son shennanigans.

2022
Mid Season Draft
#2 Kallan Dawson

National Draft
#3 Harry Sheezel
#4 George Wardlaw
#26 Brayden George
#56 Cooper Harvey (father/son)

Rookie Draft
#1 Blake Drury
#19 Hamish Free
#33 Daniel Howe
#39 Kayne Turner

Again, terrible MSD and Rookie Drafts and a common theme throughout this post will be our absolute lack of quality added through these processes. The National Draft looks great because of Sheezel/Wardlaw at the top. Sheezel has proven he can be a superstar, whereas Wardlaw has flashed enormously positive signs... however if we're playing Devil's Advocate there were undeniable question marks about his hamstrings in the lead up to the draft and that appears to have played out at least partly in the last 3 years. That said, even though those injury concerns were legitimate, he's still the best available player at that pick and this is the rare instance where North don't look silly for passing over one of the players taken immediately after him. Brayden George had big wraps, but the injury history there was even more of a considerable risk, and those risks have not been kind to North with sausage still yet to play an AFL game three years later.

2023
Mid Season Draft
#2 Robert Hansen Jr

National Draft
#2 Colby McKercher
#4 Zane Duursma
#20 Taylor Goad
#22 Wil Dawson
#23 Riley Hardeman

Rookie Draft
#2 Finnbar Maley

I suspect my opinion here will be divisive, but overall this is a poor draft. Walking away from one of the most stacked top-10s of the last decade in terms of top-end draft talent with two picks, and one of those picks cannot get a consistent game in our AFL team despite not being a developing KPF/KPD is not great. Especially when you look at the calibre of player we passed on to take him. Goad and Dawson are both talls who we knew would take years to develop, so that's "fine". Hardeman looks like great value at #23. But overall, not a great draft when you consider the ready-made talent that we missed on.

2024
Mid Season Draft
#1 Geordie Payne
#15 Brynn Teakle

National Draft
#2 Finn O'Sullivan
#27 Matt Whitlock (trade)
#57 Luke Urquhart
#67 River Stevens (father/son)

Rookie Draft
Nil players

Admittedly there's a huge element of "it's too soon to judge" with the 2024 cohort, but outside of FOS I think it's fair to say that this draft class doesn't look super exciting. Payne can't get a game, Teakle has proven himself a very limited battler, and Urquhart/Stevens both struggle with any form of consistency at the VFL level. Whitlock is, unfortunately for him, always going to be held to a super high standard because of the nature of the trade that resulted in us taking him. The signs are positive at the VFL level for a second round tall prospect... but he could have been a top 3~ first round draft pick instead and those are huge shoes to fill.


Summary
So in summary, I think we unfortunately have plenty of "pretty poor draftees" since 2020, and overall I think the most generous grade you can objectively give to our drafting in this period would be a C+. At best.

It's a big reason why the club is in the position that it currently finds itself. Instead of having a super strong cohort of 50-150 gamers, we struggle with consistency and talent at these levels outside one or two outlier players.

We put the future of our club in the hands of a bloke doing “on the job” training. You reap what you sow.

 

[Samsquanch]

I'm assuming that West Coast and Richmond will each be getting two second round picks for the next draft, withe the caveat that they must be traded for players from other clubs. Is there a remote possibility that we could package up Fisher, Logue, Tucker and CCJ to get our hands on one of those sweet second rounders?

 

[zoomba23]

I'm assuming that West Coast and Richmond will each be getting two second round picks for the next draft, withe the caveat that they must be traded for players from other clubs. Is there a remote possibility that we could package up Fisher, Logue, Tucker and CCJ to get our hands on one of those sweet second rounders?

Richmond won't ask for one. West Coast will get a first or multiple second-rounders that they don't have to trade. Bad for the league to have them down the bottom

 

[Dinkers]

Couldn't careless if the Eagles get pp assistance. But should they I hope the AFL actually do it properly as apposed to the drawn out saga we got. And the caveats around ours.

 

[Samsquanch]

Couldn't careless if the Eagles get pp assistance. But should they I hope the AFL actually do it properly as apposed to the drawn out saga we got. And the caveats around ours.

Richmond too. They deserve it.

 

[Dinkers]

Richmond too. They deserve it.

Richmond have played this very well, if they beat us, one can only laugh. We have only ourselves to blame for what is this ongoing shitshow. And seem to. a) not care. b) not acknowledge it or c) not have the ability to fix it.

Not sure the actually picks we had been gifted but would like to know them.

It seems that they have been spent on Tucker ( delist) Logue ( delist) Fisher (delist) Stephens (delist). Then probably Hardeman and/or Dawson make up the rest. But im not sure.

Or is Daniel part of the pp package , anyway shove a (delist) next to his name.

 

[King Hansen]

Richmond too. They deserve it.

Collingwood too.

 

[Passmore]

Richmond too. They deserve it.

Well they set themselves up well with their effort yesterday

 

[Passmore]

Richmond have played this very well, if they beat us, one can only laugh. We have only ourselves to blame for what is this ongoing shitshow. And seem to. a) not care. b) not acknowledge it or c) not have the ability to fix it.

Not sure the actually picks we had been gifted but would like to know them.

It seems that they have been spent on Tucker ( delist) Logue ( delist) Fisher (delist) Stephens (delist). Then probably Hardeman and/or Dawson make up the rest. But im not sure.

Or is Daniel part of the pp package , anyway shove a (delist) next to his name.

What we need is more PP's that we're a) forced to trade for established players (which is damn handy when you're on the bottom, I mean players are queuing up) or b) they're futures which you're told may be taken off you.

"Handouts"....

 

[Dinkers]

What we need is more PP's that we're a) forced to trade for established players (which is damn handy when you're on the bottom, I mean players are queuing up) or b) they're futures which you're told may be taken off you.

"Handouts"....

Yes I know Micky but we just took our medicine like we always do.

Don't rock the boat is our method.

 

[Samsquanch]

What we need is more PP's that we're a) forced to trade for established players (which is damn handy when you're on the bottom, I mean players are queuing up) or b) they're futures which you're told may be taken off you.

"Handouts"....

In reality, the AFL assistance package to North in the format that it was provided was actually a setback. None of the picks delivered any real on field benefit - the players basically filled positions at the bottom end of the list. Their experience wasn't the top quality that taught younger inexperienced recruits the tangibles to set up their careers. We just ended up with an extra four or five competing to be the last one or two selected every week.

 

[RooStu15]

West Coast have the advantage of the go home factor that we don't have. It's a massive advantage, talk of Darcy Cameron

14

Darcy Cameron

Age

30

Ht

204cm

Wt

103kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

6.0

1star

K

3.3

1star

HB

2.7

2star

CL

0.3

2star

HO

5.3

5star

D

7.5

2star

K

4.5

2star

HB

3.0

2star

CL

0.5

3star

HO

3.5

5star

D

6.0

2star

K

3.3

2star

HB

2.7

3star

CL

0.3

2star

HO

5.3

5star

going back, he's not going to go to Freo with their ruck stocks

 

[Passmore]

In reality, the AFL assistance package to North in the format that it was provided was actually a setback. None of the picks delivered any real on field benefit - the players basically filled positions at the bottom end of the list. Their experience wasn't the top quality that taught younger inexperienced recruits the tangibles to set up their careers. We just ended up with an extra four or five competing to be the last one or two selected every week.

Looking back, it would've been nice to have been able to use those picks on another Hardeman or Dawson.

 

[Passmore]

Yes I know Micky but we just took our medicine like we always do.

Don't rock the boat is our method.

Unfortunately that seems to be our lot in life right now. I guess it could be worse and our club head honcho trying to move us interstate as has happened.

A Ron Casey type would be handy about now. Any of those waiting the wings, plotting a takeover?

 

[Samsquanch]

Looking back, it would've been nice to have been able to use those picks on another Hardeman or Dawson.

It would have been a much better option.

 

[The Nostradamus]

What we need is more PP's that we're a) forced to trade for established players (which is damn handy when you're on the bottom, I mean players are queuing up) or b) they're futures which you're told may be taken off you.

"Handouts"....

No point getting useless picks that we no doubt blow unless it’s a start of first round pp

What we need is additional lists spots and more soft cap space

 

[ApplecrossWC]

I think deep down everyone knows that if we got any more priority picks we would just waste them anyway

 

[Passmore]

I think deep down everyone knows that if we got any more priority picks we would just waste them anyway

If we could just draft with them and not have to trade we might be ok.

 

[Tas]

If we could just draft with them and not have to trade we might be ok.

We lost a lot of bargaining power when people realised we had to get rid of them.

 

[hilly]

We lost a lot of bargaining power when people realised we had to get rid of them.

Presume you mean the future R2 and R3? The three firsts didn't need to be dealt, albeit there was a threat to review the two in the later year if our situation materially improved which obviously didn't happen.

 

[Tas]

Presume you mean the future R2 and R3? The three firsts didn't need to be dealt, albeit there was a threat to review the two in the later year if our situation materially improved which obviously didn't happen.

Yeah, it was only the last assistance we received that weren't required to be traded.

 

[Rooscals]

Collingwood too.

What about Geelong ?

 

[koshari]

Richmond won't ask for one. West Coast will get a first or multiple second-rounders that they don't have to trade. Bad for the league to have them down the bottom

No they wont, the precedence is set, if they get anything other than a couple of 2nd rounders they have to trade we treat AFL house as if it were a tobacconist.

 

[kangatragic]

No they wont, the precedence is set, if they get anything other than a couple of 2nd rounders they have to trade we treat AFL house as if it were a tobacconist.