Game Day The 2025 Draft Day Thread

[UseR2006]

And a song to sing as we watch,

Hey Matty Clarke by Kevin (Random260) Wilson :

Hey Matty Clarke you campaigner, where the **** is Sharp
I’ve looked at all these other spuds and there’s no one that I like
I wrote you a ****ing letter and posted about it twice
You dopey ****ing Richmond fart, you forgot my ****ing Sharp

If I wanted a stupid ruckman type, I would’ve bloody asked
And this half back flank and temu mid, you can shove right up your arse
You’ve stuffed the bloody order up, it’s enough to make you spew
But it’s not just me who’s snakey, SGIO is dirty too

Next time I come to see ya, I’m going to punch you in the guts
And I’ll sack the other recruiting knobs and kick Toddy in the nuts
You just wait 'til next year when you go back to the draft
And me and me little GIO come stomping through the door
And we'll say, yeah, you wait for it

Hey Pyke and Woosh you smell his breath
And check his bloodshot eyes
And don't listen to him eagles fans 'cause he tells ****ing lies
He's just a ****ing useless campaigner and he's not even very bright
'Cause the stupid ****in' w***er, forgot me ****in' Sharp

Hey Matty Clarke you campaigner, where the **** is Sharp
I’ve looked at all these other spuds and there’s no one that I like
I wrote you a ****ing letter and posted about it twice
You dopey ****ing Richmond fart, you forgot my ****ing Sharp

A Quick Ai rendition: https://suno.com/s/blQP3cSnulhqYb5g
It's funny how it interrupted the lyrics XD

 

[archiemoses]

Name one.

Seadog

 

[Coasters7]

They've even confirmed on the website that they wanted them and thought they'd go rookie draft. Just disgraceful they didn't plan for this

Such loser mentality to just assume things will fall our way instead of making it happen.

Same shit with the Addinsall bid. Didn’t make absolutely sure we had all bases covered by bidding on their players earlier. Didn’t open enough list spots just in case.

We never plan for the worst but always hope things will fall our way and when it inevitably doesn’t we look like idiots.

 

[Patron]

No

They also lost Sweid because they didn’t have enough points

Yeah, because they traded their points to get Sharp. I would say they did very well out of that exchange.

 

[EagleMutt]

Will we pass tomorrow and have two train ons?

 

[KBLT]

We'll leave the ass kissing to you then. Are you happy to see those incompetent clowns in there making decisions? Half of them are the old wce boys club, and the other half oversaw the old richmond finishing 9th days.

I'm not sure I'd call "Yeah I'm bummed to miss out on Banner and Evans, but its not the end of the world," ass kissing, but sure, go off.

 

[Bacchus]

Yeah this is it.

• The Baker “commitment” and trade.
• The Brisbane trade.
• The Chesser trade.
• Extending Cripps on the main list.
• Keeping Barnett (but drafting CDT anyway, making Barnett totally redundant).
• Extending Cole after bringing in Starcevich.
• Committing to signing three(!) mature midfielders, limiting our rookie list options.
• Telegraphing our interest in Addinsall and then only making a half-arsed bid assault on Gold Coast - allowing them both the time to get points and the ability to match more comfortably by not bidding on Patterson.
• Spending the entire Liam Ryan compensation on a one pick upgrade

All potentially defensible decisions in isolation, but together they paint a picture of a recruiting team that lacks a coherent strategy or long-term plan, and might be a little too nice.

They just seem to be making it up as they go along. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are differing views between Woosh, Mini, Clarke and Massey and this is the result.

We collect future assets but then waste them. We compromise young talent acquisition by making short-term decisions. We bemoan the compromised draft but then fail to capitalise on our own crop.

I usually give them the benefit of the doubt but I’m really struggling to understand much of what they’re doing.

Politelybut sharply said.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Good players in. Very strange to bad process to get there. Hard to grade the draft as a result but I suspect most are very comfortable with who we have in the door, just the bizarre way we navigated it leaves plenty to be desired.

That said, the team is better R1 next year than it was last year. WAFL is miles better. Youth looking good. Let’s get it.

27 blokes on our list currently 23 and under. Exciting times.

 

[footy_basis]

I'm not sure I'd call "Yeah I'm bummed to miss out on Banner and Evans, but its not the end of the world," ass kissing, but surely, go off.

They also torched the Liam Ryan compensation for literally nothing... let's also not forget last years clusterfk giving up pick 3. Clarke is a nice guy that lacks the intelligence to be a list manager.

 

[Shueygod]

If it's on bigfooty it MUST be true

It’s a very common consensus, just need to look at all the clubs trading out of it last year. Or the amount of picks actually taken, last year had 71

 

[WCE_4_EVER]

Will we pass tomorrow and have two train ons?

Surely we take at least one in the rookie draft tomorrow

 

[KBLT]

Will we pass tomorrow and have two train ons?

With Blake Kelly, Hibbins-Hargreaves, Greeves, and Oudshoorn-Bennier still on the board, hopefully we take one of them.

 

[bzparkes]

It’s a very common consensus, just need to look at all the clubs trading out of it last year. Or the amount of picks actually taken, last year had 71

Port didn't even pick a single player, despite people on here frothing over a few of them.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Yeah this is it.

• The Baker “commitment” and trade.
• The Brisbane trade.
• The Chesser trade.
• Extending Cripps on the main list.
• Keeping Barnett (but drafting CDT anyway, making Barnett totally redundant).
• Extending Cole after bringing in Starcevich.
• Committing to signing three(!) mature midfielders, limiting our rookie list options.
• Telegraphing our interest in Addinsall and then only making a half-arsed bid assault on Gold Coast - allowing them both the time to get points and the ability to match more comfortably by not bidding on Patterson.
• Spending the entire Liam Ryan compensation on a one pick upgrade

All potentially defensible decisions in isolation, but together they paint a picture of a recruiting team that lacks a coherent strategy or long-term plan, and might be a little too nice.

They just seem to be making it up as they go along. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are differing views between Woosh, Mini, Clarke and Massey and this is the result.

We collect future assets but then waste them. We compromise young talent acquisition by making short-term decisions. We bemoan the compromised draft but then fail to capitalise on our own crop.

I usually give them the benefit of the doubt but I’m really struggling to understand much of what they’re doing.

I think they prioritise getting their business done and don’t lose sleep over wringing every tiny % out of each deal.

Which is more fine than most on here want to admit, most of the time, but you can’t do it all the time or you run into issues on the fringes.

Need to put the foot down every now and then on a deal, pick one or two of the above and give us a clear cut win and we’d be in a very good position.

 

[ashstores]

Every draft watcher/expert/AFL club in the league.

You sound like Trump. Every draft watcher really. Next you will be stopping wars.

 

[Shueygod]

You sound like Trump. Every draft watcher really. Next you will be stopping wars.

Yes, it’s an extremely common consensus this is an incredibly weak draft.

 

[ghostbat12]

Thats a BS framing.

It's not that we preferred other players in this draft. We didn't have to choose between other players in this draft vrs Banfield/Evans because we could match bids.

The choice was between the players currently occupying list spots and Banfield/Evans.

we didn't want jobs for boys. but now we want jobs for boys.

 

[bzparkes]

They've even confirmed on the website that they wanted them and thought they'd go rookie draft. Just disgraceful they didn't plan for this

They did plan. They just didn't think, that after spending years developing these guys, that they were worth picks in the main draft.

Deal with it.

 

[RookiePick]

We missed Banfield?

Jesus ****ing christ.

Sam Allen. No pressure but if you aren't the second coming of Mark LeCras

Mark Lecras

Age

39

Ht

184cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.6

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

4.5

3star

M

4.5

4star

T

2.7

4star

G

2.0

5star

No current season stats available

D

9.2

3star

K

6.8

3star

HB

2.4

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.4

5star

so help me god...

 

[The_Reaper]

I think they prioritise getting their business done and don’t lose sleep over wringing every tiny % out of each deal.

Which is more fine than most on here want to admit, most of the time, but you can’t do it all the time or you run into issues on the fringes.

Need to put the foot down every now and then on a deal, pick one or two of the above and give us a clear cut win and we’d be in a very good position.

Those little one percenters seem to be the difference between good teams and one win teams

 

[Eastern Rangers]

ok so you don't have any issues per se on the players taken? apart from Williams. but other clubs rated Williams high enough. so its not completely an obscure pick. thats 5 picks in a weak draft.

now this Banfield fellow, is he really less speculative than dev to fix this need?

Rarely are assessments of a draft strength accurate in hindsight. Drafts have quirks on player types but that's about it.

The problem is Dev is a known commodity and I think his attacking side is deficient.

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Can't wait for us to officially cat b rookie list Wes Walley tomorrow.
We need some joy after today.

 

[Bacchus]

It didn’t have to be Cripps OR Banfield.

It could have been Cripps AND Banfield if we just moved him to the rookie list. He could have stayed on the same pay and played every game in 2026 but we could have had Banfield there too.

Atrocious list management.

 

[Plague]

People on here are genuinely melting about kids they've never seen play before

 

[Snowball81]

I’ve been on the should’ve rookied Cripps for a long time. Longer than most if I’m honest, so I’m not going to defend that piece of list management as we’d have either Evans or Banfield had we done so. I’m especially disappointed we’ve missed Banfield, it’s a massive fumble

A lot will depend on how Sam Allen develops given we ranked him higher than Banfield and Evans. Possibly Williams as well who we obviously rated the highest of our club tied players

That said, have a look at who’s still on the board:
• Hibbins-Hargreaves
• Rodriguez
• Krasnadamskis
• Greeves
• Ainsworth (Sam)
• Ainsworth (Oscar)
• Hetherton
• Onley
• Blamires

We have first pick of that group - some of them were being talked as options for us at pick 29. So there’s good choices there,assuming we use the pick which we absolutely should

Wes Walley, who was the highest rated of our NGAs to start the year will also be added as a cat B

Could we have delisted Barnett? Possibly, but we’ve decided to give him another year as big men can take time

I really am pissed we lost Banfield but over the offseason we have/will brought in

• Starcevich
• Young
• Robertson
• Macrae
• Schoenberg
• Duursma
• Duff-Tytler
• Lindsay
• Allen
• Williams
• Walley
• RD pick 1 - TBA

It’s far from a train wreck

Great summation.

We have brought in 5 mature age players in various lines that will immediately have an impact for a team coming off a one win season and some of them will provide leadership in the reserves that will further develop our young talent and create competition for spots in the long term.

Three highly talented top end picks in duursma, cdt and Lindsay who can fill needs we currently have vacant and have had for some time.

An educated punt on Sam allen who if you watch his clips looks to be a very astute pick and could be great on a wing for us when he recovers. And a crafty small forward in Williams who we clearly rated and hopefully can help lift our scoring power back into the 90+ pt mark. So again covering areas of need.

I’m disappointed we missed banfield, but more because of the romance of the father/son, but if our team felt he wasn’t the right pick for us because we have addressed his type of output elsewhere then who am I to judge.

One pick by the looks in the rookie draft and I personally hope they give
Nhh a go or even greeves as surely they deserve a spot given potential upside, but given I haven’t watched their games and the 18 teams have they clearly have knocks on them that they are not sure they can train out of them.

 

[rebel23]

Haha fold the f.. in club
Matching tylah when we have Newton and champion...
And not being able to match Banfield and Evans... I predicted this would happen yesterday.

Banfield at least we should have matched as father son... Imagine how drew must be feeling... Its disgusting!
Defending the clubs recruitment over the last couple of years is insane!... Sack the lot of them and start over