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

 

[Elite Pete]

some of those clubs (Brisbane) bypassed their own academy/NGAs, who even got drafted earlier and rated higher. So, what do they know?

But had the option to do that and wasn’t forced by not correctly creating flexibility when they could’ve.

 

[ghostbat12]

Are you being intentionally obtuse or do you not understand the link between rookie list and main list?

If you're just stupid, you can move players from the main list to the rookie list thus opening a spot on the main list.

We've committed to Schoenberg on the rookie list which means we couldn't do that.

It's like saying I technically didn't ruin dinner because I ate 15 big macs for lunch instead.

I think you are being intentionally obtuse. Club has to assess whether a player is worth giving a 2yr contract to. it clearly did not think so. so they assessed that anyone past pick X is not worth committing to 2 years.

moving Cripps may not have even resulted in Banfield or evans being taken anyway. If they rated these boys highly, Allen pick would not have happened.

good on them for sticking to their plan. something people struggle with these days. they backed their plan that they had been working on for months and did not flinch.

Having players on 2yr contracts and continually paying them out early creates unnecessary angst. may not matter to you.

the meltdown over a couple of likely list cloggers is way over the top.

 

[Lia]

Our terrible WAFL team has absolutely compromised the development of younger players, Barnett is probably a great example.

 

[JoshWoodenSpoon]

Read some things about NHH and Greeves not getting picked up because they interviewed very poorly. From a mod on one of the boards, Saints one I think. They didnt elaborate too much but said Greeves came across as a FIGJAM.

Noah does strike me as a little unserious. Like he's happy to back his natural talent perhaps over real dedication. Granted I know ****-all. Still want him though, remains one of my favs in the draft.

 

[chaddy22]

Are you being intentionally obtuse or do you not understand the link between rookie list and main list?

If you're just stupid, you can move players from the main list to the rookie list thus opening a spot on the main list.

We've committed to 's on the rookie list which means we couldn't do that.

It's like saying I technically didn't ruin dinner because I ate 15 big macs for lunch instead.

I am going to disagree. We could have done that by moving Cripps to the rookie list and drafted Banfield.
We have a rookie spot still available as all of our academy players got drafted just not by us.
Schoenberg hasn't cost us Banners but Cripps might have.

 

[Peptide Pig]

Tom Mitchell is bankable in that he’s in the demographic of the only people who still visit a bank.

i.e. cooked old retirees with bad heads, shoulders, knees, and toes. His body is done in ways we’ve never seen a body be done before.

Haha not bad. Mitchell was injured a lot in 2024 but played most of this year, albeit in the VFL. Much more likely to be able to string some games together than Yeo unfortunately. Unless Stracevich is genuinely going to play midfield, we could go another year without a senior leader in a permanent midfield role. Graham will float through there and a few others but it looks like once again being left to Harley, with the hope that one of the recycled rookies overachieve for and become consistent players.

Even then, a fringe 24 year old with 20-60 games of experience is not a senior leader compared to a brownlow medallist, premiership player and 200+ gamer. I don’t mind the DevRob and Macrae signings, but I don’t see the upside in Schoenberg and think our young team could gain more from the experience of Mitchell. The club has said we don’t want to get younger, and there is already a leadership void in some parts of the ground.

 

[Elite Pete]

Still no confirmation of taking Walley? Freo seem to have confirmed theirs

 

[Mattman93]

Here's what I don't understand.

This is particularly addressed to the likes of Eastern Rangers and Dylan82 -- good judges, manifestly furious at the moment, despite being usually pretty understated (or maybe resigned) in tone.

I'm all for completely rebuking the club; I think we're more or less incompetent at talent identification and the drafting team still needs a wholesale clean-out. Haven't been happy with the past two drafts in general.

But why did the outbursts come precisely last night and not earlier? I checked out of this end of the draft pretty early this year, so don't have a firm opinion on Evans or Banfield. But from the moment we didn't leave enough list spots open, wasn't this basically bound to happen? It's no good to say 'well there was the hope they slipped through', since if they were quality enough to warrant this reaction, that obviously wasn't going to happen.

The crucial evaluations and actions requiring condemnation were made earlier in the piece, not last night.

Which also just means this is a talent ID and recruiting team fault, not a list management one per se. If (eg) Evans is a top 20 prospect, or in any case a midfield prospect definitely worth taking, the draft team should have identified that and in turn we presumably would have engineered the space. So people should probably stop entirely demonising Clarke and direct their ire to Massey et al.

 

[pantskyle]

Read some things about NHH and Greeves not getting picked up because they interviewed very poorly. From a mod on one of the boards, Saints one I think. They didnt elaborate too much but said Greeves came across as a FIGJAM.

A bit of FIGJAM isnt too bad but I guess there is a limit for recruiters.

We do hear a lot from clubs that their selections are also outstanding people etc. You dont want a Steven May

1

Steven May

Age

33

Ht

193cm

Wt

101kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.7

4star

K

10.5

4star

HB

4.2

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.5

3star

MG

307.3

4star

D

15.5

4star

K

12.1

5star

HB

3.4

2star

M

3.4

3star

T

0.5

1star

MG

378.4

5star

D

12.4

4star

K

8.8

4star

HB

3.6

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.8

4star

type on your list if you can help it.

Greeves: Slow and hopefully humbled.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Was it bad list management not delisting HJ and Barnett who had one year left on their contract and Owies who had two.
It definitely would be bad list management delisting players who hadn't completed their contracts.
It shows we shouldn't have extended their contracts in the first place.

I don't understand why there is this taboo over paying players out and delisting them. If they aren't good enough, if you have already decided they are not part of your plans and are not going to play many or any more games for you then why wouldn't you. If you don't need the list spot i guess you can just wait for the contract to expire and not renew. But if the list spot is valuable to you then why wouldn't you pay out and delist?

 

[suntagonal]

Although previous performance does not indicate future performance... I can't see any f/s or NGAs that were passed on being massive misses

'Bidmond' Tigers take back crown: Every club's draft bidding history

The Tigers reclaimed their position as the AFL's most prolific bidders, although none were successful this year

www.afl.com.au

 

[suntagonal]

I don't understand why there is this taboo over paying players out and delisting them. If they aren't good enough, if you have already decided they are not part of your plans and are not going to play many or any more games for you then why wouldn't you. If you don't need the list spot i guess you can just wait for the contract to expire and not renew. But if the list spot is valuable to you then why wouldn't you pay out and delist?

sunk cost fallacy

 

[Cornelius Roy]

My greatest gripe with the draft was that I don’t believe we walked away from trading Tom Barrass

37

Tom Barrass

Age

30

Ht

197cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

8.8

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

6.1

5star

T

0.9

3star

MG

158.5

3star

D

10.1

3star

K

8.0

3star

HB

2.1

2star

M

5.6

5star

T

0.3

1star

MG

139.6

2star

D

11.4

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

4.2

4star

M

5.2

5star

T

0.4

3star

MG

160.0

3star

, Liam Ryan

1

Liam Ryan

Age

29

Ht

181cm

Wt

76kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.3

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

2.7

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.3

5star

D

9.9

3star

K

8.0

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.3

3star

T

1.6

3star

G

1.3

5star

D

11.4

3star

K

9.0

4star

HB

2.4

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

1.8

4star

G

1.6

5star

and a future third with a high-end player whose skill set assists in supporting our weakest point in contested ground ball.

Duursma and CDT are whatever, they’re no brainer picks that result from being a terrible team, could we have considered taking cumming? Maybe but I don’t really see any big plus or minus here for our recruiting team.

Upside on Lindsay is it ideally fast tracks Cole and Duggan out of our back line although I would have been just as happy with barker at that pick and retaining the future second.

Absolutely zero reason not to bid on Patterson, Gold Coast were amassing points to match everyone. There was never any possibility of missing out on CDT and the downside of having Patterson would have been fine.

Ideally we can get a some growth from our existing youth whereby our older players being kept around for “leadership” are pushed out this year.

Footballs won at the contest was the routine catch phrase from mini post match last year. I’m not a fan adding NHH to Lindsay in this draft with that being the case.

Actually quite liked the Allen pick some pretty courageous stuff in his highlights reel and seems to at least have some footballing nouse rather than just a pick on athletic upside.

 

[shooshka]

Clarke said in an interview during the broadcast last night that they were hoping both would slip through to the rookie draft but didn't, such is life. The way people have been carrying on you'd think we missed out on a Daicos type prospect AT PICK 40.

It was embarrassing the way people were carrying on during that couple hour period last night.

Fine with the Evans & Banfield strategy. I don’t know the players and rankings well enough to judge, but have to trust the club with the strategy.

However, as Walley probably takes the free catB spot now, our strategy is/was clearly to take 1 more young player in the draft (we were hoping for Banfield/Evans). I would be genuinely shocked if there isn’t a player available who we rated higher than those 2 in the RD.

So saving the spot open for a train on (especially when we have 3 mature SSP’s lined up) is a change in strategy. We should 95% be using the pick (the other 5% is if we are certain that our preferred player will be available as SSP so we want to trial them, but honestly we should use the pick)

 

[BSD]

Here's what I don't understand.

This is particularly addressed to the likes of Eastern Rangers and Dylan82 -- good judges, manifestly furious at the moment, despite being usually pretty understated (or maybe resigned) in tone.

I'm all for completely rebuking the club; I think we're more or less incompetent at talent identification and the drafting team still more or less needs a wholesale clean-out. Haven't been happy with the past two drafts in general.

But why did the outbursts come precisely last night and not earlier? I checked out of this end of the draft pretty early this year, so don't have a firm opinion on Evans or Banfield. But from the moment we didn't leave enough list spots open, wasn't this basically bound to happen? It's no good to say 'well there was the hope they slipped through', since if they were quality enough to warrant this reaction, that obviously wasn't going to happen.

The crucial evaluations and actions requiring condemnation were made earlier in the piece, not last night.

Which also just means this is a talent ID and recruiting team fault, not a list management one per se. If (eg) Evans is a top 20 prospect, or in any case a midfield prospect definitely worth taking, the draft team should have identified that and in turn we presumably would have engineered the space. So people should probably stop entirely demonising Clarke and direct their ire to Massey et al.

Why doesn't anyone vent at Toddy, he must have had some input as he was there in the room for both nights.

 

[BartBart]

Next year's draft is going to be interesting if our "list age profile" is the key factor again.

F-S, NGA and other picks might be out the window. Maybe why we threw away the St Kilda linked 2nd rounder for next year.

 

[WCErevival]

Can't wait for 12pm when I see we have passed on the rookie draft

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Sorry mate, you can’t call that out as a reason.
We have not only bought in the experienced Starcevich, but also the experienced Young and the experienced Dev and the experienced McCrae, and the experienced Schoenberg.
Our list is not too young!
At the end of next season when we say goodbye to Cripps and Cole I wonder how much they would have contributed for the year. We could have had 2 very talented kids developing in the WAFL with 10 years ahead of them.

With two rookie spots to fill, 21 players are 21 and under.

27 of our players are 23 and under.

It’s an insanely young list, in a league that is only getting older and more experienced as blokes play on for longer.

I think we should be drafting another kid in the rookie draft and not adding a further train on, but it’s impossible to argue our list isn’t exceedingly young.

 

[Proeagle]

Haha not bad. Mitchell was injured a lot in 2024 but played most of this year, albeit in the VFL. Much more likely to be able to string some games together than Yeo unfortunately. Unless Stracevich is genuinely going to play midfield, we could go another year without a senior leader in a permanent midfield role. Graham will float through there and a few others but it looks like once again being left to Harley, with the hope that one of the recycled rookies overachieve for and become consistent players.

Even then, a fringe 24 year old with 20-60 games of experience is not a senior leader compared to a brownlow medallist, premiership player and 200+ gamer. I don’t mind the DevRob and Macrae signings, but I don’t see the upside in Schoenberg and think our young team could gain more from the experience of Mitchell. The club has said we don’t want to get younger, and there is already a leadership void in some parts of the ground.

Schoenberg is an inside mid and Adelaide couldnt squeeze him into that role and like many, gets forced into HF or similar, where he was obviously not good enough for the crows. Curious to see if he excels for us in the guts and his preferred position.

Bit like Dev's time at Brissy really.

 

[Mr Q]

Next year's draft is going to be interesting if our "list age profile" is the key factor again.

F-S, NGA and other picks might be out the window. Maybe why we threw away the St Kilda linked 2nd rounder for next year.

I'd expect it to look very similar to this year to be honest - somewhere in the region of 5 draftees, and hopefully being able to pull in a couple of experienced recruits akin to Starc.

Offloading the SK F2 probably suggests that we actually do have an interest in some of our NGAs - and not expect them to be high picks at this stage, so we'll need list space (which, incidentally, is a good argument for why we've kept Cripps and Barnett* on the main list, because, unlike 2026 recruits, they can be offloaded next season).

And anyway, it's all way too far in the future. I mean last year we were all frothing over how we needed top 10 picks to get Fred Rodriguez .... hopefully he gets a rookie spot somewhere because otherwise it's been a very deflating period for him.


[*Nothing would make me laugh more at footy than Barnett actually getting to the point he earns an extension. Don't expect it, but it would be hilarious as yet another example of the unpredictability of sport. Go well Harry!]

 

[txbyhull]

I think with comments regarding a quota of kids we wanted to take that it points towards the club feeling like we are for the most part done at the draft for a little bit. Would not surprise me to only see 2-3 draftees per year for a while

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

The inability to adjust our strategy based on the moves of other clubs was my main takeaway of the draft. We could have drafted Addinsall.

It wouldn't surprise me if a few of the kids still on the board are rated by us, but because of a locked in can't adjust under any circumstances plan to bring in a has been, we won't grab them.

 

[Mr Q]

Can't wait for 12pm when I see we have passed on the rookie draft
View attachment 2482831

Melting materials at the ready!!!

 

[Farmer Lister]

It would be bloody hilarious if we take Callum Ah Chee

4

Callum Ah Chee

Age

28

Ht

182cm

Wt

80kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

5.9

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.9

4star

G

0.5

3star

D

11.1

3star

K

7.7

3star

HB

3.4

2star

M

3.1

3star

T

2.7

4star

G

0.1

3star

D

9.4

3star

K

4.4

2star

HB

5.0

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

3.0

5star

G

0.8

4star

in the PSD. It would serve Adelaide right for sharking Curtin from us. I wonder how high he's set his financial terms, surely we can afford it

 

[BartBart]

I'd expect it to look very similar to this year to be honest - somewhere in the region of 5 draftees, and hopefully being able to pull in a couple of experienced recruits akin to Starc.

Offloading the SK F2 probably suggests that we actually do have an interest in some of our NGAs - and not expect them to be high picks at this stage, so we'll need list space (which, incidentally, is a good argument for why we've kept Cripps and Barnett* on the main list, because, unlike 2026 recruits, they can be offloaded next season).

And anyway, it's all way too far in the future. I mean last year we were all frothing over how we needed top 10 picks to get Fred Rodriguez .... hopefully he gets a rookie spot somewhere because otherwise it's been a very deflating period for him.


[*Nothing would make me laugh more at footy than Barnett actually getting to the point he earns an extension. Don't expect it, but it would be hilarious as yet another example of the unpredictability of sport. Go well Harry!]

Assuming Cripps retire and older players like Cole might not be there, we would struggle to pick up 2+ 18 year olds without wrecking the age profile.