BigFooty Forum

Season 2023 is over and the AFL world turns its attention to the upcoming trade period and draft that us Eagles fans have been focusing on since about round 3

With the existing thread nudging 1,000 pages (pages, not posts) it’s time for a rollover

Key Dates :

October 6 (Friday) - Free Agency Period opens
October 6 - 8 (Fri-Sunday) - National Draft Combine
October 9 (Monday) - Trade Period opens
October 13 (Friday) - Free Agency Period closes
October 18 (Wednesday) - Trade Period closes
October 23 - November 10 - Trade Period for Draft picks only
November 20 (Monday) - Round 1 of National Draft
November 21(Tuesday) - Round 2 of National Draft to completion
November 22 (Wednesday) - PSD and Rookie Drafts

For those that might not have been paying attention here’s the current state of play as it pertains to West Coast :

List Changes -
• Retired : Hurn, Shuey, Naitanui
• Delisted : O’Neill, Foley, Petrevski-Seton, Clark, Winder(R), West(R)

Officially we have a total of 8 list spots available with a maximum of 7 being on the main list

Contracts Pending -
• Waterman (2 years), Witherden (1 year) and Culley (1 year) are all reported to have agreed to extensions but these have not been officially confirmed by the club
Edit : These contracts have now been confirmed by the club
• Trew hasn’t been delisted but remains in limbo as he hasn’t yet been offered an extension leaving him as the only uncontracted player on the list. If an extension isn’t forthcoming we’ll have an additional rookie spot available

Trade/FA Targets -
• Tyler Brockman has asked to be traded to WCE from Hawthorn with the club reportedly willing to walk him to the PSD if Hawthorn demand too high a price. Expectation is one of our picks in the 50’s should be sufficient
• Matt Flynn, a ruckman from GWS, is set to leave as an Unrestricted FA with WCE and Melbourne vying for his signature
• Dev Robertson is reportedly considering a 3 year contract offer from WCE to leave Brisbane but is yet to announce his intentions

There’s been no other players linked to a move west at this stage and no credible indication of any player requesting a trade away from West Coast

Our current draft hand is picks 1,20,34,39,53,58 and 76 (if needed) although these will change prior to the draft with 3 players (McKay - North, Gresham - Saints and Doedee - Adelaide) set to trigger compensation picks by changing clubs as Free Agents

Other than the trades referred to above, the focus on WCE leading into the draft will be whether or not we trade the prized No.1 draft pick universally expected to be the talented Harley Reid.

With no high profile trades across the competition as yet, the new home for Harley is likely to continue dominating discussions in the lead up to the draft. Unfortunately until we either trade pick 1 or call his name out on November 20 the debate is going to be front and centre

In due course, I’ll be setting up resource threads on draft rankings and individual players for posters to easily obtain information on draftees without having to wade through pages of back and forth speculation

So have at it with your wild trades and views on who we should/shouldn’t draft or trade for but be respectful towards others, even those who have a different viewpoint no matter how outlandish you feel it is