With the landscape changing so much in the past 6 weeks, feel our list has dramatically altered moving forward.
List changes moving forward;
Out of contract;
Mark Baguley (1 year)
Mitch Brown (1 year)
Matt Dea (1 year)
Brendan Goddard (1 year)
Josh Green (delist)
Michael Hartley (downgrade to rookie list - 1 year)
Kyle Kangford (3 years)
Jayden Laverde (2 years)
Matthew Lleunberger (retire)
Jake Long (delist)
Jackson Merret (delist)
James Stewart (2 years)
Shaun McKernan (upgrade)
Ben McNeice (Cat B - retain)
Sam Draper (retain)
Trent Mynott (retain)
Luke Lavender (Cat B - retain)
We have a tendancy to downgrade players. Hartley is a perfect option to do so.
That leaves us with 4 picks to go into the draft/FA period.
Pick 8 Jackson Hately - 192cm inside leaning midfielder
Pick 31 Jack Bytel - 187cm inside leaning midfielder
Pick 62 medium sized utility
Pick 80 best available
McNiece is a Rookie, not a Cat B anymore. He got promoted last year so we could play him at will without a LTI.
Very open to downgrading players to open up better picks, but I'm not sure if we'll promote any of Draper, McKernan, Mynott or McNiece. As we no longer need to do so to pay them more/given them longer contracts. So there may not be any rookie spots free. That said, if we take one or two free agents or trades and only want to use 2 picks in the ND, then switching a player to the rookie list for an upgrade uses up one of our mandatory 3 main list draft/rookie upgrades (unless they changed that rule???).
I'm not sure if I'd delist Green for a pick #80. Out of our pure small forwards, he's probably next in line after the current three (Raz/Walla/Bags), and Bags could easily go backwards next year. Unless we have a strong reason to think #80 in this draft is better this year than next, I'd give him another year.
Otherwise, would generally agree although think Laverde may only get a 1 year deal. Goddard would also be at risk IMO, although the coaches still seem to like his performances.