Review Winners and Losers 2025 draft

[RUNVS]

What did Harry Sheezel do to get disrepected?. Dudes a beast.

He knows what he did, and Tony Blair won't forgive him for it.

 

[Daka]

4.Richmond
Did ok but should have taken Robey

Sounds like a smart decision to take a bloke who has played 1 month of good footy...

when recruiters have been watching players play consistent for 2-3 years.

 

[Golumless]

Port was my big winner from this year. Decided to give their scouts the year off to recover from their niggles/got them into surgery early and will be right as rain to hit the 2025-2026 preseason hard.


Adelaide picked a couple of guys who seem to have their heads screwed on, so will be curious to see if we get a best 22 player from this haul. This whole draft certainly had that 2020 stench to it, so I'm hesistant to say anyone who actively participated in it is a winner at this point.

 

[King Patty]

Port was my big winner from this year. Decided to give their scouts the year off to recover from their niggles/got them into surgery early and will be right as rain to hit the 2025-2026 preseason hard.


Adelaide picked a couple of guys who seem to have their heads screwed on, so will be curious to see if we get a best 22 player from this haul. This whole draft certainly had that 2020 stench to it, so I'm hesistant to say anyone who actively participated in it is a winner at this point.

Crows did well out of 2020 with Thilthorpe.

The whole draft group from early on this year wasn't rated highly this year, but I think thats more on Vic being weaker and SA stronger. Plus top end players beign academy club linked, so not really on open pool. Had Uwland, Patterson and Annable been in the main pool, maybe more excitement.

SA won back in 2018 also. That side had Pickett, Lukosious, Rozee, etc

Will there likely be 3 stars from SA this year - Sharp, Cumming, one of Marsh/Schubert

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Inside the draft: The calculated roll of the dice that saw the Bombers get their man

Callum Twomey takes a closer look at the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes at the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

a fairly interesting read on the machinations that went on during draft night

 

[King Patty]

Inside the draft: The calculated roll of the dice that saw the Bombers get their man

Callum Twomey takes a closer look at the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes at the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

a fairly interesting read on the machinations that went on during draft night

In fact, the only club to table a bid was Adelaide on draft night, with the Crows offering their first-round pick this year and next year for Richmond's second pick. It was a throw at the stumps the Crows knew wasn't going to strike, but they were happy to chance their arm regardless. It wouldn't dent their trade enthusiasm later in night.

So essentially Crows offered Richmond the same deal for what was originally pick 4 as they offered Essendon for pick 13 (originally 9).
lol

 

[Golumless]

Crows did well out of 2020 with Thilthorpe.

The whole draft group from early on this year wasn't rated highly this year, but I think thats more on Vic being weaker and SA stronger. Plus top end players beign academy club linked, so not really on open pool. Had Uwland, Patterson and Annable been in the main pool, maybe more excitement.

SA won back in 2018 also. That side had Pickett, Lukosious, Rozee, etc

Will there likely be 3 stars from SA this year - Sharp, Cumming, one of Marsh/Schubert

Yup, but once you are past Thilthorpe, it's dire reading. 1-2 players who became something (Holmes, Gulden), a handful of best 22 starters and a lot of players who filtered out.

I wouldn't be surprised in a few years or so, that we start looking at a lot of Academy picks being projected into the first round as a sign a draft crop is in a dire state. The contrary for SA winning/Vic Metro faltering (to a degree) is the talk in that 2018 crop is we were looking at a potential super draft, though one that has since showed it was a tad overrated (though still a fantastic draft).

Not much in how this draft played out convinced me there will be more than 1-2 stars from this crop, period. I do think the elephant in the room is Melbourne (a pretty switched on club in this space) went for a 20 year old as a first round pick and that there was barely an interest to move up. Even our attempt comes off as PR management from a side that didn't improve their midfield unit then a genuine attempt to bring Sharp abroad.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

It’s down to the fact we’ve already got the youngest list in the comp and brought in 24 new players in as many months. No matter how much I’d like us to we can’t just bring in a quarter of a new list every single season and expect we don’t keep only winning 1 game

Sure, but I reckon each successive veteran has diminishing returns. I'd be surprised if Schoenberg (for example) is the difference between the Eagles winning and losing a game next season.

 

[bzparkes]

Sure, but I reckon each successive veteran has diminishing returns. I'd be surprised if Schoenberg (for example) is the difference between the Eagles winning and losing a game next season.

No but he'll be the difference between having Tom Gross be our entire midfield in the WAFL and having actual experienced bodies in there.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

No but he'll be the difference between having Tom Gross be our entire midfield in the WAFL and having actual experienced bodies in there.

Dev Robertson and Finlay Macrae aren't enough for that?

 

[bzparkes]

Dev Robertson and Finlay Macrae aren't enough for that?

Dev Robertson will probably start in the senior team as an inside mid. Macrae's apparently been marked for a mid/hff role, so probably competing with the likes of Owies, Brockman, Cripps and Graham.

Dev and Shoenberg have probably been brought in to play a similar role. One at AFL and one at WAFL.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

Dev Robertson will probably start in the senior team as an inside mid. Macrae's apparently been marked for a mid/hff role, so probably competing with the likes of Owies, Brockman, Cripps and Graham.

Dev and Shoenberg have probably been brought in to play a similar role. One at AFL and one at WAFL.

I question if the WAFL one is absolutely necessary to use an AFL list spot on. Whatever, if you think that's better than Evans/Banfield, that's fine, we'll see what eventuates.

 

[bzparkes]

I question if the WAFL one is absolutely necessary to use an AFL list spot on. Whatever, if you think that's better than Evans/Banfield, that's fine, we'll see what eventuates.

They will be better in the WAFL, yes. Getting senior help was clearly the plan prior to the draft once we got the extra rookie spots.

 

[Hamingja]

This whole draft certainly had that 2020 stench to it, so I'm hesistant to say anyone who actively participated in it is a winner at this point.

Hopefully a repeat of the 2020 draft from our perspective. 2025 definitely a YOLO draft from us.

 

[Eski3]

Inside the draft: The calculated roll of the dice that saw the Bombers get their man

Callum Twomey takes a closer look at the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes at the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

a fairly interesting read on the machinations that went on during draft night

I do love how in these articles, every club somehow managed to get exactly who they were hoping to get with their picks

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I do love how in these articles, every club somehow managed to get exactly who they were hoping to get with their picks

Didn't it say that Hawthorn were hoping for Grjl?

 

[Dr Tigris]

Sharp ran a really good 2km time today at Essendons' training. Didn't do a 2km at the combine. One of the main criticisms on him was his running power so I do wonder if he would've gone higher if he ran the 2km at the combine

Reckon Sharp is a great get. He'll be a long term quality player.

 

[Eski3]

Didn't it say that Hawthorn were hoping for Grjl?

That's the only passing reference to a player being taken that another club might have wanted, but it also came after conveniently stating that:

With Grlj, Farrow and then Pickett off the board, the Hawks were open to shifting back down the board, knowing they had a group of players who would be there with a bunny hop backwards.


Just once I'd love for an article to be like "Club A really wanted player A, but he was taken the pick before so they had to settle for player B". Which I appreciate will never actually happen because its the clubs giving info to Cal Twomey to publish, with their own spin. But an insight into the clubs actual lists of players retrospectively would be really interesting

 

[Heaps of fun]

I think it's obvious who won this draft and one club did really poorly.

 

[txbyhull]

Sure, but I reckon each successive veteran has diminishing returns. I'd be surprised if Schoenberg (for example) is the difference between the Eagles winning and losing a game next season.

This is true, but guys like Schoenberg and Macrae are there to be competitive with the young guys, raise training standards coming from good clubs, and probably wreck house in the WAFL. Dev the only one likely to play serious AFL games and impact our record imo

 

[Rich01]

Sharp ran a really good 2km time today at Essendons' training. Didn't do a 2km at the combine. One of the main criticisms on him was his running power so I do wonder if he would've gone higher if he ran the 2km at the combine

Sharps running power has never been the question. His ability to get from contest to contest has been a feature of his game for the last two years.

His game which doesn’t have dynamic burst through packs, line breaking speed or significant damage up forward was held against him by media and internet pundits who favoured players with these attributes.

He just consistently gets to the contest, wins the ball and doesn’t waste it often. Not a bad trick to have.

If he can keep up with the pace of the game at senior level he will be a starting mid for his career. Which would be a great outcome for the Bombers.

It’s a safe pick.

 

[Hamingja]

Just once I'd love for an article to be like "Club A really wanted player A, but he was taken the pick before so they had to settle for player B". Which I appreciate will never actually happen because its the clubs giving info to Cal Twomey to publish, with their own spin. But an insight into the clubs actual lists of players retrospectively would be really interesting

A completely honest book from Stephen Wells would be amazing with over 25 years of the draft behind him.

I'm sure there would definitely be times where he would be like yeah we really wanted Barry Brooks but Port Adelaide jumped in and took him and we had to settle with Steve Johnson instead.

 

[Tbonefreo]

I think it's obvious who won this draft and one club did really poorly.

Port?

 

[SAweagle]

Winners

Essendon- Beautifully balanced mix of power mid classy ball user and x factor hybrid utility, winners by the length of Beau 'Slug' Webster's old fella

Gold Coast- Massive haul of guns, rorted the system without a hint of shame, seemingly possessing an infinite amount of points, going to be a lot of frustrated young mids at the Suns in coming years

Richmond- Surprised many by passing on Robey, picked up two exceptional modern day mids, rebuild nearly done

Hawthorn- Got the best KPF in Schubert all the way down at pick 23, Nairne could be anything, Dalton & Greeves on the cheap, bent over WC (again) and somehow extracted a F2 for nothing

Brisbane- Reigning premier get the 2nd/3rd best young mid in the country, amazing, stuck one up Adelaide taking Curtain and WC taking Evans


Break even

Kangaroos- Dovaston excellent small forward
Demons- Xavier Taylor A grade, Pickett speculative
Geelong- Harley Barker at pick 24 very fortunate, Hunter Holmes cheap
Carlton- Harry Dean gun defender, worth the price

Meh

Adelaide
Port Adelaide
Sydney
GWS
St Kilda
Sydney
Collingwood


Losers

West Coast- Drafted a utility and a hybrid ruck/forward with the worst midfield in the AFL, coughed up a F2nd for nothing, fumbled the bidding process and missed out on a favourite son's son whilst retaining multiple spuds on the list. Shambolic and sadly no longer surprising

Fremantle- Traded down in a weak draft

 

[Barnzy]

4.Richmond
Did ok but should have taken Robey

The kid that played a handful of good junior games and that already has back issues because he's so tall? When the game has been trending away from tall inside mids for years to smaller agile Daicos, Butters, Ashcroft types.

Oh he also runs a really slow sprint time and bad endurance testing. Long shot he's a midfielder in the modern game. He's a forward .

Yeah pass. We nailed it with the Grlj pick who is a modern day player instead of listening to the media hype.