He is a tough one to rate. Not many midfielders his size win so much of the ball and move so well but his kicking is really poor especially his shorts kicks. He doesn’t work overly hard defensively either so unless his offensive or defensive side improve he won’t be come anything but a depth midfielder. But if a club can back in their development and fix his issues he could become a very handy player. Not one I’d select for bombers but certainly has his fans at club level.
3 Likes
Christ the first kick here gave me a shiver.
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My current gut feel is that I don’t want the NGA boys.
I think we, as supporters, are vulnerable to a sort of attachment bias. I fear that the club will feel an obligation too.
If they weren’t in our NGA…I don’t think we’d be discussing Sweid because our list is already over-stocked with failed small mids…I don’t think we’d be discussing El Achkar because we don’t get excited about 30+ ranked prospects.
I’d much rather combine all our 3rd (Draper compensation?), 4th, 5th draft picks to get the earliest GC draft pick possible…get ONE kid with superior physical traits and skills…or move our resulting draft picks around in the first 15 picks to target specific player types.
I think this strategy of a small number of higher quality players…makes extra sense now that our list is overflowing with player numbers.
MAYBE…MAYBE…if we trade out additional experienced players…MAYBE that can provide the draft picks and list spots for the NGA boys..but I still get a sense that simply trading in Budarick and Rosas Junior (or similar names) would still outperform the NGA’s and probably cost less draft picks…even the year 2-4 BBM’s on the market will probably cost less than Sweid.
2 Likes
I reckon he looks like the best of the 3.
Id love him in red and black.
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I agree, I base all my opinions on people based on what there siblings are like.
If they don’t have any siblings they are basically dead to me.
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We could package our two 2nd rounders and potentially trade them to GC for their first and still be able to match bids on Sweid and Huss. They are both fairly highly rated by many draft watchers, we would be stupid not draft them.
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You know there’s only points available for the first 3 rounds this year?
And we don’t have a third rounder
Brisbane have already loaded up on thirds for Annable because they are an organised football club
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Thought experiment:
If Essendon was attached to a player ranked at #25 in the draft, but the actual player profile was a complete unknown…like in a mystery box…would we be stupid not to match?
Considering that it now takes the equivalent of pick #27 to match.
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Factor in that we know both the boys well, they fill positions we need (HEA - small fwd, Sweid - fwd/mid) and would likely be getting a discount on where they are bid.
Despite being in a higher position of need, if someone bid on Huss at 25, I can see a world where we dont match.
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if youre not matching and taking the next player on your big board, said player would need to be heavily favoured in front of your academy player.
In saying this, last year saw a few kids overlooked by the host club and land at brand new facitlieis iirc
Looking at Gold Coasts draft hand I can’t imagine them taking all their kids.(based on their rating). Unless they trade out of next years to someone who wants out.
Brisbane will take annable, holding their own first and half of the third round for points.
I’m guessing you haven’t seen much of Sweid? He’s got so many afl traits. Loves the contest, loves to tackle, kicks long, wins clearances and is a goalkicking mid.
Was one of the best for vic metro.
Huss I’m not as big on but having said that some judges better than me say he can be mercurial on his day and none of our small forwards bar Kako fit that description.
4 Likes
We are going to have picks coming in with trading players out, I’m not concerned we won’t have enough picks to cover both of them.
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I think most of our outs will be delistings.
But they aren’t a complete unknown, no player in the draft is a complete unknown regardless of that player being attached to a club. Sure we know the NGA lads more having worked with them but doesn’t that then give us a clearer picture of what we are getting?
We are going to get something potentially for Tsatas, Hobbs, Langers, and Parish. Maybe not all of those guys leave but I’d say at least 3 of those names do.
Hobbs is the only one uncontracted.
And then you have to find a willing partner.
Be lucky to get a third back.
Parish is contracted to 2029 which makes him a harder trade. Langford is the one we would really want to keep.
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I just attempted to visualise the shift in discounts…OLD model charted on top…NEW model charted underneath.
If I’ve done it correctly…you go along the x-axis until you reach the draft pick of the bid…you go up to the blue line to find the points required…then you go right to find what pick(s) to surrender (ORANGE = 1 pick surrendered, GREY = 2 notional picks surrendered, YELLOW = 3 notional picks surrendered)…then go back down to the x-axis to find the required positioning of the surrendered picks.
Bottom line:
- The ORANGE/GREY/YELLOW lines have shifted left towards the BLUE line.
- The fixed discount now makes academy kids free from Pick 50, whereas it used to be Pick 56.
5 Likes
They should do it if they want to help themselves.
Its likely that Cochrane and Walker will go into the year as the presumptive 1 and 2 picks and if they don’t end up that way in the draft then it’s gonna be a real good draft
Xavier Taylor has been a super consistent performer this season, sweeping across the back line and impacting in the air or ground level at every for every team he’s represented and playing himself into first round contention. He was a wall here for Eastern, helping them steady and get back into the game after a difficult opening quarter, with his intercepts and rebounding run a feature.
4 Likes