Hey @Windy_Dill we are waiting for you again…
And that’s me finished. Not my typical draft, and it’s a risky overall idea I was trying to follow, but I’ll do a write up later.
With my drafting complete, thought I’d put together a best 22.
B: Cowan Idun Hough
HB: Wilmot Chapman T. Brown
C: Durham Warner Dempsey
HF: L. Henry Stone Mead
F: Rogers Amiss Kako
Foll: Reidy Gulden H. Reid
Inter: Ginbey Roberts H. Thomas Graham
Depth: Madden McInnes Dowling Fonti Bond McAndrew Moir N. Long
Definitely not a team of contenders, but going into year three of a rebuild I’m satisfied the core of a competitive side is already there. A few favourable position status changes would make a big difference to our fortunes eg. Ginbey (CB), Durham (FC), Stone (FB) and Reid (FC).
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Done - apologies who is coaching the Seagulls these days?
You looked like you had an improving team last year, and I have no doubt that will be continuous.
I can’t say for sure, though, because I’m looking at so many names at the top of a fanfooty game points table and thinking…who tf is that guy?
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Also, I think I’ll be hitting FA hard this year.
If any of the so-called solid citizens I’ve selected aren’t performing, then, as long as I’m fielding an 18, I’ll be replacing them with upside.
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I jotted down some thoughts through the draft…
Keepers…
I ended up keeping Wayne Milera, Angus Sheldrick, Arie Schoenmaker, Jed Walter and Cooper Lord ahead of Luke Pedlar, Deven Robertson and Hugo Ralphsmith. I ran out of patience with Pedlar and Robertson. Ralphsmith was handy but he’s a centre and I had options at that position.
With the list build of the last 5 years, I’ve got Oscar Allen, Ugle-Hagan and Walter in my forward line. All can be decent scorers, but it’s not exactly a great DT forward line to rely on. So, the plan was to try and get some good prospects and give me the freedom to trade these guys away. My backline is solid and my midfield is still developing. Given Marshall has had some injury concerns this pre-season, I did need a backup for him and if possible find the next long term choice.
That left me with 4 defenders and maybe Milera, a full midfield, a ruck and 4 forwards for round 1. So I was mainly looking to get defenders and forwards to fill the list by round 1.
Bailey Humphrey - I went for a player who is highly rated, in their teams best 22 but is not performing well in DT. He may not even get midfield opportunities this season. Was worth as punt.
Riley Bice - I don’t mind the pick. He didn’t get selected, but I’ll be watching VFL to see how he performs. This could be as great as the Ethan Phillips pick last year.
Tyler Sonsie - Still young and finding his way in footy. Performed okay in the community series. There definitely are spots for him in Richmond’s team. He’s had a few years of development. The opportunity is there to break out.
Luke Cleary - I’ve picked him and dropped him a few times since he was drafted. He goes okay at VFL. He had a decent community series although that was a pretty ‘bruise free’ game which probably suited him. With the Bulldogs injury problems, he was worth a punt here.
Luke McDonald - I needed a reliable defender. He does have a chance to rebound from a down year. I suspect Clarko prefers him to be more defensive than attacking. Regardless, he should have the odd decent scoring game.
Nick Coffield - A bit of a gamble here. He was okay but struggled with injuries. Maybe he gets a better run at it this season. Maybe not.
Arthur Jones - This is where my queue was close to depleted. I don’t mind him and he did look good in the community series in a very short period of time. But as with Cleary, it was a ‘bruise free’ game which suited his style. He’s my most likely player to be delisted.
Matthew Cottrell - I don’t mind him. He’s scored well at VFL. Has a role at Carlton. Could develop into a high half forward which could help his DT scoring. Carlton rate him, so he has some time.
Liam Stocker - Like McDonald, this is another reliable player who should make it to the Saints back 6 more often than not. But as with McDonald, I think Ross the Boss would prefer him to be more defensive minded than attacking.
Bailey Laurie - I like this pick. He smashes the VFL. When not a sub, he scored above 50 last season (small sample size of 4). He’s still relatively young. He is low risk high reward here.
I obviously went with a few veterans and the rest were in the mid 20s age range.
Unfortunately my first pick wasn’t high enough to grab some of the better U18 players. The only ones I was considering to take were Lindsay, Camporeale, Trainor and Reid. If Humphrey wasn’t available, I would have taken Lindsay. Taking Bice ahead of Trainor and Reid may turn out to hurt me.
Somewhere along the line, I did want to take Harry Boyd as a Marshall backup. He was taken in the early third round. I figured my best chance to get him was with the Sonsie pick, but I prioritised the forwards position. I knew full well Boyd wasn’t going to be there by my next pick in round 5. I did have a chance to grab a ‘next up’ ruck from another team later on in the draft, but decided I’d wait and see how players perform at VFL level.
Other players I was looking at during the draft were:
Taylor Adams - As a forward / mid, I think the ability to flip him around the field was decent. He’ll play midfield (albeit run with / tagger) but that’s fine to sit in the forward line. I wasn’t willing to spend a first round pick on him though.
Joe Richards - In hindsight, I wish I had have taken him instead of Sonsie. I think he’s more secure and has a better team around him that’ll push his scoring up a bit more than Sonsie. Sonsie could be in a sink or swim situation at Richmond.
Sam Wicks - He intrigued me. I thought he’d score better now that he’s playing in the backline. He should get the additional position early in the season. In hindsight I should have grabbed him instead of Cleary, then taken Cleary later. I think for memory I had Wicks ahead of McDonald on my queue at the time.
Callan Ward - This was more of a gut feel choice. I think he’s a chance to get a position change. He’s definitely not playing midfield or on the wing. I have no problem that I kept pushing him down my queue as the draft progressed though.
Jaegar O’Meara - I was tempted to take him instead of Bailey Laurie. But I talked myself out of it and went for potential. Like Ward, he’s a sneaky chance for a position change. I couldn’t tell where he played in the community series, but it wasn’t as a midfielder and he wasn’t playing on the wing.
There were probably others through the draft, but these ones stood out more than others.
The forward line is my largest weakness. Moore, JHF and Higgins should be fine, but the rest can score sub 50 as often as 80+. Long term, I expect JHF to be a midfielder, so that’ll just weaken it even more. Really need to move on from one of Oscar Allen, JUH and Walter.
I think I’m still a tad weak in the midfield against the better teams. I just don’t have many reliable players who can score 100 more often than not. I’d even take once per month if possible. I like the players there. Johnson and Mackenzie will be reliable in a few years time. The rest are still developing.
My backline is pretty good with Ryan, Florent, Farrell and Roberts. And I should have a few years of this group as they don’t look like moving into the midfield.
The ruck is my strength which probably keeps me in games nowadays.
The players I’m looking to take a step up at some stage this season and make it difficult on my keeper choices are Cooper Lord, Tyler Sonsie, Luke Cleary and Matt Cottrell. Having said that, if I run into injury problems, they are just as likely to end up as free agents.
My drafting was a bit underwhelming. It’s felt that way for 5 years now. I just don’t spend as much time looking at U18s as I did previously.
I’m not sure how to use free agency. I’m mainly scouting who other teams drop and taking a chance I secure a decent waiver.
Unlike last year, I didn’t really draft a ‘dedicated scrubber’ who I could continually drop to fill a need on my team from week to week. I’m sure one of the prospects will disappoint me enough to use him that way though.
| Expected Round 1 Team | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| FB | Oliver Florent | Luke Ryan | Kane Farrell |
| HB | Matt Roberts | Luke McDonald | Will Milera |
| C | Jeremy Sharp | Matthew Johnson | Ryan Byrnes |
| R | Rowan Marshall | Cam Mackenzie | James Peatling |
| HF | Dylan Moore | Matt Cottrell | Jason Horne-Francis |
| FF | Jack Higgins | Oscar Allen | Bailey Humphrey |
| Bench | Angus Sheldrick | Arthur Jones | |
| Liam Stocker | |||
| The Rest | Jamarra Ugle-Hagan | Arie Schoenmakers | Jed Walter |
| Cooper Lord | Luke Cleary | Riley Bice | |
| Nick Coffield | Tyler Sonsie | Bailey Laurie |
I over performed last year. So I’m expecting to fall back quite a bit this year. I think I’m a top 8 challenger at best. Just above bottom 4 team at worst.
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And of course we get power and internet back as soon as the draft ends. Haha.
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If anyone is using an RFA, can you PM me?
I’ll keep it private. I’ll be transparent and say that I’m not putting any claims in for anyone.
I’m just interested in how it works.
Does it tell you when the player comes off waivers?
Does it allow you to cancel it if you change your mind?
If by chance you are taking two players, can you prioritise which player to drop? I doubt it will let you, but I can see a time where your first waiver claim isn’t successful, but the second one is and you end up losing a player you would have preferred not to give up.
Any experiences with it would be greatly appreciated so other coaches can be more aware of what to expect when using it.
NB @Blummers32
Not to dob but… Trotters has taken 2 RFAs and has moved to the bottom of the RFA queue on the website (only visible on PC). So to start the season reverse draft order is the RFA priority order, and I’d expect it to update as we take RFAs through the year, I would not expect it to be linked to our ladder order (pending review rd1).
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We’ll see how it goes. The setting isn’t that way.
Also, the RFA Trotters took went through straight away. I thought the player would still be on waivers until it ends (whenever that is).
AFL Fantasy is showing players inconsistently. For instance, Jake Melksham is listed as a fee agent, but when I click his name and check the profile, he’s owned by RFA.
Saracens Draft review, 2025.
Well, here we are again. On the eve of a new season and having faced the familiar issues of trying to somehow shuffle the FF list to meet new requirements. We took over a list 5 or so seasons back that had been successful but was now ancient and decrepit. The turnaround has been long, but we’ve played finals a couple of times in that period and the aim is to continue to improve with the existing core framework.
The shift to the new ground layout meant that we were overly midfield heavy and light for forwards / backs. The midseason trade for Gawn left us without an early draft presence, and there was no real interest at all during trade period for any of our players other than Will Day. So we remained without a first round pick.
The Keeper list was an interesting balance. We dropped some pretty decent pure mids into the draft pool. Harrison Jones earnt the final spot in the 20 via his display in the Geelong practice match, though we remain sceptical that he can get anywhere near that output in the real season. Soldo and Ryan were retained purely because with the draft picks we had, we didn’t want to be chasing ruckmen. We had to cut Clay Hall, which wasn’t ideal, but were very keen to hold McAuliffe , it just needs Yze to actually realise what he has.
During the very early draft period we were close to pulling the trigger on downgrading pick 30 for multiple picks, and this may have actually happened were it not for the AFL Fantasy site not working as we thought it would. The way the draft played out, in hindsight, downgrading could have worked out for us, but in the end, we were stuck with what we had.
The rough plan, as a team that is now trying to be a genuine top 8 threat as opposed to rebuilding, was to find solid players in their third or fourth year that might be about to make the next step. We didn’t want to be constantly raiding free agency to plug holes, but we didn’t want to completely abandon upside.
Selection 30 - Taylor Adams (C/F) . Ok, when we really looked closely at the likely availability here, the “aim” ranged from the incredibly unlikely Murphy Reid through to Taylor Adams and Boxshall. Hugo Garcia was viewed as the best outcome in the less fanciful scenario’s. I was curious to see how coaches viewed Curtain and Bice, and Angove was also on the list. In the end, Garcia went before Reid . Ultimately, we took Adams for his dual position use and a feeling that with Luke Parker gone, Adams would play a more prominent role. Obviously, this selection has already hit a one-month-hammy iceberg…
Selection 48. Jaxon Prior (D) Having hit the forward / mid this selection was planned to be a defender on the draft sketch out. Preferably one with a decent likelihood of playing. Prior actually stood out, both in terms of newcomers brought into clubs for a purpose, and also a solid showing against Geelong. He might become the regular choice at half back. We did watch with some interest as Tauru got close to falling to this pick, but a first year defender may not give us the positional surety we needed and may have gone with Prior anyway.
Selection 84. Zac Johnson The big gap to this selection was always bothering us, and downgrading pick 30 to multiples through the 50’s and 60’s would have solved several list issues. Then came the next curve ball. I’d had Johnson pencilled in as a later pick from almost day 1 following the real AFL draft. He just screamed class like Murphy Reid but at a much later selection. But our draft was running so slowly that we hit a ridiculous moment where Johnson was showing his wares in a VFL practice game whilst we were still in the 5th round. Worse still, he was drawing attention and i wasn’t willing to risk waiting for the next pick. So the strategy went out the window and we backed ourselves to make up for this pick by pivoting to definite best 22 players at the following selections. Earlier than expected, but this became my customary yearly smokey pick.
Selection 93. Ben McKay. With Coleman still working back from an ACL, and Ryan Burton carrying an injury, pick 84 was supposed to be a bedrock defender. This got shunted to 93. McKay is an absolute certainty to play for Essendon if fit, and his scoring early last year was reasonable before he clearly started carrying a few niggles in the back end of the year. Plug and play with some expectation of decent scores if Ridley can shoulder some load. I did wonder about Tom Mcdonald in a similar vein, but decided that McKay was more guaranteed.
Selection 102. Tom Lynch Precisely the same thinking as for McKay but at the other end. When not struck by injuries over the last two years, Lynch can score heavily and is the clear focal point for an overhauled Richmond forward line. The downside is that he’ll also become the clear focal point for opposition defenders with the rest of richmonds side largely unproven kids. But if he stays uninjured, I think he’ll be an important regular in our front end.
Selection 120. Miller Bergman (B) We returned to looking for another backman and Bergman is a bit of a project of mine. I believe that once he finds the physique and pace of the game for AFL, Clarkson will want him in the side for his kicking skills and there’s a player here to work with. Job security is a dicey one , but entering year 4 and this is when i’d expect him to bloom - or not. At this point of the draft everything becomes a compromise. The other candidate here was the kid at my next selection, figuring that he was off broadway enough to get through. I immediately regretted going with this order though. Bergman was probably more likely to get to 138 if anyone was tracking West Coast. I was a little worried for the following 17 selections.
Selection 138. Tyrell Dewar (F) Obviously we don’t know how these things develop but I’m pleased with this pick. Dewar is forward eligible but looks destined for a wing. He only played a quarter of the practice match but went at well over a point per minute and most of the thinking around West Coast followers suggest that he’s a definite for round 1 as an outside runner. Brockman was the more obvious candidate but we are hopeful that Dewar is the pick of the two.
Selection 156. Taj Woewodin (D) Still trying to plug holes but with some semblance of upside, we settled on Woewodin in a fairly thin area of the draft. It’s a bit unclear where Taj sits on Melbournes pecking order. He also had a productive practice match quarter, and with a few injuries to the likes of McVee is should be in the mix. Might be a sub vest effected player though. The other kid i was keeping an eye on was Jed Adams but it’s at least a year or two too early.
Selection 174. Kamdyn McIntosh (Mid) I’m going to trot out the stereotype “couldn’t believe he was still availabe here” line, but this time i kind of mean it. Tonned up in a praccie match in which they were hammered. And Richmond are soooo young that McIntosh , Hopper and taranto are the load bearing big bodies. All those kids will need shielding and protecting at some stage this year. MIds aren’t as in demand this year, but even so he seemed way too good to not take. Might allow me to keep Bolton forward more often too. felt like a no-brainer selection.
Selection 192. Laitham Vandermeer In contrast, this one was far from no-brainer . It was late, the draft was dragging and i wasn’t sure what the list needed. I considered a couple of rookies but in the end just went for a solid option who probably benefits from Weightmans injury.
And that was that. Overall, reasonably happy. The Taylor Adams pick has already run aground and in hindsight i probably could have done some good things with a couple of the pick downgrades that were under discussion. But i have definite hopes of good scoring growth from McAuliffe, Dewar, Prior, maybe Bergman and Johnson could be anything (or nothing) , plus we hopefully have enough depth to not be chasing hole fillers every week.
We have some injuries - Tom Green the key one - but early selection news is promising with Prior to debut. Tom Powell has had a monster preseason by all accounts, if he becomes what I’ve long hoped. Day continues on with his round zero output and Green returns from injury, then our midfield (and Gawn) at it’s best will pose some headaches. Let’s see how we go.
Good luck to all coaches , may the injury gods smile on us all.
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Just a note to everyone. I was getting error codes when trying to change my starting lineup. Logged out and back in again and it seems to have stopped.
Also note, you need to nominate your emergencies from the interchange.
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I let Blummers know there were three players I auto drafted when I was without power. This was despite having players in my queue.
I’m thinking players that played last week weren’t able to be queued, they had to be selected.
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