After today’s astute piece of business, we could well have a great draft.
Whether Kako gets a bid before 9 or not, we’ve now guaranteed three first round picks over two years. Furthermore, we’ve added a swathe of mid draft picks this year in a draft that has great depth and variety of player types. After the early bid matching, there’s every chance our picks are in the 30s and 40s.
Some drafts only have about 20 players I’d be willing to put on the list. This year’s draft has closer to 50 that I’d be happy with. And because there’s a great variety of players with strong talent, we’re likely to address some list needs this year.
Which in turn means we can hit next years draft looking to add high end talent, package picks to get right up the top of the draft for a generational type we’ve missed in recent times, or make a big play for a young megastar out west.
For this year, I’d be stoked with 3 or 4 of the following (who are a chance to be available mid draft):
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Isaac Kako (the certainty matching a first round bid)
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Kayle Gerreyn (KPF/RUC)
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Lachie Jacques (mid size intercept defender)
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Harry Oliver (tough and nice kicking small defender)
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Faull or Shanahan (raw KPFs with deficiencies but also with strong attributes)
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Hannaford or Alger (small forwards with speed)
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Luke Urquhart (big bodied powerful mid/fwd)
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Archer Day-Wicks (powerful mid sized X factor forward)
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Zak Johnson (good all round mid)
I also like Nguyen and hope he’s in our list next year one way or another.