Jack Whitlock is probably the closest thing to it that will fall around our first pick. I do prefer Matt out of the two brothers, but Jack is taller and seems a more likely relief ruck type while still being a natural forward.
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I coached and played with Dyson’s old man and had a good chat with Dyson for an hour or so at a 21st last night as he’s dating the daughter of my wife’s Maid of honour. He’s a good kid.
I don’t think this squad is that good at all TBH and has some glaring holes, a couple of guys who have been heavily involved with underage programs at state and club level had some serious doubts over this lot and not surprised that they are situated where they are
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Situated where they are? They won their first game, which was a high quality game against the Allies. Then went down in a super tight affair against a strong Vic Country, in a game in which SA won the inside 50 count and probably had the better in general play.
This game against WA was a big dip in form compared to what they had shown in the two prior champs games.
I respect that you have your sources and fair enough. They know more than I do. I’m just saying that prior to this game their form was good and all the noise coming out of their camp being reported by the commentary team at the ground and around social media was that they were very confident.
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Another to have a look at in the athletic forward/ruck mold. He’s probably more of a second round pick at this stage but has a lot of talent.
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Malakia Champion looks like he will get through to Eagles under academy.
what about Ricky Mentha if we miss Kako?
He had that promising Academy performance, but he’s been super quiet whenever I’ve seen him in other games.
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Wouldn’t taking Kako in the first round pretty much hinge on whether we can get Stengle (or another high-calibre small forward).
Cal thinks Kako is the best smal forward in the draft.
We get Stengle then Kako in draft with our first if he’s still there
Our first will be outside the top 10
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With a bit of luck they change the nga rules this year and he falls through to us
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Looks like a he’s going to turn into a big bugger
Hope so
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Even with Stengle the Small forward, HFF is still our biggest hole.
Kako, Berry, Hotton should all be available around our first pick. Getting two of them would be great. Before his knee Hotton looked a certain top 10 pick as a natural HFF, skillful, slippery, smart with decent skills, good tank and good above his head.
Put a line through the Whitlock twins, no more skinny 200cm+ types, they’ll spend too much time in rehab.
Faull or Gerryn if we want a tall forward, that 195-199 is the sweet spot for KPF imo. I’d lean towards Gerreyn as he looks ideal FF/ruckman with good skills for a tall and most importantly he uses his size in a somewhat brutish fashion, would form a very good partnership with both Draper and Caddy.
A smoky for our first imo should be Harvey Langford, big bodied contested mid, great field kick, can play forward and kick goals, might be an option coming out of defence too with his kicking. Will slip due to perceived lack of athleticism.
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Seems like the general vibe of the proposed changes to father son and academy is to change the draft value index, making it ‘more expensive’ to match a bid.
Hopefully whilst making it harder to match a bid, they also reduce the NGA threshold from pick 40…giving us priority access to Kako but having to cough up a bit more to get him
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More and more I read and hear about the potential changes the more hope I have that access thresholds to NGA will be reduced.
Potential changes being floated by list bosses include:
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teams being able to match bids for Next Generation Academy players after pick 20, rather than after pick 40, or even no limitation at all like the Jamarra Ugle-Hagan draft;
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reduced discounts for father-son bid matching;
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limitations on how many picks can be used to match a bid;
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a reduction in how many picks have a points value, instead of the current system where selections all the way down to pick 73 are valued.
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This is an absolute no-brainer to me. If clubs could only match a bid with at most two picks, you’d see considerably different costs and actions.
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A no-brainer for sure, which likely means this will not happen!!! 
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Yeah combine that with a removal of discounts and the shenanigans would stop.
I would say though that clubs should be able to take points deficit to their next year’s pick.
IE, you have a kid who is a top 5 pick, you have to use 1st round picks to match but you only have pick 14, which won’t be enough, therefore you take the 1000 point deficit hit on your 1st round pick the following year.
Effectively costing you 1x mid/late first plus a downgrade of your future pick, which seems a more realistic trade on its face as trading 2x mid 1sts for a top 5 pick and a 2nd round has been done
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Dunno if it’s been mentioned in here yet, but they are also considering making it that picks after 40 hold no points value. So, that means you’d have to match a bid with a pick from the first or second round pretty much, or use multiple second rounders (as an example).
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The more I see of Kayle the more I think he is perfect for us. He just has “The Edge”. He addresses a lot of the issues we have with both Bryan and 2MP imo.
He’s the ideal replacement for Bryan if/when he leaves, especially if he nabs us a 2nd rounder.
A ruck unit of Draper (the incumbent), (insert mature ruckman), Vigo (the understudy), Gerreyn (the bustling 2nd Ruck/FF)
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How would that work with someone bid on in the thirties?