Save your energy and angst. Since we are not in line to draft him, you have made an issue out of nothing.
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No but those two were in our best 22.
Heppell played round 23 and was one the best on ground for us. Stringer…well he played half a sensational year. Probably stopped in his tracks once he triggered next year.
If you look across our best 22, there probably isnt anyone left thats past their best football.
Whether or not they have reached their ceiling is another thing.
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No angst. Just a tinge of envy as how Richmond seem to be doing it.
Wont be suprised if they become a modern premiership factory like Hawthorn and Geelong seem to have managed.
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Finally got this finished, hope people find it useful
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Mate, James Kelly was CLEARLY best 22 when he retired. Him leaving didn’t mean we were rebuilding. Heppell and Stringer out are not evidence of EFC doing squat.
It’s very tempting to look at the here and now as far as draft capital is concerned but the more I think about it the more I like the idea of holding firm onto those 2025 picks…we will be in a strong position; much stronger than this year and we should look to take advantage of that as much as possible. Even if it means waiting for 12 months.
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That’s a short term view on it, at best Melbourne might at best finish 8th so worst case for us pick 11 having that along with our pick which should also be a top ten pick it gives us the opportunity to perhaps move up into a position next year where the truely elite talent is found.
If your complaining we don’t get a lalor type but then throw away an opportunity to get someone like that next year to bring in a late first round pick this year doesnt make any sense to me.
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It just depends on whose willing to trade, whats on the board and how much it costs.
It might be a moot point but you would follow the night and make calls the more you think someone might pickup for the right opportunity
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Who else would you delist out of our best 22? Considering we will recruit a best 22 small forward for the obvious bloke whose probably not yet up to it.
And probably more to the point if you could trade out more footballers or delist how would you replace them?
All drafts are relatively good, some a bit better and occasionally a generational draft. But you never know for sure the year you are selecting, it’s only a few years later can you know how good it was. There is always people calling drafts a super draft only for them to be a flop. i.e. 2006 which everybody was drooling over for being exceptional, lots of talls and deep. It doesn’t always work out. Picking year to year relative performance is also very hard. I’ve heard many opinions on this draft, lots of talent, deep, top talent is poor, really can’t see any real certainties in this draft and that’s why it’s so even. All of these comments are all subjective and thus risk.
By delaying your selection you are gaining points and selection at the top end of the draft where there is less risk in selection downside and higher upside but more out year positional risk in the draft, hence the points premium for doing it. Thus you get volume of selections. Volume also helps diversify the individual selection risk. But to obtain more than 1 in each round you have to keep obtaining future value at the expense of present value, as current year is less risky and thus more expensive in draft capital.
Pushing picks into the out years is also not a gamble, you accumulate draft capital in volume and then use that to find players over a 1-3 year, in fact, it’s the opposite of gambling.
You can also manage the risk by continuing to push it out in years you perceive are not as good. I.e next year all the top players have major injuries, just push your picks out for higher value again. i.e. 2 first and a second become 3 firsts and 2 seconds in 2026.
The issues is, the lack of talent coming through, so you do have to supplement it with FAs and lesser pick players I.e state league. But if you want to build a premiership capable list with bulk talent you have to create a competitive advantage, and taking picks the same relative to everybody else just won’t cut it.
Dodoro has done the opposite, continually bringing picks forward for price premiums. For both trades and draft selection with draft night trading. I think it’s been a really poor strategy.
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You only have to look at what Carlton did using 12 and 14 to get to pick three to see that trading out one the firsts next year is a bad idea.
We could potentially do something like that next year to move up to a top position without sacrificing this draft of the ones after
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Not to mention all the other picks we’ve added. Its a strong position to be in. I think people are getting too fixated on using the picks to draft players. Picks are resources that you can use in a number of different ways.
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Thats only attractive because the draft is deep.
Most years theres a very strong top half a dozen or so then it falls away.(from afl ready).
If we have two firsts next year theres no guarantee we would get i to the top 5.(unless we are bottom 4 and perhaps are trying to go up one position).
You would assume decent recruitment have done the work on next years and this years crop.
I don’t think that’s true that it only happened because it’s a “deep draft” it happened in 22 with the giants getting up to pick one but most years a team will trade into the top ten spots
This is brilliant mate, thank you!
So many players to like in this draft, I hope we can get back in after a Kako bid without using our F1s.
We’ll get good offers for 28 & 31, it’s how early we can buy our way back into this year with whatever we get from trading those picks.
eg a club like Richmond or Sydney may give up 18/19/20 for 2 x F2s.
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Thanks mate appreciate it
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I feel like getting rid of pick 9 to match a mid in the mid to late 10s is such an ehhh move. but we were too conservative with trading out so i guess best of a pretty boring exodus
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Love your work Dave, thanks for all the effort you put into not only your videos but your replies and write ups here.
Top shelf poster 
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