The exciting part of the draft for us will be what we do with 28 and 31, because there is absolutely no chance we let them be absorbed in a Kako bid.
I reckon we might be able to get our hands on Cats future first if they have their eye on getting back into the draft (and they will assume they will be contending again).
Gives us a heap of options to trade back in with too, if we want.
Funny, I was literally just chatting with one of my cat supporting mates who was asking who they might target if they could trade into picks in the middle rounds.
Wasn’t Walls on the review panel?
He was on the coach selection panel, not sure about the review panel.
I would have delisted less and traded more. Merrett, Langford, Parish, Wright would have all been on the trade table. Shiel delisted (if not traded).
PSD, Rookies and SSP. 1 year contracts with harsh turnover. Not delist Baldwin. Possibly kept Hunter.
I am a big fan of this kid so I did a short write up:
Kayle Gerreyn West Perth) 199cm
Predicted range 40-60
I love this guy and I seem alone, so there might be some issues I don’t get to know about from watching footage. I have watched A LOT of this guy and I am exciting what he can bring.
What is he? He has been playing predominantly as a ruckman in Colts and Champs. High possession player. Hits the scoreboard. Very physical and a very strong marking presence with excellent kicking for a player his size (especially penetration). Plays with swagger.
A ruck? You kidding? Here’s the thing. I don’t see him as a ruck. He has been forced to play ruck because WA don’t have a natural ruck in this draft class. I see him as a forward. He has decent speed, great agility, is tough in the contest, strong hands and a booming kick.
This draft class is full of fancied key forwards. Why him? This draft class has loads of athletic forwards but not many physically imposing ones. Essendon’s forward troubles are compounded by not having a player who evens contests. They all tend to be monstered. I think we need to select a player who can stand up physically, but who also has great agility.
What’s the knock? He dominated WAFL Colts which is a pretty ordinary comp. The poor defender stocks in this draft make all the big forwards look good. His tank isn’t the best and being from WA he is a flight risk.
Lots of footage available. Let me know what you think.
There is a clear reason why he’s not high on a lot of draft boards.
He’s played almost entirely as a ruck, and probably isn’t tall enough to play as a primary ruck at AFL level.
He projects as a key forward, but has barely played there. We have seasons of games from the other top key forward prospects, but almost nothing on Gerreyn. Forwards need craft, and we don’t know a lot about Gerreyns forward craft. So he represents a massive risk.
He played key forward in two senior WAFL games and both were washed out. He played a larger % of game time in the forward line at the Champs and he was just okay.
Could be an amazing pick, could be a complete bust.
If the draft goes the way Twomey predicts, and we are confident the Kako bid will come at Richmond’s pick 13, we could hang onto one of 28 & 30, trade our (or preferably Melbourne’s) F1 plus pick 40 to Richmond as soon as pick 12 has been taken for Richmond’s pick 13 and use it on Shanahan.
Then match Kako with either28/30 plus later picks, then offer a F2 (which comes from trading out one of 28/30) plus our own F2 to get Hannaford if he is still available in the late 20s.
It would leave us with only our own F1 and no 2nds next year, but if would get us Shanahan and Hannaford who sound perfect for us.
No it isn’t. Nobody has said that. It’s to focus on youth. While doing nothing to ensure we will get higher picks.
Nobody has ruled out aiming for finals.
How???
We offered a contract to Kelly. Heppell should have retired last year. We’re probably getting Prior. What have we done that means getting serious???
The overall positive though is the huge free kick we got from the AFL with the NGA rules changing. We’re in a far better position than we were a few months ago.
IMO we would’ve taken Kako at 9 anyway, so instead of Kako, 31 & 53 (Stringer) it could end up being something like Kako, 53, an extra F1 & 2 extra F2s next year.
That’s assuming we trade out 28 & 31 for F2s (tbh we’d probably get a couple of extra 50s picks this year in return as well - even better).
It might just be my sense of things, but I feel as though this trade period marked a change from the old reactive play book of simply fighting fires and trying to slowly incrementally improve the list.
We were much more engaged in involving ourselves in pick swapping deals that could pay off down the road. It feels to me like Rosa is working to a forward looking plan.
We’ll see what happens.
I haven’t seen much of Shanahan and have no real opinion on him, but I feel like he is a Blitz favourite that will probably never live up to the unreasonable hype. I’m not sure we should be paying a King’s ransom for him just because he kicked a few goals for our VFL?
I just want a big forward who’s aggressive , whether that’s Faull or Gerreyn or whoever. Shanahan and Armstrong are probably too expensive for us.
I have a feeling if we trade into the draft it wont be for a future first rounder.
If we really liked someone then we would have held 9 and risked passing on Kako for him.
We didnt, we rate Kako as a specific need over anyone else available at 9.
To me that says if we trade picks it will be to leverage 28/31. As theres no point spending those on a bid.
We will trade those in some permutation to come back in after Kakos bid and consume the third rounders matching we have instead.
Especially when Richmond is in need of key forwards they aren’t going to give up one lightly
Agree, we could really set ourselves up for a good haul next year.
They do not want a forward who is not going to play for them.
Why would Shanahan not want to play for the tigers?
We do get Hussein El Achkar next year. Him and Kako could be the forwards for the next 15, qnd we could sort another hole out.
Spot on we don’t need to blow our load over smalls when we are getting kako Nguyen and El Ackhar for free