Future 3rd I think?
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I’m not angry at Rosa’s decision making, He seems to have made the best deals possible with the threat of an early Kako bid.
Now for my rant. I’m angry at the process we have been left to deal with. We were essentially blackmailed into trading pick 9. If we had finished lower on the ladder we could have taken Kako for free. Junk picks can be found elsewhere to match bids, we didn’t need to trade pick 9.
Not only our first pick but we were threatened out of the entire first half of the draft. Any other player we rated early is impossible due to Kako, having a good academy player actually restricts what you can do. The only option is to trade in to next year because any good picks this year would get eaten. Due to 1 player the whole draft year is altered and centered around late picks to distance ourselves from getting bent over paying for Kako.
Lions gave up less for one of the best players in the draft. They didn’t need the pick in the teens and don’t need to rebuild. This strategy totally suits were their club is at. Hopefully Rosa is good at picking players with later picks because I really saw this next season as a rebuild.
On that note I’m not happy Lions get Ashcroft for pick 5 but we were getting threatened with Kako being taken at pick 6,7 and 8.
If Saints are going to threaten us and our future to manipulate their draft hand, then I would have come back with an equal threat. Take Kako early than he is valued and we wont match it. We will take him off your hands next year when he isn’t anywhere near worth the pick you used on him or we will take him in 2 years for free. If you force us to invest into next years draft, we will take Kako off you later to correspond with our new players in 2026.
Well done Rosa on dealing with all this bullshit in your first stint and new rules imposed just as you arrived.
Dream world would have been tell all other clubs to get farked, pick best available player at 9. Take Kako for free with junk picks and somehow trade our original pick in the 20s for something juicy in next years draft Like Richmond did.
The best or possibly safest outcome has happened so far. Id still prefer not to be riding Melbourne because if they do well next year it will feel ■■■■. We both finish low, we end up with 2 top 5 picks. They finish 6th and we finish 10th again we end up in a similar position we are in right now.
If we have another highly rated Academy player in next years draft are we just going to keep trading our first rounders forever and pushed to back of the draft?
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Well gold coast traded out two firsts for players. They were in the same boat as well.
We chose future draft picks.
Ashcroft not being bid on until pick 5 is well up to the clubs involved.
Richmond for example if they wanted Marshall could have bid on Ashcroft at 1 then picked up Marshall at a point brisbane would have struggled to match.
Next year the game changes somewhat.
Academy players cost more to match and theres less draft points attached to picks.
But yeah considering Brisbane have just landed both Ashcrofts in recent years they have been looked after to fix another dynasty up there
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I guess that’s the problem with us being a mid-table also ran. When we find ourselves in a positive position with a top ten pick and a potential star in our academy, other teams are going to exploit that scenario.
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The points to match a bid on Kako don’t magically appear out of nowhere.
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Why not drive into a brick wall and cause thousands of dollars worth of damage?? You’ll make a profit!
It’s an Essendon thing, the club hasn’t stood up to the bullies since Hird was at the helm.
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Depends what value you place on picks in the 30s, 40s
2-3 x reasonable Nick Bryan / Archie Roberts prospects is a likely result out of 3-4 picks in that range.
We don’t lack for medium ish level kids… we don’t have the top tier ones.
I like the father-son rule. It adds to the fabric of the club and the game. It’s not Collingwood or Brisbanes fault that their father-son players are guns, and ours have mostly been crap.
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True but I mentioned Junk picks can be found elsewhere. It took a lot of steps to get into the draft position we are in now. I don’t see why different steps could have been taken to use 40s and 50s picks like Lions did. Could also have gone harder in trade period to offload some clutter and bring in points.
The issue for us vs GCS, Brisbane, Sydney etc, is that we might get a good enough NGA once every 3 years. They get good enough academy prospects at a rate of 2-3 / year.
I totally get Pintars point.
What was clearly the move was to make sure we finished low enough that our pick was safe and our second rounder provided enough points to allow us to make some moves. Especially if we considered this a strong draft. But meaningless wins yet again ruined that plan.
With the hand we were dealt we played it as well as we could. Just have to hope Melbourne implodes, and next year turns out to be stacked with top end talent
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Yeah I agree. Best picks in the draft are designed to go to the lower performing clubs. Feels off when we are pushed out of the top 10 because of where we finished on ladder basically?
I guess what’s done is done now.
We’ve filled a desperate need with who looks to be an electric small forward who can breathe some life into our attack.
We got hustled this draft, is what it is, going over alternative scenarios is a waste of energy.
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I feel as though the biggest move on night 1 was for small forwards. Hannaford went around where I had him on my rankings which was quite a big higher than he was expected to go. Berry gone, Hynes gone (more of a medium), Dattoli gone, Angove gone. Leaves things pretty thin on that front from here.
The only “small forward” left that I’m super keen on is Hamish Davis, 190cm, fantastic runner, capable of some magic in the F50 but we’d have to accept that he’s a poor kick of the footy and hope he can improve there. Jasper Alger is one that others are bigger on than I am, but he’d be a solid option. Josh Dolan I don’t love for us as he’s something of a Gresham clone and not a big goal kicker.
Tall forwards have slid a lot more than people were expecting which has opened up possibilities for us. We could try and move up a few spots if we wanted to secure one of Shanahan or Jack Whitlock - or we could stay pat and wait to see who’s still available for us. Strong chance of Tom Sims or Kayle Gerreyn being there in the late 30s from here.
Small/medium defenders, I love Angus Clarke I’d be super happy if we snagged him. 188cm defense first guy who can matchup on anyone and is a strong rebounder. Lachie Jaques is more of your attacking rebounder who worries about his matchup second. Can intercept really well for his height, strong mark.
There are some super talented midfielder/mid-adjacent types still on the board like Tom Gross, Christian Moraes and Jack Ough. Its not a big priority for us, but at some point you just have to take a kid that you have around pick 20 if he slides into your lap in the late 30s.
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Yep
Ticked one box.
Didn’t tick others
Pushed picks into next year
The challenge for the club now is to really maximise what we’re currently holding in 2025, and absolutely, utterly smash that draft. Push a free agent or two out, and push a couple of guys out via trade.
Not the time for half measures.
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The good thing is Rosa found a “desperate” Melbourne to trade with and got a good deal.
I could have totally seen us being threatened with Kako bid, then other clubs also bending us over for pick 9 that we “wanted” to get rid of.
If this becomes the norm I don’t see why clubs in the future will give as much as Melbourne did this time. Its actually the club with the first round pick who needs to deal done more.
Thoughts on Sam Toner?
Just to follow that up, some vision of the guys that I mentioned:
Small/not so small forward Hamish Davis:
Small forward Jasper Alger:
Shanahan you’ve probably already seen enough of.
Tall forward Jack Whitlock:
Medium defender Angus Clarke:
Medium defender Lachie Jaques:
The talented mids left, Gross, Moraes and Ough:
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I don’t have much to say on him honestly. He barely played… he’s an overager so I wasn’t really watching him.
If Rosa thinks he’s the guy then I’ll back him in.
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Honestly too, if you look at the clubs who’ve bid on other clubs players the most times, we are fourth on that list. So sooking about other clubs doing or threatening us with that is hilarious.
Adrian has built this terrible reputation that Matt is going to have to try and navigate.
1 Like