List Mgmt. 2017 Trade/Draft/FA SuperMegaUltra Thread - Post Trade-Period Edition

[MVPD01]

When you look at our top two players I think the quality of player is fine. And I've always been an advocate of draft the best player but given the dire situation in the middle of the ground I think we are a rare exception to that rule. And we'll never know but I wonder if Brander would've lasted till our next pick and Allen to the one after that....

But then when you think about it who would have taken as midfielder at 13? Higgins was probably the only one that saw much talk about at our #13 and he's very small for a modern day footballer. Not saying he can't succeed, but I think most of had someone around the 6'2 in mind.

Hopefully this talk of Oscar Allen playing in the midfield is legitimate and it can work. The list of Larke Medallists is typically very strong so no reason to think he won't be there again.

Like you all I'm hoping StCicatriz is on the ball particularly in regards to Ainsworth.

The other issue and I guess this is why people are freaking out a bit is we really need to nail this draft. Trading out of next years supposedly very strong first round and the very shaky state of our list at the moment means there is not much room for error. This needs to be one of our best ever drafts otherwise and that means getting somewhere around 600 games from it - ala 1995 (Cousins, Wirrpanda, Phil Matera), 1999 (Cox, Hunter, Glass) or 2001 (Judd into Kennedy, Lynch and to a lesser degree Hansen and Seaby). I think if this one doesn't come up somewhere in comparable quality and quantity we could find ourselves in a tough position.

I’ve got a suspicion that we think Gaff may want to go home next year, if he does would he be worth a first round pick from someone, bloody oath he would. So giving up next years first pick won’t matter. If that’s the case it’s been great planning by Us to to secure so many second rounders in this draft and potentially have a first rounder next year.
Time will tell...

 

[The Stid]

What was their reaction exactly? They didn't celebrate at all? Looked visibly disappointed?

Wasn't much of a reaction at all tbh, just a real blank look on his and his family members faces.

 

[eagles rule]

What was their reaction exactly? They didn't celebrate at all? Looked visibly disappointed?

Relief , Wce are his favorite footy team ..

 

[bunkyboy]

We've been burned a lot in the past on these super athletic / quick players without a good footy brain. I would have thought we'd have learned from that and favour footballing ability over athleticism. Charlie Constable a case in point.

Looks to me that he has got a pretty good footy brain from those highlights. Particularly given he has a basketball background.

 

[archiemoses]

Looks to me that he has got a pretty good footy brain from those highlights. Particularly given he has a basketball background.

He's admitted he's still learning the game. This does not constitute a football brain.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Broken leg or foot fractures?

Wouldnt mind the history there.

He's a solid lad, Crouch like.

Wonder how long it will take him to reach a reasonable fitness level?

yep meant foot

 

[eagle dtrain]

Pretty well. Read some of the more recent posts & some intelligent thoughts rather than vitriol coz WC didnt select a certain favourite playet

Im not unhappy at all didnt know that our focus was going to be on talls very pleased with the 1st 3 picks especially and the last one also. I think the club seemed to suggest we were looking at taking mids and small forwards thats why there is a few confused people on the board. Brander will be a great get imo perfect JK replacement in 4 years time be hitting his straps nicely

 

[archiemoses]

I’ve got a suspicion that we think Gaff may want to go home next year, if he does would he be worth a first round pick from someone, bloody oath he would. So giving up next years first pick won’t matter. If that’s the case it’s been great planning by Us to to secure so many second rounders in this draft and potentially have a first rounder next year.
Time will tell...

Or we could have had 2 first round picks next year?

The trade was smart and we bet on ourselves to not bottom out. So we are going to need to hit up some mature age mids in the rookie to provide some depth there.

 

[eagle dtrain]

Sometimes you can get carried away & need a little think time. No rush that far down

Where you expecting to pick up Fritisch at 32 when he was nabbed the pick before was that the reason for extra time needed?
What was the one player that you wanted that we didnt get but expected to

 

[kranky al]

apparently "the eagles picked a range of midfield capabilities through Brayden, Jack and Hamish". during the draft only one was labelled a mid, now two others have morphed into mids. even if only one is a gun, we have quite a large group of mids now with ahchee and venables coming through..dont forget we're saving masten for something special? time will tell...maybe they're gonna wrangle with the rookie list for a mature mid..

The manboarpig dream yet lives

 

[eagles rule]

He's admitted he's still learning the game. This does not constitute a football brain.

People complain with WCE safe picks so a ballsy pick like this should be applauded mm ..

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Hmm - some happy some not so

Not at all happy Mr Bond

 

[makaveli01]

I seen this the look he gave to his girlfriend looked a bit concerning

I wouldnt look too far into it, as an eagles fan he was probably just dissapointed we didnt pick a midfielder

 

[Patron]

Individually I thought most of our picks were okay in isolation.

Brander - Arguably best available and fit needs given all the mid types we would have wanted went super early. It was him vs Higgins and I feel we've made the right choice in going for a JK replacement = 8/10

Allen - Best Available again. Absolutely stoked to get Allen this late as we would have seriously considered him at 13. Doesn't fill our needs but again it was between him, L Fogarty and Kelly and I feel we made the best choice = 8.5/10

Ryan - A reach, not best available, and not the best fit for needs. Mildly fills that X factor smaller player in the forward line even if he's not a true crumber. Taylor, Spargo, Constable all other options who were probably better talents at that range. I get why we did it but it was still a reach. = 5/10

Ainsworth - Did not like this pick, wasn't best available and other mids such as Constable/Murphy/Worpel have more potential to address our need for talented bigger bodied players and aren't as vanilla. I think we got swallowed by the WA factor with our middle two picks and reached. = 4/10

Petrucelle - About right for range. Murphy, worpel arguably better talents that fill our needs better but he could be worth the punt and does offer pace we lack. 6/10

Brayshaw - Best Available and fills our needs. Probably our best pick in the draft but it's the one that mattered the least. = 9/10.

The issue with this draft though was that as a collective group we failed. We went too tall and didn't add a single high end midfielder which should have been our no 1. priority. Nor a crumbing forward. We did get unlucky with where certain players fell and as it turned out our first two picks were probably just a little bit too late to get what we really needed. We really lost it with the middle picks with some reaches and I wish we had taken constable instead of Ainsworth. Ultimately we botched it because we traded for extra second rounders to reach for players and in hindsight have robbed our-self of that elite high end talent next year for Ainsworth/Ryan. We are too WA centric and pick favourites with our second rounders (reaches) and it's cost us big time the last decade with so many duds.
Overall I give our draft haul a 6.5/10 and our recruiters a 7.5/10 who did okay in the context of where people went.

 

[GoldenEagle]

People rate Constable too high. If he makes it he's still going to be a poor mans Rockliff. We looked slow at stages last year in the midfield why would you possibly want us to look any slower? Theres a reason why noone picked up worpel in the first 40 picks he wins it then butchers it. Not what we need in our midfield.

 

[Godfather32]

It really disappoints me when I see players/picks being so heavily critiqued without any results to justify the heavy criticism and disappointment. It reminds me of the NBA draft a few years back in New York. The Knicks selected Kristaps Porzingis, and the home crowd HEAVILY booed him, kids were crying etc... he’s now that teams out and out superstar and one of the best few players in the league. People who bagged him have suddenly flicked the switch and love him.

Likewise here we are seeing young kids (who, for all we know, might be reading this forum to read up a bit on the club) - and they will be seeing a bunch of fans disappointed in them being drafted by West Coast. Why? Give them a chance to perform and improve the club. Give the club a chance to rebuild us back to a mighty club - we have had way more success than other clubs, yeah we haven’t won a flag for 10 odd years but we’ve come mighty close. Have some faith, show some support and be positive fans! This could be the draft that reshapes our future!

Has anyone really said much negative about the players drafted? Brander and Allen are great picks in isolation. It seems to be more comments about our overall draft strategy and the fact that we didn't really do much to help in our main area of need. It's a midfielders game these days and none of our first 3 picks were midfielders. Combine this with the fact that we used a low 2nd rounder on a guy who should have already been on our rookie list if we actually used it in an intelligent manner and there's bound to be some negativity around.

 

[amazingjoshy]

Stoked we got Ryan. Gonna make next year alot of fun. People need to get over that we could have picked him last year as a rookie. We didn't, neither did 17 other teams. We had to use the pick we did to land him this year and I'm glad we did.

Allen I have seen a bit of and really rate. Can see a mid/wingman in there, such a smooth mover and very clean. Makes very good decisions too.

The others I admit I haven't really a clue apart from the standard highlights packages.

Ainsworth I've seen a couple of times and he didn't stand out to me at the time, but watching his highlights and reading some more educated opinions think there could be a good player there.

Brander looks decent, can understand the pick. Would have preferred a mid but can see the thinking.

Brayshaw looks a player, has an AFL ready body from the looks. Looks a great pickup so late.

Petruccelle is the one I'm most underwhelmed by at this stage tbh. I'm most definitely not going to judge a kid on two highlights vids, and some of the write-ups sound like he has skills we lack. The highlights vids just don't do alot for me at all so far. More than happy to give the kid a chance and hopefully be wrong.

Interested to see the rookie draft now. Would think a ruck and maybe some mature age mids (Schloithe/Grigg/Banfield) on the cards perhaps.

 

[Patron]

Has anyone really said much negative about the players drafted? Brander and Allen are great picks in isolation. It seems to be more comments about our overall draft strategy and the fact that we didn't really do much to help in our main area of need. It's a midfielders game these days and none of our first 3 picks were midfielders. Combine this with the fact that we used a low 2nd rounder on a guy who should have already been on our rookie list if we actually used it in an intelligent manner and there's bound to be some negativity around.

Yep, at the end of the day we took 3 marking players with our first three picks when we are desperate for mids. We didn't get a midfielder that was viewed as a top 40 talent and pre-draft most on here were looking for 3-5 top 40 midfield talents.

 

[FatPizza]

Looking at the players we got I'm ok with it. Would've preferred a mid earlier on bit in the end we've done ok since we basically have Venables as a new recruit as well. One thing I am pissed at Geelong taking Kelly, but that was out of our hands as 21 would've been a reach.

 

[Eagle Wrath]

A lot of pressure on Nic Nat to fire next year in the midfield. Shuey will be heavily tagged and we have no other mids worth mentioning yet. Shuey will feel let down tonight I think. He has a tough year ahead of him.

 

[Patron]

On a side note if 7 and 8, for gaff as an option was true. Or even 7 and Acres... I'm pretty livid right now it wasn't taken.

Imaging how much better structurally our midfield would be in a few years with Acres and Clark.

 

[Abed]

We've just committed to a long term rebuild while holding a number 2 ruck draft pick in his prime. It's fairly clear our recruitment team have an unclear view on our strategy should be. If you draft a gun ruck you give him the tools to do his job while you can.

Honestly the strategy they're going for is in the best interests of a long term career for Simpson and a few others at the club. However Kennedy, shuey, Nic Nat should probably forget about a premiership at the club and think the best service they could provide the club is getting us +2 future first round picks.

At the end of the day, it's rare for a pick 10+ mid to have a significant immediate impact on a team. They take time to develop into guns, too. They need to learn the team plan, structures, etc. So if we're going to win a premiership while NN, JK, and Shuey are around, we need some of the guys currently on the list to step up. In reality, the only guy who we could've drafted today that might've had an immediate impact is Kelly.

However, who we have is Ah Chee, who should play round 1 and should have an immediate impact, and Venables, who is an untried first round HFF/Mid and is reportedly a gun. We also picked up a KPF to replace Kennedy in a few years (or maybe play down back, or maybe both), an undersized (?) KPF with serious potential to play as a mid, a couple of good mids in Ainsworth and Brayshaw (the latter of who is physically ready to play round 1), a high leaping small forward ready to play round 1, and a fast small forward who provides good defensive pressure. Throw Rioli in there as well, and we finally have some decent small forwards that we have been craving for so many years.

Still some serviceable mids in the rookie draft, too.

All in all, it's not a bad result.

 

[Godfather32]

Stoked we got Ryan. Gonna make next year alot of fun. People need to get over that we could have picked him last year as a rookie. We didn't, neither did 17 other teams. We had to use the pick we did to land him this year and I'm glad we did.

Why should we get over it? It's symptomatic of the way we've used the rookie list for years. Instead of actually identifying potential talent and backing ourselves in to develop that talent into a decent player we use it to take other teams recycled crap, our own recycled crap or on rubbish insurance policies (which is what Gorter was).

 

[Pottering]

Ryan - A reach, not best available, and not the best fit for needs. Mildly fills that X factor smaller player in the forward line even if he's not a true crumber. Taylor, Spargo, Constable all other options who were probably better talents at that range. I get why we did it but it was still a reach. = 5/10

5/10 for a bloke who's kicked 113 goals in 39 WAFL games and got drafted at number 26? Tough crowd. Those other blokes are "better talents"? Not on current form they're not, not even close. They're youngsters trying to prove they've got the goods to develop into players. Only time will truly tell but I for one am glad we got him.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Initial reaction was WTF!!!!! I think this was a smart draft though.

Happy with the Brander and Allen selections. Taking the best available early is required. Obviously wanted mids but we got Ah Chee and then we have Duggan and Venables coming through who could play more mid, not to mention Yeo who if he can transfer to a mid that's a serious weapon. Brander is a long term replacement for JK and will be great to play FF at EP next season.

With Ryan we can team him up with Rioli and they will be dangerous as ****, we just need to get rid of LeCras and Cripps now. These two guys were drafted as mature aged picks, they're ready to go not to be wasted in the WAFL.

Petruccelle, looks damaging if he pieces it together. Like that he tucks it under the arm and runs. Also a few chase down tackles.

Ainsworth has a strange kick. Leading clearance player is a good sign.

Brayshaw has good pedigree. Good size and his quads are huge. looks ready to go.