List Mgmt. 2024 Draft Thread

[_Mike_]

FYI

Will add a 2024 NAB Draft & Trade tracker thread, stickied.

Tag me when we have a confirmed trade/draft and I will update the thread accordingly

 

[Mofra]

Kennedy is definitely one I'd look at with our pick in the 40's. Reckon he could be a handy wingman or as one of those half forwards we push up to the contest.

‘Exceptional’ talent under the radar; ‘absolute gun’s’ quiet rise: Stars reveal AFL draft bolters

‘Exceptional’ talent under the radar; ‘absolute gun’s’ quiet rise: Stars reveal AFL draft bolters

www.foxsports.com.au

Sandringham Dragons forward Harry Armstrong said: “I think Luke Kennedy from Sandy. He’s a two-way runner and he’s the best kick in the team.”

 

[goodcop badcop]

If I had too choose between Hannaford and Hotton I would gamble and go with Hotton. That time trial from Hannaford is pretty concerning for the way the game is going

Charlie Cameron, Patrick Cripps, Zac Merrett, James Sciliy, Blake Acres and Matt Crouch all had poor times at the 2013 combine.

Cam Rayner ran a 7.57 and went at pick 1.

Endurance is one of the easiest things to train.

 

[Wizard17]

‘Exceptional’ talent under the radar; ‘absolute gun’s’ quiet rise: Stars reveal AFL draft bolters

‘Exceptional’ talent under the radar; ‘absolute gun’s’ quiet rise: Stars reveal AFL draft bolters

www.foxsports.com.au

Code Sport article on him

‘Beautiful user’: How ready-made Dragon Luke Kennedy tricked AFL Draft guru Kevin Sheehan​

He trailed only Levi Ashcroft in Sandringham’s best and fairest, and has been compared to a premiership Demon. Luke Kennedy’s silky skills even made AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan correct his notes, writes PAUL AMY.

Watching Luke Kennedy for the first time this year, AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan made a few notes about the Sandringham Dragon.

He jotted him down as a left-footer.
“I thought, ‘Geez, he kicks it beautifully with these lovely weighted kicks on the left side,’’ Sheehan says.
But as he watched more of the Coates Talent League match, he realised Kennedy in fact was a right-footer. That was impressive.
“He’s a beautiful user on both sides,’’ Sheehan says. “You don’t see that many kids who are so natural on both sides of the body.’’
For that, Kennedy gives credit to his father, Paul, who stressed to his sons – Max, Rhys and Luke – that they needed to kick with both feet if they were going to do well in football.
“Gotta use your left,’’ Luke remembers him saying. “He was always big on that.”

Sheehan latched on to Kennedy after the national Under 18 championships and tracked him to the end of the season, which for the Ormond product and the Dragons finished with an emphatic grand final victory over the GVW Rebels, their third consecutive flag.

Midfielder Kennedy averaged 18.5 disposals from his 18 matches and was second to Levi Ashcroft in the best and fairest. Invited to the AFL draft state combine, his endurance showed out, as the Dragons thought it would. He registered 6:09 for the 2km run and was pleased. “Everything else was somewhat average … the (2km) was the one I set myself for,’’ Kennedy says. “We didn’t have much preparation. But I thought I did well.’’

He regards his strength as “definitely my running ability, getting from contest to contest and working defensively back as well’’.

In that respect, Dragons coach Rob Harding sees a bit of premiership Demon Alex Neal-Bullen in Kennedy. Harding says: “He’s ready to go … he’s a plug-in player.’’

Ahead of November’s national and rookie drafts, Sheehan is starting to put out lists of his best prospects. He’ll include Kennedy, whom he calls a “surprise packet’’ and a “consistent ball-winner and a smart user of the ball’’.

“You can’t do much better than be second to Ashcroft in the best and fairest in a premiership-winning team … it pitches him in with a chance to get an opportunity,’’ he says.

No one at amateur club Ormond was surprised at Kennedy’s emergence this year.

He made his senior debut for the Monders at age 15 in 2022, the youngest player to appear at senior level for the club.

Twelve months later he claimed their senior best and fairest, polling 68 votes from 10 matches to defeat his brother Rhys by five. At 16, he became the youngest winner of the award.

Monders people have since been talking him up at every turn. His 28-possession performance against Dandenong Stingrays in the preliminary final had them fizzing, particularly life member Gary “Bomber’’ Murray, who speaks of a fine young man from a great family.

Murray is a Sydney Swans diehard and used to do some recruiting for VFL club Port Melbourne. Can he get him drafted to the Swannies? “I’m trying!’’ he says.

Kennedy appreciates how Ormond pushed him up and gave him the chance to play senior football against men.

“I’ve been there since I was 11 or 12, doing the water boy for both my brothers.

“I knew the group really well. I always trained with them when I was in juniors. I did double sessions.’’

His season at the Dragons brought him attention. But Harding suspects Kennedy would have got more kudos this year if he played at another club.

He describes him as a “complete package as a player’’.

“Had he been involved in another region, where he had more opportunity to stand out as the gun midfielder that he is, he’d be rated higher up the boards,’’ Harding says.

“His performances over the two years have been terrific. He’s been so consistent, he’s played a variety of roles. We targeted playing him on the wing at the start of the year to show a different side to him, outside of inside-midfield and half-forward.

“He’s got AFL running power, he’s got AFL midfield craft with his clean hands, his tackling and his kicking. One of the things AFL clubs want from us in the Coates League is to develop players who can use both hands and both feet. And Luke is excellent on both sides of his body. He’s a very crafty kick too. He has good range of depth. He has a good feel on how to place the ball in front of forwards.’’

Harding echoes Sheehan when he adds: “He does it with both feet too.’’

Kennedy says the Dragons had an exceptional collection of players this year and he found himself stretching to keep up with the standard.

“They’re very driven and they’ve got a good mindset. Like with ‘Ashy’ (Ashcroft), he’s a winner, he wins everything. Everyone else worked on their craft at every session, trying to get better.

“At the start of the year, there was conflict with public and private-school kids. Then we all had chats once a week with the leaders and we said we had to embrace each other a bit more. At the end of the year everyone was loving each other. We all connected so well. No selfish individual acts … for us to win the premiership we had to play our roles, be selfless.’’

This year also brought a VFL debut for Kennedy, lining up for Coburg, where his brother Max plays. Ironically, he replaced an injured Max in the team and had nine disposals in a Battle of Bell Street against the Northern Bullants.

“It was very contested. It wasn’t very polished, but it was full-on,’’ he says. “Bigger bodies and very much smarter (than the Coates Talent League), but probably the same pace.’’

Kennedy is completing Year 12 at McKinnon Secondary College and will have his exams knocked over well before the draft. He has spoken to “four or five’’ AFL clubs and his supporters hope he’ll be taken.

They’re on his side – left and right.

​

DRAGONS COACH ROB HARDING ON LUKE KENNEDY

“He made the train-on squad for Vic Metro, which was a great effort. Unfortunately he didn’t get a game, but had he been in last year’s draft he would have been a starting midfielder at Metro level, without doubt.

“His strength is his running power. He runs a sub-six for 2km. His ability to cover the ground and his repeat efforts are the things that stand out.

“He played against men when he was 15, 16. He’s ready to go. He’s a plug-in player. I think high half-forward is potentially his spot at AFL level, with a bit of midfield, because he gets up and back and he uses the ball so well. I think he can be that Alex Neal-Bullen player, up and back and spit through the midfield as needed as well.’’

 

[maddog37]

Charlie Cameron, Patrick Cripps, Zac Merrett, James Sciliy, Blake Acres and Matt Crouch all had poor times at the 2013 combine.

Cam Rayner ran a 7.57 and went at pick 1.

Endurance is one of the easiest things to train.

Easy for you to say!!!

 

[Mofra]

Charlie Cameron, Patrick Cripps, Zac Merrett, James Sciliy, Blake Acres and Matt Crouch all had poor times at the 2013 combine.

Cam Rayner ran a 7.57 and went at pick 1.

Endurance is one of the easiest things to train.

Patrick Veszpremi wishes that were true

 

[doggiesin08]

So are we all having more fun than if we sent Smith to the draft and didn’t have a late first rounder?

 

[flipper83]

Lots of mock drafts showing bottom, berry and hannaford all going before our first pick. But then again one of them said we will pick a ruckman with our first pick. But we need to go hard for Richmond pick 11.

I'd find it hard to go past bottom.

 

[maddog37]

I'd find it hard to go past bottom.

 

[dogwatch]

I'd find it hard to go past bottom.

That's cheeky.

 

[TiAn_]

Lots of mock drafts showing bottom

They’ll do anything for clicks

 

[Bonti 5416]

First-round AFL Phantom Draft: Who your club could pick on night 1

With six bids and 28 picks, this is ESPN draft expert Jasper Chellappah's first-round phantom mock, a month out from the 2024 AFL Draft. Who will your club pick on the first night?

www.espn.com.au

Writer at ESPN Claims to have some intel in amongst some of these picks. Any creditability in previous years?

Read through it pick by pick and it was going very well for us before port Adelaide's pick. Would be heartbreaking if it went down that way.

Unfortunately I can actually see the first 16 picks going pretty similar to this. Then I found myself thinking who in that 16 picks would actually trade out and miss out on a player like that. Trading up might be harder than I first thought.

If tigs had travaglia available, they’re not sliding back.

I wonder what GWS would be asking for 16 if it truly is up for sale? Im not sure that we would double up there for a high price with pick 24 only 8 picks away and plenty of key position types in between.

 

[goodcop badcop]

Patrick Veszpremi wishes that were true

Sure there's the odd one like Veszpremi and I guess this is where VO2 scores and medical reports can come in to it. But generally you can get good improvement in endurance if the player has the right attitude.

What I mean is, through hard work, you can turn endurance from a big weakness and go as far as turning it into a strength if you have that capacity. Someone like Lachie Hunter ran an 11.38 at the 3km time trial at the combine and was in the bottom 26% of the combine. 3 or 4 years later, he was one of the front runners in our 3km time trial and would clock up the most km's in some games.
Another less extreme example, Cripps ran a 11.50 at the combine (bottom 11%) and I remember reading early on in his AFL career, he ran the 3km in around 11 minutes in the pre season. That's certainly not elite by any means (actually just average), but that's around a 50 second improvement.

There's a reason why clubs aren't scared off by taking a player with horrible endurance like Rayner so high up in the draft. If he was a horrible kick or was treacle slow, I guarantee you they would think twice because these attributes are much harder to improve on then endurance generally.

 

[Bonti 5416]

Sure there's the odd one like Veszpremi and I guess this is where VO2 scores and medical reports can come in to it. But generally you can get good improvement in endurance if the player has the right attitude.

What I mean is, through hard work, you can turn endurance from a big weakness and go as far as turning it into a strength if you have that capacity. Someone like Lachie Hunter ran an 11.38 at the 3km time trial at the combine and was in the bottom 26% of the combine. 3 or 4 years later, he was one of the front runners in our 3km time trial and would clock up the most km's in some games.
Another less extreme example, Cripps ran a 11.50 at the combine (bottom 11%) and I remember reading early on in his AFL career, he ran the 3km in around 11 seconds in the pre season. That's certainly not elite by any means (actually just average), but that's around a 50 second improvement.

There's a reason why clubs aren't scared off by taking a player with horrible endurance like Rayner so high up in the draft. If he was a horrible kick or was treacle slow, I guarantee you they would think twice because these attributes are much harder to improve on then endurance generally.

Agree. Much more likely to take 30 seconds off a 2k time trial than 0.3 seconds in a 20m sprint.

 

[goodcop badcop]

First-round AFL Phantom Draft: Who your club could pick on night 1

With six bids and 28 picks, this is ESPN draft expert Jasper Chellappah's first-round phantom mock, a month out from the 2024 AFL Draft. Who will your club pick on the first night?

www.espn.com.au

Writer at ESPN Claims to have some intel in amongst some of these picks. Any creditability in previous years?

Read through it pick by pick and it was going very well for us before port Adelaide's pick. Would be heartbreaking if it went down that way.

Unfortunately I can actually see the first 16 picks going pretty similar to this. Then I found myself thinking who in that 16 picks would actually trade out and miss out on a player like that. Trading up might be harder than I first thought.

If tigs had travaglia available, they’re not sliding back.

I wonder what GWS would be asking for 16 if it truly is up for sale? Im not sure that we would double up there for a high price with pick 24 only 8 picks away and plenty of key position types in between.

Worst case scenario. GWS might be open to their pick 15/16 for pick 17 and our future 2nd. That would suck though for a 1 to 2 pick upgrade.