2024 Draft Thread.

[Mat Mann]

Draft Period, November 20–21

• Round 1 of the National Draft: Wednesday, November 20
• Round 2–end of the National Draft: Thursday, November 21
• Rookie Promotions: Thursday, November 21, after the National Draft
• Delisted Free Agency Period (3): Thursday, November 21, after the National Draft
• List Lodgement 3*: Friday, November 22, 10am (optional; required for those participating in the PSD)
• Pre-Season Draft: Friday, November 22, 3pm
• Rookie Draft: Friday, November 22, 3.20pm

 

[Saint Watto]

Lots of picks =\= cleaning up.

Tigers did this in 2005. Didn't work.

Suns & Giants both got loaded up early. Didn't work.

North have had how many top picks? Hasn't worked.

The Dogs had a Grand Final team, added two top 5 picks in JUH & Darcy, and went backwards.

I ****ing hate this idea that loading up on "talented" kids means a flag is inevitable. There's so much more to it than that.

FMD our THREE best players all came from the rookie list!

Great post there LWP.

It just reinforces the fact there are so so many moving pieces in a football club.......or any sporting club for that matter.

If all those moving pieces click at the same time and your talent base is very strong....and a good dose of luck is thrown in....it sets you up for a shot at the ultimate prize.

 

[D2D3]

We haven’t drafted a genuine mid in the first round since Luke Dunstan.

And haven’t drafted one in the top 10 of the draft since David Armitage. In 2006.

 

[Barrels]

He’s not really an expert anymore. He just has good contacts to get told what the clubs are going to do. I’m surprised the AFL allow it given it takes all the mystique out of the evening.

Drives clicks and traffic to their website, hence sponsorship $$.

They’re the ones driving it.

 

[sauce_head]

The Saints’ decisions showed their belief that run is king as they chose players well-suited to their transition game, rather than looking to fill a need after their inability to win clearance battles was an issue throughout 2024.

Demons future-proof for life after Petracca and Oliver; Saints take a punt on x-factor talents

The draft decisions of Melbourne and St Kilda will be closely analysed over the next 12 months as they look to revive their fortunes in 2025.

www.theage.com.au

 

[seasonedsainter]

I think North's actions last night were them preparing for losing LDU. Drafting another mid very high up is an indictor, but I thought their trade of their future first was really telling. People might think it's mad to trade out what could be a Top Five pick, but if you're pretty sure that it's going to get replaced by a band one compensation, you may as well make that move

Thought similar

 

[malevu]

That is understood, however there were 6 recognised top mids that you could throw a blanket over.
They were all gone by our first pick.
It has been reported that we offered pick 7 and F1 for 2 to North but they obviously wanted to burn their F1 for pick 27 instead .
How do you deal with abject morons like that?
Seems as though there were no other takers below us, and as it turns out nobody wanted 8 for two mid teen picks.
Nobody was trading picks and has been reported that North offered every team from us at pick 8 onwards until Richmond fell over laughing at the end of round 1.

So while it is understandable to lament, the frustration from others with this is that you might as well complain we didn't get Harley Reid and Zac Butters in last night's draft.
You can't draft what isn't there.

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

Personally I'd like all those bemoaning the fact we didn't burn draft capital to trade up the order to nominate which of the Fab 6 they would've chosen. In time to come we can then compare that to who we actually landed.

It's going to be easy in the future to say we should've got FOS or we should've got Langford etc. The truth is we would've got one stab at it. I'm betting all of the 6 premium mids won't turn out to be Neales or Bonts. So people in the "should've done" camp should make their call now, same as the Saints would have had to do.

No having carte blanche over 6 names to justify your argument in the future.

 

[sauce_head]

So any mid, just as long they have been labelled a mid. Maybe we should have redrafted Seb, he was a pure mid, what's Armo doing nowadays?
I would have taken Reid but others tell me he is slow, small ( I think about the third smallest in the draft and the second smallest mid after Ashcroft) and doesn't fit our profile.
You can't draft what is not there.
I would have been perfectly happy to trade 7 and F1 for 2 but you can't reason with desperate morons like North.

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

I’ll ignore the first paragraph - sounds like behind it all you are probably frustrated as well.

The point is that there were 18 mids in the first 20 selections, or something like that. The only two non-mids were selected by who?

Hopefully I am very wrong about this. Both players look great and we will all desperately hope they succeed. It’s just that success in the pure midfield roles would help more, so many of us think.

 

[stavro#4]

I think North's actions last night were them preparing for losing LDU. Drafting another mid very high up is an indictor, but I thought their trade of their future first was really telling. People might think it's mad to trade out what could be a Top Five pick, but if you're pretty sure that it's going to get replaced by a band one compensation, you may as well make that move

Look who knows what justification north had. But it’s beyond a bad trade.

I would hate it if we did this trade and people justified it by saying - well if Nas leaves we get band 1/first round picks

 

[Barrels]

Current St Kilda U23s

B: McLennan - Cole* - Hoffman*
HB: Wang.-Mil. - Tauru - Schoenmaker
C: Wilson - Phillipou - Travaglia
HF: Hall - Caminiti - Carroll
F: Collard - Keeler - Owens
Foll: Heath - Windhager - Garcia

Int: O’Connell Hastie Peckett*

*anticipated pick

And Liam Henry is only just over 23…​

 

[kyrgios]

Tauru and Travaglia both look like very solid picks - Tauru maybe more than solid.

But this post nails it. You have teams like Carlton and North stockpiling mids and Saints really have a couple of 30 year olds and a bunch of hope.

Can only think that the club is looking to try and raid the stockpiles at some point in future because even if Tauru is Riewoldt times two we are not in a top 4 window with our current midfield options.

let the other clubs take the mids and develop them for a couple of years. If they turn out good they wont be able to afford them, and we hopefully will be contending in a couple of years can nab a good one.

 

[billings2paddy]

He’s not really an expert anymore. He just has good contacts to get told what the clubs are going to do. I’m surprised the AFL allow it given it takes all the mystique out of the evening.

Gets viewers for draft night

 

[Joffaboy]

People will rightfully feel like and I put myself in this group.

That sometimes you need to burn a little draft collateral and force the move up.

I personally wasn’t against 7+F1 and something else small to get a mid we rated.

We didn’t and it’s in the past now.

But if we get put to the sword in the midfield on the regular again next year it will be hard to justify the lack of appetite in trade or draft to fill the need.

I think Macrae improves us. But I also think he might be coming to the end of his powers as opposed to the belief that he had a down year because the dogs mismanaged him.

Either way, it’s a lot of expectation now on Pou Windy Henry Garcia Clark to make sure they step up consistently and a few levels above what we saw across all of 2024.

I had absolutely no problems with 7 and F1 but North are f'kn idiots.

Do people really think that football people like Allan, SoS, Dalrymple, Lyon and Misson don't realise we are skinny on mids, not mids for mids sake but match winning mids?
Do people think they didn't try to get up the draft order? That they said, ahh let's just get a hbf'er who can go through the mids and a backman and leave mids on the table who we believe are better than the two we picked?
It has been reported that we were trying to split pick 8 but no takers. He'll North burnt a possible top 5 for pick 27, NOBODY was trading picks.
So it's established we tried to trade down and burn future capital and a top ten pick and tried to split a top ten.
Dalrymple stated we wanted mids but would select best available, he was obviously talking about the first 6 mids if one was there and So went best available. Steele stated we wanted mids, does that sound like the club didn't want mids?

So to get one of those mids we
1. Had to tank and be a shit loser club like North
2. Give up more than F1 and a top ten to go to 2 and get one of the mids, something like 7 and 8 for 2.

Facts are I would have loved Fos and Draper, but got two extremely talented players with huge upside.

I just don't think it is productive to be upset over thing the club had no control over.


On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[sauce_head]

Gets viewers for draft night

Maybe it’s just me but I won’t bother next year until the second day. I’ll just look at his draft “prediction” and assume that is the order. Then I’ll get two hours of my life back rather than watching some of the worst tv of the year.

 

[Pou Steele]

Sure does. While him as a F/R is probably a good fit for him, I have always wondered if he’s played in defence. Would be hard to get around as an interceptor

Another defender? Sign me up!

 

[Patty_vanda]

You Joffa and others are seriously missing the point.

If you want to focus on what Cal said. He said that if he doesn’t make the transition he will be a 200 game half back flank.

He said I don’t know why the saints fans are upset. Tauru COULD be anything and play in all 3 areas of the ground.

What people wanted. Expected. Hoped for.

Was that with 2 top 10 picks a full hand of futures and knowing we have a plethora of cap space next year. That we would trade up and land a blue chip midfield talent if one wouldn’t land at our pick.

Thats arguably the missing piece after the Tauru selection giving us a blue chip tall that can swing both ends of the ground and is an elite intercept player.

I think you’ll find the club tried to do that but the clubs who had pick 1-6 before us were not prepared to give up there selections.

The only way in my view that we could have possibly traded up to land a “blue chip midfielder” was to trade out both 7 & 8 for 1 pick in the top 6.

we were not prepared to do that & I believe it was the right call.

Imagine the melts on here if we did that.

we picked the best players available at our selections.
& I pray that these boys fill their potential.

 

[sauce_head]

I had absolutely no problems with 7 and F1 but North are f'kn idiots.

Do people really think that football people like Allan, SoS, Dalrymple, Lyon and Misson don't realise we are skinny on mids, not mids for mids sake but match winning mids?
Do people think they didn't try to get up the draft order? That they said, ahh let's just get a hbf'er who can go through the mids and a backman and leave mids on the table who we believe are better than the two we picked?
It has been reported that we were trying to split pick 8 but no takers. He'll North burnt a possible top 5 for pick 27, NOBODY was trading picks.
So it's established we tried to trade down and burn future capital and a top ten pick and tried to split a top ten.
Dalrymple stated we wanted mids but would select best available, he was obviously talking about the first 6 mids if one was there and So went best available. Steele stated we wanted mids, does that sound like the club didn't want mids?

So to get one of those mids we
1. Had to tank and be a shit loser club like North
2. Give up more than F1 and a top ten to go to 2 and get one of the mids, something like 7 and 8 for 2.

Facts are I would have loved Fos and Draper, but got two extremely talented players with huge upside.

I just don't think it is productive to be upset over thing the club had no control over.


On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

The club has control over who it picks between pick 8 and 20. There were 18 mids selected and two defenders selected. Fact.

As for whether Lyon rates mids or rebounders off half back, that is a legitimate debate. And I think we can all see what he rates most highly now. It’s wasn’t purely best available, it was best available to suit the game plan (as the club stated in advance). So that tells you all you need to know about the game plan next year, it’s not based on winning in the middle, it’s based on winning at half back. That’s what people are really debating here. I think Lyon is a great coach and demands excellence and that we have done well to get him. Do I agree with this though? Probably not. People are free to debate it.

 

[Mr Clunk]

And haven’t drafted one in the top 10 of the draft since David Armitage. In 2006.

When we should have selected a forward from Tassie with family ties to the club

 

[Joffaboy]

I’ll ignore the first paragraph - sounds like behind it all you are probably frustrated as well.

The point is that there were 18 kids in the first 20 selections, or something like that. The only two non-mids were selected by who?

Hopefully I am very wrong about this. Both players look great and we will all desperately hope they succeed. It’s just that success in the pure midfield roles would help more, so many of us think.

Are you seriously suggesting that the club knew there were players described as mids still on the table but went for two players they thought were inferior?
As I said do we go for mids even if they are not very good?
To make you feel better AFL app listed Travaglia as a mid. So did the Fox Footy draft stream.
Hope that makes it all better.


On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[tomjoad]

I reckon their hairstyles are the definition of their playing styles. Trav is all business and Tauru the rockstar. Alix Tauru even sounds like a 70s Italodisco star.

Trav= Good solid tuneage by the likes of Talking heads. Everything is where it should be, very efficient, can sound and get weird when it needs a point of difference.
Taurus=Kraut rock/glam/psychedelic prime Bowie.

I'd see that gig.

 

[EconomicDecline]

Current St Kilda U23s

B: McLennan - Cole* - Hoffman*
HB: Wang.-Mil. - Tauru - Schoenmaker
C: Wilson - Phillipou - Travaglia
HF: Hall - Caminiti - Carroll
F: Collard - Keeler - Owens
Foll: Heath - Windhager - Garcia

Int: O’Connell Hastie Peckett*

*anticipated pick

And Liam Henry is only just over 23…​

Think the drafting makes a lot of sense when you line it up like that. Seems reasonably balanced.

Also hadn't noticed till now that we don't actually have any players born in '97 or '98

 

[sauce_head]

Are you seriously suggesting that the club knew there were players described as mids still on the table but went for two players they thought were inferior?
As I said do we go for mids even if they are not very good?
To make you feel better AFL app listed Travaglia as a mid. So did the Fox Footy draft stream.
Hope that makes it all better.


On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

I’m suggesting a large factor in the selection was game plan, not absolutely best available, which to be fair the club publicly stated a few days ago. Best suited to the game plan of transitioning off half back. So in some ways, yes, I am suggesting that there is the potential of that.

You don’t need to be so patronizing of an alternative position, unless you want this forum to just be an echo chamber.

 

[BrutThough]

We haven’t drafted a genuine mid in the first round since Luke Dunstan.

What even is a 'genuine mid' these days?

Sometimes I think peoples definition of a mid is way too narrow and not always reflective of how versatile modern midfielders need to be.

 

[MrFoster]

the reality is, without the addition of a genuine mid last night we’re asking each of our current young mids to outperform the position in which they were drafted.

The hope is they identified a young mid in the late 20s range.

 

[MrFoster]

There's still blokes available tonight that would've been top 15 in last year's draft. Let's all calm down x

With Gross, Ough both available, there is still hope yet.

 

[SaintOfLondon]

I’ll ignore the first paragraph - sounds like behind it all you are probably frustrated as well.

The point is that there were 18 mids in the first 20 selections, or something like that. The only two non-mids were selected by who?

Hopefully I am very wrong about this. Both players look great and we will all desperately hope they succeed. It’s just that success in the pure midfield roles would help more, so many of us think.

It also doesn't help when the captain the night before the draft comes out and says he is looking forward to us improving our midfield and having one of our top picks be a mid. Surely we knew there was a good chance the top 6 mids wouldn't be available for us so why we would have Steele say that is only going to add to fans disappointment.

Before those with white knight syndrome enter, this is not a crack at Trav and Tauru, I'll back them in to be great players for us although as fans we can still be disappointed we haven't added any elite talent to our midfield.