Review 2024 National Draft Thread Part Deux - Welcome FOS, M.Whitlock, L.Urquhart & River Stevens

[krakouers]

Whether you think trading our F1 was an abhorrent and negliogble trade, a bold and brave move or somewhere in between there are a few things to consider.

The recruitment team have watched Matt Whitlock play live and poured over hours of footage, they've interviewed him, spoken to his coaches, parents and brother they know know exactly who he is, what sort of player he is and more importantly what sort of player he can become. So if they think he is worth trading our F1 for then at the very least give them some credit for making an informed decision.

Everyone on here is judging him on 5 minutes of YouTube highlights and screenshot of his stats from Rookie Me Central. Not even our esteemed draft watchers, whose opinions I value, will have watched Matt anywhere near as much as our recruiters have.

You can still be p*ssed off with the trade but ask yourself why, are you p*ssed off because 27 doesn't equal what value you've hypothetically placed on our F1? I suspect our F1 got knocked backed by the Saints at 9, Tigers at 11, GWS at 16, Richmond at 23, maybe even Sydney at 26 and only got taken by Richmond at 27. Clearly rival clubs don't value our F1 as highly as you all do and they're the ones who are going to benefit form it.

The most interesting one there is Sydney, known for being good recruiters, they don’t rate our future 1st as being ok for pick 26?
Unless we asked them at 19 and wanted that one too

 

[Moti]

We have plenty of KP players and mids now. A strong group of mid sized forwards and some flexible defensive players. The list build is not unbalanced outside of some flexible running plays on the flanks and the small forward / defensive problem.

Let's see how we go tonight.

 

[Makeshift Park]

Spoiler: AFL Draft: North pull draft stunner, trade future first-rounder to Richmond for pick 27

On a night where little caused a surprise, North Melbourne waited until the last moment to pull a stunner, paying a significant price and taking an even more significant risk.​

Josh Barnes

North Melbourne’s final hour big swing for tall Matt Whitlock could harm rivals’ hopes of snagging the prized first choice from Richmond before Thursday’s second night of the AFL Draft.
The Roos rated swingman Whitlock as a top-15 talent and waited until the very last moment to get back in to the first round for him, sending out a future first round pick for pick 27 and Richmond’s future second rounder.

No team had traded a future selection on the night until Roos list boss Brady Rawlings

Brady Rawlings

Age

43

Ht

184cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.7

4star

K

8.7

3star

HB

9.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.3

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

4.0

3star

M

1.0

1star

T

0.8

3star

got Tigers counterpart Blair Hartley on the phone at 9.45pm to seal the deal.

North Melbourne keen to get back into the first round after using pick two at the start of the night on midfield jet Finn O’Sullivan.

Whitlock’s twin brother Jack went unchosen on the first night and will sit in contention to be taken first, with pick 28, on Thursday night.

“I am sure he will be the first picked tomorrow night hopefully so I will be excited for him,” Matt told Fox Footy after he was chosen.

North Melbourne’s gamble is significant, given the Roos have finished in the bottom two in the last five seasons, giving Richmond hope the future Roos pick will be one of the biggest assets of 2025.

The pick 27 trade could dim the chances hungry rivals can pull away Richmond’s prized pick 28.

[article continues discussing other teams]

​

 

[DuckYeah]

We lost our 2 last games by a combined 200+ points.

We won our last game in 2023..

We had a shit year.

perhaps being flogged by 200+ in 24 lights the fire and we come out and smack everyone??

 

[shinboner magic]

GWS knocking back our f1 for a guy that no one’s ever heard of , tells you enough about how next years draft is rated

 

[Farthers]

Tiger's F2 will likely be the first pick of night 2 next year which holds added value in itself.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Good luck to Richmond but they lost a lot from the list to have these picks, and there is absolutely no guarantee a slew of high picks will lead to success - see GWS, Gold Coast, us recently, Richmond before recently.

 

[GDUB07]

or we could have just asked for 27 and 28 instead of their f2

Who says we didn’t? You have no idea the bids NMFC put up last night to add picks.

 

[speedy]

No use crying over spilt milk. Nothing else will matter if Matt becomes a gun player.

1 just hope a masculine jaw line and neck to match has nothing to do with your football ability.

 

[The Nostradamus]

Who says we didn’t? You have no idea the bids NMFC put up last night to add picks.

let's hope we did otherwise pure incompetence

 

[DuckYeah]

I agree with that sentiment but we should have just paid overs for the best available KPF at 2.

That doesn’t make any sense. If m whitlock was the best KPF on our board (which ultimately could be true as the KP stocks in this draft are speculative at best) then you would pick mitlock and miss on everything else.

We should have held onto to next years first. I think if significant improvement was palpable and become inviting to potential trades and FA then next years first would have been a good bargaining chip used in negotiations. Now its goneski.

 

[backtothedraft]

or we could have just asked for 27 and 28 instead of their f2

I think there is a potential that they could bank another F1 if they are looking to move the pick, and the right player is on the board.

 

[roos_tt29]

Whether you think trading our F1 was an abhorrent and negligent trade, a bold and brave move or somewhere in between there are a few things to consider.

The recruitment team have watched Matt Whitlock play live and poured over hours of footage, they've interviewed him, spoken to his coaches, parents and brother they know know exactly who he is, what sort of player he is and more importantly what sort of player he can become. So if they think he is worth trading our F1 for then at the very least give them some credit for making an informed decision.

Everyone on here is judging him on 5 minutes of YouTube highlights and screenshot of his stats from Rookie Me Central. Not even our esteemed draft watchers, whose opinions I value, will have watched Matt anywhere near as much as our recruiters have.

You can still be p*ssed off with the trade but ask yourself why you're p*ssed off? Is it because 27 doesn't equal what value you've hypothetically placed on our F1? I suspect our F1 got knocked backed by the Saints at 9, Tigers at 11, GWS at 16, Richmond at 23, maybe even Sydney at 26 and only got taken by Richmond at 27. Clearly rival clubs don't value our F1 as highly as you all do and they're the ones who are going to benefit from it.

This.

All I can say is - welcome Matt.
Ignore the haters and work hard.

Go well

 

[LB2Snake]

Reckon FOS gets 5, that's his juniors number.

I think he'd suit the number 2 more personally....quick, elusive, hard edged wingman in number 2 just feels right.....although he's not a left-footer

 

[My Left Foote]

The most interesting one there is Sydney, known for being good recruiters, they don’t rate our future 1st as being ok for pick 26?
Unless we asked them at 19 and wanted that one too

I'm just guessing at who knocked us back but it's hard not to reason we actively tried to trade it throughout the night and those clubs who had 2 picks make the most sense.

 

[Better Loosen Up]

Draft watch: Matt Whitlock

Watch the best of 2024 draft prospect Matt Whitlock

www.afl.com.au

These are "highlights"?

 

[Ether]

Absolute crap. You are judged on your ability to position your club the best. Melbourne got better value plain and simple. The players are irrelevant when purely judging the value of the deal.

Disagree. Clubs do draft night trades based on where they rate players. The club rated Matt in the top 15. If they'd traded the F1 for 10 -15 to pick him, they wouldn't have gotten the F2, which they may be able to use to get back into R2 this year. My first reaction was that it was horrendous but could turn out to be smart work.

 

[Footywizard]

You are all way too attached to numbers such as draft pick number and draft pick value number, lucky players win you flags not numbers. The number is irrelevant once it's been spent on a player.

Jobe and Jack were still on the board and we picked Matt, which tells us it is very likely we had him as our 2nd best tall on our board after Tauru due to his versatility which Clarko loves in players.

So many on here were calling for us to trade our F1 for a key forward between picks 8-14 or whatever. North offered f1 to every club after Tauru went at 10, which means it is very likely we were willing to do a straight swap of F1 for say pick 11 and take Whitlock. No one would have batted an eyelid if that happened. We were very open we were wanting to trade our F1 into this draft along with about 10 other clubs. I think it worked out brilliantly the way it did. Instead of a straight swap of F1 for Whitlock, he dropped all the way down to 27 and because of that, we got him AS WELL AS pick 19 next year.

I think you all need to calm the **** down and reassess why you were so happy to trade f1 for a gun key forward but when we did and got something back, you're outraged? Stop reading other club's fan's opinions and media opinions if that's also getting you worked up. Just sit back and enjoy watching the most talented young list in the comp have a ripper pre season and surprise a few next year.

Great trade. Welcome Finn and Matt to the greatest club in the land.

You are him. Nothing more needs to be said

 

[year of the roo]

We have plenty of KP players and mids now. A strong group of mid sized forwards and some flexible defensive players. The list build is not unbalanced outside of some flexible running plays on the flanks and the small forward / defensive problem.

Let's see how we go tonight.

In terms of the 'types' on our list, yes it is finally balanced. I'm very happy with the talent level and variety of young player we have in our list, as well.

The issue is still with the senior core. Too many question marks over the players aged 25+.

Corr - injuries, has never had consecutive good years.
Fisher - long contract, another player recruited to play the position he was playing. Needs to find a spot.
McDonald - enough has been said about him
Stephens - long contract, poor physicality
CCJ - enough has been said about him
Tucker - limited player. I hope he is on tiny coin and providing amazing leadership otherwise I don't see the point of him
Simpkin - has regressed since being captain. Injuries haven't helped but he also has a peculiarly long contract
Darling/Parker - don't hate these recruitments but question marks still remain on how they are used and how they'll be preforming in the final year of their deals
Daniel - paid a lot to get him given how much VFL and sub he was playing.
Logue - might seem harsh to have him here but he's coming off an ACL and has plenty of injury issues in his Freo days too. Probably one of our highest paid players. Need to see some return on that now.

Significant concerns over 11 of our most senior players and that's without mentioning deficiencies in the likes of Scott, Zurhaar and Larkey's games - nor mentioning the depth players of Teakle, Pink and KDawson. They all need extremely strong 2025s.

 

[Mixed Results]

I rate this outcome significantly higher than if we had tried to turn Pick 2 into Tauru or any other KPP.

The top 5 of the draft is disproportionately more valuable than other selections, as we've seen time and time again. From that perspective I'm glad we stuck with pick 2, and drafted FOS as the final piece of our young midfield.

As long as we can avoid the bottom four, this trade will break even for the club. Out of context it's a loss, but we get a highly rated KPP a year earlier which is incredibly valuable given the state of this list build. If it ends up being a pick in the 6-10 range next year I won't be losing any sleep over this.

 

[Jeremy Jordan]

Does anyone in here read the bible? There’s a passage I’ve got memorised, that kinda suits moments like this:

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and tyranny of evil men (norths drafting department)
Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will (Phillips) shepherds the weak (most of our list) through the valley of darkness (consistently bottom 3) for he is truly his brothers (Whitlock’s) keeper and the finder of lost children (our young crop).
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers (our 2025 list).
And you will know my name is the Lord (Harry Sheezle), when I lay my vengeance upon thee (Brad Scott)”

 

[year of the roo]

This.

All I can say is - welcome Matt.
Ignore the haters and work hard.

Go well

No one is hating Matt. This needs to be strongly reiterated.

 

[My Left Foote]

No one is hating Matt. This needs to be strongly reiterated.

At this point in time yes, but you only need to visit the Will Phillips thread to get a glimpse of what the future could hold for Matt Whitlock on North Big Footy. It's already started with the standard pessimistic "I bet Jack is the better twin" stuff.

 

[Makeshift Park]

Lets say we want to bring in the other Whitlock.

Could be wrong, but it seems a tad unlikely he'll be selected early tonight?

Pick 28 - Richmond - They've already picked Faull and Armstrong
Pick 29 - WB - They're absolutely stacked for KPFs
Pick 30 - WC - Could select him here, but they've just drafted Barnett and Archer Reid... and they've got Allen, Waterman, and Williams x2. Even if they went a tall, maybe Shanahan would be the favourite?
Pick 31 - WB - Still absolutely stacked for KPFs
Pick 32 - Saints - If they're going for needs, surely this is a mid

By the time we're getting into the early to mid thirties, surely our F2+F3 have currency.

 

[year of the roo]

At this point in time yes, but you only need to visit the Will Phillips thread to get a glimpse of what the future could hold for Matt Whitlock on North Big Footy. It's already started with the standard pessimistic "I bet Jack is the better twin" stuff.

Will Phillips cops it because he hasn't become a good footballer after plenty of time in the system. So yes, Matt may one day cop that if he also doesn't perform. Or he might come in and play good footy and be universally adored like Sheezel, Wardlaw, Colby, LDU, etc.