List Mgmt. AFLW List Management, Trades, Draft, Expansion Thread

[Firewalker]

Our trade where we moved picks 16 and 34 to picks 12 and 48 was a decent little win in our favour, but has anyone seen what Richmond did in that same trade?

Moved picks 12, 30 and 48 into picks 10, 34 and 38. So the only pick that got downgraded at all was 30 -> 34, and meanwhile they moved 12 -> 10, and 48 -> 38. That's comically tilted in their favour.

Someone must be losing out in that trade when all the other clubs are getting wins.

It's interesting to me that Mithen (plus one second-round pick) essentially went for pick 2, while all these other trades are going for picks out in the 30s and 40s. Don't get me wrong, Mithen is a quality player, but there seems to be a huge discrepancy in how players and picks are valued.

Just on Gold Coast’s move here like you say it’s very interesting they chose to so easily give away pick 2 especially when local girl & one of the more explosively talented junior’s to ever come through Havana Harris is expected to be a top 2 pick, maybe they thought Collingwood would have taken her at pick 1 but you’d imagine they are more likely to go local & select the equally as impressive junior in Ash Centra.

They’ve most likely handed Harris a potential ‘Unicorn’ type player straight over to Melbourne in a direct swap for Mithen, a player who yes is experienced (maybe they feel in hindsight they need more experience after they pushed out Alison Drennan last year & subsequently struggled) and has been a very good player in the past & might still posses some very handy traits but she has certainly dropped off a little in output and couldn’t make Melbourne’s starting midfield rotation this season.

This is of course a Suns team that already has Rowbottom, Whitfort and Single as their starting midfield which is pretty damn strong so Mithen might not even be in the first rotation up there either. It does scream a move made by a team that was so shocked a player wanted to move to them from interstate that they just got the deal done by any means necessary - much like when their men’s team traded pick 2 (Andrew Brayshaw) for Lachie Weller.

 

[Caputo]

Just on Gold Coast’s move here like you say it’s very interesting they chose to so easily give away pick 2 especially when local girl & one of the more explosively talented junior’s to ever come through Havana Harris is expected to be a top 2 pick, maybe they thought Collingwood would have taken her at pick 1 but you’d imagine they are more likely to go local & select the equally as impressive junior in Ash Centra.

They’ve most likely handed Harris a potential ‘Unicorn’ type player straight over to Melbourne in a direct swap for Mithen, a player who yes is experienced (maybe they feel in hindsight they need more experience after they pushed out Alison Drennan last year & subsequently struggled) and has been a very good player in the past & might still posses some very handy traits but she has certainly dropped off a little in output and couldn’t make Melbourne’s starting midfield rotation this season.

This is of course a Suns team that already has Rowbottom, Whitfort and Single as their starting midfield which is pretty damn strong so Mithen might not even be in the first rotation up there either. It does scream a move made by a team that was so shocked a player wanted to move to them from interstate that they just got the deal done by any means necessary - much like when their men’s team traded pick 2 (Andrew Brayshaw) for Lachie Weller.

No not quite because Gold Coast can still bid on Academy players and bidding rules for F/D & Academy are different to Men in that Pick has to be within 18. So basically a 2nd rounder get's Harris. Gold Coast has 3 good Academy prospects.

 

[jenny61_99]

He had one fall in his lap again… addressed zero problems in the squad yet again.

Oh FFS. Take your meds. Phil Harper is THE main reason we have a successful women’s team. He also contributes to the mens recruiting team. You constantly bitch and moan about him without justification.

 

[Caputo]

AFLW Draft Power Rankings: November 2024

The Rookie Me Central 2024 AFLW Draft Power Rankings for November are in, and what a tricky exercise given the evenness of the draft crop.

central.rookieme.com

A Top 50 Draft ranking from Rookie Me Central. It me help give some clues who the Crows can take at 12.

 

[DJ75]

Glad Hannah Ewings has come over to play for us. Am friends with her family, especially her father, and I was gutted when she got recruited to Port (don't think Dad was too impressed either).

Any insights into what the personal issues are and more importantly, will she be able to move past them?

 

[DJ75]

AFLW Draft Power Rankings: November 2024

The Rookie Me Central 2024 AFLW Draft Power Rankings for November are in, and what a tricky exercise given the evenness of the draft crop.

central.rookieme.com

A Top 50 Draft ranking from Rookie Me Central. It me help give some clues who the Crows can take at 12.

I'm guessing we will take McKee then? A small with good goal sense sounds useful for us.
Shame that Rasheed will be gone before our pick. Would love her to slide through though. Can't see us going for Scholz.

 

[cmndstab]

Any insights into what the personal issues are and more importantly, will she be able to move past them?

I don't think there has been much detail put out there. There were issues with her fitness/professionalism in her second season, which saw her moved from the midfield into the forward line, and then get dropped at one point. And then she was ruled out with "personal issues" for the latest season, not even attending the club at all.

It seems likely there is a mental health issue at the very least. Hopefully a change and a fresh start will help that.

 

[cmndstab]

The Grace Kelly trade has now officially gone through. We've given up pick 52, as expected.

Meanwhile, Port's trade for Ella Heads has shuffled their picks around a bit. They've done quite well out of the trade, essentially just moving their picks out a few places (15 -> 17, 39 -> 40, and 51 -> 53) and in the process have picked up Heads AND an extra draft pick (47).

I had initially thought this gave them an extra selection ahead of our second pick, but I forgot that we traded pick 48 along with Allen and Levy. So at this stage we have picks 12 and 43.

 

[Scorpus]

Just on Gold Coast’s move here like you say it’s very interesting they chose to so easily give away pick 2 especially when local girl & one of the more explosively talented junior’s to ever come through Havana Harris is expected to be a top 2 pick, maybe they thought Collingwood would have taken her at pick 1 but you’d imagine they are more likely to go local & select the equally as impressive junior in Ash Centra.

They’ve most likely handed Harris a potential ‘Unicorn’ type player straight over to Melbourne in a direct swap for Mithen, a player who yes is experienced (maybe they feel in hindsight they need more experience after they pushed out Alison Drennan last year & subsequently struggled) and has been a very good player in the past & might still posses some very handy traits but she has certainly dropped off a little in output and couldn’t make Melbourne’s starting midfield rotation this season.

This is of course a Suns team that already has Rowbottom, Whitfort and Single as their starting midfield which is pretty damn strong so Mithen might not even be in the first rotation up there either. It does scream a move made by a team that was so shocked a player wanted to move to them from interstate that they just got the deal done by any means necessary - much like when their men’s team traded pick 2 (Andrew Brayshaw) for Lachie Weller.

It turns out Havana Harris is a Gold Coast Academy player so they get her for points.

 

[Firewalker]

It turns out Havana Harris is a Gold Coast Academy player so they get her for points.

Yeah realised that today when I saw that they actually got pick 19 back in the deal, didn’t see that last night, but still they originally had pick 20 they could’ve had both a pick 2 and her as they could’ve matched from pick 3 onwards as like I said Collingwood are certain to take Centra, so rather than a Weller move it’s more a Essendon Kako deal and they blinked. Like I said they were probably shocked a player from interstate wanted to join so took that option instead.

 

[Caputo]

Yeah realised that today when I saw that they actually got pick 19 back in the deal, didn’t see that last night, but still they originally had pick 20 they could’ve had both a pick 2 and her as they could’ve matched from pick 3 onwards as like I said Collingwood are certain to take Centra, so rather than a Weller move it’s more a Essendon Kako deal and they blinked. Like I said they were probably shocked a player from interstate wanted to join so took that option instead.

Not quite blinked as Gold Coast have potentially 3 1st Rounders as Academy. They needed extra 2nd/3rd Round picks. Rookie Me Central have Havana Harris as No1, Tara Harrington as No 16 and Mia Salisbury as No 21. AFLW is picks not points.

 

[Firewalker]

Oh FFS. Take your meds. Phil Harper is THE main reason we have a successful women’s team. He also contributes to the mens recruiting team. You constantly bitch and moan about him without justification.

Haha, please, you can take your rose coloured glasses off occasionally, Phil Harper whilst playing a strong role is NOT the main reason the women’s team have been successful, you are severely underselling the amount of work Matthew Clarke done along with the other coaches and the personal development undertaken by the players drafted to the club when they had full access to the best SA talent available.

I am not critical of what Harper done in his role prior to the last 3 years and have readily admitted he done a great job in fighting for a women’s team for the club in the first place & setting up the original framework and from all reports including from all your interactions you let us know you have with him he’s a very nice personable fella, I would never question that. However just because he apparently gets along so well with those in the club and still runs things nice, calm and humbly through the playing season doesn’t make him a completely effective head of football nowadays especially when it comes to improving & continuing to provide the senior coach with the strongest possible squad to win a flag which he simply hasn’t done since Port entered the league and his job became a lot harder.

Since Port entered the league with all their concessions they were granted the football club had to know that improving the squad was going to become more difficult as they couldn’t rely on the draft anymore that’s what I’ve been critical of the club as a whole with not using the position of power they were in as a club and simply have not identified the right positions on the ground they needed to improve.

The recruiting since 2022 has been lazy and scatter gun at best with the few trades that have been completed being of players who have sought out the club, since Port entered these are the players the club has brought in;

Niamh Kelly - overall a plus, and filled a need, 1 standout year, sought the club out for a move.
Amber Ward - delisted, asked to come home.
Keeley Kustermann - hard to mark, not given many chances early then played out of position, shaping up as a battler
Kiera Mueller - strong start then battled for a game, tough but limited as a player
McKenzie Dowrick - delisted, one good game.
Jess Waterhouse - limited & flawed player, occasional flashy plays, delist material
Taylah Levy - traded, low risks punt as a cat b rookie, showed something but limited physically & played out of position
Sarah Goodwin - a big plus, continual improvement every year, sought the club out for move
Yvonne Bonner - veteran who was way past her best, wasted a list spot.
Brooke Smith - replacement player, struggles with game intensity & limited, delist material
Brooke Boileau - too early to tell, not given a chance & played out of position
Tamara Henry - too early to tell, injury riddled year
Lily Tarlinton - puzzling selection, coming from a long way back & currently lacks a lot as a player
Hannah Ewings - could be a big plus, Crows NGA, supremely talented junior, battling issues, strong Crows connection led to move.
Grace Kelly - limited player, flashes of athleticism but very limited skills, sought club out for move to play with sister.

So out of those players there’s 2 confirmed good recruits (N.Kelly, S.Goodwin) who both sought out the club to move to it, 2 high potential (Ewings & Boileau), 3 solid battlers (Mueller, Kustermann & potentially Henry) and 8 limited/dud AFLW level players. Add that to never going out to proactively fill actual long time list needs like small forwards, tall forwards and speed and hanging on to far to many in that limited category on the list over the past few years out of loyalty & familiarity and that’s simply not good enough for where the club found themselves positioned in post 2022 flag and Harper most certainly deserves some blame for the list relying on far too few in recent seasons.

 

[Firewalker]

Not quite blinked as Gold Coast have potentially 3 1st Rounders as Academy. They needed extra 2nd/3rd Round picks. Rookie Me Central have Havana Harris as No1, Tara Harrington as No 16 and Mia Salisbury as No 21. AFLW is picks not points.

They just need to match within 18 picks, given how things usually run clubs at best will probably only bid on one of Harrington or Salisbury in that 20-30 range, they most definitely could have made moves to ensure they could’ve had pick 2, Harris and the other academy members but they obviously desperately wanted that experience of Mithen & ensured they’d get Harris by getting that pick 19 back and picks 27 & 30 should get the other 2, obviously like the men’s team trust what is coming out of their academy is good enough.

 

[Carmo]

Any insights into what the personal issues are and more importantly, will she be able to move past them?

No, sorry. Will put it on list of things to do to see if I can find out. Doubt I'll see them directly any time soon but some mutual friends that I will see might know so I'll ask them.

 

[jenny61_99]

Haha, please, you can take your rose coloured glasses off occasionally, Phil Harper whilst playing a strong role is NOT the main reason the women’s team have been successful, you are severely underselling the amount of work Matthew Clarke done along with the other coaches and the personal development undertaken by the players drafted to the club when they had full access to the best SA talent available.

I am not critical of what Harper done in his role prior to the last 3 years and have readily admitted he done a great job in fighting for a women’s team for the club in the first place & setting up the original framework and from all reports including from all your interactions you let us know you have with him he’s a very nice personable fella, I would never question that. However just because he apparently gets along so well with those in the club and still runs things nice, calm and humbly through the playing season doesn’t make him a completely effective head of football nowadays especially when it comes to improving & continuing to provide the senior coach with the strongest possible squad to win a flag which he simply hasn’t done since Port entered the league and his job became a lot harder.

Since Port entered the league with all their concessions they were granted the football club had to know that improving the squad was going to become more difficult as they couldn’t rely on the draft anymore that’s what I’ve been critical of the club as a whole with not using the position of power they were in as a club and simply have not identified the right positions on the ground they needed to improve.

The recruiting since 2022 has been lazy and scatter gun at best with the few trades that have been completed being of players who have sought out the club, since Port entered these are the players the club has brought in;

Niamh Kelly - overall a plus, and filled a need, 1 standout year, sought the club out for a move.
Amber Ward - delisted, asked to come home.
Keeley Kustermann - hard to mark, not given many chances early then played out of position, shaping up as a battler
Kiera Mueller - strong start then battled for a game, tough but limited as a player
McKenzie Dowrick - delisted, one good game.
Jess Waterhouse - limited & flawed player, occasional flashy plays, delist material
Taylah Levy - traded, low risks punt as a cat b rookie, showed something but limited physically & played out of position
Sarah Goodwin - a big plus, continual improvement every year, sought the club out for move
Yvonne Bonner - veteran who was way past her best, wasted a list spot.
Brooke Smith - replacement player, struggles with game intensity & limited, delist material
Brooke Boileau - too early to tell, not given a chance & played out of position
Tamara Henry - too early to tell, injury riddled year
Lily Tarlinton - puzzling selection, coming from a long way back & currently lacks a lot as a player
Hannah Ewings - could be a big plus, Crows NGA, supremely talented junior, battling issues, strong Crows connection led to move.
Grace Kelly - limited player, flashes of athleticism but very limited skills, sought club out for move to play with sister.

So out of those players there’s 2 confirmed good recruits (N.Kelly, S.Goodwin) who both sought out the club to move to it, 2 high potential (Ewings & Boileau), 3 solid battlers (Mueller, Kustermann & potentially Henry) and 8 limited/dud AFLW level players. Add that to never going out to proactively fill actual long time list needs like small forwards, tall forwards and speed and hanging on to far to many in that limited category on the list over the past few years out of loyalty & familiarity and that’s simply not good enough for where the club found themselves positioned in post 2022 flag and Harper most certainly deserves some blame for the list relying on far too few in recent seasons.

TLDR. Any danger of you not writing a book?

 

[Firewalker]

TLDR. Any danger of you not writing a book?

I couldn’t care less if my thoughts on a football club administrator’s performance bothers someone but if you want to throw around a flippant comment/accusation directly at me that I was simply having a “bitch & moan” at the head of football at a football club based on no evidence whatsoever but based on some sort of weird personal vendetta I feel it perhaps does require a full measured response to defend my stance given without doing so it would confirm that lack of objectiveness you provide when it comes to this matter is also correct and can’t be questioned.

I addressed that matter, then simply went on to sum up the recent recruitment at this club given it was the conclusion of this current trade period. I could’ve maybe done that in another post but couldn’t be bothered double posting.

 

[cmndstab]

TLDR. Any danger of you not writing a book?

I thought the post was pretty fair, jen.

Phil Harper deserves all the credit in the world for the way he championed our AFLW bid, and put the pieces in place for our success from 2017-22. That can never be taken away from him. However, it is also fair to judge him on what he is contributing right now. Much like Sarah Perkins will always be a Crows premiership superstar for the vital role she played in 2017, but was no longer able to contribute meaningfully from 2018 onwards. The question is if Phil Harper is the right man for the job now, not whether he was valuable in the past (which is beyond dispute).

I've been prepared to give the club a pass for their inaction in the last few seasons, given the compromised trade/draft environment we were in. But that ends as of this season, and we now need to get very serious about upgrading our list every year to stay in premiership contention.

Credit where it's due, bringing in Ewings is a good move with the potential to pay big dividends. The other moves have been less than inspiring, and who knows how many other options were just left on the table? North appear to have improved their list for 2025 significantly more than we've improved ours, and they were ahead of us to start with.

 

[cmndstab]

So it seems likely that we will just be making the two selections in the draft. We've lost three players (Allen, Levy and Varnhagen), and gained three (Ewings, Kelly and Cronin) but I assume Cronin doesn't count towards our main list. So that leaves us needing to move on one more player.

Who do we think will draw the short straw? Smith, Waterhouse, Tarlinton and Henry seem the most likely options, assuming Randall doesn't hang up the boots.


Edit: Whoops, I forgot that Levy was on our Cat B list. So two delistings required.

 

[MarcusP2]

So it seems likely that we will just be making the two selections in the draft. We've lost three players (Allen, Levy and Varnhagen), and gained three (Ewings, Kelly and Cronin) but I assume Cronin doesn't count towards our list cap. So that leaves us needing to move on one more player.

Who do we think will draw the short straw? Smith, Waterhouse, Tarlinton and Henry seem the most likely options, assuming Randall doesn't hang up the boots.

Surely we don't give up on Tarlinton after 1 year. I'd delist Waterhouse.

 

[brucetiki]

I think Waterhouse is the one to go. As much as I love them, and they're a great person, they were disappointing in the limited opportunities they had this season.

 

[DJ75]

No, sorry. Will put it on list of things to do to see if I can find out. Doubt I'll see them directly any time soon but some mutual friends that I will see might know so I'll ask them.

The last few games she played for Port it was clear she was unfit. I was worried how that might have ended up, but in the picture we posted she looks good.
Let's hope she is ready to get really fit and in the right headspace.

 

[Cromulant]

I think Waterhouse is the one to go. As much as I love them, and they're a great person, they were disappointing in the limited opportunities they had this season.

I first saw Jess play for Happy Valley in the ammos a few years back.

Was good with ball in hand but wasnt able to work through a tag and didnt seem to want to. Not a great combo at the highest level.

 

[Coopers]

The last few games she played for Port it was clear she was unfit. I was worried how that might have needed up, but in the picture we posted she looks good.
Let's hope she is ready to get really fit and in the right headspace.

Maybe she can hang out with Ponter and they can both rediscover some fitness and passion.

 

[DJ75]

Maybe she can hang out with Ponter and they can both rediscover some fitness and passion.

I suspect if they hung out together it would be bad for both.

They need to spend the next 6 months with Noffie or Randall. Like all day everyday. They could be the two best players in the competition if they reached their peaks.

 

[cmndstab]

I'd delist Smith before Waterhouse personally. Waterhouse hasn't done great but at least is okay as a depth player. I've yet to see anything that suggests Smith can contribute at the level.