List Mgmt. Contract, Trade and Draft Discussions - 2024 Edition

[Keys]

Quick links:
Player contract status
Draft prospect video highlights (thanks to noobermensch)
AFL retirements and delistings

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Latest news and rumours:

• Tom Barrass officially requests trade to Hawthorn
  • Duffield: Eagles want two first round picks - "It may have to be in this year’s draft rather than a future pick."
  • Morris: Josh Battle is set to join Barrass at Hawthorn in 2025 - Ralph: Unclear if Hawks will pay enough for Band 1

• Kysaiah Pickett interested in a trade
  • "Club and management are confident they can work through his concerns"
  • Daniels: Pickett’s preference is Fremantle. Fremantle are keen, but Bolton the priority. Getting both “not impossible”. West Coast “an option if things get complicated.”

• Jai Culley, Coen Livingstone, Loch Rawlinson in line for one-year deals (The West)
  
  
• Liam Baker and Shai Bolton
  29

  Shai Bolton

  Age

  25

  Ht

  176cm

  Wt

  77kg

  Pos.

  M/F

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  12.3

  3star

  K

  6.9

  3star

  HB

  5.4

  4star

  M

  2.8

  3star

  T

  2.9

  4star

  CL

  1.4

  4star

  D

  12.7

  3star

  K

  9.2

  4star

  HB

  3.5

  2star

  M

  3.0

  3star

  T

  2.7

  4star

  CL

  1.8

  4star

  D

  9.2

  3star

  K

  4.6

  2star

  HB

  4.6

  4star

  M

  2.0

  3star

  T

  2.6

  4star

  CL

  0.0

  1star

  officially request trades to WA
  • Daniels: Bolton is Fremantle’s priority

 

[TerryFilk]

Graham can tackle but he’s also always second to the ball and is incredibly slow, he doesn’t help with defending in transition or on the outside what so ever.

I’m fine with the pick up as I do think he’s better than most if not all of our list cloggers (low bar, I know), but I think when someone’s a good tackler too many people label them as being great defensive players when in reality a lot of them are just slow and second to the footy.

 

[noobermensch]

Berry's recent shift into the midfield has given draft watchers a lot to think about. He's not a prolific clearance winner at this stage, but his elite evasive skills allow him to navigate traffic from inside to out and convert stoppage wins by his team into damaging possessions. He still splits his time between midfield and his old forward role, and remains one of the most damaging players in this years pool inside the forward 50.

 

[stallon]

Will Brodie > Jack Graham every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Streets ahead of Graham

Graham over Brodie every single time, and its not even close.
We have a heap of mids who can win clearances, we have nobody who can lay tackles. Brodie sucks at defensive work, Graham is good at it

 

[stallon]

You need to sign talented players still. Cant just pick a dude cos you like his date of birth.

If we are getting a 26/27 year old at this point of our rebuild they sure as shit better be in our top 10 players AND be certain to be in our best 22 when they are 30. Graham fits none of this. A guy like Tim English would hence why he is a okay pickup compared to your Jack Graham

We are at the bottom of the ladder with **** all picks to trade away for players.
We are hardly a destination club.

We have to take what we can get. Graham is good enough to be best 22 for us, so he's a decent get

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Sheeds weapons are his offensive abilities, his disposal mostly.
We have almost exclusively offensive mids. Reid, yeo, kelly, Hewett, etc all are attacking first, that's just their game.

Graham is a point of difference

Yeo can be a defensive mid to be fair.

Ginby/Hall/Chesser can easily be the point of difference... Hall was specifically drafted to be that, given a contract extension then replaced 2 weeks later by Jack Graham really

By Round 6 2025 id be hoping or wanting Clay Hall to be full time best 22 mid and playing Jack Grahams defensive mid role. It would be the dream for sure, but one to aim for.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

We are at the bottom of the ladder with **** all picks to trade away for players.
We are hardly a destination club.

We have to take what we can get. Graham is good enough to be best 22 for us, so he's a decent get

We are literally meeting with and targetting Liam Baker mate....

We have things to trade. We are just using it poorly

 

[stallon]

Is Graham an upgrade ?

May aswell just play sheed or re-sign gaff

Sure Graham tackles more but sheed is a way better kick .

They are both slow and injury prone

We don't need Sheeds kick, we have a heap of players that can kick the ball inside 50 but very few who can tackle or play a more defensive minded game. Sheeds barely laid a tackle in his career.

Grouping all inside mids or all slow players together in the same category is dumb, they're very different players

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

AFL Draft 2024 Rankings: Father-son, academy guns surge amid most even draft in years

Father-son gun’s big surge; Dusty-like star looms large: Top 30 AFL Draft Rankings

www.foxsports.com.au

Draper at 6 and Langford at 14?

 

[stallon]

Graham can tackle but he’s also always second to the ball and is incredibly slow, he doesn’t help with defending in transition or on the outside what so ever.

I’m fine with the pick up as I do think he’s better than most if not all of our list cloggers (low bar, I know), but I think when someone’s a good tackler too many people label them as being great defensive players when in reality a lot of them are just slow and second to the footy.

He averages 17 touches and 5 tackles per game this year.

If he can come and replicate that for us then he's a great get.

Don't care if he's second to the footy, if he puts in effort and brings a little bit of leadership that will make up for it.
Effort has been one of the big things we lack in recent years from certain players

 

[Obeanie1]

Graham over Brodie every single time, and its not even close.
We have a heap of mids who can win clearances, we have nobody who can lay tackles. Brodie sucks at defensive work, Graham is good at it

Id suggest Graham at HFF role is push to the stoppages and help Harley, Yeo or Kelly break those tags. He wants to play more on ball and we need another seasoned defensive mid in our rotation.

Another big brother for Reid, Hewett, Hall , Long and the mid we pick with our 1st this draft.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

I will say that in a sick and twisted way that if Graham coming in means the end of the Liam Baker

7

Liam Baker

Age

26

Ht

173cm

Wt

72kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.7

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

7.9

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

2.6

4star

MG

222.2

3star

D

14.6

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

7.9

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

1.8

3star

MG

191.9

3star

D

14.4

4star

K

6.2

3star

HB

8.2

5star

M

1.6

2star

T

1.8

4star

MG

224.2

4star

debacle i might be able to live with it

 

[stallon]

Yeo can be a defensive mid to be fair.

Ginby/Hall/Chesser can easily be the point of difference... Hall was specifically drafted to be that, given a contract extension then replaced 2 weeks later by Jack Graham really

By Round 6 2025 id be hoping or wanting Clay Hall to be full time best 22 mid and playing Jack Grahams defensive mid role. It would be the dream for sure, but one to aim for.

I suspect Cripps might be the Sheed/Darling of next year, struggling to keep his spot. Long will be the new Cripps, and Graham gets to do what we had LEdwards/Sheed doing across half forward.

The point of difference is he is a solely defensive player. Ginbey looks like he will be a backman for the near future, chesser doesn't do that role it doesnt suit him, Hall should focus on winning the ball and getting it to Reid/Yeo rather than worrying about a man.

If we relate it to Ports midfield, I'm picturing Graham as Willem Drew, Hall as Wines, and Reid/Yeo/whoever getting it forward. Something like that

 

[stallon]

We are literally meeting with and targetting Liam Baker mate....

We have things to trade. We are just using it poorly

If we can offer Graham overs to bring him to band 2 compo on the condition we get Baker for a 2nd rounder, thats far from a terrible scenario.

Aside from Baker and English it's not like there is any b graders even being linked to us. It's all fringe players who can't get games.

 

[Wooshaaaa]

Blind optimism is all it is.

A positive outlook? We are 3 years into the abyss here. Lets not pretend we have positivity surrounding us. We do have a very little bit of it. Jack Graham isnt a part of that little bit. Just like Liam Baker wont be either

He is taLking specifically about you mate. Read the room.

On Pixel 6 Pro using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

If we can offer Graham overs to bring him to band 2 compo on the condition we get Baker for a 2nd rounder, thats far from a terrible scenario.

Aside from Baker and English it's not like there is any b graders even being linked to us. It's all fringe players who can't get games.

Dont mind that one bit to be honest and would 100% be a good idea

 

[Wooshaaaa]

Lewis Young/Adam Tomlinson would be horrible signings but id prefer it to nothing. 99.99% sure we could do better then my terrible suggestions though

Will Brodie > Jack Graham every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Streets ahead of Graham

Brodie is a winging scotch college down hill skier who would be a slightly quicker version of Sheed. He is the epitome of entitled. Graham and baker are two way runners that provide some pressure football which we lack.

On Pixel 6 Pro using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[boondy]

Anyone saying Graham is slow , plodder etc. 34.2 kph clocked as richmonds fastest in 2020 . Hardwick loves him because of his tank to get to many contests .

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

stallion convinced me now. If Graham on a 3 year deal in any Liam Baker

7

Liam Baker

Age

26

Ht

173cm

Wt

72kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.7

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

7.9

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

2.6

4star

MG

222.2

3star

D

14.6

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

7.9

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

1.8

3star

MG

191.9

3star

D

14.4

4star

K

6.2

3star

HB

8.2

5star

M

1.6

2star

T

1.8

4star

MG

224.2

4star

trade is able to save us a 2nd rounder then its probably worth doing/eating up a list spot for.

 

[stallon]

stallion convinced me now. If Graham on a 3 year deal in any Liam Baker trade is able to save us a 2nd rounder then its probably worth doing/eating up a list spot for.

Haha if that doesn't eventuate then idk why we got him, unless Garcia/Carrol types have all said no.

As some others here have mentioned we had JJ, Gaff and Sheed plus a couple of wafl top ups doing bulk CBAs in the wafl last week. We need more depth there

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Dont mind that one bit to be honest and would 100% be a good idea

Unfortunately we are Freo of the past now. We are no longer the club to go to. We are in a real hole and it's going to take years to get back.
Freo are the club in WA with all the good stuff to look forward to, whether they cash in on it it is another thing but we are miles away.
We need to do what we need to do. We must get English if we can, he is a priority as our rucks are poor. We must add some depth to our midfield as not only does it help us be more competitive it also helps us keep Harley for a few extra years. This is why we have to look if we can get a Bolton if its possible.
There is lots to consider and much to be done, real test for the club this period will be.

 

[Shueygod]

I don’t know how you could have watched Graham this season and thought he’s anything but a plodder.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

If we can offer Graham overs to bring him to band 2 compo on the condition we get Baker for a 2nd rounder, thats far from a terrible scenario.

Aside from Baker and English it's not like there is any b graders even being linked to us. It's all fringe players who can't get games.

IF we are going to get Baker that's probably the best result.

Just really really hope its not a long term deal. Just don't rate Baker that highly and think his game won't hold up longterm due to his size and lack of skill.

 

[ziad]

Unfortunately we are Freo of the past now. We are no longer the club to go to. We are in a real hole and it's going to take years to get back.
Freo are the club in WA with all the good stuff to look forward to, whether they cash in on it it is another thing but we are miles away.
We need to do what we need to do. We must get English if we can, he is a priority as our rucks are poor. We must add some depth to our midfield as not only does it help us be more competitive it also helps us keep Harley for a few extra years. This is why we have to look if we can get a Bolton if its possible.
There is lots to consider and much to be done, real test for the club this period will be.

Sadly I tend to agree with mister positive!

 

[random260]

Agreed, It is a pretty good rankings, but I can't have FOS at 2 it's starting to annoy me. He's done nothing this year, nothing!!!
From a WCE POV, he's way too dangerous to take at pick 2/3 for us if we use it there and don't trade/split. Only have to look at the slow burn Chesser has been (good underager but interrupted u18s year), we simply can't afford not to nail that pick or split.

I'd much prefer a player that has had a very good u18s year at that pick - Draper, Jagga, Smillie or Reid!

If we split and got him at pick 5 or 6, I'd be more comfortable with that as we get another talented player to mitigate that risk.

Don't get me wrong, he's got loads of talent. Just haven't seen it much at all this year!

FOS has only proved he's a risk this year. However he is no more of a risk then Smillie.

I'd back him in as his ceiling is high also you have to cross fingers he's like Wardlaw. But the only argument against not taking FOS is Jagga (assume Sid who is standout number 1 is off table). Even then I'd still hesitantly back FOS over Jagga but it's a risk.

But Smillie is a bigger risk then FOS.

Let's rank talent by less risky
1. Draper (set as a stone mid no risk)
2. Jagga (proven form in VFL although his body but still)
3. Tobie (no risk at all only risk is if our intention is him mid in which case he doesn't have runs on the board as mid)
4. FOS (a risk as he hasn't proven himself as accumulator in his draft year)
5. Smillie (did well in coats but in national champs against better talent he struggled has not proven himself VFL. Risk)

Lalor (hasn't proven himself as a mid beside from couple of coats talent game. No VFL expirence. No set mid position)

So you see everyone carries risk except draper and Jagga (arguable)

 

[stallon]

IF we are going to get Baker that's probably the best result.

Just really really hope its not a long term deal. Just don't rate Baker that highly and think his game won't hold up longterm due to his size and lack of skill.

3-4 year deals for both Graham and Baker keeps them around until they're 30ish, then reassess would be ideal imo