List Mgmt. Contract, Trade and Draft Discussions - 2024 Post Season

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



Latest news and rumours:







  • Zane Trew, Jamaine Jones and Jordyn Baker delisted

  • List Manager Matt Clarke appeared on Gettable - Click spoiler below for summary
    On the draft: "We predicted that the draft was strong, but it's probably gotten stronger during the year."

    On top end of draft: "You could probably make five or six different choices and get it right."

    On Pick 3: "I reckon there's five (players) around that mark."

    On splitting: "I think you want to hold an early selection if you can. The depth of this group allows you to maybe have some movement there, and see what you can do to bring in more talent in the first 20-25 picks. Easier said than done, and I think most clubs would be saying the same thing. We'll see what we can do."

    On Liam Baker: "He's still yet to make a decision. They're still weighing up a few things. We'd love to get Liam on board from what he offers from a talent and leadership point of view. We understand where we're at as a group, we're rebuilding our group, we need to add some guys in the middle tier to support our young group."

    On Jack Graham: "We've got a number of players that we're speaking to. A bit of a wait and see on that one as well. We'll talk to a number of guys."

    On Shai Bolton: "I think it will be difficult for anybody, really. He's heavily contracted and a high quality player."

    On James Peatling: "He's heavily involved in a finals series at the moment so I don't want to comment too much on it, but I think there's a number of guys that have been playing really good footy this year that could suit what we do and what other clubs do. He's taken his footy to another level this year."

    On Tom Barrass: "We've had an early discussion with Hawthorn about it, they understand where we're at. He's nominated Hawthorn as his ideal destination. We want what we think he's worth, as a genuine key back in the competition that can do what he can do. We're obviously mindful of getting an appropriate deal for West Coast."

    On Tom Clurey: "Maybe (note: sounded very non enthused). We'd probably need some key back depth, whether that's through the draft or trade and free agency."

    On Jack Darling: "We've had initial discussions with his management group about (moving). We're open to talking, as we are with all of our players, but Jack's contracted with us."

    On Liam Ryan: "I expect him to be at West Coast next year, yes." (The most definitive answer of the day by a mile, a non-starter of a talking point.)

    On out of contact players e.g. Rotham, Witherden, Jones: "We're still working through what it looks like from a list point of view, and how many selections we'll want to have, and players that may come in and potentially may go out. You might want to give a coach an opportunity to look at these guys."

    On Harley Reid: "We've had discussions most of the year with his management group. I think it sits in a really good place. We're open to doing really whatever they want to do to be honest. We're really confident in building the right system around Harley, on and off field, to make sure that he's really comfortable, that he's going to play his best footy, and his long term future."

    On Jake Waterman's new deal: "Yep, really close. We're working really closely with his management on that. I expect that we'll have something done pretty soon."

    On Oscar Allen: "We've been talking with Oscar and his manager most of the year on that one. We're going through some stuff at the moment. I think we'll be ok with that one."




 
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Could Pyke and co. be plotting a faster rise than anticipated?

Benefits: Fan appeasement, finances, ensuring Harley stays
Negatives: Insufficient rebuild?

Considering how many kids we've brought in over the past couple seasons and hitting the jackpot with Harley, perhaps they're content with the youth on our list now.

Therefore, theoretically, if we went all in on potential trade targets even at the expense of decimating our presence at the upper end of the draft, our best 22 could look something like this in 2026:

FB: Hough H. Edwards Yeo
HB: Ginbey McGovern Duggan
C: Hutchinson Baker Maric
HF: Kelly Allen Hewett
FF: Ryan Waterman Bolton
R: B. Williams H. Reid Warner

INT: J. Williams, Graham, Garcia/Robertson, Long
SUB: Dewar

KPD depth: Bazzo, Jamieson, A. Reid?
Small/med def depth: Chesser, Hunt, Johnston, Cole
Ruck depth: Flynn, Barnett
Mid depth: Hall
KPF depth: A. Reid
Small/med fwd/mid depth: Brockman, Petch

Alright then, let's break down this side.
Strengths:
  • Elite midfield with Harley and Warner as our stars and support from role/versatile players such as the Richmond trio, Kelly, Hewett, Long, Chesser, Ginbey, perhaps Garcia, Roberton. The main concern is midfield depth beyond our star duo, but this isn't difficult to address and if some of the youngsters like Hall can elevate their games, we'll be well covered.
  • Terrifying forward line with A. Reid also developing nicely in the background

Weaknesses:
  • No elite rebounders from half-back is a huge concern. Farrell as a FA for elite disposal to compliment Ginbey's line-breaking ability could be a good target.
  • Hoping that Gov and Yeo can still play important roles in defence, not to mention replacing them once they do retire
  • KPD... Can Bazzo step up? Parting ways with Barrass does appear to fly in the face of this rapid rise up the ladder thinking, as he is the exact player we're lacking in this 22, especially post-Gov.
  • Ruck. Can B. Williams become a genuine option? Is Flynn actually not terrible? Can Barnett win the first tap of the day every single game?

Overall, I'm simultaneously excited and concerned with this all-in strategy. Would we be jumping the gun and hastening our rebuild to our longer-term detriment? Perhaps. Yet how often does the chance arise to bring in genuinely elite talent in Warner and Bolton to persuade Harley to hang around and help us become a contender again in the near future? And besides, the draft is always a bit of a lottery, whereas these players are established, yet young stars already. Plus, we would still be bringing in more draftees, just not at the upper end of the draft. But we can still endeavour to remedy some of our weaknesses with our remaining second and third-round selections, not to mention future trade and FA targets. It's a tough call to make, but if Pyke and co. are aware that this gambit is genuinely possible to pull off, then I wouldn't put it past them to give it a crack.
I do think this general concept is sounding like something we would do.

Look at Collingwood, Geelong, etc as clubs who dont get academy access but continue to be near the top of the ladder constantly as something to emulate. They look to top up every year via whatever way they can. Collingwood this year for example probably add Perryman and Peatling to their aging midfield, thats them sorted for a few more years for very little cost.
Collingwood has Daicos and JDG as their A-grade mids, Cats have nobody, but they have a very even spread of talent over the field, similar to Richmond of 2017-2020.
We have Harley as the centre of it all, we have a couple of KPFs, we can find KPDs later in the draft. The roles around them can be found cheap or with middle first round picks, dont need pick 3 necessarily to be used in the draft.
Weaknesses:
  • No elite rebounders from half-back is a huge concern. Farrell as a FA for elite disposal to compliment Ginbey's line-breaking ability could be a good target.
  • Hoping that Gov and Yeo can still play important roles in defence, not to mention replacing them once they do retire
  • KPD... Can Bazzo step up? Parting ways with Barrass does appear to fly in the face of this rapid rise up the ladder thinking, as he is the exact player we're lacking in this 22, especially post-Gov.
  • Ruck. Can B. Williams become a genuine option? Is Flynn actually not terrible? Can Barnett win the first tap of the day every single game?
These weaknesses can be covered without top 5 picks. Rebounders can be found later in the first round or 2nd round. KPDs in teh 2nd or 3rd round. Rucks are floating around all the time for cheap

Itll be interesting if this is the route we take, and if it works out.
 


Geez I hope we don't do anything stupid and offer up pick 3


Well didn't Pyke or someone say pick 3 won't be involved in the Baker deal. And pick 3 would only be involved if an identified higher rated player was traded in.

Aka Bolton or Warner.

Wonder how Warner is feeling today about his future. Two royal floggings in grand finals in two years. Ouch.
 

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So let me guess this right. We (potentially) trade out

Tom Barrass (29 years old)

  1. Current Vice Captain
  2. Former AA squad player
  3. Best & Fairest Winner
  4. Contracted for 3 years on a club favourable deal.
  5. Premiership player

for

Liam Baker (27 years old)
  1. 2 time Premiership player
  2. 2022 AFLPA Most courageous player
  3. Uncontracted


and the cherry on top is we get
  1. a current second round pick
  2. An upgrade of a future second (bottom 6 side) into a future first rounder (top 6 side) in potentially the most compromised AFL National Draft and First Round in AFL history.



I must be mentally handicapped because i cant fathom how this is smart business for a club with 10 wins over 3 years and a pressing need for high quality youth all over the ground. For those proposing this scenario what are you thinking?
Filling your team with a host of 19-21 year old kids means you still only win 10 games in the next 3 yrs.

Our entire list profile is so out of balance, we need to fill in the gaps. Those gaps are players in the mid 20s. While the kids we draft this year and the last 2 yrs develop, those mature players provide something we don't have.

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I hope the footy public scrutinises Baker and the club(if he doesn’t perform) as they’ve been with TK. Actually over spending on TK makes more sense than over paying for Baker.

Talked to a few oppo fans and they all laugh at pick 13 for Baker
 
So let me guess this right. We (potentially) trade out

Tom Barrass (29 years old)

  1. Current Vice Captain
  2. former AA squad player
  3. Best & Fairest Winner
  4. Contracted on club favourable deal for 3 more years
  5. Premiership player

for

Liam Baker (27 years old)
  1. 2 time Premiership player
  2. 2022 AFLPA Most courageous player
  3. Uncontracted


and the cherry on top is we get
  1. a current second round pick
  2. An upgrade of a future second (bottom 6 side) into a future first rounder (top 6 side) in potentially the most compromised AFL National Draft and First Round in AFL history.



I must be mentally handicapped because i cant fathom how this is smart business for a club with 10 wins over 3 years and a pressing need for high quality youth all over the ground. For those proposing this scenario what are you thinking?
This is it. The whole picture needs to be taken into the equation, not just what Baker is “worth”.

At the end of the day do the final ins and outs improve our list and/or age profile. The answer is no.

Baker may well be worth 13 in isolation (hard to see given he’s uncontracted). But given we’re probably getting unders for Barrass we’re only compounding the issue.

Baker is worse than Barrass, less of a positional need, and about the same age (ie. unlikely to be around when we need him).

The club needs to be more vocal when things like this come out. Immediate reply in the WA media with what we “expect” will get it done.
 
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Jack Graham's highlights are pretty solid for a freebee. Far from being a spud.
 
I hope the footy public scrutinises Baker and the club(if he doesn’t perform) as they’ve been with TK. Actually over spending on TK makes more sense than over paying for Baker.

Talked to a few oppo fans and they all laugh at pick 13 for Baker
Again, I’m not advocating for Baker. I’d actually prefer not to trade for him at all, no matter the cost, but,

It’s likely it’s 13 for Baker AND 21, a 6 pick downgrade. Posters continually leave this out and it’s frustrating. There is no talk anywhere of 13 on its own
 
**** turning Tom Barrass got essentially liam baker would be a bigger blight than 2022/23
 

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In all honesty if we give up pick 13 for Liam Baker im putting 100 on him to win the Brownlow.

Ill back Matt Clarke in here on this one.... cos im assuming he thinks he will win

Why would mini and Clarke hurt there futute employment to satisfy their former

Ridiculous comment

The amount of panick is laughable

Pyke has been very aggressive since day 1 and I would imagine Clarke would need his sign off at least for this post season trades
How is trading in players and coach from the bottom team going to work in a rebuild. Don't see any upside here at all.

Next they will be offering Harley Reid for a mid range pick.

Pyke needs to start considering his future. The member backlash will be massive.😡
 
Geelong is a strong counter-example to this.
Geelong is an extreme outlier in their list build so not a great example.
We really cant push our picks back further, I doubt we even consider it tbh we want to get good faster as we saw with last year trying to bring this years 1st forward to get Curtin or Caddy.
More likely to bring our F1 into this year if I had to guess.
Agreed. We are in as big of a rush as anyone else to rebuild quickly. Was more just a reaction to posters seeming to have cooled on the top-end mids in this draft (or perhaps they have all been discussed to death?). Pick 3 is way too high for a TT type, hence the split and trade forward suggestion. Richmond F1 would be hard to pass up for a good deal as it’s about guaranteed pick 1. Picks may be required next year for Warner too.

Like your non-mid first selection idea, not going to happen but worth a brief discussion.
I do think this idea of "support for Harley" is overblown. Hes not JHF, he doesnt need a "partner" right now, Yeo is still there and Hewett will join them next year in some capacity.
These points have all been discussed so not going to reiterate them but, you are talking perfect world stuff. An injury or two and our midfield is badly exposed. Trew, Culley and Hall (who I am hopeful on) all played games this year and were not up to it, and that’s with a far healthier list than we have had in recent years. Look at some of the good midfields and their depth and top-end are in another realm to us.
This output can be covered with the right role players and natural development. Our midfield wont have Trew, and shouldnt have Petch/Duggan/Ginbey, theyll hopefully be replaced by actual mids like Dev or Parfitt or something. Thats not minor.
I’m with you on being optimistic on some of these fringe guys, but again perfect world one or two become decent contributors for us. But there is just as much chance they aren’t up to it. There’s a reason they can’t get a game elsewhere and aren’t highly sought after.
Imo has to be a mix. We can recruit role players that are gettable(that just happen to be mostly mids this year) while picking up our future stars via the draft.
Was partly a rhetorical question as I think it’s clear that it will be a mix, but what percentage of each is the question. Baker and Graham are already looking like part of the strategy so what draft capital we retain will be a huge factor.
Good teams have 6-7 A-graders. We have 3 right now. If our 1st pick this year and next can be counted on then thats 5 for us. Just need 1-2 from other picks or even the 2026 draft and we are fine.
Again perfect world we draft well and in a few years we have another A-grader or two. But all draft picks are speculative. If we end up with a Will Phillips who doesn’t develop then we are left spinning our wheels with no progress. If we recruit well then we should definitely have the bones of a good list in a couple of years time.
Im sticking with it now partially because everybody is so against it :sweatsmile:
Haha that is pretty obvious. Well within your rights to be adversarial but there are some genuinely good points raised by other posters so I wouldn’t dismiss them and argue just for the sake of being contrarian. I’m all for exploring different view points though.
I do think its just as viable as going with a mid though
Probably about as close to conceding as you will give so I’ll take it! Haha
 
Playing devils advocate and bearing in mind I would much prefer not to trade pick 13

That of the ~4 players we like and believe will be available at pick 13, we expect at least 1 or 2 of them to be available at pick 21 such is the evenness of the draft?

Should we be playing Russian roulette and taking the choice out of our hands though?

Two times in the past 2 drafts the club has had to scramble because of a move another club was going to make.

We used 14 on Hewett after getting wind that Bonbers were trying to trade up when we thought we’d secure him with our second rounder and again last year we traded away this years third to get ahead of the Bombers to secure Clay Hall before they selected him.

Every club has its favourites and there is zero certainty they’ll still be available come that pick.

Why take a chance?
 
I think Baker will be a Banfield/Waters type for us. Will play midfield for the first few years and then play out his last year or two in the back line.

Good signing as long as we don't overpay.
 
Filling your team with a host of 19-21 year old kids means you still only win 10 games in the next 3 yrs.

Our entire list profile is so out of balance, we need to fill in the gaps. Those gaps are players in the mid 20s. While the kids we draft this year and the last 2 yrs develop, those mature players provide something we don't have.

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We need high quality youth. First and foremost. We can bring in bigger bodies via other means and besides we still have plenty of mature players for a few more years to bridge that gap.

However wo only have 4 first round picks on our list currently.

Harley Reid (1)
Reuben Ginbey (9)
Elijah Hewett (14)
Campbell Chesser (14)

Compare that to the two grand finalists on the weekend. We’re miles off.

Wasn’t that the point of trading Barrass? For top end draft Capitol?
 
This.

We are all too familiar with the following:
  • opening line in the media for trades being to the advantage of the opposing club
  • hearing nothing from the Eagles to refute that
  • letting that story become the consensus opinion of "fair terms"
  • then seeing West Coast deal to that consensus, and pretend it yielded good value.

The confidence gained from holding on to pick 1 last year was completely eroded by what the club offered on draft night for D.Curtin.


I just hope the new team in charge has a far better handle on managing trades than those previously involved.

Don't make me tap the sign.
 

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List Mgmt. Contract, Trade and Draft Discussions - 2024 Post Season

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