Rumour GFC 2024 Player Trading, Drafting FA, Rumours and Wish lists Pt 2

[cats_09]

Ask and we'll try our best to assist - so here's 2024 Provisional AFL Draft Order

As normal, would like to acknowledge & thank Lore for creating this, keeping it up to date and making it available for all users on BF to use and keep track of the picks ahead of the upcoming draft





I'll also sticky this post to ensure it's easily accessible for discussion of our hypothetical trader

 

[bulletproof]

After Smith’s comments about outgrowing the club, Dogs posters are saying he wasn’t good enough to break into their midfield and would have been 5th/6th choice next season. No mention of accepting a lower trade value though.

Interesting they have now moved on from their two best players in 2021 finals series. Smith and Macrae

I wonder if it is they really have better options or they have a deeply eccentric man coaching them.

 

[moond0g]

Their SANFL side are absolutely dog shit its pretty hard to kick goals when you're getting pumped

Perhaps. But I'd still like to see a bit more.

However, even if you completely disregard his SANFL stats as evidence that he ISN'T good on the basis that it's hard for a KPF to excel in those conditions, there's still no evidence to go on that he IS good. That is, other than his one good AFL game.

 

[FootyLad0]

After Smith’s comments about outgrowing the club, Dogs posters are saying he wasn’t good enough to break into their midfield and would have been 5th/6th choice next season. No mention of accepting a lower trade value though.

They are going through it over there BIG TIME lol

5 stages of grief kind of stuff.
Has to sting when Dunkley said they were an unserious football club and how professionalism at the Lions is like night and day compared to the Dogs
And now Smith is saying he’s lost passion for footy playing there and wants to rediscover it.

We are truly blessed ladies and gentlemen to have a club and a culture that is envied

 

[Reg Hickey]

Start with the prelim team. Nobody from that team is leaving by the sounds of it.

Then you've got Smith, SDK, Guthrie and O'Connor as proven AFL level players. Possibly Jack Martin if he comes too.

On top of that Clark, Clohesy, Conway, O'Sullivan and Knevitt all played this year and will be a year older next year.

So that's 27-28 with AFL finals experience and 5 developing kids with AFL experience. That's more experience than we started this year with and doesn't look like a team crying out for more depth.

This is a good call.

Assuming Smith gets over to us, I'm pretty comfortable with where our list is going into next year already. If C Guthrie can get his body right, even better, and if he does I think the couple of years he's had off could even extend his footballing life a little. He might be playing more like a 31yo than a 33yo.

There was a lot of talk about our midfield being a weakness this year, however Champion Data made the point that when Danger came back in we became the #1 team for scoring from stoppage in the AFL. That doesn't sound like midfield weakness to me. Add in Smith and potentially a fit Guthrie, plus another preseason into Holmes, Bruhn, Clark, Knevitt, Clohesy and others, and I think we're in very solid shape.

The fact that we were good when Danger came back in raises the most important issue for me though. He likely only has two seasons left, at most, and he won't play either season in full. So we need to be planning NOW for post-Danger.

We need a big, powerful, contested ball beast. Think Danger, Fyfe, Cripps, LDU, Tom Green. That will be our biggest hole very soon, when we can no longer rely on Danger to fill it.

The problem is that as solid as our midfield lineup looks, there is no obvious replacement for him. He was the best power mid in the game a few years ago, and right now is still formidable for the 12-15 games we can get him on the park. But I don't see any of our other mids being the type to fill that role for us - they're either small scrappers (Atkins, Clark, Clohesy) or runners (Holmes, Smith, Guthrie).

I suspect this was the reason we drafted George Stevens last year, because he looks to be that type, but by all accounts he hardly set the world on fire in the VFL so his future must be questionable. Bruhn often tries to play like a bull, but he's just not big enough to pull it off consistently IMO. Holmes is building impressive strength in his core, but again I don't see him playing the bull role - he's a metres gained type of player. Knevitt has height, but doesn't have the bulk or core strength.

So whatever draft capital we end up with this year, that type of player would be my priority.

 

[foxdog50]

This is a good call.

Assuming Smith gets over to us, I'm pretty comfortable with where our list is going into next year already. If C Guthrie can get his body right, even better, and if he does I think the couple of years he's had off could even extend his footballing life a little. He might be playing more like a 31yo than a 33yo.

There was a lot of talk about our midfield being a weakness this year, however Champion Data made the point that when Danger came back in we became the #1 team for scoring from stoppage in the AFL. That doesn't sound like midfield weakness to me. Add in Smith and potentially a fit Guthrie, plus another preseason into Holmes, Bruhn, Clark, Knevitt, Clohesy and others, and I think we're in very solid shape.

The fact that we were good when Danger came back in raises the most important issue for me though. He likely only has two seasons left, at most, and he won't play either season in full. So we need to be planning NOW for post-Danger.

We need a big, powerful, contested ball beast. Think Danger, Fyfe, Cripps, LDU, Tom Green. That will be our biggest hole very soon, when we can no longer rely on Danger to fill it.

The problem is that as solid as our midfield lineup looks, there is no obvious replacement for him. He was the best power mid in the game a few years ago, and right now is still formidable for the 12-15 games we can get him on the park. But I don't see any of our other mids being the type to fill that role for us - they're either small scrappers (Atkins, Clark, Clohesy) or runners (Holmes, Smith, Guthrie).

I suspect this was the reason we drafted George Stevens last year, because he looks to be that type, but by all accounts he hardly set the world on fire in the VFL so his future must be questionable. Bruhn often tries to play like a bull, but he's just not big enough to pull it off consistently IMO. Holmes is building impressive strength in his core, but again I don't see him playing the bull role - he's a metres gained type of player. Knevitt has height, but doesn't have the bulk or core strength.

So whatever draft capital we end up with this year, that type of player would be my priority.

The big reason why George Stevens didn't set the VFL on fire is most likely he didn't play in his prefer position in the midfield.. Lets wait and see how he plays when he gets his chance playing there.

 

[cats_09]

The big reason why George Stevens didn't set the VFL on fire is most likely he didn't play in his prefer position in the midfield.. Lets wait and see how he plays when he gets his chance playing there.

George finished 6th in our B&F - so was obviously doing something to impress the coaches

Will be interesting to see how he's utilised next season

 

[foxdog50]

George finished 6th in our B&F - so was obviously doing something to impress the coaches

Will be interesting to see how he's utilised next season

Exactly.. I don't understand what some people expect on what young players who just get drafted to go and play like Nick Daicos etc..

Remember in life, you have to crawl before you can walk

 

[catempire]

Some merit to looking at Martin, and retaining guys like Duncan and Bews, but a bit of underrating the value in some unknown kid at pick 82 or in the rookie draft.

In our prelim team, we had Atkins, J Henry, Zuthrie, Close, & Dempsey all taken as rookies. All those guys will play 100 games, all except Atkins are on track IMO to play 200 (Dempsey you could argue).

We have drafted 14 rookies in the past 8 drafts (12 unknowns plus Crameri & Henderson) so going at ~40% (5 out of 12) for turning non-AFL player rookie picks into good 100+ gamers since we got Henry & Guthrie in 2016. Not convinced that’s achievable long-term but at minimum 20% should be.

List churn is valuable. Three currencies in list management: draft picks, salary cap, list spots.

All good points but we are not short of list spots.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

This draft has depth. Happy to take more this year

I don't think the draft is super at the top end (last year was way better there) but for depth through the back end I agree there will be some decent role players. In particular we might be able to find a small defender that we need and maybe a ruck.

 

[catman2006]

I don't think the draft is super at the top end (last year was way better there) but for depth through the back end I agree there will be some decent role players. In particular we might be able to find a small defender that we need and maybe a ruck.

trick is how do we get more late picks this year other than trading future picks.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

This is a good call.

Assuming Smith gets over to us, I'm pretty comfortable with where our list is going into next year already. If C Guthrie can get his body right, even better, and if he does I think the couple of years he's had off could even extend his footballing life a little. He might be playing more like a 31yo than a 33yo.

There was a lot of talk about our midfield being a weakness this year, however Champion Data made the point that when Danger came back in we became the #1 team for scoring from stoppage in the AFL. That doesn't sound like midfield weakness to me. Add in Smith and potentially a fit Guthrie, plus another preseason into Holmes, Bruhn, Clark, Knevitt, Clohesy and others, and I think we're in very solid shape.

The fact that we were good when Danger came back in raises the most important issue for me though. He likely only has two seasons left, at most, and he won't play either season in full. So we need to be planning NOW for post-Danger.

We need a big, powerful, contested ball beast. Think Danger, Fyfe, Cripps, LDU, Tom Green. That will be our biggest hole very soon, when we can no longer rely on Danger to fill it.

The problem is that as solid as our midfield lineup looks, there is no obvious replacement for him. He was the best power mid in the game a few years ago, and right now is still formidable for the 12-15 games we can get him on the park. But I don't see any of our other mids being the type to fill that role for us - they're either small scrappers (Atkins, Clark, Clohesy) or runners (Holmes, Smith, Guthrie).

I suspect this was the reason we drafted George Stevens last year, because he looks to be that type, but by all accounts he hardly set the world on fire in the VFL so his future must be questionable. Bruhn often tries to play like a bull, but he's just not big enough to pull it off consistently IMO. Holmes is building impressive strength in his core, but again I don't see him playing the bull role - he's a metres gained type of player. Knevitt has height, but doesn't have the bulk or core strength.

So whatever draft capital we end up with this year, that type of player would be my priority.

I like big George as a person. He seems like a natural leader. Good kick too. I think he'll be too slow for senior footy though

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Start with the prelim team. Nobody from that team is leaving by the sounds of it.

Then you've got Smith, SDK, Guthrie and O'Connor as proven AFL level players. Possibly Jack Martin if he comes too.

On top of that Clark, Clohesy, Conway, O'Sullivan and Knevitt all played this year and will be a year older next year.

So that's 27-28 with AFL finals experience and 5 developing kids with AFL experience. That's more experience than we started this year with and doesn't look like a team crying out for more depth.

Yes and no.
I do think that our depth at the bottom 6 of our 22-or the players ranked say 16-25 on our list is pretty good compared to some other teams and the port game showed that with how terrible their bottom 6 was compared to ours. But our top end talent isn't as good as some teams and it's a real question mark as to whether the players coming through will be at that level or just decent role players. There's some like sdk who to me is an A grader who has had a down year, Henry and Dempsey who I think will be very very good that I'm confident in. But a lot of the others are question marks.

The other issue we have is list balance.
So for eg we have an oversupply of small and medium forwards. But we lack kpf coming through and we lack top end mids. This is why it shows so much when danger isn't there. Now we are probably hoping Smith will fill that hole but a) he's been down in form since 2021 and b) we probably need 3 or 4 mids like that not 1.
We also lack small defenders (which is the only reason to keep bews) and we have issues with key backs and in the ruck (unless you are much more confident on Conway's fitness than most people).

So while the list is good it's not necessarily a balanced list-which is not unexpected when a lot of older elite players go-but we are going to have to hit the FA market hard in the next 2 years and draft well to fill some of those gaps.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

trick is how do we get more late picks this year other than trading future picks.

It probably won't matter bc our 5th 6th 7th rounders will come in once everyone else passes and we can use them in the 60s at the end (remember this is how we got Lawson and Wiltshire at the back end last year). But I agree it would be nice to have more picks.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Lol. Settle down.

We're trying to get Martin and the Irish guy. We've offered Bews, Stanley and Duncan contracts for next season. That's not a future event that's happening right now.

If we thought really wanted to go large in this draft we wouldn't be doing all those things.

Maybe we end up taking more picks because Duncan retires or Martin rejects us but clearly that's not the current aim.

Bews has more to do with our non small back options and Stanley has more to do with Conway being injured again than anything to do with how many picks we want (ie if it wasn't Stanley you'd need to bring in another ruck anyway so it wouldn't create a list spot).
Duncan is an interesting one if he goes on.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

If we get injuries to any of Cameron, Neale or Ollie Henry who plays forward - Jack Henry or maybe SDK? We have a lot more coverage down back with SDK, Blicavs, Jack Henry, Kolo, Stewart, Zach Guthrie, Humphries, Bews plus COS developing. Easy to make a case for 1 or 2 of these moving to another role.

With Rohan retiring there is no coverage for the medium marking forward role. It is Ollie Henry or bust.

I would say O'Sullivan plays back (if ready) and Jack Henry goes forward unless we go for a smaller setup and maximise our quality smalls.

 

[year of the cat]

Yes and no.
I do think that our depth at the bottom 6 of our 22-or the players ranked say 16-25 on our list is pretty good compared to some other teams and the port game showed that with how terrible their bottom 6 was compared to ours. But our top end talent isn't as good as some teams and it's a real question mark as to whether the players coming through will be at that level or just decent role players. There's some like sdk who to me is an A grader who has had a down year, Henry and Dempsey who I think will be very very good that I'm confident in. But a lot of the others are question marks.

The other issue we have is list balance.
So for eg we have an oversupply of small and medium forwards. But we lack kpf coming through and we lack top end mids. This is why it shows so much when danger isn't there. Now we are probably hoping Smith will fill that hole but a) he's been down in form since 2021 and b) we probably need 3 or 4 mids like that not 1.
We also lack small defenders (which is the only reason to keep bews) and we have issues with key backs and in the ruck (unless you are much more confident on Conway's fitness than most people).

So while the list is good it's not necessarily a balanced list-which is not unexpected when a lot of older elite players go-but we are going to have to hit the FA market hard in the next 2 years and draft well to fill some of those gaps.

At the end of the day it’s pretty simple. We need to find another couple of elite midfielders.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

At the end of the day it’s pretty simple. We need to find another couple of elite midfielders.

No doubt-i mean we need a small defender and I think we will need a ruck too but history says you can get them cheapish on the trade market.
In terms of what will be pricey (in draft or trade) we really need a couple of elite mids and cadman. Getting them will be the hard part.

 

[year of the cat]

No doubt-i mean we need a small defender and I think we will need a ruck too but history says you can get them cheapish on the trade market.
In terms of what will be pricey (in draft or trade) we really need a couple of elite mids and cadman. Getting them will be the hard part.

We do but they are competitively easy to find. Bringing another Selwood and Dangerfield into our list will be the task.

 

[longtimecat]

I would like to see Patrick HUGHES, given a rookie spot. I think his body strength and his game style could transfer to AFL if he was given a year or two in the system.

 

[Catsace]

If we delisted Foster, and Tomahawk is retired. Makes me think we will go for O Lord.

I still think he is a flash in the pan type and won't make it, but I suppose we will need ready made depth or a young kid and will only have dud late draft picks... So I suppose it's probably best on offer atm with our trade/draft capital.

We need more Ollies, and is he not a grandson or distant relative of one of the Lord twins of the 60's? He belongs to Geelong....although I feel he's a bit Ollie Henry-esque.

 

[supahoops]

At the end of the day it’s pretty simple. We need to find another couple of elite midfielders.

This in a nutshell. Smith will help. Holmes should be. Miers, Dempsey and Humphries should all look to become genuine mids as they have the tools to step up to that.

 

[year of the cat]

This in a nutshell. Smith will help. Holmes should be. Miers, Dempsey and Humphries should all look to become genuine mids as they have the tools to step up to that.

Need a couple more than those names I reckon. Dont think Bruhn will be an A grader but useful nevertheless. Clark maybe. Maybe not.

I think it’s likely they aren’t in our club atm. Will require some elite talent ID and development or otherwise some nifty trade work.

 

[Gee Class Loco]

Duncan is an interesting one if he goes on.

Duncan is done.
Lucky to play a few games this year IMO.
Lost his pace and inturn lost his time with ball in hand inturn his disposal/decision making was poor at times.
He'll get his 2 or 3 games??... His 300 and then cya later alligator.
The club has done the right thing here.
Allows us to upgrade someone when he retires mid season or add a pick in the midseason draft.