Top five AFL players: 21 and under

With another season to reflect I've thought about this very discussion a few times. It could not possibly be disputed how much more valuable Patrick Cripps is to a team than Jake Stringer now. Yes Jake Stringer is a talent (so is Jake Neade and many others) but Patrick Cripps is a week in, week out jet and will only stretch his lead over him over the next few years. 13th in the Brownlow this year , 2 career B and Fs so far... The sky's the limit.

Since round 17 Stringer never got over 15 possessions, kicked more than 1 goal in a game just once, took more than 5 marks in a game just once and laid more than 3 tackles just once - I don't think that is the performance of the "prototype" player.

Cripps 'was also 5th in the league for hardball gets last year.'

Definitely Cripps over stringer. You need to get possession, via winning clearances, to kick goals. Would you rank Eddie Betts over Sloane? Or Breust over Hodge? In the next 5 years this discussion will seem crazy. 'To put it in context, Cripps is bigger than Fremantle's midfield stars Nat Fyfe (190cm, 91kg), and David Mundy (192cm, 89kg). He is also taller than Western Bulldogs young gun Marcus Bontempelli (192cm). He is also taller than Nick Riewoldt and Pavlich. '

That's what I was hoping to hear. Very happy if he can develop down back and maybe release Roberts up forward if Adams can hold down a key defensive post. Adams seems to have a lovely pair of hands and obviously reads the game very well.

He is a genuine key position size. He has played quite a bit as a key forward too. CHB or FB will be his go. Quite quick too.

I am Don,I had seen some highlights and immediately thought this bloke is for us the same as I was convinced Yarran was a good fit for my kids side,both seemed very getable and both were landed by thier respective clubs. Another plus with Adams,and Yarran also is I think they are very much ready to go. Could you see Adams holding down CHB or would you see him more on a back flank at AFL level?

Matty, be excited by Marcus Adams. I so wanted Freo to pick him up. He'll be on top of your excitement list before you know it.

I believe you could be right with the rookie listing Macca,not that I think it would be a good fit anyway. The doggies have recruited Collins to fill the full back role and this is by far a better option. With the likelihood that not much play will occur in Footscrays defensive half I believe with Hamling,Roberts,Collins,Z.Cordy,Roughead and to a lesser extent Morris and Adams the Scrays have more than enough coverage in the FB and CHB areas.

Didn't the Pies put him on their rookie list?

You also need a full back. Did anyone snap up Lachie Keefe after the Magpies delisted him at the end of 2015? Potentially solid full back and probably cheap.

Yeah Macca, Collingwood paid two 1st round picks for Treloar and O'Meara looks significantly better than Treloar (no criticism intended), so you're right, any club is going to need to part with significant picks or players for Jaegar. Unless you finish bottom, then you could just take him in the Rookie draft. But I suspect Essendon has got that spot sewn-up. As for Hurley and Hooker, I think they were significantly overrated by the media and Bomber supporters last year. The two H's are good solid players, but not fantastic. I'll happily stick with Jordan Roughhead, Joel Hambling and Fletcher Roberts for our key defenders thanks.

PD - Boyds contract wasn't an issue but you go after an O'meara and pay him what he is worth suddenly you have over 1/4 of your salary cap tied up in 2 players. If I was you I would be targeting a CHB as well, Hurley or Hooker might be able to be prised away from the bombers or you could get Pears on the cheap. If Weitering, Jaksch and Plowman come on we could trade you Rowe and Jamison for your first round pick. ;) The blues could go after O'meara but it would really depend on the quality of on baller that appears in this years draft - the blues are likely to have a pick inside the first 4 and I expect it will take more than 1 first round pick to get O'meara so I would prefer the blues got the best available on baller in the draft.

Spot on with Boyds contract and when the next TV deal gets done the salary cap will rise significantly,the clubs factored all this in. My one concern about paying big money for a CHB is that the ball is not likely to spend much time in that part of the ground. Our backs are looking ok though. Apparently Zaine Cordy has just signed a new contract to,he could come along nicely,very brave and athletic.

Agree with the Campbell comment although the mere mention of any Hawthorn player leaves me repulsed. We could find O'Meara keen to become a doggie,chance to become a premiership player no doubt but also a chance to go down in folklore. I think there might be a few to try and cross over like Suckling did for instance. I'd like to see us use some high picks to keep drafting for the future. Time has proven we seem to be one of the stronger clubs in this area and are starting to nail almost every selection. We do need to find Wils replacement,even if just for back up like Wil,sooner rather than later.

You're right, we probably need a ruck more than anything, but Hawthorn have just won three flags in a row without a decent ruck. Tom Campbell could become just as good as Ben McEvoy and David Hale without much improvement. If I had the choice between O'Meara and one of the better rucks in the competition, I'd take O'Meara every day of the week.

The Boyd contract wasn't a problem to fit in for us Macca. We were paying well below the salary cap and made a policy decision to pay 100% to be more competitive. Salary caps are increasing each year anyway and Boyd's contract towards the back-end of the 7 year deal will be below market value if he performs as hoped. We'll stop paying part of Griffen's salary this year (?) and have already offloaded Cooney and Higgin's salaries. Maybe a gun CHB might be more useful to us, in terms of current shortage, but I think we can make do with what we've got in our backline and another gun midfielder would make the whole side a lot more dangerous. But if O'Meara does become available, there will be a major bidding war. I rate him along side Bont as the most exciting talent in the comp. Carlton should have plenty of money to throw at him and might be better placed than many clubs to strike a deal with Gold Coast.

Anonymous - And that is before you take a gamble on some of this years draftees like Weitering, Schache Parish or Francis.

I would pick any elite player (or someone I believe will become elite) who’s 25 or under. Just off the top of my head the five mentioned in this article so Stringer, Bontempelli, Wines, O’Meara and Hogan. Then in no particular order Dyson Heppell, Liam Shieils, Jeremy Cameron, Isaac Heeney, Luke Parker, Dustin Martin, Jeremy McGovern, Adam Treloar, Jack Ziebell, Michael Walters, Chad Wingard, Patrick Cripps and Patrick Dangerfield. Not to mention the best of them all Nat Fyfe. All these players have at least 5-10 years of elite football left in them. There’s probably more who I have missed. Then players over 25 who I would still pick before Ablett would be Scott Pendlebury, Joel Selwood, Todd Goldstein, Lance Franklin, Robbie Gray and both Josh Kennedys (WCE and Sydney). Again there’s probably more but I can’t be bothered analysing every playing list. Just off the top of my head and I came up with 25 players. I’m not sure where you are coming from questioning this? Ablett is past his prime. He only has 1 possibly 2 years (save that he can even get back to full fitness) at the top level. If we were talking picking someone for just one season, than obviously my list would be different. But right now, Ablett has little left to offer past the next couple of years.

I'm not sure we need O'Meara either,we've already got gun midfielders who will probably have to play VFL. If we did go outside the draft at the end of a premiership season I'd look at another key forward for depth or a Ruckman as this could be Minsons final season.