Who your club should sign in the supplemental selection period

You decide to write an article called "Who your club should sign in the supplemental selection period" But yet you don't even attempt to provide a possible player for at least 2 clubs Port and Richmond to recruit.

The AFL can give the lowest ranking clubs on the table the earliest picks in the draft but their recruiting teams have got to be smart enough to use them to get the best available players. It is in hindsight that we discover it doesn't often doesn't happen that way. With regard to the perceived lack of performance of players picked at 6 in the draft, I wonder if it stacks up any differently if you actually review the player selected by the club that had pick 6 at the beginning of draft night. For instance, in 2021 Adelaide originally had pick 4 but after bids on father-sons, Daicos and Darcy, they used pick 6 to select Josh Rachele. Fremantle who originally had pick 6 that consequently fell to pick 8 used it to select Jye Amiss. Similarly, in 2020 Hawthorn originally had pick 4. After a earlier bid on Jamarra Ugle-Hagen by Adelaide that was matched by the Bulldogs, Hawthorn's pick 4 became pick 5. Hawthorn then bid on Braeden Campbell, which was matched by Sydney and pick 5 became pick 6, which Hawthorn used on Denver Grainger-Barras. However, Essendon had the original pick 6, which then fell to pick 8 after the bids on Academy players were matched by the linked clubs. Essendon used that to select Nik Cox. In 2015 Carlton had pick 5 and used it to bid on Will Setterfield, which was matched by GWS and their selection fell to 6 which they used on Sam Petrevski-Seton. Gold Coast, who originally held pick 6, ended up with pick 7 and took Jack Scrimshaw. The only awareness that I have of the number six having negative connotations is in our culture of religious symbolism. The number seven signifies completeness and the number 6, being a little short of completeness, signifies imperfection. However the number six doesn't portend bad luck any more than any other number, and the number 7 doesn't portend good luck. If a club's recruitment people are good enough to use pick 6 to their advantage, it's better than having pick 7, in my opinion.

I think we hope that Paddy McCartin won't have another concussion episode that ends his career, but we all are concerned that more likely than not he will. If he gets listed by Sydney during the pre-season SPP, The emphasis of the AFL in recent seasons to protect the players heads also possibly reduces the situations where he may have been previously likely to cop a head blow. I think it would be a good idea for him to wear protective head gear during games. I am not sure whether he finds that it significantly impedes him, but there are several excellent AFL players who wear it. If he's playing in defence, I wonder whether he's less likely to cop a stray fist from a player trying to spoil a mark than if he is playing in the forward line. At the same time, if he plays in defence he's likely to get more possessions during a match and do more possessions increase the risks of him having a head knock? I don't have the personal experience to know the answers to these questions. Several years after his last concussion incident, he doesn't appear to be suffering any further ill effects. At this very moment he's going to be as resilient against future concussion as he's ever going to be. I hope that we get the opportunity to see the extent of his playing talent. However, he certainly should give the game away if there is any sign of concussion after any minor incident, let alone a major one.

If there is any pick that seems to have performed worse than a later pick over a larger time frame, it is likely to even itself out in due course. I wonder whether earlier in the history of the draft the clubs were making their selections using a less scientific basis. Some clubs at the time may have been better than others at it. Those clubs that more frequently finished higher on the ladder may have felt a need to work harder to maximise the benefit of using their later selections. While you can't predict some aspects of how players at 18 years of age will turn out as they get older, there also seems to be a lot more information on potential draftees for clubs to digest that will equalise any discrepancy as the sample size gets larger. Depending upon what happens with the draft rules in the future, clubs eventually should generally improve at selecting a better player at pick 6 than they would at, say, pick 12. That becomes even more likely if the age at which a player could be drafted was raised. However, I don't think we'd like to see too much unpredictability of future outcomes disappear from draft selections.

Wish Dempsey was playing for the dogs today :laughing:

Getting the VFL on TV is a start.

I wasn't aware that Stephen May was drafted as a key forward but he is a fine key defender. It seems he was a priority zone selection. I also wasn't aware that North were hoping Ben McKay (pick #21) could play forward. Maybe he could with time and patience, but he too is progressing well as a defender. I think that Nick Blakey (#10), although he is now playing well in a different role, was also initially viewed as a potential goalkicking key forward, although his frame may not grow sufficiently to suit such a role. Sam Darcy (#2), Mac Andrew (#5) and Callum Coleman-Jones may end up variously either as key forwards, mainly in the ruck or as key defenders depending upon how their careers progress. The list goes on. While a lot of players who were late picks may end up being competent key forwards, and a lot of early picks may have less than illustrious careers, in hindsight most of the key forwards that you would have liked to build a team's attack around were picked in the first round or early in the second round of the draft, or were father-sons or zone selections. There are always exceptions from time to time.

I'm a new follower of Roar and love to read about young people's journey through the Grades and finally making it in to the Top Footy.

Gary Dempsey 197cm and Simon Madden 198cm are the only ruckmen from the VFL era who had statistics that compete with current or recently retired ruckmen of today. Todd Goldstein 201cm has the most hit outs of all time. Max Gawn 208cm has the best average hit outs per game and most hit outs in a season. Jarrod Witts 209cm had the most hit outs in a regular season and best hit outs per game average in a season. Aaron Sandilands 211cm was the first to break all the old records, including largest human to play AFL. With ruckmen like Paddy Ryder, Brodie Grundy, Nic Nat, Oscar McInerney, Ben McEvoy, Scott Lycett and Toby Nankervis dominating, plus Reilly O'Brien, Tom Hickey, Luke Jackson and Sam Draper competing to join the top group, the drop to emerging ruckman is stark. Sandilands, Sam Jacobs and Shane Mumford have recently retired, but they were among the leading lights of this generation of super rucks. More than anything, it highlights the need for bigger list sizes and an incentive for clubs to keep ruck talent as extra rookie spots and give them a thorough apprenticeship in Tier 2 footy, which itself needs to find extra funding to reward unlisted players for the work they do to support the AFL.

From a limited sample, December predictions of SSP have either been self-evident or totally wrong, without much in between. From what I can gather, players being invited to train with clubs over Summer are all being linked to VFL programs as a back-up in case they miss out on a rookie spot. The exceptions would be players that have a contract with an independent VFL club or SANFL/WAFL clubs. NIck Murray was invited to train with the Crows, but was no certainty. Alec Baldwin Alec Waterman was viewed as a more hopeful than likely selection, while Kaine Baldwin was a completely left field selection after the Suns signed him to their Academy program. Lachie Bramble only got a leg up when Tom Scully suddenly retired, while Melbourne stocked up with unfit Majak Daw and undrafted NGA kid Deakyn Smith. Richmond really surprised everyone picking up Rhyan Mansell from nowhere and then reinstating Derek Eggmolesse-Smith. Mason Wood and Paul Hunter got career reprieves from St Kilda when Paddy Ryder went on mental health indefinite leave, while the Dogs upgraded one of their Footscray players. So, no, I wouldn't rule anything out as the SSP is short for SuSPence!

Well done in compiling this list. I did something similar last year and there's always anomalies. Ben King was drafted as a key defender, although he did play for Haileybury, Sandringham and Vic Metro as a key forward while Max was injured. Ben McKay was also a swingman due to his twin brother being in the same team, but North recruited him hoping he could play forward due to Drew Petrie's age at the time. He also suffered from being compared to his elite brother, but in defence he's making a name for himself. More nitpicking, but Steven May was selected as a key forward and was really only thrown back because the Suns were developing a lot of young talls in their early days and had to find roles for Tom Lynch, Charlie Dixon, Rory Thompson, Tom Hickey, Tom Nichols, Zac Smith and Maysie, especially when Nathan Bock and Matthew Warnock got injured then retired. He is a scary proposition when he's thrown forward, but is probably worth more in defence.

Ben King says hi. So do Chad Wingard, Jack Macrae, Caleb Marchbank, Sam Petrevski-Seton and Jaidyn Stephenson. But not Reece Conca, Kade Kolodjashnij, Aaron Francis or Fischer McAsey.

Don’t rub it in it’s painful enough