Pick 4 is way too much and 23 is unders, so there will be an exchange of picks. Could be more movement before the deal gets done.

It was bound to happen as we are going through a period of mediocre full forwards. I mean, there are some spectacular players in the AFL kicking goals, but since Buddy there hasn’t been anyone until the King twins who look like they could kick 70 or 80 in a season and even they are a ways off doing that. The past 10 years at the draft has underwhelmed for tall forwards, so Joe Daniher winds up looking pretty damn good when he’s really a ruck forward who plays on confidence when his team is up and about.

I think that the Suns are best placed to get the Western Bulldogs pick 17/18 given the Dogs need more points for Sam Darcy and the Suns have a pile of garbage picks and may yet get more for trading out players like Will Brodie to make cap and list space. After picks 3, 19 and 22, the Suns have picks 43, 55, 58 and 66, which is worth 835 points. The Pies will also be interested in swapping their pick 21 for points. The Suns will be looking at using 3 picks in the first round.

Now that Jordan Dawson has declared for Adelaide, the Crows will need to split that pick 4 although potentially they could end up trading it to the Swans for Dawson and pick 12, which is the equivalent of a high second round pick. Adelaide get pick 12 to go with pick 23 or they split 4 another way.

I’m not being defensive. You’re reading too much into my tone. I’ve been pretty consistent for 3 years on this. I don’t want Max King at the Suns either and I can’t see Ben King leaving while he has a club building a team around him.

Take a look at Harry and Ben McKay for an example of why twins should be in the same team. Those guys sledge each other something shocking and have resisted the temptation of playing at the same club because they have been adversaries their whole lives.

Daniher kicked at 60% when his shots were actually scoring shots. Without going through all of the game tape, I don’t think he even kicks at 50% if you include out of bounds on the full, sprayed and fell short.

You haven’t got Touk Miller on your list. He was 5th in the AFL Coaches Association champion player and 3rd in the AFL Players Association MVP, made All Australian and was Suns Club Champion.

Not sure why you saw fit to name such a similar list to the 7 players that were the mainstream media’s common picks.

St Kilda has nothing to offer Ben King. They didn’t even pick him when his twin brother had a ruptured ACL. The tweet St Kilda sent right after he was drafted saying see you in 2 years was in poor taste and Ben himself has hated the speculation from the get go.

If you’re going to compare the pair, Ben is ahead in games and development, but Max has had longer at the position. I wrote an extensive article about it before the season and will be doing a follow up.

I don’t mean they invested money, I mean time. By giving him games and time to develop, Freo are getting return on their investment.

The rule is you must have played 100 games. Fabian Francis did not play that many AFL games. The question remains as to whether adopted children qualify.

Jack was staunch for us in 2019 when all other tall defenders were injured. Then in the 2020 preseason he copped the knees of Ben King through his ribcage, which effectively ended his career at the top level even though he played in the VFL this year.

It’s a brutal position to play for an undersized key defender. I reckon Jack would have played on just about every key forward in the comp in his time.

He’s been a terrific mentor to the young backs coming through the ranks and I reckon he’ll have a future in coaching if he decides to finish playing altogether.

When Stuart Dew was announced as coach I thought he’d drag some veteran players with him, but not one followed. Those guys belong to Horse and I reckon most of them are on much less coin than they could get elsewhere.

So you should. Start pairing up with your best AFLW players as sperm donors when the women are ready to retire. By 2050 the whole club will be wall to wall Libbas, Bonts, Wests, Darcys and Smiths.

I think the AFL Commission is looking at stuff like this to really make the draft more dynamic. One proposal tabled is to split the top 6, middle 6 and bottom 6 after 17 rounds so they each play the teams around them on the ladder to determine the final order. For bottom 6 teams they are looking for incentives to avoid last place, so this is the type of thing that would make the final 5 rounds interesting because clubs would be competing to win concessions instead of playing the kids and slumping into round 23.

Other things they need to bring in are future pick trading for 2 years in advance with a fail-safe for deals that go sour and live player trading. Say North select JHF with pick 1 and immediately put him up for sale so that every team has the chance to bid on him. You can’t trade players but on the night of the draft there would be nothing wrong with moving on a player for a live pick trade. For example, Port Adelaide could trade a stack of 2022 and 2023 picks to get JHF which are useful to North for matching bids on their father-sons. Unlocking that kind of pick trading would make the draft a high rating spectacle.

Same every year. Telstra and Seven have it all wrapped up. Imagine the howls when Gil announced that the awards would be presented at Optus Stadium?!

It was live on TV!
“So, Brandon, how does feel beating your old team and putting them out of finals?”
“I’ve got MIXED EMOTIONS.”
You cannot spin that. He’s a genuine bloke. Your club doesn’t deserve him.

My point in speculating these trades – I wrote a whole article about it – is that Moore and De Goey are “pre-agents”. Both can walk to the club of their choice provided they find a suitor offering enough money to outbid Collingwood. However, should Collingwood trade one of them (I don’t think they’d trade both) this year they would get better value than waiting for a compo pick next year.

De Goey had his head turned by North’s massive offer previously, but Collingwood’s premiership window was wide open so he stayed. I don’t think Moore will go anywhere, but a deal with that kind of cache would have to be appealing. North could make their good backline great. Or their forward line.

Think about the implications for Collingwood. They steal into pick 1 and bid on Sam Darcy, Dogs match and so the Pies select Jason Horne-Francis. Then the Giants place their bid on Nick Daicos, which the Pies match. It’s an elegant solution to a complex Collingwood problem.

The club’s culture had a lot to do with players leaving. That and their extreme youth when they arrived at the club. May, Dixon, Martin, O’Meara and McKenzie were all just 17 when they first arrived. I nicknamed the team the Seventeeners (which did not take off) because they started out with a bunch of 17-year-olds and kept adding more teenagers in the hope that they would all grow with the club. Doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.

I don’t hate Richmond, mate. I wanted to go for them when I was a kid but my step-dad wouldn’t let me because he was pissed off at them for making stupid front office decisions. He was born in Richmond and played U19s for them, but shifted his loyalties to the frigging Bears and we all had to follow.

I’m not going to play your silly game because I’m actually of the opinion that the whole player exodus is a media beat up. The reason I say Richmond and Hawthorn were predatory is that they struck twice each, with Prestia and Lynch, plus Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Scrimshaw by the Hawks. Brisbane have been predatory as well, sweet talking players up the M1, but the Suns have done the same. In fact, Richmond have poached no less than 4 Brisbane Academy players and I am reliably informed that their Queensland scouts have their eyes on the Suns kids this year.

The arrival of Craig Cameron at the Suns has changed the way the list is managed. He’s moved on 42 players since late 2017 and that number will grow next month. He used to be at Richmond and I believe he intervened in the Lynch standoff with an agreement that the Suns wouldn’t match the Tigers’ bid IF they agreed to do some deals to get experienced players. Miles and C.Ellis were traded for the difference between 3rd round future picks, a deal worth the equivalent of pick 52, but which had the potential to be a negative trade it was so generous. Then Richmond didn’t match a bid on B.Ellis and let the Suns come and take Markov. They probably could have withheld Chol too with a decent contract.

I’m not saying it has been grand collusion, but the Suns could have matched the Lynch offer and forced Richmond into a trade not unlike GWS did to Geelong with Jeremy Cameron. That would have destroyed Richmond’s whole strategy.

Peter Wright was a salary dump combined with getting him to a good destination. The guy is from the Bombers catchment and was compassionately traded. Look at the Richmond trades to the Suns and you’ll see similar values placed on players as well as the free agency returns.

The Suns have goal kicking issues, but with injury and development those issues aren’t permanent. Not sure where you are getting your Witts information from. All injured players are on track for a preseason return. Suns may also get another veteran ruck to bolster if things deteriorate.

You have to admit that it would be a good way to solve the salary cap situation and supercharge the rebuild with the top 2 players. I’m not bullish on the Pies getting back into their premiership window any time soon.

Darcy Macpherson was worthy of being father-son selection, but he was snubbed. His brother was passed over too. Is it a Dunkley situation where the club doesn’t get along with the father?

The club relented and allowed him to return for the B&F. I can’t stress enough that his departure left a bad taste. He could have dealt with in a number of ways that left fans and the public feeling respectful of his decision. Instead the just took a crap from a great height and has been less than dignified since he left. Brandon Ellis had the insight to feel sorry for his old teammates when he beat them. Tom Lynch punched our vice-captain in the guts in order to beat the Suns and rubbed their noses in it.

I guess it is a case of compromised drafts. Was Freo’s pick devalued by 3 priority picks and their pick at 4? Certainly this year’s pick 1 can be looked at as a pick 3 in terms of where it will fall.

Tom Lynch, Gary Ablett and Aaron Hall all have Gold Coast raised partners. Steven May broke off his wedding to a local girl just before requesting a trade, which was a large part of the motivating factor for his departure. Jack Martin was 3 games short,although he also has a local partner.

He’s not in a great headspace. I’m not gonna muckrake, but the Ablett family needs Gaz to be close by.

Google it, Chuck.