Here's our drafting targets - A question asked of draft watcher "Knightmare" as to who are the best kicks in this draft, he replied
Elijah Hollands, Jack Ginnivan, Connor Downie (Haw) and Errol Gulden (Syd) are among those top of mind I'd have in the conversation. Definitely add Campbell. He's a top 1-3 kick. One of if not the most damaging kick.
So we all on board for elite kickers this draft?
I am not too surprised that we don’t have anyone in under 22 top 22 players. Many of the players are nearly 22 in that list and some of them such as king brothers are actually excellent.
I don’t think having an elite talent Of 1-3 players helps to win premierships anyway. If we have hardworking multiple players in the second 22 maybe, we should do very well. Our lads who have talent are all 20 and under - Rowbottom, Stephens, Jmac and McCartin.
Florent and Ling are the ones who were probably expected to get into that list but they are not and that is a bit disappointing.
I would get Elijah, Campbell and Gulden in this draft. Not worry about KPD or KPF. It takes years to develop them anyways and we can certainly buy them in a year or 2 if we think we are otherwise ok on our list.
Fix midfield depth First with talented 2 way runners and good kickers, followed by elite line breakers. This with atleast competitive Ruck. We have elite small forwards lined up already and I think our wing is going to be ok. Then we worry about KPF.
The best example of this is Brisbane Lions.... great midfield depth and ruck without good KPF and still doing well in the competition.
I see Serong, a player many pundits had us selecting at pick 5 last year, won the best first year player. There is much positivity around Stephens here, and he's obviously a talented kid - but arguably, Serong might have been our third best midfielder already if we'd selected him. Beetson, who gets so many draft selections right, seems to get way too cute when it comes to the (non-academy) first round picks - dare I say it, Stephens has the whiff of Paddy Vezpremi about him. God I hope that's not how it plays out.
I think Stephens will really develop. Elite runner and can already win possessions. Needs to build up and learn. Give him time please. I recall thinking that McVeigh was a dud in his first season or two. How wrong was I!
I don't see the Vezpremi comparison at all. Vezpremi look like he struggled at the level pretty much straight away, whereas Stephens clearly has class (IMO), confidence and is improving game on game. With respect, I can't even conceive of a basis you'd make that comparison.
Some of these decisions are made keeping in mind what’s coming and what we have got. Serong probably may be similar to Campbell and hence not selected and also we need better wingman and players who can be inside and outside too. Hence Stephens. I think we did well there.
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