2020 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[sharp9]

Wow - Tanner Bruhn looked like he’d just been sentenced to reform school and was saying goodbye to his mum at the train station!

[gloveski]

This kid's a well kept secret. Can play!

Marc Sheather AFL Highlights - YouTube

I'm officially on the bandwagon.

I don’t normally like to go if a highlights reel but I’m on the bandwagon he’s Got that Paul Kelly mongrel about him with a touch of Isaac Heeney .


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[Markwebbos]

Wow - Tanner Bruhn looked like he’d just been sentenced to reform school and was saying goodbye to his mum at the train station!

He is so “happy” honest it was just “shock” honest

https://www.afl.com.au/news/528888/w...ess-expression

[MattW]

I too am bemused by our rookie pick, why a hbf when we should have been looking for a ruck protege, Even if he does not make it at least give it a try. Hbf we have a plenty

Malachy looks to have a lovely kick in that video.

There's no point picking a ruckman if we don't think there's one capable of being first choice. Our approach in the draft (and trade period) was mainly determined for us by circumstances. I suspect we're hoping Hickey, Naismith and Sinclair get us through the year, with strengthening the ruck a priority next November.

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I don’t normally like to go if a highlights reel but I’m on the bandwagon he’s Got that Paul Kelly mongrel about him with a touch of Isaac Heeney .


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I recall seeing him in Canberra in 2019 - the resemblance to Heeney in appearance and play was uncanny.

[Thunder Shaker]

He is so “happy” honest it was just “shock” honest

https://www.afl.com.au/news/528888/w...ess-expression

I would give the benefit of the doubt here.

Not everyone reacts the same way to such news. Shock or disbelief are quite plausible responses and for some the news could take a little longer to sink in.

[Markwebbos]

I too am bemused by our rookie pick, why a hbf when we should have been looking for a ruck protege, Even if he does not make it at least give it a try. Hbf we have a plenty

Clearly each list manager has a recruitment bias, for example GW$ can't stop themselves recruiting Victorian inside midfielders with high draft picks even though it's 99.9% they won't get enough opportunity and "go home" in two years. KB's sees to have a thing for HBF

[barry]

Wow - Tanner Bruhn looked like he’d just been sentenced to reform school and was saying goodbye to his mum at the train station!

Time to grow up young man.

I wish the AFL would come down a bit harder on players who declare they wont go to certain clubs/locations like Archie Perkins. Surely when you sign on to the draft it has a clause they you must go to the club who selects you. The AFL should have simply excluded Perkins from this years draft as a duty of care. He's obviously not mentally mature enough to agree to the contract of draft participation this year. Try again next year Archie.

[Rod_]

It's an impressive highlights reel, that's for sure. Guess one of the qualifications is what quality was the opposition in some of those games. Still, it shows the moves he has.

My observation from watching him in a few NEAFL games, last year's U18 champs and NAB League games (where he played as an underager) and this year's two academy games against the Giants is that he has some AFL attributes but doesn't do very much of them. As an underager last year that was maybe to be expected, so I'd been looking forward to him (and a few of the rest of his cohort) showing what they could do in their draft year. Sadly we were deprived of most of that.

He played mostly in the midfield in the two academy games this year and I thought he was a bit underwhelming - busier than in the forward line where I'd mostly seen him play, but somewhat meat-and-potatoes. He maybe shapes as a medium sized forward, who occasionally goes through the midfield, much like his look-a-like.

It's good to see a decent proportion of our list now comprising academy graduates - 9 currently on the list by my count.

Yep, I'm on board. I can see Joey Kennedy being his mentor! (hopefully)

[Aprilbr]

A rather positive analysis in the Herald Sun in Melbourne today:

"McDonald was a great piece to add to the young group of James Rowbottom, Dylan Stephens, Justin McInerney, Nick Blakey, Will Hayward, Will Gould and now Braeden Campbell and Errol Gulden, who was a steal at No. 32. They’ve still got Papley and Parker and Lloyd and Rampe and Mills and Heeney. In my eyes they got two of the top six in McDonald and Campbell and two of the top 20 last year in Stephens and Gould. They’ve got the best group of kids in the AFL and look on track for a premiership in the next three to five years. They’re building towards something pretty special."

[AnnieH]

Very happy we've taken so many academy kids onboard.
I think our "swans-type training" (mental and physical) is important from day one.
These kids know exactly what is expected of them.
There are no surprises.

[barry]

Kane Cornes has as a "buy", along with Freo as teams who are building lists nicely.

To be honest, I think when we free up buddy's contract is when we will become a serious player.

[bloodspirit]

I'm enjoying this pleasant lull where there seems to be a rare consensus of satisfaction across these boards with our draft. It really is fantastic that Logan McDonald slipped to us, and then that we got Campbell and Gulden without incurring any points deficit.

We are living the dream!

With any other pick at 3 (RT, EH, DGB, WP etc.) there would have been at least some posters sighing and fretting. I don't expect it to last long but I'm soaking it up while I can.

Now, let's use the 2021 season to show the rest of the competition that a dynasty is on the way. ;-)