Port Adelaide: A plusHamish Hartlett - midfielder
Jackson Trengove - tall forward/defender
Matthew Broadbent - medium defender/midfielder
Mitch Banner - midfielder
Jarrad Redden - ruckman
Glenn Dawson - medium forward
Jason Davenport - midfielder
An amazing draft, and it would have been difficult for them to do any better than this. The Power drafted the best of the local talent, and also added Trengove and Banner who are quality prospects. The Power have been successful with players like Rodan and Mahoney and now think Davenport has similar potential.
The Lade and Brogan ruck tandem has been very good for the Power, and due to their age a future ruck tandem was a big draft need, and the Power landed it. Like Lade, Trengove can play in the ruck and also up forward, while Redden brings a lot of ruck skills but will need to be in the gym for a few years to get Brogan's intimidation skills.
Both Hartlett and Broadbent could be in their round 1 team for 2009, maybe Banner too, and along with the talls they picked could be a big part of the future for the Power so right now Port Adelaide is the winner of the draft.
West Coast: A
Nicholas Naitanui - midfielder/ruckman
Luke Shuey - midfielder/small forward
Tom Swift - midfielder
Ashley Smith - small defender/midfielder
Jordan Jones - medium defender
The Eagles can always find the best in the drafts. Naitanui was someone that the Eagles expected to get, but would not have thought that Swift and Smith would be still be available to pick.
Shuey is the right type of player to add, and Jones was a logical pick too considering their list and the other defenders they have.
A year ago, if a club talked about getting Naitanui and Swift it would have been assumed that they may have needed the top two picks in the draft to do it. Swift getting injured again dropped him down, but he could still reach his pre-injury potential. Naitanui could be a combination of Cox and Goodes, it is safe to say that the Eagles had a great draft.
St Kilda: B plusTom Lynch - medium forward/defender
Rhys Stanley - ruckman
Nick Heyne - medium forward/midfielder
Alistair Smith - midfielder
Paul Cahill - tall forward
Colm Begley - medium defender
Help for the future, and help for next season, the Saints did well in this draft.
Lynch can be another marking player at half forward, hurting teams that concentrate too much on stopping Riewoldt. Heyne could also be used around that spot.
Stanley, Smith and Cahill are solid picks for the future. Begley is a good option late in the draft, and he should be a good addition to their back line.
Too often in the past, the Saints have gone with the unknowns of the draft and ended up with players that were delisted after a year or two. In this draft they made a lot of sensible picks, and may have a steal with Heyne.
Brisbane: B plusDaniel Rich - midfielder
Jack Redden - midfielder/medium forward
Todd Banfield - midfielder
Aaron Cornelius - tall forward
Bart McCulloch - tall forward/ruckman
Kieran King - midfielder
It is all about catching the sliders, Rich should be a star and Cornelius could be too.
For some clubs, Rich at pick 1 would have been a good move, Brisbane get him after he drops and get the perfect player to build their new midfield around. The Lions also added a number of other midfielders in the draft, which was the right thing to do.
Their talls from Tasmania will also be important. McCulloch is a long-term project and Aaron Cornelius is someone who can step into the team and play every game next year. Aaron Cornelius is the exact type of player that Brisbane need to help Brown and Bradshaw. If the two stars are dominating up forward then Cornelius can leave them the space while being a marking option along the wing. If Brown and Bradshaw have extra defenders on them, they can push up the ground and let Cornelius take on a lesser defender close to goal.
The Lions midfield at times last season looked poor, now it is Rich so the Lions had a draft they can be pleased with.
Essendon: B plusMichael Hurley - tall defender/forward
David Zaharakis - midfielder
Michael Still - tall forward
Tyson Slattery - medium defender
The Bombers did what had to be done, and didn't listen to the ones that had labelled Hurley "slow". Speed was needed in the middle, not at full back, and the Zaharakis pick was a good choice too.
Still and Slattery might become players in a few years, one up forward and the other back.
The Essendon back line, post-Fletcher, just got a lot better. They already have the fast, tall defender with Ryder and now they have a leader back there with Hurley who will make the right decisions and kick the ball long and accurately out of danger. Add in Pears, and maybe Myers and Dempsey, and the Bombers have a young back line of great potential.
Collingwood: B plus
Steele Sidebottom - small defender/midfielder
Dayne Beams - small defender/midfielder
Jarrad Blight - midfielder/tall defender
Luke Rounds - midfielder/small defender
Leigh Brown - tall forward/defender
The Magpies correctly identified their needs and picked the players to fill them.
They get a lot better at stoppages with Beams and Sidebottom, and have some speed to run with the ball with Rounds. Blight has the potential to do a lot of things, maybe he is a defender with the Magpies. Someone who was selected to be a defender was Leigh Brown, and he is insurance for a Prestigiacomo injury.
Carlton: BChris Yarran - small forward/midfielder
Mitch Robinson - midfielder
Rhys O’Keeffe - midfielder
Caleb Tiller - medium forward/defender
They drafted good players, but not the right type of players.
Robinson and O’Keeffe can play football, but they will be doing it in the VFL unless some of the Carlton midfielders are out hurt or suspended.
Yarran has the skills, but like a lot of other forwards Carlton have tried he may not see much of the ball. Yarran can be at his most damaging when isolated at full forward, Fevola may not be agreeable to that. While Yarran could be a big help to Carlton, there are a few reasons why he might fail there. The coach will need to rework his forward line and make sure Yarran is more than just someone who is supposed to pass the ball to the full forward.
What was needed at Carlton was a centre half forward and a tall defender. They didn't draft for that position so Carlton fans can expect more Cloke at centre half forward which probably is not a good thing.
Western: BAyce Cordy - ruckman/tall forward
Jordan Roughead - ruckman/tall forward
Liam Jones - tall forward
The days of Croft playing a key position and Standfield in the ruck won't be coming back as the Bulldogs loaded up with all the height they could find.
Maybe the Bulldogs are following the Hawthorn way of drafting. They added a tall called Roughead, as well as another tall forward with agility. Cordy won't be Franklin, but if he becomes a bit of Chris Grant and a bit of Scott Wynd the Bulldogs will be very happy.
Following the Hawthorn idea, that must mean Jones is the Bulldogs' Mitch Thorp. A big forward from Tasmania, but maybe will be used in a back line position.
Hawthorn: BRyan Schoenmakers - tall forward
Liam Shiels - midfielder
Jordan Lisle - tall defender/forward
Luke Lowden - ruckman
Shane Savage - midfielder
The Hawks planned for the future with height in the back line and youth to develop.
If the Hawks can play Schoenmakers up forward it will be fun to watch, while still a tall player, in some ways with his running and marking ability he could be a "mini-Franklin".
Lisle is added depth behind Croad, while the rest of their picks will be long-term developments.
Hawthorn achieved their Grand Final success by selecting the right players in a lot of the recent drafts, in this draft they continued to make intelligent choices.
Richmond: C plusTyrone Vickery - ruckman/tall forward
Jaydyn Post - tall forward
Tom Hislop - small defender/midfielder
Richmond got Vickery, and that made it a very good draft.
After Vickery, there isn't a lot for Richmond. Post is depth on the list for talls, like Hughes and Schulz, while Hislop seems to not have a spot on the Richmond team. With Raines returning, and Rance ready to play, a back line spot may not be there and they also play King and McMahon there too. In the middle, the Tigers traded for Thomson and Hislop doesn't bring anything extra compared to him.
Richmond added the right player in Vickery, someone with the height and skill to help in the ruck and in the forward line, so the draft will be considered a success for Richmond.
North Melbourne: C plusJack Ziebell - midfielder/medium defender
Sam Wright - medium forward/defender
Liam Anthony - medium forward/midfielder
Nathan O'Keefe - tall forward/defender
Warren Benjamin - medium defender/midfielder
A solid draft by North Melbourne, and that is a step in the right direction compared to how they have managed their list over the past few years.
Ziebell is the heir to Simpson, but can even do a bit more than their former captain. A leading forward, a running defender, size in the middle, Ziebell can play in most spots.
Anthony is a good choice, Wright may also prove he deserved to go so high. The Kangaroos picked the right players when it came to size and potential.
Sydney: CLewis Johnston - tall forward
Daniel Hannebery - small defender/midfielder
Campbell Heath - midfielder/medium defender
Not many picks but the Swans had a good day.
If the Swans didn't go tall with their first rounder it would have been a big shock. Johnston now joins a group of Sydney full forwards of the past and present with Capper, Lockett and Hall. He may become an entertainer of the crowd with his high-flying marks, so in that way he is similar to Capper from that group, and in hair too.
Sydney obviously thinks they are a bit slow, they traded for Shaw and drafted Hannebery to fix that. Heath is a running player too, for half back.
The Swans didn't take a ruckman, so Currie might be expected to debut in 2009.
Geelong: CMitchell Brown - tall forward/defender
Tom Gillies - tall defender
Steven Motlop - small forward/midfielder
Taylor Hunt - small defender/midfielder
Not the great drafts that they have had in recent times but there was nothing wrong with it. They did add players for their needs, height in the back line, so it was a solid draft.
Milburn, Harley, Scarlett and Mooney are the oldest players at the Cats, Egan is also injured, and that is why the picks of Brown and Gillies were logical.
Motlop might be able to add some more excitement up forward, but has to get past Gamble, Byrnes, Varcoe, Hogan and others to get a game. T Hunt might be in a similar spot in the back line, as Wojcinski, D Johnson, Ediriwickrama, Tenace and Djerrkura are all competing for a spot.
None of these players selected may help Geelong get to another Grand Final in 2009, but they will strengthen their list for the future.
Melbourne: D plusJack Watts - tall forward
Sam Blease - midfielder/small defender
James Strauss - small defender
Jamie Bennell - midfielder
Neville Jetta - midfielder/small forward
Rohan Bail - small forward/midfielder
Much more was expected. Melbourne did not get a lot with half their picks. It was all small after Watts.
They seem to be happy with Jamar in the ruck, few Melbourne fans can be happy with that. A lot of quality ruck prospects were available, Melbourne didn't seem to notice. They dump Jeff White and then decide that Jamar, Meesen and P Johnson are a quality ruck group, Melbourne need a lot more help there.
Blease is a good pick and he should send plenty of passes to Watts, Strauss before the potential of Swift seems like an odd choice. The rest of the picks look like something the Bulldogs and Tigers used to do, everyone small and quick.
The Melbourne rebuild is going to take a while, and they will probably have more high picks next draft to acquire a ruck prospect and another tall forward.
Melbourne needed to go a lot bigger in this draft, they didn't do it and the mismanagement of the list there continues.
Fremantle: DStephen Hill - midfielder/small forward
Hayden Ballantyne - small forward
Nick Suban - small defender/midfielder
Zachary Clarke - ruckman
Michael Walters - midfielder/small forward
Ben Bucovaz - medium defender/forward
Tim Ruffles - midfielder
Christopher Hall - midfielder
Maybe they drafted a project ruckman, one versatile player in Bucovaz, a solid defender and five Byron Schammers. Small after small isn't the best way to build a list, while they did need to look for help in the midfield and draft a small forward they also had other areas to address.
A forward/ruckman, someone like Trengove, would have been a good fit for their needs. A midfielder with a bigger body could be useful too. The Dockers may have gone into the draft thinking they need to replace Bell, Farmer and Black but they needed to do a lot more than that.
Adelaide: FPhil Davis - tall defender/forward
Shaun McKernan - tall forward/ruckman
Rory Sloane - midfielder/small defender
Thomas Lee - tall forward
Will Young - tall forward/defender
The Crows have veterans Hentschel, Gill and Moran. They also have young tall forwards Walker, Tippett and Sellar. There doesn't seem to be any need for all of Davis, McKernan, Lee and Young.
Among the oldest players at Adelaide are McLeod, Goodwin, Edwards, Doughty and Shirley, it would have made sense to draft players that could step into their roles.
Davis will be depth behind Bock, Rutten and Stevens in the back line, and Sloane may find a spot in the team sometimes when injuries or suspension open up a spot, but this draft didn't really help them in 2009 and the wrong players were picked to help them in the future when many of their smalls will retire.
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