AFL Draft 2024: North Melbourne and St Kilda’s picks in the top 10 are nothing to worry about for fans despite frustration
North were in desperate need for a key position player and the Saints were crying out for a star mid, so why did both go against all wisdom in the top 10? It makes more sense the more you look into it.
Draft news
Don't miss out on the headlines from Draft news. Followed categories will be added to My News.
On the surface, North Melbourne and St Kilda’s early draft selections were puzzling for their frustrated fanbases.
Short of talls, the Roos used their prized second selection to take another midfielder in Finn O’Sullivan.
It is the sixth midfielder they have taken inside the top 13 picks of the last four drafts: Colby McKercher, Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw Jason Horne-Francis (traded to Port Adelaide), Will Phillips and Tom Powell.
Seven if Zane Duursma evolves into a goalkicking midfielder like he was as a junior.
Meanwhile, the Saints are crying out for a gamebreaking midfielder in the mould of O’Sullivan.
With their back-to-back selections, they took playmaker Tobie Travaglia, who played primarily halfback this season, and 193cm defender Alix Tauru.
North Melbourne fans will be asking, why not a tall?
Saints supporters, with the consecutive selections of Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield – now at the Western Bulldogs – seven years ago fresh in their memory, might be wondering why they didn’t look at a midfielder?
Let’s start with the Roos.
The golden rule of drafting at the top-end is to pick on talent, rather than needs.
Tauru had been initially strongly linked with North Melbourne, but there was always an element of risk in picking him that high.
Six months ago, the intercept king didn’t even figure a mention in AFL talent guru Kevin Sheehan’s top 75 prospects.
Since then he has risen up draft boards higher than his extraordinary leap, which wowed AFL recruiters in the second half of the year.
The Gippsland Power prospect has the traits and scope to potentially be the second best talent in the draft, but ultimately it would have been a reach.
Koroit midfielder Finn O’Sullivan has arguably been the best player in the draft class over the past three seasons despite an injury-riddled 2024 season.
He was the best player at the U16 national championship, turned heads as a bottom-ager at the U18 carnival before a string of injuries – unlucky ones like hand and finger setbacks rather than ones of grave concern – curtailed his draft year.
Before those setbacks he turned heads at Arden Street during his stint with the club as part of the AFL Academy during the pre-season.
The elephant in the room is their stacked engine room.
There is a definite squeeze into the future with Luke Davies-Uniacke, Wardlaw, Sheezel, McKercher and now O’Sullivan.
But the damaging midfielder, who has maximum hurt-factor with his blistering speed, damaging ball-use and soaring leap, is different to their current mix.
The Oakleigh Chargers product only needs 20 disposals to turn a game and may start on the outside at first, but he is the icing on the cake of a mouth-watering midfield mix.
O’Sullivan shared his draft moment with Wardlaw, Sheezel, McKercher and Duursma at Marvel Stadium and can’t wait to be part of their next generation with them.
“I’m happy to play anywhere, just get to training and put my best foot forward and see what happens,” O’Sullivan said after being drafted.
“They have got a great mix of midfielders through there, for me I’ll just bring my strengths. My running, my feeding it to teammates and stuff like that, my overhead marking,”
“With their group, they have got so many kids coming through but they have also got some younger boys who play a massive part in that as well and have got great leadership. So excited to be part of it.”
In the end the Roos got their key position prospect in Murray Bushrangers swingman Matt Whitlock, but at a huge cost, sacrificing their future first rounder.
Then there is the Saints.
On paper it is two halfbacks, but they are much, much more than that.
The two blonde bombshells are from different sides of Victoria and are completely different players.
Together they bring the excitement and matchwinning attributes that the Saints sorely need.
Tauru is a cool, calm and collected character. In fact, the fresh 18-year-old went and got his drivers licence the day before he was drafted.
That test would have been a breeze compared to his whirlwind year which he went handled with a minimum of fuss.
His courage, vertical leap and reading of the play is exceptional – his meteoric rise began when he clunked nine intercept marks and had 15 intercept possessions in a single game for the Gippsland Power.
In another match later in the season, the Warragul talent stayed at the same end with the breeze for the Power and almost single-handedly kept his side in the match.
In the end, the Saints nabbed him with the Josh Battle free agency compensation pick, and Tauru is a like-for-like replacement with enormous upside.
Is there a chip on Tauru’s shoulder after being overlooked by North Melbourne?
“I don’t need to prove anything to anyone but myself and the team and the group around me and my family. It’s just on the now, and leave that behind,” Tauru said.
There was a clear focus from the Saints to inject run in last year’s draft – headlined by Darcy Wilson – and Travaglia fits that job description to a tee.
Bendigo Pioneers running machine Travaglia was dubbed ‘the albino Whitfield’ by one senior coach for his staggering GPS numbers, and that was before he came second in the 2km time trial at the draft combine.
While he was named on the halfback flank at the national championships, he moved into the midfield more as the season went on, where his burst and goalkicking saw him shoot up draft boards.
Travaglia might not be an out-an-out midfielder right now, but he has the potential to be in a few years – just like the evolution of Will Day at Hawthorn, who he has already received some useful advice from.
“I would love to be a player like him. Have the same management group as Will so have got to have a fair bit to do with him,” Travaglia said.
The deeper you dig, the more these selections make sense.
Originally published as AFL Draft 2024: North Melbourne and St Kilda’s picks in the top 10 are nothing to worry about for fans despite frustration
Dees or Suns? Famous Melbourne name opens up on ‘tough’ call
Kalani White, the son of Demons great Jeff, is one of the top prospects in next year’s draft. But will he pass up the father-son option altogether? A complicated, difficult decision awaits.
Giant coup: Geelong draft gun striving to ‘earn respect’ at GWS
Top Geelong Falcons talent Sara Howley’s reaction said it all when she became a top five pick, as she opens up about her impending move north. Plus, a St Joseph’s star finally gets their AFLW shot.