Top-end talent or package it up — what will Adelaide do with the its highest-ever AFL Draft selection?
As it stands after last year’s pick-swap, Adelaide has pick No. 3 in November’s draft and Carlton No. 8. But will the Crows use the selection on the best young talent or package it up for trade?
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After last year’s draft pick swap with Carlton — and the past 23 rounds of footy — Adelaide, as it stands, holds the No. 3 pick in the draft — the highest selection in the club’s history.
But with the Crows open to offers and plenty of change forecast over the off-season, will recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie have the pick in his hands come November?
Or will Justin Reid and the list-management team turn it into something else?
TOP-END TALENT AT THE DRAFT
The top two prospects in this year’s pool, Victorian’s Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson, are unlikely to be there at No. 3 but there will still be plenty of top-end talent available, which address needs on Adelaide’s list.
Lachie Ash
186cm, 80kg
Murray Bushrangers
The dashing left-footer, who was Vic Country’s vice-captain at the recent under 18 national championships, has played his best footy across half-back but he’s pushed into the midfield in the second half of the NAB League season, highlighting the impact his speed and his ability through traffic can have further up the ground. Traits Adelaide’s midfield is crying out for.
Hayden Young
188cm, 82kg
Dandenong Stingrays
Young is another highly-rated prospect with terrific foot skills and a bit of dash. In the final round of the under-18 championships, with his side trailing, the classy left-footer won a free kick on the boundary and hit a teammate in the centre-square with a 50-metre pass, which resulted in the go-ahead goal.
Young, who averaged 22 disposals at the carnival, has shown his ball-winning ability through the midfield late this season, but it’s his decision-making which has impressed recruiters.
Caleb Serong
179cm, 82kg
Gippsland Power
Earlier this season, the dynamic midfielder drew comparison to Port Adelaide superstar Robbie Gray for his size, clean hands and ability to work through traffic. Serong, like Gray, is also clever around goal and averaged 23 disposals, eight tackles and 130 Champion Data ranking points — the second-most in the competition — for Vic Country at the under 18 championships. While he doesn’t provide the same dash as Young and Ash — and could start his career as a small-forward — Serong looks set to become a complete AFL midfielder in time.
SPLIT THE PICK
While South Australians Will Gould and Dylan Stephens are likely to be first-round selections this year, will they be top-10?
GWS has two selections inside the first round, its own and Essendon’s, and with an early bid expected for its academy star Tom Green — which may even come from Adelaide if it keeps the pick — could the Crows and Giants strike a deal, which benefits both sides?
An exchange with GWS could land Adelaide two gun South Australian youngsters.
At 191cm and 98kg, Gould is a ready-made prospect, who showed off his elite foot-skills, intercept ability and defensive capabilities — in the mould of West Coast’s Shannon Hurn — for South Australia at the national carnival.
While Stephens, who has been a standout at league level for Norwood in the SANFL, has been compared to star Eagle wingman Andrew Gaff. There’s no doubt his run and classy left-foot will would fill a need at the Crows.
There’s also versatile Bendigo Pioneers midfielder Brodie Kemp, who might slide down the draft order after tearing his ACL in July. The 193cm, 82kg Victorian doesn’t possess the line-breaking speed the Crows crave but, given his height, Kemp would add another much-needed dynamic to the midfield.
Or instead of asking for both first-rounders in return, the Crows could ask the question about impressive young midfielder Jackson Hately.
The former Central District junior, who was taken at pick No. 14 last year, has starred for the Giants reserves in the NEAFL, tallying another 31 disposals and 15 tackles on Saturday, but given the strength of the GWS midfield, he’s only managed seven senior games in his debut season.
But will the Giants or Hately, who’s been dropped three times this year, be open to offers this early?
PACKAGE IT UP FOR …
Jack Lukosius
More than half of last year’s first-round selections have signed contract extensions, including Rising Star favourite Sam Walsh and Gold Coast’s No. 3 pick Izak Rankine. But the player the Suns took at No. 2, Lukosius, is yet to put pen to paper on an extension. While he still has one year left on his standard two-year rookie contract, the door appears slightly ajar for an Adelaide raid.
The Crows have made no secret of how highly they rate the Woodville-West Torrens teenager and the selection could become a major component of a package deal to pry Lukosius, who has averaged 11 disposals and four marks in his debut season, playing mainly in defence, out of the Suns.
Brodie Grundy
Until the star big man, who is set to become a free-agent at the end of 2020, re-signs at the Magpies, the talk about a potential homecoming will continue.
Could the Crows package pick No. 3, a future draft selection and, say, a Jake Kelly or Josh Jenkins for Grundy, who is after a lifelong deal?