The best Phantom Draft you will find.

[Charlie]

Weaver is the man when it comes to picking talent. If he says that a kid will go around pick 40, then it's a fair bet that he'll go around pick 40.

Check out his Phantom draft here.

[Jeffers1984]

I doubt we would go for 2 in and under players in this years draft.
Interesting to see Patrick Ryder going at 11. Seems definately like a top 6 prospect. Very Goodes type of player.

[bandwagon]

Does anyone know if Colin Wisbey has a go at a phantom draft? And if so, where would he publish it?

[stellation]

55. Bronik Davies ? Sydney

With our picks being so late I am happy to pick players based purely on how cool their name is.

[tantrum]

Originally posted by stellation
With our picks being so late I am happy to pick players based purely on how cool their name is.

Well, we're missing out a lot of even better ones I think. There's Looby, Swallow, Lucy, Oakley-Nicholls, Spangher, Crook. A lot of good names there.

Seriously though, this phantom draft is amazing. The guy has got a lot of knowledge.

[Slick Swans]

Originally posted by stellation
With our picks being so late I am happy to pick players based purely on how cool their name is.

I think on that basis we should pick all the kids with hyphens in their name. Sure we will end up with alot of lanky unco-ordinated, uncomfortable forwards cum ruckmen cum centre half backs, but in about 6-7 years we will have another premership.

[ScottH]

Not another Heath???

67. Heath Neville ? Sydney

[Ruck'n'Roll]

65. Malcolm Lynch - St Kilda
Wafer-thin Aboriginal rover who played as a near-lone forward in a horrendously dire NSW-ACT side and still found ways of magicing up goals from nothing. So very clever and clean around goals, surely worth a punt. He ain?t going to do much more developing in the NSW system. Won?t be drafted but would be great to see someone take the fly on him.

The only NSW kid listed form a "horrendously dire" NSW side and he goes to the Saints?

[SimonH]

Very heartening to see names in there (especially Malcolm Lynch) who have never been seen before. Lynch sounds like a punt well worth taking. We should prioritise local kids with talent, but the complete lack of any previous mention of him (and his lack of invite to draft camp) means that he's very unlikely to get drafted, and so will be available for us to take in the rookie draft (unless a lower-ranked-club... and that's all of them isn't it? ... wants to rookie him).

Based on the description given by Weaver (and other things I've read about the place), I would love to see Sydney pick Sam Gilbert (Weaver's #49) if he's still available at #52. Even though the description given makes him sounds like a LRT clone (and it's a scary concept that LRT can be well-established enough to have clones), he could potentially be groomed into playing almost anywhere. And he's a 'local' kid in the sense that despite playing for Qld he hails from far north NSW.

Interesting that Weaver has ignored Daniel Dzufer, a 189cm Qld forward who came 2nd (out of 70-odd) in the 3km time trial at draft camp, and is rated by others.

This article (warning: PDF-- go to page 7 of the document) indicates that as Weaver says, Bronik Davies is likely to be a player to suit the Swans' requirements perfectly (provided his disposal gets up to scratch). The fact that he has leadership skills at the age of 18 is an excellent sign; and the fact that he missed draft camp selection maximises our chances of him being available.

I also like the look of Chris Dunne a great deal. He's 182cm, 74kg (so probably only has 5kg or so to put on to be league weight), turns 19 before the 2006 season starts (and so is closer to physically maturing), and got a big rap in the reports on the TAC grand final, laying 13 tackles as well as gathering 20-odd possessions. Yet he didn't score a draft camp invite (I don't know if he went in 2004) and is not being talked about as a likely pick at all. Sounds good for him being available when our picks start.

Also notable is that this story which probably dates from mid-year suggests that 181cm halfback/midfielder Tasmanian Sam Iles has already had talks with Sydney before the camp, and coming 4th in the 'kiss of death' beep-test and 10th in the 3km time trial wouldn't have done his chances any harm. Weaver ignores him, but Footydraft (which gives him big ticks for everything but disposal) has him going at #45.

Interesting times.

[Red]

Originally posted by stellation
With our picks being so late I am happy to pick players based purely on how cool their name is.

I think this strengthens the case for Daniel Dzufer.