Former North Melbourne coach David Noble may want the Roos to split their prized pick 1 this Draft, but that bold play has come with a warning – beware the future pick.
Former Carlton recruiter Stephen Silvagni revealed he weighed up doing a deal for pick 1 (Sam Walsh) in 2018 given the depth of talent in that draft pool.
But it was the potential future pick in return that was most concerning – given there’s no guarantee on what number that would be.
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“I think if you’ve got the number one pick, you’re looking for two early first round picks – whether that’s in this year’s draft or one in this year’s and one in next year’s. One of them probably needs to be in that top five or six and then the next still in the top 10,” Silvagni said on AFL Trade Radio.
“That’s where you’ve got to be careful – whoever you’re trading with, if you’ve gone for a future pick, you want to make sure it’s a relative certainty and doesn’t float out to (pick) 16/17.
“We had the number one pick several times and there was a year we were certainly considering trading that pick – the Walsh year. We obviously rated Walshy.
“We knew we wanted two picks inside six. So if we could get two in there, we were really going to consider doing that trade. We had conversations but there was some reluctance from clubs.”
Gold Coast had three picks inside the top six in 2018 while Port Adelaide, GWS and Adelaide all had two picks inside the top 20.
“You could see the quality of players there – Max King was in that draft, (Connor) Rozee. You knew the depth was in that draft,” he said.
“You just never know. Someone might have thrown three first round picks in there.
“You’ve got to look at all the options and come back and say: what makes sense?”
But Silvagni said North Melbourne would need to be confident in the depth of this year’s draft crop if it even considered offering up the prized pick one.
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“What talent pool is there? Because it can quickly fall away or be quite deep,” he warned.
“If it fits within that range, history will tell you there’s been plenty of kids taken further down that end up being the stars of the competition. It’s about knowing where the talent is and how far down it goes.”
Former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said he could understand why the Roos would do a deal for pick one, given the best player in the draft – Brisbane father-son Will Ashcroft – had already nominated to go to the Lions.
“It’s pretty straight forward for the Kangaroos I think – they just need the best young talent,” he said on AFL Trade Radio.
Given the club wasn’t in need of another young midfielder, Sanderson said there could be some value in targeting specific role players and trading out pick one.
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“I think the core is there. I think the foundation is set there,” he said.
“Number one on my shopping list is a key defender. (Docker Griffin) Logue is a perfect fit.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing a Brayden Maynard type – big strong defender that can play tall and small. Almost like a Cam Zurhaar that plays back.
“You build your forward line around Zurhaar and (Nick) Larkey. (They need) one of those high-energy, smart half forwards – like a young Jack Gunston type. Mobile, gets up the ground and back inside 50. A 30-40 goals per season type is what they need.”
North Melbourne list manager Brady Rawlings has said the club plans to be “heavily involved” in trade period this year.
“Our aim is to bring some more mature talent into the club,” he said.
“We feel like we’ve got a bit of a void in that age group.”
