Ok. The Crows.. Weird year. Obviously weird. Losing fourteen straight. Wining 3 of the last 4. Even weirder. Picking first you look at what you have to build around.
Reilly O’Brien, Matt Crouch, Rory Laird, injury prone Brodie Smith, injury prone Wayne Milera, injury prone Tom Doedee and maybe Ben Keays.
Then you have the kids, lot of good kids, lot of talls, that’s good. Fischer McAsey, Josh Worell, Elliot Himmelberg, Darcy Fogarty. They’ll get a few out of that bunch. Early picks besides Himmelberg. It’s the right strategy. Playing the numbers games with talls. But there is nothing sure fire. Yet. So you get the first pick in a year that has proven talls and smalls with question marks that can’t be answered without football. Ellijah Hollands without a knee injury is probably pick 1, with a knee and no footy it’s hard to take him at one. And the Crows need to build the midfield, there’s nothing there. Getting Jackson Hately for nothing is huge. 192cm midfielder who is 20 all of next year, Teal cup captain, school captain. Played SANFL seniors. Hard. Leader, top 15 pick entering year three with 13 games under his belt. Will play 20 games next year. Makes it easier to go tall at one.
You have Logan McDonald or Riley Thilthorpe, putting a line through Hollands.
Crows already have a first class ruck, might be the next captain, ROB bit like Nank goes better solo. At some stage Thilthorpe is going to be a ruck. Good collection of his highlights below.
https://sanfl.com.au/draft-pick/riley-thilthorpe/
Nothing long term makes me dislike Thilthrope. Think ruck Corey McKernan. Forward, it’s a bit Joe Daniher but I think he ends up spending more time in the ruck. But the injured groins make me lean to McDonald. Just.
So Logan McDonald, started the year at 193cm and 79kg, now listed at 196cm and 85kg at the combine. Still growing. Ran a 6.33 2km at the combine. Running forward, the Nick Riewoldt calls aren’t crazy. That’s the mould, presents to the ball hard up to the wings and an elite field kick. Natural footballer, makes great decisions. Played against men the entire year against men in the WAFL. Averaged 2.3 goals a games. Made WAFL team of the year as a key forward. Improving rapidly. I rate form in the WALF & SANFL highly.
https://www.wafl.com.au/player/logan-mcdonald
There’s no real question marks. He plays round 1. And it’s actually good for him to have Tex Walker & Tom Lynch mentoring him for a year. Could pair with Darcy Fogarty and rotate between deep and pushing up the ground. It’s a pretty comfortable fit to a huge hole they have.
Pick 1, Logan McDonald.