Plenty of healthy debate going on here but here's my two cents, I'll try to be as succinct as possible.
* This is a midfielders draft so it would pay to play to those strengths. We didn't pick Sam Taylor but that doesn't mean we get a similar type with a pick in the top 10. That isn't maximising our draft hand.
* With four premium picks you can model an entire engine room, a ten year plan so to speak. A blend of taller mids, crafty mids & inside bulls would be preferable. The guys I'm talking about include Johnson, Hobbs, Goater, Sonsie, Butler, Taylor & Ward.
* I would go with the taller mids first & then pick off some medium sized mids further down the draft, it's one reason I'm inclined to take Johnson over Hobbs. I think Hobbs makes an early impact and then gets passed by Johnson at the 3 year mark.
* People are waxing lyrical about Gibcus but there's a bloke called Goater who has better a better vertical leap, an elite sprint time and a proven track record is multiple positions. I am struggling to see how Gibcus is worth pick 7 but Goater isn't worth pick 15 (according to some posters).
* If we are intent on bringing in a tall then by all means grab van Rooyen but if pick 15 is the price then accept that he may only wind up being a KPD. Why? Because the key forwards littering the competition are generally taller, have a better leap & possess a few more tricks.
Play the percentages and we get four core players who will be impacting games as early as next year. Go down the route of Gibcus/van Rooyen and we are looking at 3-4 years of development time with no guarantees they will premiership quality players when the dust settles.
I would much rather nail down the engine room whilst we have this rare opportunity, the composition of which can be moulded to suit our vision of the future. My take on the next few years is bringing in guys who can match it with the Bont/Macrae/Oliver/Petracca types. Some might say there's no hope you will find the next A class mid in this batch, maybe that's true, but if you select players with solid floors then the collateral damage of failure won't be catastrophic.