I don't think we paid overs for lee

[MC Gusto]

Pick 12 essentially giving us 3 players was a good bit of business

Pick 13 for hickey however...that might be overs

[stinger]

too early to tell on either...but they will need to turn out damn good players all the same.....

[paddy]

the media always neglect to mention the other picks we got in exchange....

[mr six o'clock]

Hickey looks OK and he has just turned 22 !
I hope in three years time when he should be playing at his best , where all saying what a great pick up he was !

[SaintPav]

We also got pick 26 for pick 13 which became pick 25 (I think) which we used on Spencer White and pick 47 which we used on TDL.

There was some really good analysis on this on BF which was highlighted by Kosifantuti.

They could all end up being duds. Who knows.

[Eastern]

Hickey looks OK and he has just turned 22 !
I hope in three years time when he should be playing at his best , where all saying what a great pick up he was !

I would think 5-8 years time. At 25 a ruckman worth his salt is starting to get noticed outside his own club (Ben McEvoy beat that theory by 1 year). Between 27-30 Ruckmen of note are in their prime !!

[cwrcyn]

Hickey is a natural tap ruckman with a good leap. In time, he'll be a very useful player.

Wright will be a really good player.

Lee and White are a flip of the coin.

I've got some hopes for Saunders, as well.

[plugger66]

As of round 2 we have paid overs for both players but there is at least 2 or 3 years to find out if we really paid overs.

[creepypolar]

Hickey is a natural tap ruckman with a good leap. In time, he'll be a very useful player.

Wright will be a really good player.

Lee and White are a flip of the coin.

I've got some hopes for Saunders, as well.

You'd hope with Lee and White, that atleast for one of them, we win the coin flip. Nice change

[Spinner]

Hickey has played more games than Lee thus far...

[borderbarry]

Saintpav we got TDL during the trade period. We took Saunders with that pick in the draft.

[Old Mate]

Too early to tell but I've got a better feeling about Hickey than Lee.

[SaintPav]

Saintpav we got TDL during the trade period. We took Saunders with that pick in the draft.

We traded out comp 13 pick for Tom Hickey for draft picks No. 26 and 47 (used on TDL during draft period).

We got pick 43 and 24 and Lee when we traded pick 12 to GWS and we used we used pick 24 on Nathan Wright and pick 43 on Josh Saunders.

[suss]

Too early to tell but I've got a better feeling about Hickey than Lee.

Agree. Hickey will be a gun. Lee - I doubt it.

Wright looks like a 200+ gamer though. Makes up for Lee.

[kimberly saint]

has anyone watched any the VFL games lee has played this year, hows he faired ??????? can he catch it , mobile etc

The VFL should not be much step up from WAFL

[bergholt]

Agree. Hickey will be a gun. Lee - I doubt it.

I'm not sure how you can be so confident about a 22 year old who's only been on the list for a few months. I agree that he's got a long way to go but it seems silly to be adamant that he won't make it.

[bigcarl]

Both will be good down the track

[Verdun66]

We seem to be going over old ground. We got packages of players for those picks. They weren't singular. At the time I read quite a few of the phantom drafts, and a theme emerged that the top 10 picks were really that, but picks 10-30 you could pretty much throw a blanket over. So instead of 2 players in that bracket we actually got 4 in the top 25. Then some bonuses in the 40's. Wright apparently could have gone anywhere from about 15-18 onwards.

Hickey we badly needed, as exemplified by our dire circumstance when McEvoy was injured last year. Other clubs were after him. Because we badly needed a 2nd ruckman nothing was 'overs'. Other clubs were after Lee apparently. We tried very hard to do the key back deal, but clearly would have had to pay overs, so we didn't. Nearly got done.

We are trying to catch up on years of poor recruiting, and are making a pretty fair effort. Getting 4 picks instead of 2 in the top 25 seems like a good deal to me.

[suss]

Agree. Hickey will be a gun. Lee - I doubt it.

I'm not sure how you can be so confident about a 22 year old who's only been on the list for a few months. I agree that he's got a long way to go but it seems silly to be adamant that he won't make it.

Note the word "doubt", not "know" - that's not adamant. He's had two bites at the cherry. Drafted. Delisted. Drafted. Kicked some goals in the WAFL in between. For mine, that's not sufficient to be exchanged for pick 12 (yes, I acknowledge the later pick exchange).

I desperately hope I am proven wrong, but if he doesn't command a game now with Maister as his primary competition (and note he's 22, consider how good pick 13 Jack Reiwoldt was at the same age), I can't see how he'll ever justify the price tag.

[BigMart]

We haven't seen enough IMO to form an opinion.

[remboy]

We seem to be going over old ground. We got packages of players for those picks. They weren't singular. At the time I read quite a few of the phantom drafts, and a theme emerged that the top 10 picks were really that, but picks 10-30 you could pretty much throw a blanket over. So instead of 2 players in that bracket we actually got 4 in the top 25. Then some bonuses in the 40's. Wright apparently could have gone anywhere from about 15-18 onwards.

Agree. Most pre draft guesses were saying similar (it was the same last year). The recruiters felt we weren't missing out on much by dropping 10 places (especially given that our later picks advanced in the order). Time will tell if they were right or not.
One thing to keep in mind is that they are trying to make as many changes to the list as they can in as short a time as possible. With the Lee and Hickey deals (as with the Saad/Milera deal last year) we've got three players for the price of one. They might make it, they might not but I think there's more chance of picking a winner from 9 players than there is from 3.

[Richter]

On the one hand he is already 22 so we really ought to see something that speaks of mature talent from Tom this year. On the other hand only around 30% of picks in the teens make 100 games so people need to bear that in mind when thinking that pick 12 gets you a definite gun. It doesn't.

[Verdun66]

Also been said that Lee is a late developer. Perhaps more like a 20 year old. Anyway, I hope he comes on and becomes a good player. A long season, so he'll get a chance at some stage. Saad didn't play until later on last season, so might be similar. And if he doesn't develop, and Nathan Wright or Spencer White do, then great. Spread the risk.

[BigMart]

Would people have been upset if we took Nathan Wright at pick 12?

Look at the player... Not the position they were picked

Seb Ross was taken at 25, Newnes at 37....... Right now, reasonably to suggest it should have been the other way around.

[magnifisaint]

the media always neglect to mention the other picks we got in exchange....

because the media are ill informed