Draft guess 1st pick

[older saint]

so we will either pick 4 or trade down to 5 or 8 with one of the adelaide teams. Everyone talking about us and live trading however I expect both adelaide teams to goto GC and offer their 2 first rounders for pick 2 or 3 . If not:

Carlton will take Walsh
CG - Lukosius
GC - Gets interesting , lost 2 key position players so temptation to take King, however i think with people up there now they take best available - Rankine

Leaves us at 4 .
Needs - Midfield class, speed outside with good foot skills.

Options : Smith, Rozee

Max King - touted best player in the draft at different times this year. My gut says this is who we pick on basis will not play next year or very little. Theory would be give McCartin, one last chance and either out or builds up trade value of him or others. To me a high risk strategy though as with Battle, Membrey, Marshall, McCartin we have a lot of big forwards.

Think they will take King - I would take one of the mids ( Probably Blakey - matched by Swans) .
thoughts

[silverhalo]

so we will either pick 4 or trade down to 5 or 8 with one of the adelaide teams. Everyone talking about us and live trading however I expect both adelaide teams to goto GC and offer their 2 first rounders for pick 2 or 3 . If not:

Carlton will take Walsh
CG - Lukosius
GC - Gets interesting , lost 2 key position players so temptation to take King, however i think with people up there now they take best available - Rankine

Leaves us at 4 .
Needs - Midfield class, speed outside with good foot skills.

Options : Smith, Rozee

Max King - touted best player in the draft at different times this year. My gut says this is who we pick on basis will not play next year or very little. Theory would be give McCartin, one last chance and either out or builds up trade value of him or others. To me a high risk strategy though as with Battle, Membrey, Marshall, McCartin we have a lot of big forwards.

Think they will take King - I would take one of the mids ( Probably Blakey - matched by Swans) .
thoughts

Max King (if he's still available)

[skeptic]

I’d prefer Rankine but I reckon we take Smith

[fugazi]

Probably some bolter that no one thought would go before pick 20, but we felt had special qualities.


Failing that- Smith (I hope)

[suss]

Does the fact that Port ended up with pick 5 mean there’s a deal between GC and Port already? E.g. Does Port know that GC will take the King Twins with 2 and 3 leaving them with one of Lukosius or Rankine (assuming we take the other)? Can’t imagine Port would’ve done the swap on a hunch. That would leave GC to grab Rozee at 6.

[6621104]

smith would be my pick- still developing, good size, likes the in and under, great kick, right footer (we have so many lefties) - we need midfield class.

[PADDLEPOP1001]

Rankine will go home in 2 years as will Lukosius
time to go a gun mid from Melbourne town Smith for me!

[saintsRrising]

GC - Gets interesting , lost 2 key position players so temptation to take King,
thoughts

Personally I think the Suns would be foolish to take either of the Kings. Being their build they will take longer to come on and that just sets up the Suns to be the nursery for them before another club pounces. Being tall youngs when their contract finishes they may not be displaying their best to maximise trade value.

Whereas Lukosius and Ranking gains them players who will play good football early on, and if they do want to go home will be showing exactly what they can do to gain full trade price.

[leighsaintsince66]

Max King spent a lot of time at Moorabbin while recovering. The Saints have clearly been highly interested in him and have invested in his welfare.
James Gallagher was appointed as list manager in early August, followed later by assistant coaches Ratten and Lade.
These recent additions to our staff may have alternate views and be more interested in an excitement machine such as Rankine (my preference).
However, my guess is that we'll take Max if available.

[DJ Higgins]

Rankine will go home in 2 years as will Lukosius
time to go a gun mid from Melbourne town Smith for me!

Not buying the Adelaide guys will go home after 2 years rhetoric. It is different between living in the gold coast and living in Melbourne but it is still a factor. It should be a factor but not the factor and there are plenty of examples of players that have left their home and gone interstate and stayed for most of there career, coming back towards the end.

Who do I want? Lukosious but very unlikely. Yes he is a forward but he was a #1 pick for a long time for a reason. He is all over the ground and looks like a nightmare to mark lie Roo was. Seems to have great vision kicks goals, takes marks, the kid looks that good
Then it is Rankin or Smith. Rankin is x factor personified but more a small forward that may play midfielder later where as Smith is a mid but an inside one. Either would be great and bad for various reasons

Who do I think we will get? Max King. Because we are idiots. The kid in untried due to his injury. Not his fault but he is an unknown quantity and we cant take the risk. But we will and still ahv ethe issue of only one fast player in the middle who really cant handle a tag.

[Spinner]

Although I've been against it I'm starting to accept King if he is the best player available.

Always best this early in the draft - don't want to miss a superstar because we drafted needs (again)

[ausfatcat]

Rankine will go home in 2 years as will Lukosius
time to go a gun mid from Melbourne town Smith for me!

Even if that's the case it would be a good result because we would possibly get 2 1st rnd draft picks in return

[Devilhead]

This thread is about who you think we will pick not who you want

With that in mind I reckon we will go RANKINE if available given that Lethers said we would have to be offered something compelling to make us trade out pick 4 on draft night

It is a message to Port and Crows - clear and too the point

[tedtheodorelogan2018]

I think the club is taking King, if not him then Smith or Rankine in order.

Depends on first 3 pics though I guess. I think we will keep pick 4 unless we get 2 x top 10-15 picks offered.

[Wombat15]

"St Kilda, which has pick 4 and is in the market for a tall such as Max or Ben King, could look to move down the order to get multiple first-round picks". Via Herald Sun

Personally, if we are trading down I want Hately or Collier-Dawkins. Conservative drafting is getting us nowhere in a hurry. Take a risk! Stop promising mids yet continuously taking talls!!

[degruch]

I'm still hoping GC will pick the King's, especially after their player retention issues, which will leave us with Rankine. There's no go-home factor with SA, FFS, Adelaide is a 45 minute flight away! As for King's rehab at the club, it's not the first time a draft prospect has rehab'd at the club and we've not taken them.

IMO I'm with Flog Barrett on the concept of Adelaide attempting to muscle past us to one of GC's 2, 3 picks on draft night, in which case they'll pick Rankine and my theory will be a smoking ruin...I guess we'll take Smith after that.

[mad saint guy]

Don't know why the hell we'd be in the market for a tall as the HS is reporting. We have Bruce, Membrey, McCartin, Marshall and Battle competing for 3 spots and we've just recruited Austin and Clavarino to develop while Carlisle and Brown are the first choice in the 22. Joyce is still hanging around, too.

IMO we absolutely have to take Smith. Looks like a cross between Hunter Clark and Lenny Hayes. Rankine would be even better but most of his career is going to be spent playing for a SA team.

Think we'll probably take Max King though

[saintsRrising]

"St Kilda, which has pick 4 and is in the market for a tall such as Max or Ben King, could look to move down the order to get multiple first-round picks". Via Herald Sun

Personally, if we are trading down I want Hately or Collier-Dawkins. Conservative drafting is getting us nowhere in a hurry. Take a risk! Stop promising mids yet continuously taking talls!!

Crows wanting to trade with Suns has always been more likely IMO than with us. However the Suns may have decided that the two SA boys are what they most want.

Pick 2/3 guarantees them Lucky or Rankine.

Pick 4 both may be gone.

Personally if I was calling the shots at the suns I would take the two SA boys.

I actually see the Kings as more of a flight risk as being tall they will take longer to come on. Plus die to this their trade value if they go may be less.

Plus Suns need impact now. Both Lucky and Rankine can play good football for the Suns now.

[Cordz2]

Rankine will go home in 2 years as will Lukosius
time to go a gun mid from Melbourne town Smith for me!

Not buying the Adelaide guys will go home after 2 years rhetoric. It is different between living in the gold coast and living in Melbourne but it is still a factor. It should be a factor but not the factor and there are plenty of examples of players that have left their home and gone interstate and stayed for most of there career, coming back towards the end.

Who do I want? Lukosious but very unlikely. Yes he is a forward but he was a #1 pick for a long time for a reason. He is all over the ground and looks like a nightmare to mark lie Roo was. Seems to have great vision kicks goals, takes marks, the kid looks that good
Then it is Rankin or Smith. Rankin is x factor personified but more a small forward that may play midfielder later where as Smith is a mid but an inside one. Either would be great and bad for various reasons

Who do I think we will get? Max King. Because we are idiots. The kid in untried due to his injury. Not his fault but he is an unknown quantity and we cant take the risk. But we will and still ahv ethe issue of only one fast player in the middle who really cant handle a tag.

I reckon once a local leaves Adelaide, they’re in no rush to get back ‘home’.

[BringBackMadDog]

Probably some bolter that no one thought would go before pick 20, but we felt had special qualities.


Failing that- Smith (I hope)

If this was our normal behaviour then we would've taken Bontempelli instead of Billings but unfortunately Bulldogs took the risk and not us

[wally]

My pick is Smith. Vic boy the interstate go home crap scares me.
I think we'll take King, someone who probably wont play next year, while we need a top notch midfielder
and cant buy one for love or money.

[Saintmatt]

Rankine will go home in 2 years as will Lukosius
time to go a gun mid from Melbourne town Smith for me!

Not buying the Adelaide guys will go home after 2 years rhetoric. It is different between living in the gold coast and living in Melbourne but it is still a factor. It should be a factor but not the factor and there are plenty of examples of players that have left their home and gone interstate and stayed for most of there career, coming back towards the end.

Who do I want? Lukosious but very unlikely. Yes he is a forward but he was a #1 pick for a long time for a reason. He is all over the ground and looks like a nightmare to mark lie Roo was. Seems to have great vision kicks goals, takes marks, the kid looks that good
Then it is Rankin or Smith. Rankin is x factor personified but more a small forward that may play midfielder later where as Smith is a mid but an inside one. Either would be great and bad for various reasons

Who do I think we will get? Max King. Because we are idiots. The kid in untried due to his injury. Not his fault but he is an unknown quantity and we cant take the risk. But we will and still ahv ethe issue of only one fast player in the middle who really cant handle a tag.

I reckon once a local leaves Adelaide, they’re in no rush to get back ‘home’.

I think this is right. The only player I can recall who wanted to go home - more than once - was Bryce Gibbs. Pav never wanted to and young Burton was dead against it until he was left with no choice. Lachie Neale preferred to fly over SA to get to BrisVegas. Correct me if I'm wrong but I honestly can't remember a top-liner from SA wanting to go home.

If you grow up in Adelaide and then come to Melbourne (or Sydney) it's like a Disneyland experience. Literally all SA holds nothing over Melb or Syd - other than family and friends.

[HitTheBoundary]

I think Connor Rozee has big upside. I would pick him.

But I would be happy with Smith.

[Gershwin]

Really want us to take Smith. Will be terribly disappointed if we take King instead.

[the dome]

I think & hope the murdoch rag is wrong.
We still need genuine engine room stars.