Redrafting the 2024 Draft

Redrafting the 2024 Draft

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Just two years after a “legacy” draft, where Richmond had four picks in the top 15 including the first overall pick, the Tigers are 2-17 and below an Essendon team in the middle of an identity crisis that Steve Carell in Crazy Stupid Love would be embarrassed by.

With the senior pillars of the club fading, in particular Nathan Broad, the young players taken highly in the 2024 draft either aren’t playing or aren’t stepping up.

This week their embarrassment was to the Bulldogs, against whom they lost by 57 in one of the more competitive outings for the year. The Tigers’ percentage of 60.9 is the worst in club history. The second worst was 2024. The third worst was 1909. 

I am a Richmond fan and I’m not angry, I’m just checked out. Actually, that’s a lie. I got angry when I looked at the injury report heading into the Bulldogs game and saw Josh Smillie, Richmond’s pick 7 from the 2024 draft, downgraded from “return in rounds 22-24” to “Season”. 

Smillie has not played a single game for the Tigers since being taken as a Tom Green clone and can’t seem to be able to get through one single drop punt with a full sized ball without getting himself injured. 

He’s going to go down as an all-time calamitous pick among a sea of them if he can’t get himself on the park soon.

Anyway, two years on and with an idea of who from this draft can play and who can’t, let’s redraft the 2024 AFL draft nearly two full years on.

  1. Murphy Reid (16) – Richmond

Actual pick: Sam Lalor

If Murphy Reid played in Melbourne, he’d be talked about like Nick Daicos. This guy is prodigious. He’s Guy McKendrick before getting his foot chopped off by that lawnmower.

In his second year, among players who have played every game, he is third in score involvements and second among mid-forwards in scoreboard impact. 

Alongside Josh Smillie, his game in the Derby is the other thing that got me thinking about this piece. He had 26, 2 goals, and 8 score involvements as players like him and Connor Macdonald reshape that mid/forward connectivity player that has defined the last decade of the AFL.

  1. Jobe Shanahan (30) – North Melbourne

Actual pick: Finn O’Sullivan

I have a key position player bias and Shanahan is the best of the key position players drafted in 2024. 

He’s worked his way up from pick 30 to pick 2 by virtue of playing every game this year and managing to go at better than a goal a game – 26 for the year – in the third lowest scoring team in the competition. That’s more than can be said for Jonty Faull or Harry Armstrong, both of whom were taken much earlier than him.

His relationship with Cooper Duff-Tytler threatens to be a bit Matt and Ben with the way it could define footy for the next decade. 

  1. Sam Lalor (1) – Carlton

Actual pick: Jagga Smith

This is where the original pick 1 goes. I really tossed up whether it’s Shanahan or Lalor at 2, but ultimately I picked Shanahan because of Lalor’s injury issues. He’s played just 20 games for his career, while Shanahan has played 19 this season.

Lalor is extremely talented, however. He’s powerful and smart, with a pair of hands that puts the vast majority of his teammates at the Tigers to shame. His body just needs to be managed better than it has been, which is true for virtually every Richmond player.

  1. Jagga Smith (3) – Adelaide 

Actual pick: Sid Draper

Jagga Smith is not my favourite archetype of player by a long way. He’s an accumulator, isn’t damaging enough, and is more of a grinder than an explosive player. 

But at 20 years old and off an ACL, he’s entered the AFL with 25 touches and six score involvements a game. 

While I prioritise damage in my view of players, Smith has to be the next picked here.

  1. Finn O’Sullivan (2) – Brisbane (F/S)

Actual pick: Levi Ashcroft

If Jagga Smith isn’t my kind of guy, Finn O’Sullivan is. He’s calm under pressure, always seems to have time, is a beautiful ball user, and has shown himself to be equally adept in shutdown roles as he is at getting his own footy. 

However, he’s not a massive disposal player and can get lost at times in a way that Smith basically never does. 

  1. Harvey Langford (6) – Melbourne

Actual pick: Harvey Langford

The first pick that stays as it was in the original draft.

Harvey Langford is doing an Ollie Dempsey impression this year, with Steven King apparently just copying his own homework at Geelong. Langford has license to slide forward deep and cheat whenever he wants as Melbourne hunts space like a truffle pig and has kicked 20 goals for the year. 

While he was good in his first year, King has found the perfect role for him. He wouldn’t fit necessarily in every system, but he certainly does in this one.

  1. Harry O’Farrell (40) – Richmond

Actual pick: Josh Smillie

It feels cruel to take a player who is currently injured in Josh Smillie’s spot, but this pick does two things. 

Firstly, it reflects how good Harry O’Farrell was down back for Carlton when he played at the end of 2024. Secondly, it reflects Richmond’s need for defenders as they head toward a season where they’re giving up 106 points a game.

  1. Taj Hotton (12) – St Kilda

Actual pick: Tobie Travaglia

While he, like most Richmond picks from this draft, has had injury problems, Taj Hotton is a freak show. 

He has at times remarkable hands and timing he just hasn’t played enough. With Hotton in particular, this issue was predictable as he had injury problems cruel him as a youngster which dropped him down to pick 12 in the national draft.

  1. Levi Ashcroft (5) – Gold Coast

Actual pick: Leo Lombard

A bit like Jagga Smith, Levi Ashcroft isn’t my favourite kind of player. He lacks explosion from stoppage and can be a bit slow of mind, but he’s playing every week in one of the best teams in the competition and is contributing. 


He has to be a top-10 pick.

  1. Isaac Kako (13) – St Kilda

Actual pick: Alix Tauru

The draft has started to drop off pretty significantly by this point, but Kako has shown enough electricity through his career to become a top-10 pick despite injuries.

One thing to note is that, like Japan in WWII, the Saints are lucky there was someone worse in 2024. They missed two picks in the top-10 in this draft, it’s just that Richmond missed them worse.

  1. Xavier Lindsay (11) – Melbourne 

Actual pick: Xavier Lindsay 

Another bang on the bullseye for the Dees in this draft. Xavier Lindsay is not a brilliant player, and unlike Harvey Langford probably doesn’t have genuine star potential, but was a good gap filler in midfield in his first year. 

Lindsay is a Stephen Root style character actor, where Langford is more of a Buscemi where there is the potential to ascend.

While his second year has been interrupted, I find it hard to believe Melbourne would pick someone else ahead of him at this point in the draft.

  1. Leo Lombard (9) – Richmond 

Actual pick: Taj Hotton

Well, now we know he’s going to tell you what he thinks. 

Lombard has freakish talents but, as Christian Petracca pointed out, he is occasionally selfish and does not work hard enough defensively as a small forward.

  1. Luke Trainor (21) – Essendon

Actual pick: Isaac Kako 

Luke Trainor looked a good player in his first year and a better coach would have been able to use his rare footy smarts and ability to cover the ground. 

Unfortunately, in this instance he’s gone from Adem Yze to Brad Scott. The question of whether Yze or Scott is better seems to be a bit like current Victorian election – neither seem great!

  1. Alix Tauru (10) – Richmond

Actual pick: Jonty Faull

I don’t mind making bets on athletes and Tauru is one. He should probably stop punching people in the VFL, though.

  1. Bo Allan (16) – Port Adelaide

Actual pick: Joe Berry

Bo Allan has some weapons out of midfield, in particular speed and length in his play. He’d be a good complement to Horne-Francis and Butters (for now).

Not taken: Sid Draper, Josh Smillie, Tobie Travaglia, Jonty Faull, Joe Berry