A recent phantom draft from Sporting news has Dean at pick 9 (*'s second pick)
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/news/afl-phantom-draft-2025-top-10-prospects-first-round-projections/d09e6c7dcbea1d13897a67ac

1. Duursma
2. Uwland - GCS
3. Duff-Tytler
4. Annable - Lions
5. Patterson - GCS
6. Robey
7. Sharp
8. Taylor
9. Dean
10. Grlj
11. Melbourne
12. Melbourne
13. Hawthorn
14. GWS
15. WCE
16. Carlton (as below)

Pick #9 = 1355pts less 10% = 1220pts
Picks #12 & #14 = 2164pts
Balance = 944pts (pick #16 - 924pts)

From Cal Twomey phantom guide.
With 5 players to be picked before our next pick if the above happens there is still:
Schubert - 197cm Key forward
Lindsay - 183cm Defender/midfielder
Farrow - 188cm Midfielder
Marsh - 191cm Forward
Cumming - 186cm Midfielder
Greeves - 191cm Midfielder
Phillipou - 183cm Midfielder/Forward
Dovaston - 177cm Small Forward
Hibbins-Hargreaves - 186cm Forward/Midfielder
Oskar Taylor - 182cm Defender

If the club is interested in Dovaston and they think they can get him at the end of the first round I wouldn't be surprised if we traded our 'slide' pick back to get extra points incase an earlier bid comes in for Ison as we will most likely only have 1 pick that will have points attached to it (pick #43 - 184pts as it stands, pick #54 - 14pts might be wiped)
Or they might just take a points deficit into next years draft for Cody, I can't see it being too much.
Plus we can still trade out players next season anyway to get more points.

Let's just hope the bid comes in later than pick 9 and not at all for Ison.

The rules state that you can’t go into the draft with more picks than available primary list spots.

Once the draft begins, you can split a pick however many times you want to build up points. But, until then, the order is set according to the number of available places.

Clubs must have:

A minimum of 36, and maximum of 38 players on the primary list.
No more than 44 players in total, with the balance (6-8 players) made up from Category A and/or B rookies.

Right now, our list is:

Primary - 34 (including McGovern & Elijah)
Total - 43 (McGovern, Elijah, White, F.Young)

That leaves just one list spot open, and it won’t get us to the minimum 36 primary.

If we don’t cut the list down to at least 40, we won’t be able to start the draft with four picks. That means fewer points. Until the Dean & Ison are in the bag, points are all that matter.

A recent phantom draft from Sporting news has Dean at pick 9 (*'s second pick)
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/news/afl-phantom-draft-2025-top-10-prospects-first-round-projections/d09e6c7dcbea1d13897a67ac

1. Duursma
2. Uwland - GCS
3. Duff-Tytler
4. Annable - Lions
5. Patterson - GCS
6. Robey
7. Sharp
8. Taylor
9. Dean
10. Grlj
11. Melbourne
12. Melbourne
13. Hawthorn
14. GWS
15. WCE
16. Carlton (as below)

Pick #9 = 1355pts less 10% = 1220pts
Picks #12 & #14 = 2164pts
Balance = 944pts (pick #16 - 924pts)

From Cal Twomey phantom guide.
With 5 players to be picked before our next pick if the above happens there is still:
Schubert - 197cm Key forward
Lindsay - 183cm Defender/midfielder
Farrow - 188cm Midfielder
Marsh - 191cm Forward
Cumming - 186cm Midfielder
Greeves - 191cm Midfielder
Phillipou - 183cm Midfielder/Forward
Dovaston - 177cm Small Forward
Hibbins-Hargreaves - 186cm Forward/Midfielder
Oskar Taylor - 182cm Defender

If the club is interested in Dovaston and they think they can get him at the end of the first round I wouldn't be surprised if we traded our 'slide' pick back to get extra points incase an earlier bid comes in for Ison as we will most likely only have 1 pick that will have points attached to it (pick #43 - 184pts as it stands, pick #54 - 14pts might be wiped)
Or they might just take a points deficit into next years draft for Cody, I can't see it being too much.
Plus we can still trade out players next season anyway to get more points.

Let's just hope the bid comes in later than pick 9 and not at all for Ison.

Mitch Cleary
@cleary_mitch

Mitch McGovern is in talks with Carlton on a one-year extension.
The Blues opted not to play him in the final game of the season to hit a 2026 contract trigger.
However the failure to land Buku Khamis in the trade period provides an opening @7NewsMelbourne @7AFL

Mitch Cleary
@cleary_mitch

Mitch McGovern is in talks with Carlton on a one-year extension.
The Blues opted not to play him in the final game of the season to hit a 2026 contract trigger.
However the failure to land Buku Khamis in the trade period provides an opening @7NewsMelbourne @7AFL

First thing I thought when I saw the aim taken at Harry.

Our window is not closed whilst Harry is on our list.

I didnt realise that. I was sure teams had an abundance of picks, they were never going to use to pick players but rather to match a pick. see Daicos.

What I am reading into this is we can't delist players after the draft, that must be done before the Draft.???

Mitch Cleary
@cleary_mitch

Mitch McGovern is in talks with Carlton on a one-year extension.
The Blues opted not to play him in the final game of the season to hit a 2026 contract trigger.
However the failure to land Buku Khamis in the trade period provides an opening @7NewsMelbourne @7AFL

Once the draft starts, you can trade in as many picks as you want. Regardless of vacant list spots. But, once the list is full, no more picks.

I believe the contract year begins in November, unless signed as SSP… not certain on that, but delisted players that aren’t free agents must nominate for the draft. They can be signed as DFA after that.

I believe the timing is the main thing. If we delist McGovern now, therefore gaining a spot, he would have to nominate for the draft.

We have enough spots on the primary list, but we need to bring the total down to at least 40.

White, Young & Hollands would do it. Or any other combination.

We might delist someone like Fogarty & make him VFL captain. He’d get paid this year’s wage, plus whatever they get for VFL & we could add an extra senior body to that group.

We might even talk Travis Boak into a medium forward job at VFL level. Two senior on field leaders to really get behind Voss & Fraser. Maybe, just maybe, turn that area around.

Schubert looks good, even if he doesnt wear a Rapberry beret.

From reports that West Coast is looking at bidding on Dean at pick 2…
It would be very telling that Daicos gets to pick 4, Ashcroft at pick 5, and Harry Dean at pick 2!
I’d be tempted to let them have him and go after him after 2 yrs of misery at West Coast.

PS. It is ridiculous that they get to keep pick 2 notwithstanding the Free Agent rules/history given they won a flag a few years ago and then made the conscious and completely foreseeable bad decision to give away multiple high picks for Tim Kelly.