Quick-fire AFL draft round one reactions
West Coast got to work, the Dockers joined the bidding party and one WA player goes.
G’day punchers! A few quick-fire thoughts on the selections from West Coast and Fremantle after tonight’s first round of the AFL Draft.
Long story short - everyone bid on everyone.
West Coast picked up tall midfielder Willem Duursma with pick No.1 as expected, then made bids on Zeke Uwland (Gold Coast Academy) and Harry Dean (Carlton father-son) before grabbing ruck-forward Cooper Duff-Tytler at pick No.4.
Later in the first round, they gave Hawthorn a future second-round pick to move up one spot in the teens and bid on Gold Coast Academy boys Jai Murray and Beau Addinsall. The Suns matched both, so the Eagles drafted midfielder-defender Josh Lindsay, who has one of the best kicks in this year’s pool, at pick No.19.
Still with me?
The Dockers joined the party by bidding on Essendon NGA member Adam Sweid. The Bombers couldn’t match it, so Sweid, a fast mid-fwd who’ll likely end up a small forward at AFL level, will wear purple next year.
Jacob Farrow was the only West Australian picked up on night one of the draft, going to the Bombers at pick No.10.
The national draft will continue Thursday at 4pm WA time, before things wrap up with the rookies on Friday.
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WEST COAST
Let’s pretend West Coast are a building a house on a wild block of land.
First they cleared a bit of scrub, thinking that they could build around what was there.
That didn’t work.
To build a house that was actually going to stand up they needed to chop down the trees, clear the block properly, and build from the ground up.
Construction is now well underway.
Despite much scoffing, I still stand by my call that last season was West Coast’s best since 2020 (or around then anyway).
Not results wise, clearly. But they had some hard decisions made for them, exposed every kid on the list, and ended the year with three first-round picks.
Harley Reid, Reuben Ginbey, Jobe Shanahan, Brady Hough, Elijah Hewitt etc are the foundations.
Now Willem Duursma, Cooper Duff-Tytler and Josh Lindsay are the first few courses of bricks.
It’s hard to talk about where they’ll fit in and what the Eagles need etc because, essentially, they still need everything.
But good sides need good midfields first and foremost and that’s what the Eagles bolstered last night.
Duursma is all but a lock in the middle for round one, and while Duff-Tytler might start forward and Lindsay, with his lethal left foot, might start across half-back as a distributor, they’ll likely all make their way into the guts eventually.
At the very, very least, having three new first-round picks coming through will make West Coast far more watchable in 2026, which is a blessing in itself.
And there’s still more picks to come.
The one questionable decision of the night was giving away a future second-round pick to move up one spot and try (unsuccessfully) to squeeze one of Gold Coast’s academy picks out of the Suns’ hands. But we’ll wait to hear that explained in full.
FREMANTLE
Crafty forwards who can play higher are still in short supply at Fremantle, and it showed whenever Sam Switkowski was out with injury.
They liked Adam Sweid, who missed 2024 with an ACL injury but chopped up in the Coates League this season, and they jumped in at a point where Essendon couldn’t grab him without trading for more picks or going into deficit next season.
It’s going to be a light-on draft for the Dockers but it’s a list depth need addressed.
That’s the lot for today, we’ll be back with an update after the rest of the draft tomorrow and again after the rookies on Friday.
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