Late Mail: Trio firm for first pick; early trade alert as tricky night looms — AFL Draft LIVE

Some of this year’s top tall prospects are set to be in hot demand early on the second night of the national draft as clubs remain on live trade alert.

Twenty-five players on Wednesday night found new AFL homes via the draft, with West Coast and Essendon taking three players each as the Gold Coast Suns sensationally matched four top-20 bids on their best academy graduates.

The rest of 2025 AFL draft – Round 2 onwards – will be held on Thursday night, with another 25 to 30 picks expected to place. Coverage of the draft will begin at 7pm (AEDT) on Fox Footy, available by Foxtel and Kayo Sports.

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North Melbourne (Pick 25) will hold the first selection of the second round.

The prized pick is viewed as one of the most valuable in the national draft, as the club holding the first second-round selection will, over a 24-hour period, often receives strong offers from rival clubs keen to get ahead in the draft so they can have first rights to a preferred prospect.

While the Kangaroos would undoubtedly listen to offers – and if they did move, it’d only be a spot or two down the order – sources believe North would be less likely to trade Pick 25, due to the key-position players still on the board.

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The Roos for weeks have been strongly linked to Sturt’s Blake Thredgold – a strong, competitive and well-balanced 194cm defender who’s soared up draft boards in the back-half of the season. Thredgold won the Alan Stewart Medal as best on ground in Sturt’s Under 18s grand final win with 12 marks and 14 disposals before recording three top-10 results at the national combine.

The Kangaroos have also shown interest in 197cm Sandringham Dragons key forward Archie Ludowyke — who slipped through the first round — as well as Oakleigh Chargers’ Louis Emmett – a mobile 200cm prospect with good skills, endurance and strong hands. While Emmett played predominantly as a ruck-forward this year, clubs see him as a key defender at AFL level.

If North Melbourne overlooks Emmett, he’d be right in the mix at the next pick for the Western Bulldogs, who tipped to target a tall with their second selection after securing Swans academy half-back Lachlan Carmichael on night one. Another contender would be 202cm Eastern Ranges ruck Marcus Krasnadamskis, who the Bulldogs have put lots of work into. Krasnadamskis is a competitive, physical ruck but also has slick disposal skills, mobility and ground level cleanliness.

Krasnadamskis has ample other suitors if overlooked by the Dogs, with Port Adelaide, Sydney and Essendon among the clubs to have shown interest in him.

Carlton and West Coast have the next two selections at Picks 28 and 29.

The two clubs’ top NGA prospects, Jack Ison (Blues) and Tylah Williams (Eagles), both didn’t receive first-round bids late on night one. It’s why sources believe these two selections could be up for grabs, depending on the two clubs’ respective strategies.

The Blues were tipped pre-draft to use three selections. With father-son gun Harry Dean secured at Pick 3 on Wednesday night, it remains to be seen whether the Blues take an open-pool player at Pick 28 then match a bid on Ison whenever it comes as their third selection, or trade down the order to first match on Ison then use their third pick deeper into the night.

The Blues have been linked to several open-pool small forwards on night two, including Talor Byrne (GWV Rebels) and Tobyn Murray (Geelong VFL). Murray would also be in the mix at Geelong’s second-rounder (Pick 33), alongside Ludowyke, Emmett, Tai Hayes (Southport), half-forward Hugo Mikunda, defender Max Kondogiannis, Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medallist Tom Blamires and Hunter Holmes – the brother of Cats star Max Holmes.

The Eagles were anticipated to take only four players at the draft – and they’ve already secured Willem Duursma (Pick 1), Cooper Duff-Tytler (Pick 4) and Josh Lindsay (Pick 19). Would the Eagles, anticipating a Williams bid just after Pick 29, trade back then match on him as their fourth selection? The other option would be, after missing out on Jai Murray and Beau Addinsall, to take a midfielder like Eastern Ranges’ Ollie Greeves, or one of the two top WA midfielders left in the pool: Fred Rodriguez or Sam Swadling.

West Coast also has ties to Koby Evans (NGA), Wes Walley (NGA) and Charlie Banfield (father-son), with the club to wait on whether they attract a national draft bid or slide through as rookies. The Eagles, as part of their AFL assistance package, have received an extra four rookie list spots for the next three seasons.

Bids on Kye Fincher (St Kilda NGA), Max King (Sydney Swans academy) and Zac McCarthy (Collingwood NGA) are hard to place at this stage. Sources suggest St Kilda would be less likely to match for Fincher if his name was called before Pick 35.

St Kilda isn’t due to enter the draft until Pick 40. The Saints had been linked to a move into the first round for Jevan Phillipou — the brother of young gun Saint Matteas Phillipou — in recent weeks, but now might have him land in their lap without having to move up the order. Although Richmond has put work into the Woodville-West Torrens prospect.

The Saints have also been linked to Oakleigh Chargers winger Sam Allan — whose 2025 campaign was ruined by an ACL rupture — and East Fremantle’s Ollie McManus – the son of Dockers great Shaun McManus.

The Dockers, who didn’t nominate McManus under the father-son rule, have been linked to a couple of left-foot midfielders with their second pick in Sandringham Dragons’ Jack Dalton and North Adelaide’s Blake Oudshoorn-Bennier, as well as small forward Willis Reidy. Freo will have first call NGA duo Toby Whan and Ryda Luka, but both could slide through to the rookie draft.

Ludowyke, Greeves, Phillipou, Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves, Liam Hetherton and Riley Onley are among the top-ranked players still left on the board.

Greeves and Onley are understood to be in the mix for Collingwood, which could also bid on Lions academy midfielder Ty Prindable. A Prindable national draft bid is seen as unlikely to be matched by Brisbane, which is also looking at open pool players like Onley, Oudshoorn-Bennier and Whan, despite having three solid academy prospects in Prindable, 204cm ruck-forward Isaac Waller and defender Harrison Bridge.

Swan Districts small forward Leon Kickett — a late national combine invitee — is a good chance to be picked up in the second round, with Richmond strongly linked along with Fremantle, Carlton and Geelong. A 173cm prospect, Pickett plays with great energy and life, while his speed an elusiveness is eye-catching.

And could the Curtin boys reunite at Adelaide? Star winger Dan Curtin could be joined at the Crows by younger brother Cody Curtin, who sources believe Adelaide is considering selecting with its second pick. Curtin, a powerful 200cm key forward, kicked an impressive 45.12 in 17 matches both at club and representative level this season, culminating in a six-goal haul in Claremont’s colts grand final win. Although another option for the Crows would be 19-year-old GWV Rebels tall Floyd Burmeister.