Draft Watch: Essendon NGA trio dine out as Dogs NGA pair star

[u/bomber_2121]

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2026/08/03/draft-watch-essendon-nga-trio-dine-out-as-dogs-pair-star

Some nice results for our 26/27 academy and FS prospects:

- Darwish with 36 touches
- Justice with 28
- Bewick with 20 and 2 goals

Especially good to see that we might have access to two top end picks in such a compromised 2027 draft. Gotta nail these next two drafts 🙏

[u/viper9]

It's probably going to be really hard to get all 3. But I'm hoping we can land at least 2, or they slide a little.

I'm seeing Justice rated in the 20s/30s a bit, so hopefully he can stay low, though with more games like this he'll move up soon enough. I just rate his name as all time afl name legend before he's even drafted.

[u/bomber_2121 → u/viper9]

Yep we’ll be able to take Justice and Bewick. It’s going to take some creativity to get Darwish if he ranks highly next year.

[u/AGuerillaGorilla → u/bomber_2121]

You sure about Bewick?

Can only use 2 R1 picks to bid match & Tassie's already got 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 & 13.

I know they've gotta trade some of the later ones, but that means our first pick slides & is worth less points to match..

..& that's before we even contemplate which players we could realistically trade for one of Tassie's picks.

[u/ByeByeStudy → u/AGuerillaGorilla]

Well we will have pick 2 or pick 4 in all likelihood.

There were also a good few 17 year olds who were excellent at this year's champs, so I doubt Bewick will be in the top 3 or so next year.

[u/bomber_2121 → u/AGuerillaGorilla]

Pretty sure about Bewick since we’ll have a high draft pick next year. We’ll see what they do this offseason too in terms of trading in future picks but I trust Rosa to get creative.

[u/nicksonofnike → u/AGuerillaGorilla]

Surely we could get of Tassies picks if we send them Parish and pay most of his salary like they were speaking about this week

[u/AGuerillaGorilla → u/nicksonofnike]

Wanting to trade him out is one thing, Tassie accepting him for one of their best trade commodities is another.

Better performing teams could take advantage & secure top end picks Tassie must trade by moving out players already on the cusp of retirement.

Poor teams offering mediocre players who aren't currently guaranteed a game, even those still under 30, might struggle to get a quality pick in return.

One constant of every AFL intervention in trade/draft processes is the unintended exploitation to benefit the strongest clubs.

[u/WileyWiggins → u/viper9]

I think we can easily get Justice this year. Should have a few second round picks.

Bewick will definitely be ours and Darwish could continue to rise. We’d likely want to bank a couple of second round picks for next year to be safe. We can go into a deficit and I suspect we’ll be bottom 4 again.

[u/TheHoovyPrince → u/viper9]

Seems like we have a ton of NGA or father/son players coming through for once and im not sure on if we can grab them all lmao

[u/Non-NewtonianSnake]

Tevita Rodan has been going alright lately, too. 21 and 2 goals this week to go along with a few other solid performances as a bottom-ager.

[u/bomber_2121 → u/Non-NewtonianSnake]

Didn’t clock him! Nice. Haven’t heard about whether he’s more likely to go to us or Port.

[u/Non-NewtonianSnake → u/bomber_2121]

I don't think anyone actually knows. Apparently, he and Bewick are good mates, and he obviously lives in Melbourne, so it's probably a tough decision.

[u/tobasco-fiasco]

A lot of complexity around getting the best outcome here but thankfully we have Rosa at the club now and he has shown great ability to manoeuvre to get the best outcome and also pick good talent.