Riley Bonner

The 2023 draft was held just days before our November holiday. Ahead of the draft itself, clubs were allowed to trade draft selections. Most of the clubs took advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their drafting possibilities or to select a player they were keen to have. As always, it is club by club in alphabetical order so readers can scroll to the clubs of their interest. The preseason and rookie drafts were held just after the main draft and are included here.

THE DRAFT

DRAFT DAY TRADES

Trades completed during the 2023 AFL Draft:

1. St Kilda gets pick 42. Melbourne gets a future third round selection.
2. Brisbane - pick 24, Gold Coast - picks 30, 51, 54, and 65
3. St Kilda - pick 27, Gold Coast - picks 40 and 42
4. Fremantle -pick 38, Gold Coast picks 46, 60 and 63
5. Adelaide - picks 8 and 17, GWS - picks 11, 15 and a future second
6. Essendon - pick 10, Geelong - picks 11 and 31
7. GWS - pick 17, St Kilda - pick 18 and a future second
8. Brisbane - pick 51, Gold Coast - a future fourth
9. Fremantle - pick 35 , Richmond - pick 38 and a future third
10. West Coast gets pick 38. Richmond pick 40 and a future third
11. Port Adelaide - pick 48, North Melbourne - a future fourth
12. St Kilda - pick 50, GWS - a future third
13. Port Adelaide - pick 52, Hawthorn - a future fourth
14. Sydney - pick 53, Hawthorn - pick 59 and a future fourth
15. Essendon - pick 54. Richmond - a future fourth

The first number is the draft selection followed the player name, (junior club), age (years old), height (in centimeters and then in feet and inches, weight (when available) in kilograms and then pounds, position, and player profile.

Adelaide delisted McPherson, Jackson Hately, Tariek Newchurch, and Tyler Brown while Port Adelaide delisted Riley Bonner, Trent Dumont, Brynn Teakle, and Nathan Barkla. Luke Dunstan retired from Melbourne and Gold Coast saw Connor Blakely hang up the boots.

McPherson played 28 AFL games since being drafted in 2017. He had to overcome a series of soft tissue injuries and played nine games. He won both the Mark Bickley Emerging Talent Award and Brian Sando OAM Award for professionalism on Club Champion night. The hard-working defender was a regular in Adelaide’s senior side in 2021 when he played 18 games, however injuries have restricted him to just one AFL game since then. Hately has also played 28 AFL games including 15 with the Crows after he joined Adelaide from GWS at the end of the 2020. He played 11 games in 2021 and one this year while performing strongly in the SANFL. Newchurch joined Adelaide as a Category B rookie from its Next Generation Academy in 2020 and has been a valuable contributor to the Crows’ SANFL side for the past three seasons, as has Tyler Brown who joined the club as a rookie in January and played one AFL game for the Crows to go with 27 at his former club Collingwood.