For the first time in four years, someone wearing something other than an orange polo shirt will call the first name in the national draft. But the Giants will still play a huge part in determining how the first round pans out.
Through necessity, GWS have used their enormous pile of first-round picks on a variety of player types in the past three years. You can't really start putting a list together in any other way. But with their squad now starting to mature and settle into shape, with the help of some established additions, it will be interesting to see which way they go with their three top-seven picks on Thursday night, and how their selections affect the rest of the early order.
First, St Kilda must call out player No. 1, and while Christian Petracca has been heavily promoted as the Saints' "likely" pick, this has undersold Paddy McCartin's extremely strong claims all the way through this year as being the best player in the pool. Not to mention the standing of the very solid Angus Brayshaw.
It will be no knock on Petracca and no huge shock should McCartin be the one they settle on, and that's not just because he plays as a key forward. Both players would be deserving of the honour, but while the club must have found these two incredibly hard to split, that's what your job is when you're holding the very first pick. Knowing for so long that they have had it has allowed the Saints to drill heavily into all the top prospects and make the most informed, most thorough and least spontaneous decision possible.
From there, things will get interesting. It seems likely that Melbourne will take the player St Kilda doesn't, along with Brayshaw. He is perfect for them: hard-nosed and intense. But don't discount Jake Lever, who has missed the year after a knee reconstruction. While it seems the club will leave him for someone else, they have done a lot of work on him and made a serious case for bringing his aggression, competitiveness and leadership into their young group. Not to mention his talent, as a smart defender.
The Giants have been linked most strongly to four players at their picks: Jarrod Pickett, Hugh Goddard, Jordan De Goey and Paul Ahern. Collingwood have been linked to several, as the Pies always are. Lachie Weller, Jayden Laverde, De Goey and Ahern all seem right in their mix and they have visited Pickett and Kyle Langford in the past week. If they don't choose Laverde, it will be fascinating to see how far down the order he gets, and he may go outside the top 10. If they don't pick Langford, he could be on his way to the Gold Coast, Fremantle or Adelaide.
Liam Duggan is one of the most popular players, and seemingly in the mix from pick five onwards. Nakia Cockatoo is one of the most mysterious prospects, given his very late, one-game burst of highly exciting form that followed 18 months of injury. He seems around the mark for a couple of clubs picking at the edge of the top 10, but might drop a little lower if he ends up being the second option for them all, with North Melbourne, Carlton and Essendon all chances.
Jarrod Garlett has a lot of fans in the teens and has been linked strongly to Gold Coast and the Bombers. Corey Ellis will slot in somewhere there too - I'd expect Richmond to look strongly at him, Duggan and Weller - while Lever and the versatile Caleb Marchbank and Sam Durdin will come into the mix around the edge of the top 10, for clubs such as Geelong, West Coast, the Dockers and Crows. Durdin is possibly the player who divides clubs most this year.
Peter Wright has also become quite intriguing, and the tall forward could also go anywhere from the Giants' picks to outside the top 10. Pretty much every club picking from 8-17 has caught up with him in the past week, so they all have a decision to make on the point at which he becomes too good to leave sitting there.
It means Wright may become known as a "slider". But in some ways that would be a manufactured storyline. The concept is a popular one, but there is no draft order until there is a draft order, and therefore there is nowhere for any of these kids to "fall" from. This is one of the most interesting drafts of recent times, certainly since the arrival of the expansion clubs. It bats deep, it's very even, it's crammed with very different player types and clubs vary wildly in their ratings of many of them. It's going to be fun.
