Next crop of budding stars led by Sam Lalor, Murphy Reid and Levi Ashcroft make immediate impact while a prized Blues recruit is made to wait

The high-end draft talent assembled over the weekend sounded like a band of Irish rebels on the Ballarat goldfields – Sam Lalor, Sid Draper, Finn O’Sullivan and Murphy Reid. The experts said it was an unusually hot draft, and the pick of them all delivered in round one.

Reid was named the Victorian metro team’s most valuable player last year but surprisingly slipped to No 17 in the draft. On Friday, never averse to hyping up young talent, the West Australian newspaper gave us “40 things you need to know about Murphy Reid”. It included such phlegmatic insights as “nickname is Bruce”, “plays golf” and “is elusive”.