Would Caleb Daniel at U18 level be a good comparison? Sounds like a lot of similarities.
When i first saw him he reminded me of dane swan, the barrel chest, waddling around, getting the ball as he pleased and kicking goals from the midfield. Wasn’t the nicest looking kick, but super effective like your swan and hird types.
I think though his game has changed slightly in the past few years, his kicking is better, but he doesn’t look as quick as he did back then, but it’s probably the opposition and the fact he looks smaller now than everybody else, as their heights have gone past him.
He has a bit of prestia about him now, a little meatball that is much stronger than you’d expect for his height, he never shirks contests and tackles hard.
He is more inside than Caleb Daniel, but yeah coz he’s clever and a nice kick he could play defence too. As i said before though, he’s just a good footballer, not a project type athlete, so dodoro might not have been a fan, but i think Rosa could be going on his drafting style this year.
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We are gonna have two top 5 picks.
I hope this isn’t another ■■■■ draft like the Mcgrath one, or the Cox one.
Just our luck.
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I wouldn’t rule out both our picks being mid-table.
I remember a Blitzer on here was big on Caleb Daniel in his draft year and posted a few highlights reels. His kicking at junior level was elite, especially over distance. It was truly impressive.
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Not unusual for guys who play centre square minutes to be rotated through multiple positions whether that’s wing, HF & HB.
Hardly a stretch to suggest 4-5 players capable of playing in the middle would be on-field at any given time.
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If history has taught us anything, that would be above average for our first round picks.
I’m always wary of big sized underage players who are use to ragdolling kids who weigh 60kgs in the U/18s.
They come crashing down to earth very quickly when stepping up the AFL level where the skinny kids are now 100kg giants.
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If you’re making that argument about Louis Emmett then you have to make that argument about literally every key position player to come through the junior system.
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This is also the reason, I don’t use Google, my wife knows everything….
I might take this to the I’m Married thread.
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Would be great to have a Woodend boy on our team.
Done
Every big kid that dominated at junior level because of dramatic size variances is going to struggle to have the same impact at AFL level for at least the first three years of their career.
Appreciate your patience
Essendon drafts skinny player: typical, drafting undeveloped guys who will never have the body to compete.
Essendon drafts well built guy: typical, drafting guys with no upside who gets found out when they have to play against men.
The thing is, we all like to make a million generalisations to make it easier to make sense of guys that we really only have a limited sample size of. Each of them is an individual - to understand their skill sets, and how they might develop and whether they might have the right mental make up, and whether their physical makeup will be the right one for their role when they actually grow into - is how the recruiters have to make their money.
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I’ll keep it simple to avoid further confusion
Big kids at 18 inevitably need 3 years in the system before they can fulfill their underage potential in a key position on an afl list.
I don’t think this is a generalisation at all but rather the norm.
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Would you of drafted Harley Reid at number 1 with your philosophy?
Harley Reid is not a key position player