Bailey for the allies looked very good vs VM.
I like the look of Higgins.
While he’s my favourite, I think theres too many questions RE: intensity, defensive awareness and fitness for Rayner to be a pick 1.
Stephenson looks like a gun if he can fill out. good speed, marking and kicking.
I still like O’Brien. See if you can watch some of his play if you get a chance.
9) Lochie O’Brien
POS: Midfielder, Ht 184cm, Wt 75kg, DOB 18/9/1999
From Bendigo Pioneers/Vic Country
A knee injury ruled O’Brien out of the Vic Country’s first game, and he was rusty in the opening half the following match against Vic Metro when he had only two touches. But his second half (he gathered 16 disposals) and then his next game against Western Australia (he had 18 touches, nine marks and seven inside-50s) was very good. O’Brien is an elite runner and brilliant kick, evident in his long goal against WA from outside the 50-metre arc. O’Brien’s best footy is played as a hard-running wingman who sets up the play.
Can he win enough ball in a contested setting though?
3 clearances and 7 contested possessions in 2 games @ u18 champs isn’t good enough for us to be spending our first pick on.
Hard to tell how it transfers - he won’t be a 1/2/3rd pick. But he has the skills, size, tank, strength and evasion.
I edited for some stats.
Higgins OTOH averaging 15 contested possessions and 6 clearances an u18s game.
I like Higgins also.
Problem is - his height. We are kinda covered in that area.
I think his lack of height is enough of a reason for him to slide to wherever our first pick is considering the athleticism and size of the other potential top 10.
This whole sutherland cricket vs afl is annoying.
its not 11 spots in the aus test team. Just have to be good enough to make the BBL or the indian equivalent to be making more than you’d even sniff in afl.
Do you think we can hold McG, Walla, Colyer, Green, Fanta, and Merret and take Higgins? Don’t think Parish is far from there either.
I have this vision of putting our best mids into the centre square at a critical point of a tight game, and someone like Cripps just wading out with the ball while they hang off him like a pack of rabid chihuahuas.
I think we can. its not entirely lack of physicality thats costing us, its preparedness/ability of our bigger players to stop and chase down the other teams run.
For mine in the midfield the most important aspect a player can have and i rate all equally are, ball finding, calm with the ball, speed and discipline. ATM the only midfielders i see doing that for us are zach, darcy, BJ and walla, mcg offers a lot defensively and is disciplined just not in the midfield rotation yet. Colyer can cover players but can’t do much with the ball atm. Fanta doesn’t win it that much but is so damaging with it that if we can get it to him it’ll hurt the other team.
Green is someone you need, a selfish cocky arrogant prick of a forward, but has glaring deficiencies.
So our big issues are the defensive running of jobe, heppell, even belly could block some players a bit more. BJ tries but hes coming up the precipice in terms of his body’s capacity at his age. 1 to 2 more seasons left?
Sorry for the rambling post but i guess the crux of it, isn’t the height of the midfielders but more their ball winning ability and ability to actually stop the other players. Thats why i think higgins is good, gets tackles, wins the ball, pretty good with his disposal and shown huge growth from his under aged year.
edit: a lot of this hinges on dyson recapturing his inside mid nouse, lang coming on and maybe trading in a a jacob hopper type.
Would it be feasible to just bench frangs season and get him doing fitness stuff until half way through next year?
Not gonna get a big body clearance player that can do what we need with where we’ll end up.
pick 8 that slides somewhere in the 11-13 range after priority pick and compensation.
Oh ■■■■. Reading that form guide, I just realised next year’s draftees are going to be born in 2000. I need to go check in to a nursing home.
Kids like Rayner and Higgins aren’t in the conversation for us. They are top 5 players and potentially top 2 players.
Like the look of Worpel, a good sized powerful midfielder that runs hard and all day. Question marks on his kicking. Fits a need.
Love the look of Oscar Allen as a versatile forward that moves really well, however is more third tall height at AFL.
Also like Noah Balta. Has a great upside due to his athleticism and has played forward and back this year.
Davies-Uniacke would fit our needs perfectly I think, as a tall big bodied mid that wins his own ball but also has the class and composure to distribute the ball. Hopefully he slides out of the top 5 to us.
Saw Plenty of HBF that can move into the midfield lol …
we have the nice players already we need the grunt to get it to them!
Allies are always at a disadvantage with regards to team cohesion as they’re essentially a rag tag sort of team. however they showed some very good discipline and structures to overcome VM redoubtable class. Reckon a lot of good 2nd round picks will come from there.
I guess that was part of the point of my post above. There seems to almost always be a guy with a little asterisk next to his name juuuuust in front of the boring 185/85 guy who can play decently anywhere. So our midfield becomes this delicately balanced precision machine that flies apart when the only guy who can do that one specific thing gets injured.
True but I’d back an AFL coaching team to teach him those values. That raw skill, speed and lateral movement cannot itself be taught.
Ahh i got you.