Tac/u18 Thread

He is a more natural midfielder, he can win a stack of the ball and very consistently. He doesn’t shirk a contest but he doesn’t attack the ball like a Parish would.

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Is Worpel a chance at our second pick? I think he could be the inside wrecking ball we need even if his kicking is average.

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I suspect he might not last quite that long, though it’s far from impossible. Don’t really think he’s a Dodoro-style 2nd rounder though, he said last year that he sees 2nd round picks as being for upside picks rather than what-you-see-is-what-you-get types. Personally I’d pick him if he made it that far, but I think the club might leave him on the board.

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Very good chance, if Brisbane don’t take him at 18 he could go anywhere. I’ve seen his past 3 games and he has been pretty poor personally I still rate Dylan Clarke ahead of him.

Worpel has good leadership qualities and I thought he looked his best when he played a half of a Championships game as a HB he kind of reminded me of Hibberd with his courage and willingness to run the ball out. He needs to work on his composure most of all his kicking action is fine he just doesn’t settle himself enough when in possession

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Worpel was talked up as a possible first rounder last year, but disposal hasnt been as good.
We took Clarke who was similar i guess. I would take Worpel as he is a known quantity if he is there at our second round pick. Unless Bewick or Robert Shaw has another good tip.

Bewick has an insane amount of talent at Eastern this year. Guys like Trent Mynott, Dylan Moore, Ryley Stoddart and Jackson Ross could all be taken at our 2nd round pick

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Some big numbers for the top prospects in the TAC. Hunter Clark had 24 disposals and a massive 16 tackles!

If we want someone to replace McGrath at HB we won’t find much better than Matthew Ling at our 2nd pick. He had 23 disposals with only 2 of those ineffective. He has blistering speed and agility

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Hmm, some good news. We really need to nail our picks this year.

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Ok, so we need to nail them every year!

Jack higgins returns for Oakleigh in their prelim final against Sandringham on Sunday, I’ll be making me way down to Simmonds Stadium to watch. My first time at the stadium so should be great.

I’ll also be at the young guns game on Saturday which has 2 Essendon VFL players in Darby and Ottavi. Lewin Davis also playing who played a game with the VFL team this year

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If we keep our first rounder this is the guy I’d love to get.

We need natural ball winners. He would be ready to go I reckon and have plenty of upside.

Not worried about having another smaller midfielder?

I feel if we picked Higgins then Green would be a permenant in the VFL because he will take his spot next year guaranteed

Yes I am.

But not worried enough to not pick Higgins. Gun.

Would need to compensate through trade and free agency to add a bigger mid though…which regardless we must do!

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Hey mate - do you have any thoughts on O’Brien?

He was top 5 for me last year, spoke to shifter about him after a game and we both agreed he looked like a Zerrett type. Great speed and deadly left foot.

This year he hasn’t lived up to the hype not sure if it’s injury or something else. He hasn’t played much TAC mostly school footy and the Championships. I must say he did impress me in the Championships with his voice and leadership more than anything, was always encouraging and directing midfielders on their positioning while he was 50m away from a contest.

Remember seeing Jiath make a mistake in the game and O’Brien came up to him afterwards to pat him on the back and give him a pep up, I personally thought that was really classy considering he had never played with him before and they aren’t teammates at TAC or school level

Hard to see where he goes, if he got injured at the start of the year like say Simpkin or Witherden did last year I’d say he would go between 5-10 but because he has played and his form isn’t as good as expected he may be a chance of going between 15-25

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I’d certainly take the punt on him should he make it to 11…if we still have that pick.
Thanks for your input, mate, appreciated.

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Its interesting that you rate Clarke ahead of him. I was talking to a mate who is a mid line coach at a TAC club about how we will solve our midfield. His view is that we probably already have with how we drafted in the last couple of years. Obviously Parish and McGrath will develop into full time on ballers. But it was his comments about Ridley, Mutch and Clarke that were good. Ridley was the first kid he mentioned and said he was an out and out gun and that we should be very happy with that pick. Didn’t specifically say midfield, but the rebound kicking off hb will help the midfield forward movement. He said Mutch was outstanding, quicker than he looks, and had that very good balance of inside/out work. He expects him to feature on ball soon enough. But it was Clarke that he was a huge rap for. Said that speaking to an Essendon vfl player recently that Clarke dominates training drills but his body isn’t ready for inside afl work yet. Said in his opinion he was possibly the best stoppage mid at TAC level in his year and would be tagged even though tagging isn’t a thing in the TAC. He said we got a huge bargain with that pick. Interestingly he thought we took Begley early, but thought that others were going to trump us of we waited.

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Re Clarke he also compared his potential to Josh Kennedy in that his work around the stoppages is similar in style and even though he may take a few years to develop the body, he will be worth the wait.

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Daniel Bond - Murray Bushrangers.

I watched this kid dominate a country league Grand Final across half back against men when he was 16. Played in the midfield for the Bushies this year - hasn’t set the world on fire - but is a very athletic kid who has the right attitude, the footy smarts, and serious ability. Hope he gets picked up late in the draft or as a rookie, but I’m not seeing his name mentioned at all unfortunately.

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Kicking like Worpel is his only real issue, everything else he excels in for an inside mid. And don’t get me wrong I havnt given up on Worpel either he has battled injury for the last month or so which is why his form has been down

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His numbers haven’t really stacked up this year, liked him early in the year but a lot of players have gone past him, hasn’t shown a great amount of class which would be the either reason clubs aren’t as keen