Hopefully a bit of fun for this board, here it is, my this years crop of Indigenous tallent to keep an eye out for. This year Im not going to go into any detail about guys who are projected in the top 30, most know about them, Ah Chee and such, so Im going to focus primarily on the guys around the 3rd round and more speculative picks. Im also going to try and focus on guys I know come from good situations and should be able to make the transition to Melbourne life. The result is the list wont be as long as previous years. Apologies to any guys I leave out that a few of you may have seen around the traps, but please assume that its more a case of they dont fit or fill a need on our list rather than they have any other issues, there will be guys I leave out that may well flourish if they end up in certain states or clubs. This one is about our needs. Im also going to adopt a bit of a money ball strategy in that most have had a few injury hurdles to overcome this year that will have lowered their value some what.
Daniel Rioli - St Marys, NT Thunder - North Ballarat - HF - Mid 178cms 78kgs
Electric high half forward who can and will push into the midfeild for bursts, has good top end speed, where he is primarily damaging is how he uses his speed to effect, just has a knack of reading the play 2 steps before anyone so the speed he has is maximized, strong overhead for his size so despite being around 5ā9 presents a marking option, because like his cousin Cyril has that great one step leaping ability. Comes from a great footy family as we know but also spent some time in Victoria and played TAC cup for North Ballarat, will take some time to develop but has more than enough upside to be a solid late second round pick in this draft.
Michael Tilmouth-Turner - Pioneer, NT Thunder, Northern Knights KPF/ Ruck - 193cms 92kgs
Spring, evasion, and kicks goals, he is a big lump of a lad and even has seen time in the ruck at TAC cup and in the National Champs. Word is it his growth plates have not closed yet, so could end up at around that 195 plus mark, which makes him an interesting proposition at his size with his agility. Played 6 games of TAC cup as relief ruckman and still managed to kick 9 goals in those games. He is a great either end of the ground prospect and handy relief ruck thanks to his leap. Here is the thing, he busted his hand at the beginning of this year and came home slowly but did enough to come under some consideration. We actually have an inside track on him though because he spent a lot of the time in the early part of the season and over the NTFL season working with Alywn Davey on forward trade, Froggy is a big wrap for him and thinks he has a great attitude and comes from a good family. will need to lose some of the puppy fat but all the raw tools are there, if we are going to take a 4th round flyer on a project tall. This is the guy.
Davin Ferreira, Wanderers FC, Norwood SANFL 175cms 71kgs FP- Mid
Acemans boy, Dav is fast, illusive and loves to kick a goal. He is exactly what we need in our foward line, he tackles, he makes something out of nothing, and most of all he takes those shots that other guys just dont seem to want to kick, and for the most part kicks them. Dav manged to break into the Redlegs league team just leading up to the champs and considering how good Norwood are that should be some indication as to how big that is. For the NT in the champs he played as a midfielder and his delivery into their forward line was first class. I really want. Got injured in those games and missed most of the rest of the season, he has a lot of Charlie Cameron about him for me. Its hard to pin where he will land, but given he has exposed form against men, and this draft is week, I can see him landing in that pick 40 range.
Shane McAdam- Halls Creek - Claremont WAFL 180cms 78kgs SF
This guy would travel 10 hours to Broome to then go on a plane to fly down and play WAFL for Claremont, cracked the senior team early in the year and managed 20 goals from 11 games. He is 20 so at a good age to be looking at given his remote background. He is extreemly quick, a good size for his position at 180cms, he also has fantastic hair. Has great in close ability at stoppages and works hard to get into space when he is on the outside, also out off the small forward crop this year i think he does the best job at getting front and center of the contests in the foward line, which for me is a big thing. He stays down and only goes for the mark when its a one on one. Will probably go as a late pick to rookie but given there will be clubs turned off by his location but he has spent most of the year in the Claremont house so is more comfortable living in the city than a few clubs are giving him credit for.
Stephan Tahana North Adelaide SANFL 183 - 78 - Mid -
Steph is an inside mid with burst speed form the stoppage, he is a slightly less offensively minded version of Nakia Cockatoo, he is also very defensivly minded and was given stopping jobs for the SA team at the champs, had a good season for North in the SANFL mainly at reserves level but creacked the senior team for a few two games as well playing as a half forward, kicking 2 goals in one game. His long term prospects will be as an inside mid however as he does his best work in close and seems to really enjoy the body contact. Projects as a 40-55 range in this years draft. Again, experience against senior bodies will hold him in good stead. Plus that SA team at the champs was really good this year.
Wayne Milera - Central Districts SA, 182cms 71kgs - Wing
Smooth moving slippery out side runner with a long penetrating kick that does damage. He has a lot of Steven Motlops about him. He was projected as a top 25 pick but here is where it gets interesting as a potential slider. It has been discovered that he has a heart condition the same as the one that Nathan Eagleton had, where there is an irregular beat. It got fixed via surgery a week or so ago and he should be right to go in time, but he fact he may miss some of preseason will actually cause him to drop a bit. He had a lot of fans right across the tallent ID network but these events have turned a few off. I think he is exceptionally good value at our 3rd pick which should be in the early 30ās
Yestin Eades - North Ballarat VIC, Swan Districts WA 183cms 80kgs
Yestin is your prototypical line breaker, with huge burst accelleration, his top end is good but his first 5 steps are like he has been shot out of a cannon, he is orginally from WA but moved to vic on a scholarship and ended up playing TAC cup and played for Vic Country at the champs. Great user of the footy as well and will probably start his career as a half foward with moving into the mid field, played 11 games in the TAC cup for 6 times in the best. Projecting around the 40 to 55 range. Trained with us over last pre season so we know a bit about him.
I will add two more in the next few days, but its 1am and im tired.