Its not just this guy, its the talent scouts around Australia who pass reports on players to the club.
Lets just take the case of the 2016 draft. It was probably out of McGrath, Taranto, Setterfield and McCluggage, and whoever studied these kids over the previous 2-3 years had some input into the selection, but probably one had more influence than the others.
In any case at least our pick was not one of the 7 that dropped out of the top 10. Phew…
But the jury is still out.
True. My point is we haven’t created an environment where a player can become the best version of themselves, Scott has spoken about creating that program and I hope we finally deliver on that.
Drafting a confident, driven and outspoken leader like Joel Selwood would fast track that environment as well, who knows maybe Hobbs is that guy.
no one would take shai at one even if you’d been to the future, he was just too skinny as an 18 year old. it would be very unlikely anyone would take stewart at 1 either as a mature age half bank flank
Worth noting that was published late 2021, so doesn’t include last year.
There are 10 blokes in the 2016 draft now with either AA squad(or better) selection or at least 1 B&F.
Andy hasn’t got near either of those metrics. I reckon he is probably around 15th in his draft year at the moment. Plenty of scope for him to be better than that if we use and develop hin properly.
Andy was drafted as a back pocket player, who might be OK as a midfielder, but doesn’t that apply to just about every player under 180cm that we draft? Dodo? Dodo?.. Even Francis was scoped as a potential big bodied mid and he was 193cm. ( at that time no one knew that his tank was inadequate and never would be adequate)
I think Andy shows a lot of promise as a back pocket player. Clearly he is more comfortable playing behind the ball. Against St Kilda, he topped the Metres Gained for both sides. If he improves his disposal and lowers his eyes there is room for improvement and he will give us a lot of drive.
I recall one who did. Remember Ambrose, for all but 2 years of his time on the list, he went for the big, long kick out of defence . Then in the last 2 seasons he developed the ability to kick low and flat. But in those last 2 seasons he spent most of his time injured and then “retired”
The point is, you better improve your kicking early in your career. Because leave it too late and it ruins the peak of your career.
This is why more development coaches are needed, so they can get the help they need early on in their career when it matters .
Look at Shiel. Massive strong legs but struggles to kick it accurately even half the distance of 2MP. Now Shiel is 30 and its way way too late.
Is it too late for Andy or Parish ? Seems like it’s in the too hard basket like Shiel.
Imagine if Shiel took 20% out of his body prep time to practise his general field kicking.
More importantly, has any of the coaching staff ever pulled one of those guys aside and said, hey, let’s focus on your kicking efficiency on both feet this preseason…doubt it.
