Top 'Breakout' Contenders for 2019

Have you been reading the draft/trading news from the latest edition of the Dubbo Daily Liberal?

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Make of that what you will…

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So we currently have 9 top 10 ten draft picks in the side. Like to see all of these perform to top 10 standard.

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The first name you mentioned… tell us more… do you like him?

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Yeah, but will we understand what he’s announcing?

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I would like to point out that my sources so far in the trading period have been reasonably accurate. Certainly more accurate than many “experts” who make a living from this stuff.

Take that to the bank.

You can bet your house on it.

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Ha! I believe I should start a column. It could be called “my sources”.

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The word on the grapevine is he is a smooth operator.

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Any of the guys mentioned are all decent candidates, but I’m pretty bullish on Lav. He can easily do a Melksham or a Mihocek and become that mobile, mid-sized marking forward type. He’s got the skills and the physique for such a role, he just needs an injury free pre-season and an opportunity, which have been his 2 biggest obstacles in his time at the club. Langers just needs to continue on the improvement he showed late this year. Francis we all think will really blossom as he showed late in the season, his last 2 games in particular he was arguable our best in both. Mason showed some very positive signs, it was just so cruel that he got injured when he did post the Eagles game.

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I just hope Laverde, Langford and Francis get together with Shiel/Merrett etc and just run, run and run this pre season… the biggest issue with all 3 has been ability to stay in the game because they drop off the contest (particularly francis). We all know they can impact the game when they get near the footy. Just need to spend time with some of the endurance animals at the club to build that base

Didn’t Langford finish top 5 in all of the pre-season time trials last pre-season?

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He looks pretty good, but if you can’t pull off the ‘on a yacht at sunset wearing sunglasses’ look, then you probably should stay inside.

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Really hard to go past Francis based on what we saw in the last few games of the year.

Also think Redman just looked the goods at AFL level, hard as nails and skillful. Would love to see him get a decent run at it in 2019.

I’d love to see Stringer dominate, but as someone else mentioned I also think he’s a slow burn as his fitness gets better and better, look out around 2021 / 2022 when he’s in his peak years.

The other on is big Joey, if he’s 100% then he has the ability to become a top 3 player in the competition.

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73 posts that don’t start and finish with Francis.

Must say I’m surprised.

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At the risk of getting yelled at, people need to lighten up on Hepp with his disposals. He’s got a better efficiency than a lot of the top mids. Fyfe, Beams, Treloar, Dangerfield, Dusty are all worse. He does have some shocking games occasionally though.

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The playing group talk about him the same way. They seem to think his potential is limitless. I also noticed he was the first name Shiel dropped when asked who he was excited to play with.

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Hooker 3 more seasons (end 2021), Hurley 4 (end 2022). Hurley is our longest contracted player apart from Shiel who is contracted until the end of 2024.

We also have 7 all Australians and 2 rising stars. And zero excuses.

Plus a premiership coach who themselves was a two-time premiership captain.

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The Melksham and Lav comparison is decent. Really shows that some blokes take a long time to hit their peak consistently. Lav might be a very good footballer when he gets to 26 and a hundred plus games.

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