are any of the Norwood defenders left or did the good ones get picked up in the draft?
Would Alec Baldwin want to play footy though?
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Big bodied mid?
very big body…
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I wouldn’t bother with inside mid types or tall forwards that aren’t currently on a list as they won’t get opportunities with us nor will there be a clear pathway for them at VFL level. We will now have quite a few developing talls that will be prioritised and we don’t want to see the problem we have had in the past where we have a tall player playing out of their natural position because there is too much competition.
Next season we will have Cox,Reid, Jones, Brand, Eyre, Bryan and McBride all playing significant time at VFL level. I don’t see the need to add a highly speculative player to that list as they are unlikely to get a fair crack at it.
Same can be said of the inside mid role. Do we really need another Mitch Hibberd added to the fold?
As another have noted some really athletic smalls that can boost our defensive small depth would be the way to go. Hind, Redman, Guelfi and Gleeson is starting to look decidedly thin.
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Yeah all those Irish kids who dream of playing AFL
(I’m being slightly facetious)
Why should they tell us? Serious question. If they tell us, then they’re also giving away their plans to every other club.
Unless it’s just a high level, “we’ll aim to get one or 2 SSP selections before the season starts”
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I wonder if Brodie Lake is trying out with any clubs. Played as a running defender, outside winger and in an outside/inside role. Good overhead, good acceleration, inconsistent disposal. Seems to tick a lot of boxes that we need, except maybe “lockdown”.
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maybe Sheedy or mosquito will.
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Based on the fact that we targeted elite kicking at this draft, I would suggest that we won’t look at Lake.
If we’re looking at speculative top ups for small(ish) defensive or forward roles, then it’s probably a better bet to take the Richmond journeyman approach.
Don’t worry about the position they’ve played, rather look for players with some elite aspects and whose shortcomings you think can be improved.
A cursory look at those that Richmond has churned, and they’ve done a fair bit of churning here, would guess you want;
Good initial pace of the mark, but not necessarily fast per se. That first 5 or 10 metres matters a lot to a small defender or forward.
Clean ball handling
Long kicks, but not necessarily accurate or consistent (trainable)
Agility
Other aspects, like endurance, marking, whether a player was inside or outside, tackling, even decision making and vision, seem to be regarded as teachable by Richmond.
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We have had massive success with this strategy, right ?
How many successes and how many fails in say, the last 10 years do you reckon?
I’ve taken this, as close as what I can recall, from an informative article a few months ago on Richmond’s drafting of smaller, second chance, and journey men players.
Some I’ve inferred, like agility
The kicking bit though was alluded to directly in terms of Short & Baker’s recruitment spotting.
In terms of accurate kicking I’ll make the following observations
I’m only talking about trying to unearth a decent Rookie - and if they didn’t have flaws they’d have been drafted.
Note the long kicking part - most of our ■■■■ kicks have also struggled for distance which compounds the problem
Finally “teachable” - the number of Richmond players moved on over the last 6 or so years is testament to the fact that if you don’t improve you’re out the door. Which the 12 month Rookie spot helps with.
I honestly think that people underrate Richmond’s list. They have elite players across the field, particularly their back line. If you look at their list, they don’t have many journey men at all.
I’m using this term to describe how they picked up players from the Rookie list, some as more mature age players.
See previous post for the article about Richmond that prompted this
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Well, the draft profile says its more inconsistent, rather than just bad. Given his other traits, that sounds like something we can work with. You’re not going to get the finished product at this point of the drafts.
Towards @WindsockBoy’s comments, he would seem to meet that criteria.
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I’d suggest that inconsistent kicking is the polite way of saying that he can’t hit the side of a barn.
This is from the NT game review;
#9 Brodie Lake
Coming back to the NT after spending some time in South Australia with Central District, it was business as usual for Lake who got to show his trademark burst and running power for all four quarters, as he was firmly in the best players for Team Rioli. The main issue for Lake throughout the game was his kicking, as he did not have many problems finding the ball and looking good on the burst, but a fair few times he did not hit a target via foot. That side of his game did get better later in the contest, but what really impressed was his work-rate to push into defence and not only spoil, but quickly back up, win the ball, and go for his trademark dashes to it away from a dangerous position. Lake has plenty of elite traits and if he can tidy up his disposal he could be a real weapon at AFL level and looks likely to be pre-listed by Gold Coast
Not sure what happened with Cedric Cox. Top 25 pick in the McGrath/Ridley draft.
Has some really nice attributes and moved from Halls Creek to play for the rebels at u18 level.
I think he requested a trade back to wa at end of the season but nothing eventuated.
I’d have a look. TD1 any thoughts on Cox?
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What’s the point of taking a chance on a guy that wants to return to WA?
Valid question. Guess it depends on how much he wants to play afl (and whether he is good enough) given nothing eventuated with wce or freo as I understand.
From the same town as Mozzie.