Tommycash
Norm Smith Medallist
- Sep 1, 2012
- 7,716
- 7,790
- AFL Club
- Western Bulldogs
- Other Teams
- Swan Districts, Glory
I'd also say that our draft this year is surely a response to last years youthful sides being put out every week. Couple that with losing more experience than we gained and I think we were concerned we might be looking at another year where we were sending boys against men. Bringing in over-agers and VFL players ensures that we have depth with more toughness who are closer to standing up to the rigours of AFL footy. Agree that it is a short term approach but that might not be such a bad thing given where we are currently at. I wouldn't want to see the trend continue but I think it is pretty savvy for the coming few years.Yea, the Vandermeer pick is an interesting one.
Similarly to last year, you can tell Bevo had a big say in our picks this year. After the obvious Smith and West picks, EVERY single pick we made was an overage player (We didn't pick Buku, he was a Cat A freebie).
Vandermeer is 19 (turns 20 in 3 months)
Cavarra is 22
Hayes is 23
Young is 19 (turns 20 in 4 months)
Sweet is 20
Interestingly this was the reason why Dalrymple left us last year, because he didn't like Bevo overruling his choices to instead take older 'win now' players.
The contrast in philosophy's is obvious as Dalrymple again played the futures market this year at Sydney, taking a 17yr old and 5 18yr olds.
7 picks after we took Vandermeer Dalrymple took Justin Mcinerney who is a very similar pacy outside hbf/wing. But Mcinerney is a late bloomer who's almost 2 years younger, taller (187cm vs 179cm), quicker (3.01 vs 3.02 20m sprint) and has better disposal efficiency (75% vs 73.5%).
Then at pick 51 Dal took another similar player in Zac Foot. Who's almost identical in height, position and playstyle but is just 17 years old. His vision is pretty damn exciting tbh. Has genuine explosive pace and x-factor.
So it will be interesting to see how those boys do in comparison to Vandermeer.