Player Watch #24 Taj Hotton

[Ralll]

Had him at No. 9 on my draft order. Another good selection imo.

 

[Richmond Flats]

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2024-draft-post-trade-period-edition.1388579/post-85849616

Shit yeah

 

[RichoLedio]

Hopefully doesn't lose any pace or agility through the ACL, perfect type of player to go with Lalor and Smillie

 

[Karp3_dm]

Looks an absolute classy as **** jet

 

[Burning bright]

Welcome Taj

as many have stated an ACL injury in May this year but Taj was dominant before the injury and would most likely have been at the very pointy end of this years draft.

But more importantly, how much more relaxed and less anxious are tiger supporters now that we have Ben Serpell running our high performance department.

You just know this guy with his international and cross code experience is going to do a sterling job managing our athletes which is a far cry from the lack of confidence we had prior to his appointment.

Ben will be a key player as we now have so many young draftees at the club.

We loose Bolton to Freo but Hotton could very well fill that void.

go tiges

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[RedmanWasHere]

Fair to say that, once he's done, he'll be Hotton the heels of the other mids.

 

[THE_GUN]

Really excited to get an X Factor type player.

Reckon we knew he wouldn't last to 18, so bang took who we wanted.

He was the player GWS had in their sights at #15 along with Berry
Im a massive fan of this kid and with who was left on the board is the best available
i was shitting myself thinking we would take allan with this pick

MUCH MUCH HAPPIER

 

[Meteoric Rise]

This pick worries me a little. If sound, he looks worth this pick and more. I am a little concerned about his running technique causing further leg issues. Fingers crossed I am wrong or the club can sort out the way he moves. Would love to see him at his best in a few years, he looks a proper menace.

 

[Madtiger2006]

Looks very dangerous with speed, skill and big mark. How did he do his knee? Could have been from a jump and unlucky landing. Gun who hopefully did it as a once off

 

[sanaya]

absolutely rapt to have this guy, was probably my favourite player all year besides smillie, so i won this draft


and i don't know if this has been mentioned in another thread, but don't be surprised if we use the extra list spot that we have from bending norf over to free up a rookie spot for taj's brother olli, no inside word from me, just speculation, but when hotton was linked to west coast a couple of days ago, there were articles popping up about olli being a preseason train on player at the weagles. now to be fair, that could have also just been to help him adjust with the move interstate. but if not, there's a chance we add another dynamic fwd/mid who as i understand had a bad run with injuries which resulted in him getting delisted by the aints after 2 years without playing a game which isn't a good sign but maybe a change of environment and a life line is what's needed to get the most out of him, can't hurt to at least give him a go




was a fwd but got moved more into the midfield in his u18 year so a similar prospect to taj, but just couldn't get it to work at the ainters

and who knows, looking at his athletic profile, maybe he could be a distributer off half back for our rioli replacement that we haven't drafted yet, or even a wing

 

[sanaya]

Looks very dangerous with speed, skill and big mark. How did he do his knee? Could have been from a jump and unlucky landing. Gun who hopefully did it as a once off

“I pretty much knew straight away that it wasn’t good. The next few days were pretty disappointing, just trying to accept what had happened and there was a lot of shock,” he told foxfooty.com.au.

“It went in slow motion, I felt every bit of it, my knee shift out of place and then back in. Surprisingly there wasn’t much pain, it was more an awkward feeling if anything. I got up and walked off like most ACLs, there wasn’t much pain until probably that night when I got into bed. There was a lot of bone bruising from the bones hitting each other so that was definitely the most painful thing but that didn’t set on until the next day,” he said.

“As all injuries are it was in the last five minutes of training. We were doing a bit of match sim at training because we had the next week off with a bye, so we were going pretty hard at training.

“I decided to take off and I sort of sprinted forward after I got the ball, took a few bounces and as I went to kick it someone came to try and smother me and at the last second, I changed direction. As I changed directions my foot slipped, and my knee collapsed under me.”

 

[captain cotch 9]

absolutely rapt to have this guy, was probably my favourite player all year besides smillie, so i won this draft


and i don't know if this has been mentioned in another thread, but don't be surprised if we use the extra list spot that we have from bending norf over to free up a rookie spot for taj's brother olli, no inside word from me, just speculation, but when hotton was linked to west coast a couple of days ago, there were articles popping up about olli being a preseason train on player at the weagles. now to be fair, that could have also just been to help him adjust with the move interstate. but if not, there's a chance we add another dynamic fwd/mid who as i understand had a bad run with injuries which resulted in him getting delisted by the aints after 2 years without playing a game which isn't a good sign but maybe a change of environment and a life line is what's needed to get the most out of him, can't hurt to at least give him a go


View attachment 2171177

was a fwd but got moved more into the midfield in his u18 year so a similar prospect to taj, but just couldn't get it to work at the ainters

and who knows, looking at his athletic profile, maybe he could be a distributer off half back for our rioli replacement that we haven't drafted yet, or even a wing

Definitely get him in as a rookie IMO

 

[Muddiemoose]

Love the talent, massively worried about a body that's done an ACL at under-age level and how that holds up for the future.

Quite a few young players with ACL injuries have never been impacted
Selwood is one and Petracca also

This is the right time to be taking risks in the rebuild

 

[evo]

I can see the Shai Bolton

15

Shai Bolton

Age

26

Ht

176cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.3

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

12.7

3star

K

9.2

4star

HB

3.5

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.7

4star

CL

1.8

4star

D

9.2

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

4.6

4star

M

2.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.0

1star

comparrisons, also reminds me a bit of Shane Edwards

10

Shane Edwards

Age

36

Ht

182cm

Wt

78kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.2

4star

K

8.1

3star

HB

9.1

5star

M

2.6

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

3.0

4star

D

16.4

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

0.6

1star

T

3.0

4star

CL

4.2

5star

D

8.6

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

3.4

4star

T

1.2

3star

, he looks really inventive in tight spaces.

 

[of unsound mind]

absolutely rapt to have this guy, was probably my favourite player all year besides smillie, so i won this draft


and i don't know if this has been mentioned in another thread, but don't be surprised if we use the extra list spot that we have from bending norf over to free up a rookie spot for taj's brother olli, no inside word from me, just speculation, but when hotton was linked to west coast a couple of days ago, there were articles popping up about olli being a preseason train on player at the weagles. now to be fair, that could have also just been to help him adjust with the move interstate. but if not, there's a chance we add another dynamic fwd/mid who as i understand had a bad run with injuries which resulted in him getting delisted by the aints after 2 years without playing a game which isn't a good sign but maybe a change of environment and a life line is what's needed to get the most out of him, can't hurt to at least give him a go


View attachment 2171177

was a fwd but got moved more into the midfield in his u18 year so a similar prospect to taj, but just couldn't get it to work at the ainters

and who knows, looking at his athletic profile, maybe he could be a distributer off half back for our rioli replacement that we haven't drafted yet, or even a wing

Had some decent vfl form. Just turned 20, elite athleticism combined with good disposal. They’re not common. Not sure he finds the pill as easily as Taj seems to.
Depends on how we manage list spots. Then weighing up the available talent falling out of the draft.

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

Had some decent vfl form. Just turned 20, elite athleticism combined with good disposal. They’re not common. Not sure he finds the pill as easily as Taj seems to.
Depends on how we manage list spots. Then weighing up the available talent falling out of the draft.

Could be the Doozy we are looking for as a speedy half forward...

 

[Stylo]

Danog how you feeling about this one?

 

[Danog]

Danog how you feeling about this one?

So-so. Would be salty if Lindsay was available and we picked Hotton instead but it's all good

 

[Punt Road Feral]

I understand we had so many picks we could afford to roll the dice but I am anxious that one of Hotton or Trainor will self combust.

Personally I would've preferred the safer Berry or M Reid. Both will play 150 games at AFL level.
I certainly hope we've "got all our major injuries out of the way in 24" and we can see what Taj can do in the distant future.

 

[Stylo]

So-so. Would be salty if Lindsay was available and we picked Hotton instead but it's all good

Fair enough. Agree re. Lindsay. Would’ve been so mint if we got Langford and Lindsay over Smillie and Hotton. ****in Melbourne.

Still good though

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

Watch til the end.

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[Calcium Man]

Fair enough. Agree re. Lindsay. Would’ve been so mint if we got Langford and Lindsay over Smillie and Hotton. ****in Melbourne.

Still good though

Happier our way personally.

 

[Tiger V]

haven't seen too much of this guy but if Lloydie thinks great that's good enough for me
welcome to tiger land young fella

 

[Ancient Tiger]

Fair enough. Agree re. Lindsay. Would’ve been so mint if we got Langford and Lindsay over Smillie and Hotton. ****in Melbourne.

Still good though

Smillie is going to be better than either of them. He is already over 195cm and very hard to tackle. Imagine him with 4 preseasons under his belt. He will be unstoppable.

 

[Burning bright]

I am not sure if anyone picked up on this but Sam Lalor and Josh Smillie both made reference to Taj Hotton when they heard he just got picked by the mighty tigers.

They both showed immediate and genuine excitement that Taj was drafted and this is from arguably two out of the top five midfielders in this years draft.

Those boys obviously did not forget how dominant Taj was early on in the season before his injury curtailed his year.

If those boys were excited about Hotton coming on board pray his knee comes good because our top two selections in the draft might just have shown their hand as to how good this youngster really is.

go tiges

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