Player Watch #35: Matt "The Swingman" Whitlock!!!!! - selected with Pick 27 in the 2024 ND - Welcome to North Melbourne Matty

[RHLK]

Swinglock, Merry Christmas. Tuck in.

 

[Karanicolas]

Swinglock, Merry Christmas. Tuck in.

And take all the leftovers.

 

[The Brady Bunch]

Cadman is also a number #1 draft pick and while they are different in styles, remember Nick spent a fair bit of time in the reserves and he was kicking goals like eating chocolate, the point is, there's no pressure on him, he can develop in the two's, build his body up to where it can stand up to men and give him the best chance to succeed, whether he debuts next year or in 2026, it matters not, the three most important things are;

1/ We finally have our key forward after people wanting one in the last three years, its quite hard for some people to grasp but patience and confidence + development are the keys here, remember, whether or not if some of our supporters like him or are concerned about what pick he was and what we spent on him Will & Brady have very big wraps on him and thought enough of him that he may go around pick 12 mark.

Now what some people also forget is if he had of gone between say pick 10 and a little bit later, we would not have got him because no one wanted to trade and you have to remember the ones that may have were not giving back a early second rounder to us, the way the cards were dealt is absolutely fantastic for us and not only a positive for us because we got him at pick #27 but also got the deal we wanted, an early future second rounder back, its a huge win for us in more ways than one.

2/ We have all of our talent, now whether its in the seconds or seniors the youngsters are going to show things from time to time that make you think "holy sh*t", I'm mainly talking the first year players, we are at the stage of our team where players will get promoted on form like the old days, we haven't had the luxury of being able to do that for other reasons, now we are back on an even keel, the club knows what what was needed it has taken time, five years to be precise, now....

3/ Tristan Xerri and LDU, what do they have in common? In short, some supporters thought they weren't going to make it, lets take a look at Tristan shall we, SEVEN YEARS and bang, nearly All Australian this year, some people should go and have a look at his thread and see the amount of patience some people actually had, so not two years, not three years, seven.

Now that's not going to be for all players but it just goes to show that for some players it might take a little longer and some others it might be a lot quicker. LDU, well after the first several games unless you were blind freddy you knew he had it, but whether it was a stern talking to from a former Brownlow medalist or not driving his standards to a point where he can get the most out of himself and be the player that a lot of people know he can be. Luke and Christian Petracca are very much brothers in that they both have an insane amount of ability and that their clubs supporters had either written them off or that they weren't going to be THAT player, guess who was wrong?

As you say, we ranked him at 12 among the 2024 cohort and with our likely finishing position and the pick coming back, we've spent 2025's pick 12 to get him. In isolation, that's pretty good business.

Now, I know there are a few people still wetting their pants over the Caleb Daniel trade and how we could have used that pick to take Mhitlock, but those people probably need to be wearing adult diapers no matter what we do at the trade table.