Bluemour 'Silly Season' Edition XXXIV

[VainGlorious]

This was one of Brodie Kemps write-ups pre-draft, which makes for some interesting reading

Brodie Kemp​

Height: 192cm
Weight: 82kg
D.O.B: 01-05-2001
DRAFT ANALYSIS: "Bendigo's leading prospect, Kemp can play multiple roles and proved a game winner this year."
Leagues: Under 18s Championships, NAB League Boys
CLUBS looking for a player who can do just about anything need look no further than Brodie Kemp. The Bendigo Pioneers utility has long been touted as a player to watch come his draft year and he delivered in spades throughout 2019, particularly during the National Championships. The Geelong Grammarian spent most of his year plying his trade in school football, but unfortunately had his season cut short by an ACL tear in the same competition just before he was scheduled for a NAB League return. Still, his three-year elite pathway resume is as good as any draft prospect in this year's crop and Kemp's upside will make him even more desirable heading into November. His presence helped Bendigo to their first two wins of the year in the opening rounds, and his season-best 27-disposal game against South Australia was crowned by kicking the winning goal – a feat he very nearly repeated in the very next round. We knew he could make a difference, but Kemp’s true game-turning abilities really came to the fore this year and propelled him into top 10 draft contention post-championships. Injury means recency bias will work against him, as will a lack of recent combine results, but Kemp’s work throughout the year alone makes him a player worthy of such honours. Expect clubs higher up the ladder with the time to be able to wait on or develop high-end picks to roll the dice on the well-built mover if the draft order shuffles.
STRENGTHS:
Versatility
Clean hands
Overhead marking
Hurt factor
Athleticism
IMPROVEMENTS:
Endurance
Kicking at speed
The word on Kemp coming into the season was that he was destined for more midfield minutes after finding a home as a high-marking intercept defender in 2018, but he would end up having an impact just about everywhere. He adapted his kick-dominant game to become a handball-happy midfield extractor, was solid in his usual defensive post for Vic Country, and eventually a game winner for them up forward. Kemp’s success up forward lends to his key strengths of impact and overhead marking. He showed his worth with a huge contested mark in the dying seconds against South Australia to snare the winning goal, while doing the same twice in the last quarter against Western Australia to almost drag his side over the line. All were really game defining moments, and while Kemp does not win crazy amounts of the ball, he has important touches. Add to that a sub-three second 20m sprint and phenomenal agility and you have a prospect that can pull off just about anything. A good size to boot, Kemp would be a top 10 lock if not for his recent injury.
As close as Kemp is to being a complete player and as much as he can do it all on a football field, there remains room for improvement at this stage. Kemp’s disposal average of an even 20 across the NAB League and national carnival is quite impressive given the deep position he often took up either end of the ground, but if he is to play more permanently in the midfield, he can work on having bucket-loads of possessions more often. Perhaps the more pressing question is his kicking on the move, with Kemp’s delivery wavering at times. It seems a matter of consistency as his delivery out of the back half usually assured, but not quite perfect as it stands. When he has time and space he can deliver, but it is ironing out that kick at speed to take the next step. Another area Kemp was keen to improve on at the start of the season was his endurance after an okay 21.4 yo-yo test at the NAB League Fitness Testing Day, which he had made inroads towards improving. But after his knee injury he will need to build that back up and get match fitness in for him to have a real impact in his second season of AFL football. Overall a really talented prospect who has massive upside once he recovers and gets some runs into the legs.



I’ve got sky-high hopes for he and Jack Carroll.

 

[ferrisb]

This was one of Brodie Kemps write-ups pre-draft, which makes for some interesting reading

I’ve got sky-high hopes for he and Jack Carroll.

Talented juniors are just that until proven at AFL level...

 

[Aphrodite]

it was the clutchest of clutch shots............

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Fsport%2Fafl%2Fbrodie-kemp-a-top-afl-draft-prospect-despite-knee-injury%2Fnews-story%2F06cf3644a9c861f557c0a6800623aca7&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=dynamic-groupa-control-noscore&V21spcbehaviour=append

archive please?

 

[VainGlorious]

Talented juniors are just that until proven at AFL level...

Couldn’t agree more, Bueller.

The want and mindset must be there from the individual, the development process needs to be tip-top, and they need to be fit and focussed.

Sprinkle some luck in there and voilà!

The transition from playing against teens to playing against AFL athletes cannot be discounted either.

 

[KohPhi]

Couldn’t agree more, Bueller.

The want and mindset must be there from the individual, the development process needs to be tip-top, and they need to be fit and focussed.

Sprinkle some luck in there and voilà!

The transition from playing against teens to playing against AFL athletes cannot be discounted either.

Oh....

You're back.

 

[VainGlorious]

Oh....

You're back.

View attachment 1551026

 

[Blue since 72]

Talented juniors are just that until proven at AFL level...

One of the things i took out of that write up was he adapted his kicking game to become a handball happy extractor in the middle. I now understand why he's not getting midfield time given our glut of handball happy extractors, that and I assume his still lack of endurance.

That leaves forward or back and while I personally think he is suited back, we've also got plenty of quality there. Third tall forward could be a gig but it would also be a fight to break into that six.

At this point unless he absolutely stuns in pre-season it could be another year of injury back up.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

I dont like potting Kemp as I also had big hopes we he 'slid' in the draft to us.. But has he even dominated at VFL level?? There are a few exceptions, however most fringe players who force their way into a side are tearing it up at VFL level.. I dont watch much VFL footy but dont recall him demanding to be selected based on his form at the lower level?

 

[Jimmae]

I dont like potting Kemp as I also had big hopes we he 'slid' in the draft to us.. But has he even dominated at VFL level?? There are a few exceptions, however most fringe players who force their way into a side are tearing it up at VFL level.. I dont watch much VFL footy but dont recall him demanding to be selected based on his form at the lower level?

Had a couple of great games against Collingwood to round out the season. Was played pretty much everywhere.

 

[Crippa#9]

Had a couple of great games against Collingwood to round out the season. Was played pretty much everywhere.

Yes, he dominated a large portion of the curtain raiser match V Collingwood at the MCG. That was the game that proved to me he has what it takes.

 

[Jeremias]

Kemp is 21. With absolutely no injury history to speak of, he's had ample time and opportunity to make his mark in this league - anything short of a Brownlow medal this year should be seen as a failure and grounds for delisting.

 

[gbatman]

Good post.

I've posted this before but I believe it's a worthy counter argument to your post.

Injuries played a significant part in the lack of a plan B and lack of layers in the game plan this year.

It's almost impossible to add layers to a game plan when you have so many vital members of the team out simultaneously and then when one comes back another goes out.

Show me a team who has survived and thrived despite a spate of injuries and I'll show you a team who has developed the continuity and consistency of a developed team where the players taking care of roles of injured players have been well drilled into meeting consistent expectations.

But we weren't overly affected by injuries in a lot of those games that cost us finals. Game plan let us down in most of them. Losing leads and some of the bad losses. There are a heap of games that were not injury affected.

I don't see how personnel affects your approach to the game and ability to change game plan. It doesn't. Hawthorn fielded a poor side all year which is worse than being injury affected and still were able to switch up their game plan, they proved this against us. This being probably one of the greatest examples of our poor tactics. We weren't badly affected by injury at all in this game. We were playing a second rate side and leading by 45 odd points early in the game, should have won by 60-80 points and played finals because of that. Hawthorn despite being worse than any injury affected Carlton side were able to change their game plan and exploited the shit out of our game plan, because we only have one game plan, which is amateur stuff. We were caught with a terrible team defence that did not protect the switch/corridor and we were caught without the ability to handle a pressure around the ball style game Hawthorn changed to and we were caught without the ability to switch to a pressure around the ball style game ourselves which all the good sides can do but for some reason not us. We were belted in the coaches box this day and it wasn't the only belting we were given in the coaches box this season. Got away with it because it was a quality 22 v a poor 22.

We copped a hiding in the coaches box the next week. A couple of injuries does not excuse a 30 point loss to the gold coast suns. We were smashed tactically. They saw how Hawthorn did it the week before, the played close checking high pressure around the ball, intercept from behind and go up the middle. No answers from Carlton because we have not been coached how to handle these tactics by any of our coaches over the last few years.

Then it happened again next week, we fielded a really good side against Port Adelaide, lead by 50 points at half time and only won by 3. Again we were smashed in the coaches box because our team defence was garbage and we do not have a second game plan and we do not know how to play when the opposition switch to a more defensive structure.

We were literally found out in round 3 and any half decent coach knew that to beat us it was all about blocking and applying pressure around the ball, lose defenders behind and go up the middle.

You'd think by round 23 we would be better but no we weren't. It wasn't just wayward kicking that cost us that game. We know Collingwood play a pressure around the ball game where their midfielders play tight, defenders play lose and intercept and go quick so how the hell did our forwards for almost half a game do nothing to negate this! How was Maynard allowed to play lose and take heaps of marks! It just astounds me we make so many tactical errors.

We are one of the most tactically inept sides in the competition and it's glossed over by the fact we have a strong list and we do, even with injuries the teams we fielded all year were above average.

Game plan had a far greater impact to us missing finals than injury.

You look at lesser lists like Collingwood finishing top 4. First year coach, McRae should be coach of the year for what he achieved, that list was good but not outstanding. You can't tell me they were fielding a superior side to us all year. No they were far far better coached and yes they were guilty of playing the same game plan for most of the time too but at least it was a game plan that could not be exploited because it was about defensive acts, pressure and intercepting which is harder to exploit than ours which was about ball hunting, ball winning, clearance winning and showed little interest in protecting the middle of the ground and helping out the team defence for a lot of the season.

Your personnel does not affect your ability to change your game plan. Having a few players out does not stop us changing how we are playing. It doesn't stop us playing a bit closer and applying more pressure around the ball and allowing our defenders to intercept a bit more freely. It does not stop our forwards from playing a bit more accountable and taking out the opposition lose defenders. It doesn't stop us from defending the corridor better. It doesn't stop us pushing numbers back in defence and into the middle of the ground in the dying minutes of a game to hold a lead.

I'm not saying our tactics were terrible but they were one step away from it, our tactics were awfully mediocre we were outcoached far too often. The quality of our side glossed over the fact we are tactically weak a lot of the time. Tactics cost us wins this year and it cost us percentage boosting wins.

If there is not a vast improvement in how well the side is coached and a vast improvement in tactics and the season results in another failure then the heat is going to be seriously on the coaching staff. Our coaching staff is going to have to get it right this off season. My concern is there is not enough people from any of the three rally successful clubs at Carlton. Geelong, Hawthorn (Clarkson era) and Richmond. I look at our coaching panel and there are a lot of people who have come from poor/mediocre clubs.

Despite injuries we fielded a good enough team to make finals. Worse teams finished ahead of us in the end.

Injuries should have maybe cost us a top 4 spot but not finals, our list was good enough. IMO this season was a pretty significant failure.

 

[RPCB]

Kemp is 21. With absolutely no injury history to speak of, he's had ample time and opportunity to make his mark in this league - anything short of a Brownlow medal this year should be seen as a failure and grounds for delisting.

That’s the spirit. I feel that Sam Walsh hasn’t done enough as well.

 

[VainGlorious]

Cripps ought to pull his finger out as well. Back-to-back Brownlow medals and a Norm Smith in 2023 or else it’s a fail

 

[gbatman]

Kemp seems lost and mostly underperforms at VFL level...

Think he's one of those players who (like Motlop), plays better at AFL level...
Thought he was pretty good as a defender in those 4 games he played this year and was stiff to get dropped...

Think he's best suited to be a dependable 3rd tall defender, which could allow McGovern to go back as the 3rd tall forward...
Plus if needed they both can play at either end...

Kemp has struggled as a forward at VFL level and it's a pipe dream to think he's a tall midfielder...
Has no exposure at AFL level in the midfield and who would he replace?
He'd be behind Dow and Fogarty in the pecking order, he'd never get another game with us...

For a permanent best 22 position, its likely 3rd tall defender or bust...

100% Kemp looked fine at AFL level and I was hoping he would get a run as the third tall defender but never happened. I think he could play third tall defender but really want to see us try and develop him into a midfield who goes forward.

His endurance will dictate whether he plays as a midfielder or not but his athletic profile and skills suggest he can play there. I think we need to try him as an onballer see whether he is actually behind Dow and Fogarty, I'm not sure he would be.

I like that kemp is a big strong guy with good skills and top level break away speed. Feel if he was playing VFL getting 30 possessions a game and kicking a few goals that you would want someone like that in your side. Develop him as an upgrade to Kennedy and a replacement for Cripps as our primary mover in 3 or 4 years time.

Many years ago you could have said you shouldn't try Koutoufides as an onballer because he's untried there, too tall and behind Ratten, Bradley, Williams, Gleeson, Hogg, Mitchell etc. Sometimes you need to give things a go to see. In the VFL of course, not chucking him on the ball in the AFL.

Round 1 VFL Ed Curnow, Dow, Kemp, Carroll going through the centre sounds good to me.

McGovern too good in defence for mine and quite mediocre up forward, I get the feeling that he is considered a lock for defence. I don't mind him forward but IMO he needs to play as a full forward, he gets lost playing as a third tall.

All good options really.

 

[Canyouhearthedrums]

Had a couple of great games against Collingwood to round out the season. Was played pretty much everywhere.

He also doesn’t strike me as the type who would regularly ‘dominate’ at the level, particularly given the way he’s been thrown about positionally. This year is a big one for him but I’m pretty optimistic.

My only concern is how we get him game time in the 1s if Marchy/Gov stay fit. There isn’t room for him down back. Or in the midfield. Is playing him forward in his interests? He’s in a slightly tricky spot.

 

[Jimmae]

He also doesn’t strike me as the type who would regularly ‘dominate’ at the level, particularly given the way he’s been thrown about positionally. This year is a big one for him but I’m pretty optimistic.

My only concern is how we get him game time in the 1s if Marchy/Gov stay fit. There isn’t room for him down back. Or in the midfield. Is playing him forward in his interests? He’s in a slightly tricky spot.

Mid/forward. That's where he showed the most impact in the second half of the season.

Just took him a little while to settle into it, then got thrown around.

 

[Canyouhearthedrums]

Mid/forward. That's where he showed the most impact in the second half of the season.

Just took him a little while to settle into it, then got thrown around.

Whose minutes does he take up forward do you think? JSOS appears most likely, especially if we persist with TDK/Pitto duo.

If that’s his best position, it’s a boon for us because we really lack that medium tall/3rd option type down there. More depth in the midfield also good.

 

[sosos]

Whose minutes does he take up forward do you think? JSOS appears most likely, especially if we persist with TDK/Pitto duo.

If that’s his best position, it’s a boon for us because we really lack that medium tall/3rd option type down there. More depth in the midfield also good.

If one of Mackay,
Curnow or Sosos geys injured, I'm hoping he is first in to cover.

 

[branedotorg]

Kemp is 21. With absolutely no injury history to speak of, he's had ample time and opportunity to make his mark in this league - anything short of a Brownlow medal this year should be seen as a failure and grounds for delisting.

no, sorry you are actually in a worse timeline, quantum memetic slippage analysis tells me this post came from a nearby alternate universe where Carlton don't have injury sagas

 

[Accidental genius]

But we weren't overly affected by injuries in a lot of those games that cost us finals. Game plan let us down in most of them. Losing leads and some of the bad losses. There are a heap of games that were not injury affected.

I don't see how personnel affects your approach to the game and ability to change game plan. It doesn't. Hawthorn fielded a poor side all year which is worse than being injury affected and still were able to switch up their game plan, they proved this against us. This being probably one of the greatest examples of our poor tactics. We weren't badly affected by injury at all in this game. We were playing a second rate side and leading by 45 odd points early in the game, should have won by 60-80 points and played finals because of that. Hawthorn despite being worse than any injury affected Carlton side were able to change their game plan and exploited the s**t out of our game plan, because we only have one game plan, which is amateur stuff. We were caught with a terrible team defence that did not protect the switch/corridor and we were caught without the ability to handle a pressure around the ball style game Hawthorn changed to and we were caught without the ability to switch to a pressure around the ball style game ourselves which all the good sides can do but for some reason not us. We were belted in the coaches box this day and it wasn't the only belting we were given in the coaches box this season. Got away with it because it was a quality 22 v a poor 22.

We copped a hiding in the coaches box the next week. A couple of injuries does not excuse a 30 point loss to the gold coast suns. We were smashed tactically. They saw how Hawthorn did it the week before, the played close checking high pressure around the ball, intercept from behind and go up the middle. No answers from Carlton because we have not been coached how to handle these tactics by any of our coaches over the last few years.

Then it happened again next week, we fielded a really good side against Port Adelaide, lead by 50 points at half time and only won by 3. Again we were smashed in the coaches box because our team defence was garbage and we do not have a second game plan and we do not know how to play when the opposition switch to a more defensive structure.

We were literally found out in round 3 and any half decent coach knew that to beat us it was all about blocking and applying pressure around the ball, lose defenders behind and go up the middle.

You'd think by round 23 we would be better but no we weren't. It wasn't just wayward kicking that cost us that game. We know Collingwood play a pressure around the ball game where their midfielders play tight, defenders play lose and intercept and go quick so how the hell did our forwards for almost half a game do nothing to negate this! How was Maynard allowed to play lose and take heaps of marks! It just astounds me we make so many tactical errors.

We are one of the most tactically inept sides in the competition and it's glossed over by the fact we have a strong list and we do, even with injuries the teams we fielded all year were above average.

Game plan had a far greater impact to us missing finals than injury.

You look at lesser lists like Collingwood finishing top 4. First year coach, McRae should be coach of the year for what he achieved, that list was good but not outstanding. You can't tell me they were fielding a superior side to us all year. No they were far far better coached and yes they were guilty of playing the same game plan for most of the time too but at least it was a game plan that could not be exploited because it was about defensive acts, pressure and intercepting which is harder to exploit than ours which was about ball hunting, ball winning, clearance winning and showed little interest in protecting the middle of the ground and helping out the team defence for a lot of the season.

Your personnel does not affect your ability to change your game plan. Having a few players out does not stop us changing how we are playing. It doesn't stop us playing a bit closer and applying more pressure around the ball and allowing our defenders to intercept a bit more freely. It does not stop our forwards from playing a bit more accountable and taking out the opposition lose defenders. It doesn't stop us from defending the corridor better. It doesn't stop us pushing numbers back in defence and into the middle of the ground in the dying minutes of a game to hold a lead.

I'm not saying our tactics were terrible but they were one step away from it, our tactics were awfully mediocre we were outcoached far too often. The quality of our side glossed over the fact we are tactically weak a lot of the time. Tactics cost us wins this year and it cost us percentage boosting wins.

If there is not a vast improvement in how well the side is coached and a vast improvement in tactics and the season results in another failure then the heat is going to be seriously on the coaching staff. Our coaching staff is going to have to get it right this off season. My concern is there is not enough people from any of the three rally successful clubs at Carlton. Geelong, Hawthorn (Clarkson era) and Richmond. I look at our coaching panel and there are a lot of people who have come from poor/mediocre clubs.

Despite injuries we fielded a good enough team to make finals. Worse teams finished ahead of us in the end.

Injuries should have maybe cost us a top 4 spot but not finals, our list was good enough. IMO this season was a pretty significant failure.

100%.
Great post.

 

[Accidental genius]

Mid/forward. That's where he showed the most impact in the second half of the season.

Just took him a little while to settle into it, then got thrown around.

You think he’ll be moved back to mid/forward next season? I think we’ve got good cover in our defence now.

 

[gbatman]

100%.
Great post.

Tactics is the greatest area of improvement for us followed by injury list improvement and forward line improvement. A lot have hopes that everyone will be uninjured and it will take us to the promised land, it might gloss over our tactical failings more but won't win us a flag if we don't improve our game plan.

Most teams have multiple structural and positioning changes to cope with opposition tactics, hole leads and build comebacks, we don't and it's a worry. We need to get in people who can help get this right as we are quality strong and tactically weak.

A good game plan, despite injuries would have seen us push top 4 last year still. 4 or 5th is where we could have been.

 

[Accidental genius]

Tactics is the greatest area of improvement for us followed by injury list improvement and forward line improvement. A lot have hopes that everyone will be uninjured and it will take us to the promised land, it might gloss over our tactical failings more but won't win us a flag if we don't improve our game plan.

Most teams have multiple structural and positioning changes to cope with opposition tactics, hole leads and build comebacks, we don't and it's a worry. We need to get in people who can help get this right as we are quality strong and tactically weak.

A good game plan, despite injuries would have seen us push top 4 last year still. 4 or 5th is where we could have been.

Agreed.

I like what Voss has achieved so far but I think he’s going to need a game day strategy type assistant. Filth have got Bolton and knuckle head failed coach from lions.
Ferals have got Teague. Swans have ex crows coach. Dees have Williams. Etc etc

 

[Coona Blues]

Tactics is the greatest area of improvement for us followed by injury list improvement and forward line improvement. A lot have hopes that everyone will be uninjured and it will take us to the promised land, it might gloss over our tactical failings more but won't win us a flag if we don't improve our game plan.

Most teams have multiple structural and positioning changes to cope with opposition tactics, hole leads and build comebacks, we don't and it's a worry. We need to get in people who can help get this right as we are quality strong and tactically weak.

A good game plan, despite injuries would have seen us push top 4 last year still. 4 or 5th is where we could have been.

Not disputing that there are “layers” to be added to the game plan, but the major reason we missed finals was because the list was cooked physically and in a couple of cases mentally. We were coming from a long way back, both through injury issues and Teague demanding access to the list for incessant match simulation and denying Jack Russell access to the group for much needed conditioning.

We were conditioning on the run. A number of developing players did not have the luxury of “tapering” through the season. They experienced solid training loads throughout, with a mind to “catching up” within a couple of years. An off season respite prior to pushing in to a very stringent and focussed pre season will set many up. I am expecting much quicker development from TDK, Kemp, Mirkov, Carroll, perhaps Dow and LOB and our young forwards in particular. Hopefully Philp and Cuningham have a solid base to build on with McGovern, Martin, Marchbank, Williams as well as the likes Fogarty, Boyd, Owies and Newman free from set backs from last season.

The upside is huge, Hewett, Kennedy, Pittonet and C.Durdin were our players undertaking significant surgeries and all are projected to be ready for round 1.

It is difficult to add layers to a game plan when significant numbers from the list are unavailable or under done and restricted to minimal training between games.