Review National Draft 2010 and look ahead to Rookie Draft

[Pure_Ownage]

The info and what the powers that be say:

15. BILLIE SMEDTS
(Geelong Falcons, 18, 190cm, 76kg)
Clever, composed utility who has looked good all over the ground. Nimble, has a lot of nous and sets play up well.


23. CAMERON GUTHRIE
(Calder Cannons, 18, 186cm, 79kg)
Versatile, diligent utility who loves taking a job on. Plays well, and stops others playing well. Loves the contested ball and works hard all day.


37. GEORGE HORLIN-SMITH
(Sturt, 17, 186cm, 78kg)
Tough onballer who can play pretty much all over the ground and shot up draft rankings late after playing mostly school footy. Promising junior cricketer who has represented Australia.


54. JORDAN SCHRODER
(Calder Cannons, 17, 182cm, 85kg)
Hard and tough in-and-under onballer who is ultra competitive. Was able to go forward for the Cannons and sneak goals, too.


58. JAMES PODSIADLY
(promoted rookie)

CLUB REACTION: "We think it was pretty important [to use the Ablett compensation pick]. Probably the logic is, if you've got a player you can spend a couple of years working on him, you'll get a better player probably than a first-round pick at the time ... That [the midfield selections] wasn't by design, it was really by best player available." NEIL BALME, football manager

GEELONG CATS
Recruiting manager Stephen Wells saw a huge upside in his 2010 NAB AFL Draft class.

Draft summary
"We were really happy with the way the draft panned out for us. We've drafted four players that we think have got outstanding talent with plenty of room for development in them as well.

"They'll be given every opportunity to grow and progress with the coaching at our club. We love the fact that they can all win their own football, they have excellent skills and can play in a number of different positions.

"We came with an open mind. We would have been happy to draft tall players or runners or whichever ways it turned out, but when it came to our picks we were very pleased to be able to call out those players' names."

So if we believe Wellsy and co (and why wouldn't we I spose) we didn't specifically go in to pick mids over talls, we just went best available. Strange, but in another way makes sense. Seems the Wells versatility got a run as usual.


Hopefully this year will the reverse of 2007 where we (admittedly that draft wasn't our greatest success) drafted all talls in the ND and all smalls in the RD.


I do like Guthrie, and it shall be interesting to see how the rest go.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Stopped reading when you said that we could improve a players goal kicking!

You saw what we did to Tomahawk, who was a lovey kick for goal in U-18s.

Haha yeah good call!

I was just making the point that Josh's kicking isn't as bad as it's made out to be...it's not elite...but the ball drop's ok and he hits targets reasonably often. There's a fair few worse kicks in this draft I can think of. And he has such lovely hands, and a good work rate too (also what I like about Darcy Barden, except Josh is much more mobile and has more athletic potential)...I'm almost tempted to write to Wellsy to ask him to put him on

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/102381/default.aspx

 

[Pure_Ownage]

HS page on our draft selections:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-draft-2010/geelong

Comments are Chris Scott's, obviously the sub editor was having the night off

 

[David the Cat]

No mention of Myles(?) Sewell in any reports I have read. I understand the guy can play, though I know nothing of him....

Is he eligible and whats the reputation based on?? And is he any chance for us?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

No mention of Myles(?) Sewell in any reports I have read. I understand the guy can play, though I know nothing of him....

Is he eligible and whats the reputation based on?? And is he any chance for us?

Myles Sewell is a gun. He is on the slow side, but a gun.

GWS have the first 8 picks in the RD and they'll focus on experienced state league players like GC did in the RD last year I reckon, so he's a monty to go there.

We have picks 24, 41, 58 and 75 (Bathie) in the RD I think.

 

[nohairandfair]

HeraldSun - "drafted play the Geelong style" - Mark Thompson

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-draft-2010/geelong

The HUN hasn't quite caught on about the changes at the Cattery!

 

[CF]

Re: HeraldSun - "drafted play the Geelong style" - Mark Thompson

typical half arsed journalism from the Hun

 

[My5t3r10u5]

My criticism of our drafting is not so much about the players we took, although there was a couple we passed on that really surprised me (Atley in particular) but the fact that in 12 months our spine will likely be:

Rucks: Simpson West Vardy
Forwards: Podsiadly Hawkins Brown
Defenders: Lonergan Taylor Drum Gillies

Certainly numerically that doesn't look like enough to me out of 47 listed players, and quality wise it could do with a boost too. Whether there were any talls worth picking at the picks is hard to say, but I sure hope we take 2 if not 3 as rookies.

Hey PO, how about a bit of balance. You've dropped out Ottens, Blake, Scarlett and Mooney but do you think just maybe the club will replace them with talls in future drafts? And just maybe we will draft some talls in the rookie draft? And just maybe Ben Johnson or Ryan Bathie might be promoted to the list in the future? And just maybe promoting Podsiadly to the list is like recruiting a tall?

We lost Ablett, Djerrjura, Laidler, Gamble & Rooke from our list and have replaced them with Smedts, Guthrie, Horlin-Smith, Shroder and Podsiadly. Looks to me like we have one more tall on our list than we did last year. Not sure what all the fuss is about...

 

[goodoldcats]

Hey PO, how about a bit of balance. You've dropped out Ottens, Blake, Scarlett and Mooney but do you think just maybe the club will replace them with talls in future drafts? And just maybe we will draft some talls in the rookie draft? And just maybe Ben Johnson or Ryan Bathie might be promoted to the list in the future? And just maybe promoting Podsiadly to the list is like recruiting a tall?

We lost Ablett, Djerrjura, Laidler, Gamble & Rooke from our list and have replaced them with Smedts, Guthrie, Horlin-Smith, Shroder and Podsiadly. Looks to me like we have one more tall on our list than we did last year. Not sure what all the fuss is about...

scarlett is old. hawkins is a hack, brown is injury prone. flake is not a footballers arseh*le, west and vardy may not make it, ottens is just about finished, doubtful johnson or bathie will make it

 

[year of the cat]

Assuming we go tall in the rookie draft names that will probably get looked at include - Chalwell, Walker, Hamp and Gordon.

Being a rookie draft you can probably afford to be a bit riskier in your selections - why not try Chalwell whose vision looks great? Hopefully we walk away with 2 talls from our selections.

 

[TheHonestyPolicy]

Geelong's midfield has been its strength in this successful era so if you feel the best picks to take in this draft were mids, I am fine with all that. In fact I think the clear focus on ball winners with versatility is a winner. And the suggestion we didnt get any pace this draft seems a bit off given Smedts and Guthrie are both quite nimble arent they? And I dont know enough about the other two yet.

I am sure Geelong have a project tall or two in mind for the rookie draft and more than likely will take a tall with their first pick next year someone's there.

I dont think you just draft talls to fill a list, in the hope any issues just vanish. Personally I see a fair bit of upside to the younger talls on our list.

 

[dannycat]

hey guys.. my first post on here..

I got a mate that actually works at Calder Cannons.. I asked him about the two boys we picked up.. and his responses below.. word for word..

Guthrie is as smooth as silk. Can play back, forward or mid. He stitched up Bennel in one of the state games. Has a lovely right foot kick and is as clean cut as they come.

Schroeder is a midfield grunt player, battering ram type. Will come on in leaps and bounds in AFL enviroment.

Looks like Wells has done the job for us yet again..

 

[CatTricks]

Thanks the the info dannycat & welcome!

 

[Cat for Life]

And the suggestion we didnt get any pace this draft seems a bit off given Smedts and Guthrie are both quite nimble arent they? And I dont know enough about the other two yet.

quote]

Yep, Smedt was in the top 10 for the sprint and won the agility run a big margin. guthrie was very good at the verticle jumps, suggesting he's quiet explosive.

It's not like we drafted 2 plodders here, bit of perspective is required. Just because they weren't described as fast by the bf thinktank doesn't mean they're slow.

 

[CatTricks]

Anyone keen to get Max Otten to the Cattery?
Whats he like? Could he play as a KPD?

 

[dannycat]

Can someone please update on how we are looking in the Rookie Draft..

Does GWS have the first handful of picks?

What are our chances of getting Walker from Falcons??

 

[CatTricks]

Can someone please update on how we are looking in the Rookie Draft..

Does GWS have the first handful of picks?

What are our chances of getting Walker from Falcons??

GWS have the first 8 picks
GC have the first pick in each round

 

[winty]

I agree, one should not shoehorn Guthrie. I just like it because now we don't to have the 'no Ling can't possibly retire because we have no one who can play that role' argument anymore...but yeah it is one of several roles he could play. Because he's a smart player...the Cannons games I watched this year while I was drooling over Watson I liked Guthrie too...he does a lot of smart things like blocks and positioning, and whenever he's tackled he always lifts his arms above his head so you can't pin him (just the little things you know) and his disposal is very neat which is something Wells always targets. Won't get rated much, and will be very unnoticed when he plays VFL in our write ups because he's just solid and has no flashy stuff about him (whereas everyone including me will drool about Motlop in every write up) but I think he'll turn out to be a good player.

Does that mean in about 18 months from now we're going to be subjected to a lot of "Guthrie ducks into tackles looking for frees" posts from opposition fans, in a similar vein to what we get now about Selwood?

 

[rooke33]

Very happy with our drafting, think horlin smith could end up being a steal at 37. Anyone know how many spots we have open for the rookie draft? Walker is the obvious one if we can get him, would be happy to see luke mitchell or aaron mullett get a look in too.

Apologies, won't be getting mitchell as he has a home at carlton.

 

[rocker_oz33]

l would have liked one of the tall defenders in the draft.but l am kinda happy with getting all mids seeing that they all can win there own footy which is really great,with last years boys and this years kids seem to complement each other really well.well played.

 

[OldStyle2007]

Sounds like we drafted quite well

And at 190cms and only 18yo Smedts does partially address the height thing. Don't forget our US college baller either, plus with Drum and Gillies to come through and Vardy and Brown still on way up we are probably okay in that area - especially if there was no one tall worth drafting and we weren't completely desperate

I am pretty happy we didn't pick up any more 175cm players this year. Those guys should be strictly for the rookie draft

 

[Whispers]

I love draft time. All the experts come out on who we should've taken instead who we took.

For what it is worth, I THINK we wait and see. Geelong's selections in the top 40 seem to have gone alright over the years. All four selections have foot skills, which is important because if players don't have it now, they never will. Fitness on the other hand can be improved. Luckily for Geelong, Smedts and Guthrie have huge engines.

For all the people who are saying we should have got Atley, (and I will put my neck on the line) he butchers the ball too often. Yes he can find the ball but he hacks it often.

Like each and every year, I look forward to watching their progress.

 

[LemmingMaster]

And the suggestion we didnt get any pace this draft seems a bit off given Smedts and Guthrie are both quite nimble arent they? And I dont know enough about the other two yet.

quote]

Yep, Smedt was in the top 10 for the sprint and won the agility run a big margin. guthrie was very good at the verticle jumps, suggesting he's quiet explosive.

It's not like we drafted 2 plodders here, bit of perspective is required. Just because they weren't described as fast by the bf thinktank doesn't mean they're slow.

Smedt 2.91 over 20m and top of the agility test.

Guthrie 3.02 over 20m, but does have a better repeat sprints time than Smedt, so as you said, they're not plodders.

 

[Vdubs]

Any chance we redraft or rerookie Adam Varcoe? Seems to not get a mention or have I missed something?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Does that mean in about 18 months from now we're going to be subjected to a lot of "Guthrie ducks into tackles looking for frees" posts from opposition fans, in a similar vein to what we get now about Selwood?

Bloody hope not.

Think Guthrie will be a good player though.