Resource Noober's Player Videos for 2024

[noobermensch]

Urquhart was WA's best on the day, his size and competitiveness was influential at stoppage and he was typically damaging with his penetrating right boot. He played 100% midfield in this game which is different to his typical role at Colts level where he rests in the forward line, and he did fade in the second half which coincided with the Allies getting on top of the territory battle.

 

[noobermensch]

Lions Academy member Sam Marshall has chosen the best possible moment to have his two best performances of the season in back to back games to kick of this years National Champs. Thriving on the opportunity to play as more of an inside mid for the Allies, he's shown an ability to win stoppage and contested ball without sacrificing any of the outside linking run that he's known best for.

 

[RanaNaved]

Would you mind doing a Jack Ough video when ever

 

[noobermensch]

Would you mind doing a Jack Ough video when ever

Do you like him as a prospect or just his name

He's in the Vic Country squad, if he performs at the champs I'll definitely get something done for him.

 

[noobermensch]

A prolific disposal game from Cooper Hynes who also hit the scoreboard at a pivotal moment in the 4th quarter to help his Stingrays get up in a tightly contested game. He remains something of a polarizing prospect. His numbers as a mid and a forward are excellent. He has a large frame, excellent level of competitiveness and repeat efforts, but only average stoppage impact and raw skill level at times.

 

[RanaNaved]

Do you like him as a prospect or just his name

He's in the Vic Country squad, if he performs at the champs I'll definitely get something done for him.

Both haha

 

[noobermensch]

The top key forward prospect in this draft entering the season is finally back after missing the first two months of the season through injury, and he immediately shows everyone what they've been missing with a bag of five goals.

 

[noobermensch]

With Vic Country playing their first champs game on the weekend it's time to take a closer look at the talented Lachie Jaques. Lachie is an intercepting and rebounding defender from the Geelong Falcons who's still flying a bit under the radar even though he's putting together a prolific campaign. He's strong overhead which allows him to play taller than his listed 184cm height, and has tidy foot skills.

 

[noobermensch]

Bottom ager Zeke Uwland has started this years Champs with two excellent games for the Allies, coming off a fantastic run of form for the Suns Academy in Talent League play. Zeke continues to show why he's one of the hot names from the 2025 draft crop, intercepting across half back and rebounding with direct, attacking and damaging play.

 

[noobermensch]

An excellent game from Ben who was one of the driving forces for SA both at stoppage and in ball transition. He split his time between center bounce mid and wing, with his best moments coming in the center where he's able to feature his stoppage strength and somewhat hide his kicking accuracy which remains an issue.

 

[Davo-27]

A prolific disposal game from Cooper Hynes who also hit the scoreboard at a pivotal moment in the 4th quarter to help his Stingrays get up in a tightly contested game. He remains something of a polarizing prospect. His numbers as a mid and a forward are excellent. He has a large frame, excellent level of competitiveness and repeat efforts, but only average stoppage impact and raw skill level at times.

His early season form where he was bursting out of the centre was legit top tier, he, Mraz and Langford are a class above at Dandy

 

[noobermensch]

Though not quite as influential as his brother Ben, Lucas was very good in his first Champs outing. The archetypal winger, Lucas worked hard up and down the ground to provide the +1 at contests and was always available outside the stoppage or on the overlap to link play in transition.

 

[noobermensch]

Jagga was the high possession winner in the game and one of Metro's best performed on the day. He did his best work early when the weather was a mess. Other players were slipping and sliding around, fumbling the footy, but Jagga was clean as a whistle and helped Metro dominate through the midfield.

 

[noobermensch]

Smillie started the game well, reasonably clean in the wet conditions and influential in creating or finishing a number of scoring opportunities for Metro. He faded as the game went on, and spent a lot of the final quarter on the bench so hopefully he hasn't picked up a knock.

 

[noobermensch]

Levi was excellent in the first half when conditions were at their toughest on a rainy Melbourne day. He was quieter in the second, but still had some important and damaging moments, kicking a critical goal in the fourth quarter with the game on the line.

 

[9874123]

Smillie started the game well, reasonably clean in the wet conditions and influential in creating or finishing a number of scoring opportunities for Metro. He faded as the game went on, and spent a lot of the final quarter on the bench so hopefully he hasn't picked up a knock.

I just don't see this kid as pick 1 material.

He is a big kid with a nice kick, but is he dynamic enough to really get the most out of his kicking? He doesn't burst through packs and doesn't have that seemingly god-given core strength that makes certain players un-tackle-able so I can't see him using his kicking to his best ability out of stoppages. In transition, he isn't an elite runner, not a great mark despite his size. Think he ends up a stoppage beast who occasionally gets the chance to do a nice kick. Good player, but he'd have to add another string to his bow to really be a star in my opinion.

 

[noobermensch]

I just don't see this kid as pick 1 material.

He is a big kid with a nice kick, but is he dynamic enough to really get the most out of his kicking? He doesn't burst through packs and doesn't have that seemingly god-given core strength that makes certain players un-tackle-able so I can't see him using his kicking to his best ability out of stoppages. In transition, he isn't an elite runner, not a great mark despite his size. Think he ends up a stoppage beast who occasionally gets the chance to do a nice kick. Good player, but he'd have to add another string to his bow to really be a star in my opinion.

The main counter point I'll offer is that his movement in traffic is very good. As far as I'm aware he measures quite highly in agility testing. He's not express pace, but light on his feet and able to make tacklers miss. Even when they do get him, his size and strength makes him difficult to bring down, so its an exciting combination of traits. It makes his nice kicking skills more damaging as he quite often navigates his way into enough space for a damaging and penetrating disposal.

You're right that he's not a Harley Reid type who will power away from stoppage bouncing opponents off him as he goes, but there aren't that many of those going around, and there are no Harley Reid level talents in this draft... but then kids like Harley and Nick Daicos come around very rarely so sometimes you have to just appreciate what you have available to you.

 

[9874123]

The main counter point I'll offer is that his movement in traffic is very good. As far as I'm aware he measures quite highly in agility testing. He's not express pace, but light on his feet and able to make tacklers miss. Even when they do get him, his size and strength makes him difficult to bring down, so its an exciting combination of traits. It makes his nice kicking skills more damaging as he quite often navigates his way into enough space for a damaging and penetrating disposal.

You're right that he's not a Harley Reid type who will power away from stoppage bouncing opponents off him as he goes, but there aren't that many of those going around, and there are no Harley Reid level talents in this draft... but then kids like Harley and Nick Daicos come around very rarely so sometimes you have to just appreciate what you have available to you.

Fair point, that is an interesting point of difference with a player of his size.

On the point about Nick Daicos, Harley Reid types in the draft, I'll disagree with how rare they are. Number 1 picks since 2018 have been Walsh, Rowell, JUH, Horne-Francis, Cadman and Reid. Discount the talls who take a little longer and they've all been out and out stars since day 1. That's ignoring other top 3 talents in that time like Ashcroft, Sheezel and Daicos.

Your right that its a weaker year at the top end but I'd still take a risk and pick Lombard, Trainor, Whitlock, FOS and maybe some others over Smillie at this stage.

 

[noobermensch]

Fair point, that is an interesting point of difference with a player of his size.

On the point about Nick Daicos, Harley Reid types in the draft, I'll disagree with how rare they are. Number 1 picks since 2018 have been Walsh, Rowell, JUH, Horne-Francis, Cadman and Reid. Discount the talls who take a little longer and they've all been out and out stars since day 1. That's ignoring other top 3 talents in that time like Ashcroft, Sheezel and Daicos.

Your right that its a weaker year at the top end but I'd still take a risk and pick Lombard, Trainor, Whitlock, FOS and maybe some others over Smillie at this stage.

We're going to disagree significantly on this point, but happy to disagree and keen to hear your counter arguments. This is the way I see it:

Walsh was kind of a standout as a junior, but there were a number of highly touted kids in that excellent draft crop and he wasnt a 100% consensus.

Rowell definitely was a standout, I'll give you that one.

Both Horne-Francis and Nick Daicos were standouts in that class.

JUH wasn't. There was a lot of uncertainty around that draft given the covid cancelled season.

Cadman absolutely wasnt. I didnt even have him in my top 5 that draft. It was a surprise when GWS traded up to take him.

Going back further you have Rayner who wasnt, Andy McGrath who wasnt, and then we're back at 2015 with Weitering and Schache.

Even considering the guys that you could suggest were standout number 1 pick talents in their year... I would only have JHF and Daicos at the same level as Harley Reid as draft prospects in all those 10 years of drafting (maybe Rowell at a stretch). So that's three kids (two from the same draft) since the 2018 draft that are "tier 0" club changing talents (and the jury is still out a little on JHF fully realising that talent).

I think a top end like the one we have in this draft is more the norm.

 

[9874123]

Its difficult to not be influenced by hindsight when going back and ranking prospects on their pre-draft performance once we see what they become at the AFL level. Admittedly I didn't do that as I had AFL performance in mind with my last post but I realise that's unfair on this years crop, since we haven't seen them play yet.

With Nick and JHF its hard to place them amongst the draft prospects of different years as they never played Champs, not even as bottom-agers. Having said that, I don't think either Daicos or Reid were so superior to top prospects of the past to be considered a tier above (I'm excluding JHF as he played against men in his draft year and was a star there which is just insane). Its easy to forget that Daicos went pick 4, behind Darcy and Callaghan.

Even in a comparatively weak year like 2016 (when I really started following the draft) or 2017 there are players that are players that stand out as being in the same bracket as Reid, just look at Cam Rayner's pre-draft profile and numbers and compare them to Harley's (they're incredibly similar). An AFL article published before the 2016 draft says that some recruiters think that McLuggage had the best draft year of a prospect they've ever seen (link). Not saying that they were as good as Reid, but I don't agree that they were light years behind him as prospects.

2020 is a writeoff I agree.

In 2022, I agree that Cadman wasn't the top prospect, GWS was a special case given they had an abundance of capital and a dearth of key forwards. Having said that, Ashcroft was far and away the clear standout with a junior year just as good as anyones, winning just about every medal available to him.

And while its true that Walsh wasn't an obvious number 1 in his year thats only because he had very tough competition. Knightmare spent the whole year calling Lukosious the most can't miss superstar ever available in the draft, Izak Rankine

23

Izak Rankine

Age

24

Ht

181cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.0

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

2.7

4star

G

2.0

5star

D

13.0

3star

K

9.0

4star

HB

4.0

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

2.7

4star

G

2.0

5star

D

13.0

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

4.0

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

2.7

5star

G

2.0

5star

was a two-time All-Aus by the time he was drafted and Walsh dominated the championships to such a level that he was taken before them.

--


I suppose I don't really know what my point is, given that North/Richmond can't go back in time and draft any of these players. But I will stick to my guns here, I don't think the very top end of the talents this year stacks up to years gone by.

 

[noobermensch]

Knightmare spent the whole year calling Lukosious the most can't miss superstar ever available in the draft, Izak Rankine was a two-time All-Aus by the time he was drafted and Walsh dominated the championships to such a level that he was taken before them.

To be fair to Knightmare, he has a long storied history of overhyping SA kids.

Rayner's stats might be similar to Harley's but he wasn't at the same level in terms of a prospect and that's not hindsight talking. He surged into pick 1 contention on the back of a strong champs series, but there were always question marks around his consistency and holes in his game.

On Will Ashcroft, yes he won nearly every award (Wardlaw won the academy best player medal) but that's more of a function of how weak that draft was. Wardlaw was injured most of the year, Tsatas missed the champs, and in general the draft pool was shallow with a small top end. The ascent to stardom of Sheezel in his first couple of years is making it look better than it was at the time. I liked Ashcroft as a prospect for sure and I rank him as a junior slightly ahead of Levi, but I don't personally see any gap between junior Will and Smillie or FOS this season.

Anyway, we can agree to disagree. If I give you the Walsh, Rankine, Lukosius, Rozee draft year, then we still only have three draft years in the last 10 which to my mind had clearly stronger top ends than this one. The Walsh draft, the Rowell draft, and the JHF draft.

Edit: and the Harley one of course - so 4 in the last 10.

This to me is just a typical normal top end draft year talent wise, not a weak one, not a strong one. Its also been effected by a number of the kids like FOS, Lalor and Faull not being able to get on the park.

 

[noobermensch]

Its easy to forget that Daicos went pick 4, behind Darcy and Callaghan.

Just an note on this. I dont think we should place much importance on this at all. There were weird shenanigans going on with Daicos slipping to 4. The Giants at least seemed to be doing the Pies a solid by not nominating him with the Pies own pick they had traded to the Giant a season before.

 

[noobermensch]

A solid step up for Sid who was one of SA's best in this game. He was back to somewhere near his explosive and damaging best, regularly surging away from opponents with attacking and direct play. His impact at stoppage is improving week by week and he was better able to run out the full game.

I'm putting his defensive work on watch though. He didn't look interested in chasing and his tackling pressure was non-existent.

 

[noobermensch]

His low possession count might suggest otherwise, but Welsh was extremely active in this game and looked on from the opening quarter. He worked hard to present an option, and typically halved marking contests that he didn't win to present his small forwards with crumbing opportunities. He was a significant presence during a late surge by SA that saw them fall just short of a win.

 

[tigs2010]

His low possession count might suggest otherwise, but Welsh was extremely active in this game and looked on from the opening quarter. He worked hard to present an option, and typically halved marking contests that he didn't win to present his small forwards with crumbing opportunities. He was a significant presence during a late surge by SA that saw them fall just short of a win.

He's a big mac away from rocking the Darcy Hourigan build