As i previously mentioned i think with the way he reads the ball coming at him as against having to present for it he could be trialed in a Darcy Moore type role
Player Watch Riley Thilthorpe - Signed to End of 2028
- Thread starter Deaneus!
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- Sep 23, 2012
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Have noticed his ground ball work hasn't been that good compared to before. Could he be having difficulty bending down due to back problems?
- Oct 6, 2012
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I don’t care what anyone else says, this guy is our future first ruck.
Sure, he clean missed a few of the contests last night (big guys take time and he’s 21) but some of his hit outs to advantage were good. And then around the ground he is 1 billion times better than ROB.
Simple question, would you prefer a side with:
1. ROB in ruck and TT at FF
2. TT in ruck and Gollant at FF
Sure, he clean missed a few of the contests last night (big guys take time and he’s 21) but some of his hit outs to advantage were good. And then around the ground he is 1 billion times better than ROB.
Simple question, would you prefer a side with:
1. ROB in ruck and TT at FF
2. TT in ruck and Gollant at FF
3. Anyone else in ruck and TT at FF
- Feb 8, 2013
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There is exponentially more value in him being a FF than a ruck. I only want to see him in ruck if it is to aid his development or if he has proven beyond any doubt he can't make it at FF.
Once Tex is gone Fog and Tilly will have far more opportunity.
Hell, based on last night I'd take Gollant in ruck and TT at FF.
- Oct 6, 2012
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Tex will be our FF next year. We finally have the ability to get the ball to the FF line without Tex having to play CHF
Is he our Rowan Marshall?
Tex won't be there much longer and Welsh won't be ready to do anything of note until at least 2027.
I think he will be a much better forward.
- Aug 6, 2021
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Thilthorpe has had very little opportunity to develop his forward craft. He plays very low TOG and when he is forward he is usually only targeted as the long bomb where there’s multiple players jumping at it.
He’s agile, a great field kick (suggests he’ll be able to develop a real good set shot), he’s got good hands, can run and jump at the ball and does some elite things at ground level for someone of his size. All the pieces of an elite key forward are there, he needs time inside 50 as a genuine target to develop his forward craft.
He’s agile, a great field kick (suggests he’ll be able to develop a real good set shot), he’s got good hands, can run and jump at the ball and does some elite things at ground level for someone of his size. All the pieces of an elite key forward are there, he needs time inside 50 as a genuine target to develop his forward craft.
ouch. TT, its your time to shine. Not even mentioned in body of article from what I can see..
When Sydney slapped a Covid caveat on the 2023 draft last month it sounded stale.
Hadn’t Hawthorn draftee Nick Watson drilled 70 goals for the year?
Didn’t Melbourne recruiter Jason Taylor just make an 8000km round trip – to regional WA town Esperance to interview draft prospect Koltyn Tholstrup?
Wasn’t Alastair Clarkson ringing Daniel Curtin’s doorbell in Perth the day before the draft?
From the cheap seats it seemed normal programming had resumed. But revered Swans list boss Kinnear Beatson was blunt.
“We’re still seeing the ramifications of Covid,” Beatson told the AFL website days before the draft.
“It won’t surprise me in 10 years’ time … that players taken in the 20s and 30s will look as though they’ve had a more successful career than some taken 10-20.”
Perhaps the buffet of celebratory coverage buried Beatson’s claim … after all, 64 prospects had their footy prayers answered.
But it has echoed around the industry since, with several experts adamant their talent boards had been warped by this wave of prospects – particularly the Victorians – having their under-15-16 seasons (2020-21) predominantly wiped.
The recruiting blind spots left by the Covid lag should rapidly recede next year.
But if Beatson believes boys who were repeatedly brushed will bloom brighter than some of this year’s beauties because of those blind spots then it makes you wonder …
How the hell is history going to remember the 2020 draft? That was the crop chosen following a cancelled season in Victoria.
Let’s be cruel, and then let’s be clear. Thirteen out of the 59 players drafted in 2020 have already been delisted.
A further six have changed clubs. And the top 10 reads like a philosophy exam – filled with questions that still cannot be answered.
Pick 31 Liam McMahon (Coll) 0
Pick 34 Fraser Rosman (Melb) 0
Pick 35 Connor Downie (Haw) 2
Pick 38 James Rowe (Ade) 36
Pick 39 Josh Eyre (Ess) 0
Pick 42 Phoenix Spicer (NM) 12
Pick 45 Tom Highmore (St K) 16
Pick 47 Nick Stevens (Gee) 0
Pick 53 Cody Brand (Ess) 0
Pick 54 Joel Western (Frem) 4
Pick 57 Isiah Winder (WC) 7
Pick 58 Cameron Fleeton (GWS) 2
Will No. 3 pick Will Phillips ever morph into the manic trainer and future captain that North Melbourne (and its ex-coach David Noble) had hoped for?
Hawks fans must be wondering whether No. 6 pick Denver Grainger-Barras will mature into the committed key defender who coach Sam Mitchell trusts to play week-in week-out?
What about Blues recruit Elijah Hollands? Has the penny dropped for the No. 7 selection?
And then there is Essendon’s talented trifecta – Nik Cox, Archie Perkins and Zach Reid.
Will Cox and Reid prove to be freakish footballers? Or fragile footballers?
It is hard not to feel for the Bombers. Of all the years to collect three golden draft choices it had to be the one where it felt as if there were 10 minutes of footy played.
If that all seemed cruel, then now it is time to be clear.
Slow, or even stalled development, of players from 2020 is to be expected. They need time. There are not many draftees deserving of ticks just yet — but it would be crazy to go early with a cross.
As one club said: “Our kids came in so underdeveloped physically it wasn’t funny — you just have to give these kids a longer period”.
Another club noted: “It wasn’t just the games they didn’t play, it was the 200-300 training sessions they didn’t go to”.
That’s probably why Luke Beveridge felt like he was banging his head against a wall when he was asked every week about Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
Will he debut this week? Why not? What about next week?
Yes, he was the No. 1 pick. But back then ‘Marra’ had played a couple of VFL games in two years, hardly the platform for a full-forward to make his AFL debut.
That said, look at Ugle-Hagan now. Long billed as the next Buddy it is him and Brownlow Medal shaker (fourth last year) Errol Gulden who have made up for lost time and launched box-office careers from the Covid crop.
They were also draft gimmes – Ugle-Hagan an NGA selection and Gulden an academy pick.
But what about those yet to make their mark? Perhaps Conor Stone (GWS), Bailey Laurie (Melb), Dominic Bedendo (WB) and Finlay Macrae (Coll)
So if it isn’t the players’ fault, what about those who picked them? What if your club buggered up its talent ID?
Similarly, this is not the draft to get snarky at scouts.
In 2020 recruiters were locked down and then stood down without pay.
Some were eventually invited back to work with their resources slashed, and told to rank Victoria’s hottest draft prospects without watching them play that season.
Good luck.
Some clubs resorted to comparing Phillips’ under-17 performances with reigning No. 1 pick Matt Rowell at the same age.
How else could you contextualise Phillips when — like all Victorians — his under-18th year was blank.
One club remained surprised Essendon opted for three Victorians in the top 10, given greater evidence was available on interstate prospects who were allowed to pull on their boots in 2020.
But make no mistake, there are no regrets at Tullamarine. After all, Cox burst on to the scene in 2021 and was Matthew Lloyd’s Rising Star tip at round 11 before injuries hit.
He was one for the old-fashioned eye of recruiting.
Cox had run a 6min 2km time trial, played as a bottom-ager for Vic Metro and, while he was a low-possession player, his skills on both sides were sublime.
Reid, too, has been a regular in the rehab room. But Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, among others, ranked the 204cm defender highly in 2020 … just as Richmond did his younger brother, Archie, who joined West Coast last week.
The Bombers once watched Reid run riot from a wing in a rare game for Gippsland.
Perkins has pumped out 62 games (second only to Gulden from 2020) and shapes as a 200-gamer.
Coach Brad Scott just has to decide … is that forward of the footy? Or as a big-bodied midfielder?
Imagine if the Bombers can develop a diamond or two from the most daunting of drafts?
Essendon started with No. 8 that season and then secured No. 9 for Joe Daniher (compensation) and No. 10 from Carlton for Adam Saad.
It was more situation than strategic.
But one club defied the norm … Geelong.
As a rival said: “We were trying to sell out of that draft because it was a volatile market. The value of a first-round pick was lessened because of the market situation”.
Geelong had done just that in trade period. The Cats coughed up three early picks for Jeremy Cameron (GWS) – but then they went shopping for a way back in to the first round.
And they meant business.
Their future first-round pick was on the table, and as the annual ‘the cliff is coming for the Cats’ off-season commentary circled it seemed an attractive offer.
Richmond had showed the most interest before the draft and so the Cats called at No. 20 when it was on the clock. Macrae had just been made a Magpie and so the Tigers pulled the trigger, pulling a precious pick out of one difficult draft and placing it in the next one.
It left Geelong grinning. The Cats grabbed Max Holmes at No. 20 in what was the boldest call of footy’s most bizarre draft.
This kid had played one – yes, one – Coates League game; in 2019 (he broke his arm that year and Covid killed 2020).
When Sydney slapped a Covid caveat on the 2023 draft last month it sounded stale.
Hadn’t Hawthorn draftee Nick Watson drilled 70 goals for the year?
Didn’t Melbourne recruiter Jason Taylor just make an 8000km round trip – to regional WA town Esperance to interview draft prospect Koltyn Tholstrup?
Wasn’t Alastair Clarkson ringing Daniel Curtin’s doorbell in Perth the day before the draft?
From the cheap seats it seemed normal programming had resumed. But revered Swans list boss Kinnear Beatson was blunt.
“We’re still seeing the ramifications of Covid,” Beatson told the AFL website days before the draft.
“It won’t surprise me in 10 years’ time … that players taken in the 20s and 30s will look as though they’ve had a more successful career than some taken 10-20.”
Perhaps the buffet of celebratory coverage buried Beatson’s claim … after all, 64 prospects had their footy prayers answered.
But it has echoed around the industry since, with several experts adamant their talent boards had been warped by this wave of prospects – particularly the Victorians – having their under-15-16 seasons (2020-21) predominantly wiped.
The recruiting blind spots left by the Covid lag should rapidly recede next year.
But if Beatson believes boys who were repeatedly brushed will bloom brighter than some of this year’s beauties because of those blind spots then it makes you wonder …
How the hell is history going to remember the 2020 draft? That was the crop chosen following a cancelled season in Victoria.
Let’s be cruel, and then let’s be clear. Thirteen out of the 59 players drafted in 2020 have already been delisted.
A further six have changed clubs. And the top 10 reads like a philosophy exam – filled with questions that still cannot be answered.
DELISTED 2020 DRAFTEES
Pick 24 Blake Coleman (BL) 0 gamesPick 31 Liam McMahon (Coll) 0
Pick 34 Fraser Rosman (Melb) 0
Pick 35 Connor Downie (Haw) 2
Pick 38 James Rowe (Ade) 36
Pick 39 Josh Eyre (Ess) 0
Pick 42 Phoenix Spicer (NM) 12
Pick 45 Tom Highmore (St K) 16
Pick 47 Nick Stevens (Gee) 0
Pick 53 Cody Brand (Ess) 0
Pick 54 Joel Western (Frem) 4
Pick 57 Isiah Winder (WC) 7
Pick 58 Cameron Fleeton (GWS) 2
Will No. 3 pick Will Phillips ever morph into the manic trainer and future captain that North Melbourne (and its ex-coach David Noble) had hoped for?
Hawks fans must be wondering whether No. 6 pick Denver Grainger-Barras will mature into the committed key defender who coach Sam Mitchell trusts to play week-in week-out?
What about Blues recruit Elijah Hollands? Has the penny dropped for the No. 7 selection?
And then there is Essendon’s talented trifecta – Nik Cox, Archie Perkins and Zach Reid.
Will Cox and Reid prove to be freakish footballers? Or fragile footballers?
It is hard not to feel for the Bombers. Of all the years to collect three golden draft choices it had to be the one where it felt as if there were 10 minutes of footy played.
If that all seemed cruel, then now it is time to be clear.
Slow, or even stalled development, of players from 2020 is to be expected. They need time. There are not many draftees deserving of ticks just yet — but it would be crazy to go early with a cross.
As one club said: “Our kids came in so underdeveloped physically it wasn’t funny — you just have to give these kids a longer period”.
Another club noted: “It wasn’t just the games they didn’t play, it was the 200-300 training sessions they didn’t go to”.
That’s probably why Luke Beveridge felt like he was banging his head against a wall when he was asked every week about Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
Will he debut this week? Why not? What about next week?
Yes, he was the No. 1 pick. But back then ‘Marra’ had played a couple of VFL games in two years, hardly the platform for a full-forward to make his AFL debut.
That said, look at Ugle-Hagan now. Long billed as the next Buddy it is him and Brownlow Medal shaker (fourth last year) Errol Gulden who have made up for lost time and launched box-office careers from the Covid crop.
They were also draft gimmes – Ugle-Hagan an NGA selection and Gulden an academy pick.
But what about those yet to make their mark? Perhaps Conor Stone (GWS), Bailey Laurie (Melb), Dominic Bedendo (WB) and Finlay Macrae (Coll)
So if it isn’t the players’ fault, what about those who picked them? What if your club buggered up its talent ID?
Similarly, this is not the draft to get snarky at scouts.
In 2020 recruiters were locked down and then stood down without pay.
Some were eventually invited back to work with their resources slashed, and told to rank Victoria’s hottest draft prospects without watching them play that season.
Good luck.
Some clubs resorted to comparing Phillips’ under-17 performances with reigning No. 1 pick Matt Rowell at the same age.
How else could you contextualise Phillips when — like all Victorians — his under-18th year was blank.
One club remained surprised Essendon opted for three Victorians in the top 10, given greater evidence was available on interstate prospects who were allowed to pull on their boots in 2020.
But make no mistake, there are no regrets at Tullamarine. After all, Cox burst on to the scene in 2021 and was Matthew Lloyd’s Rising Star tip at round 11 before injuries hit.
He was one for the old-fashioned eye of recruiting.
Cox had run a 6min 2km time trial, played as a bottom-ager for Vic Metro and, while he was a low-possession player, his skills on both sides were sublime.
Reid, too, has been a regular in the rehab room. But Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, among others, ranked the 204cm defender highly in 2020 … just as Richmond did his younger brother, Archie, who joined West Coast last week.
The Bombers once watched Reid run riot from a wing in a rare game for Gippsland.
Perkins has pumped out 62 games (second only to Gulden from 2020) and shapes as a 200-gamer.
Coach Brad Scott just has to decide … is that forward of the footy? Or as a big-bodied midfielder?
Imagine if the Bombers can develop a diamond or two from the most daunting of drafts?
Essendon started with No. 8 that season and then secured No. 9 for Joe Daniher (compensation) and No. 10 from Carlton for Adam Saad.
It was more situation than strategic.
But one club defied the norm … Geelong.
As a rival said: “We were trying to sell out of that draft because it was a volatile market. The value of a first-round pick was lessened because of the market situation”.
Geelong had done just that in trade period. The Cats coughed up three early picks for Jeremy Cameron (GWS) – but then they went shopping for a way back in to the first round.
And they meant business.
Their future first-round pick was on the table, and as the annual ‘the cliff is coming for the Cats’ off-season commentary circled it seemed an attractive offer.
Richmond had showed the most interest before the draft and so the Cats called at No. 20 when it was on the clock. Macrae had just been made a Magpie and so the Tigers pulled the trigger, pulling a precious pick out of one difficult draft and placing it in the next one.
It left Geelong grinning. The Cats grabbed Max Holmes at No. 20 in what was the boldest call of footy’s most bizarre draft.
This kid had played one – yes, one – Coates League game; in 2019 (he broke his arm that year and Covid killed 2020).
GROTTO
TheBrownDog
- Jul 5, 2013
- 68,621
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- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Our showdowns are really the only games that comes close to a potential finals like game, so it augurs well that he rised to the occasion and performed well.
Hope his form Prior to the big games warrants selection
BEAST
Watching him come back after the bye if one of the few exciting things left for this season. Fit, bulked up, was already having a standout pre season pre injury, I just feel he’s tearing the comp to shreds very soon.
Watching him come back after the bye if one of the few exciting things left for this season. Fit, bulked up, was already having a standout pre season pre injury, I just feel he’s tearing the comp to shreds very soon.
Looks a beast, sometimes I have concerns he has to heavy an upper body hence the knee issues
League ain’t ready for Beardthorpe
- Oct 11, 2012
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- Adelaide
Looks in ripping shape, no need to rush him now the season is over
jackster83
The Ratpack!
Save us ObiWan Thilthorpey, you're our only hope!
GROTTO
TheBrownDog
- Jul 5, 2013
- 68,621
- 94,337
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- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Save him for the Clone Wars next year.
How did he get so bulky that fast?
What did he look like in Feb—March?
Either way I can’t wait to see him play, I wonder what his agility is like currently, because whenever I see him in a game, he moves like a midfielder.
What did he look like in Feb—March?
Either way I can’t wait to see him play, I wonder what his agility is like currently, because whenever I see him in a game, he moves like a midfielder.
