- Banned
- #26
From Quigley, who ranked him number 9 in his list of draftees.
9. Luke Partington
Ht - 181 Wt - 78
Partington is a bit of a nugget who I was surprised was 181cm. When I watched him play I thought he was about 175cm but at 181cm he has decent height. Partington was the primary mid in an undermanned SA midfield this year. He got a lot of attention from other teams and they ensured he was tagged throughout the games he played. As a consequence he was under pressure a lot when he got the ball and he didn’t stand out as much as he should have in his latter games.
Partington is primarily an inside mid at this stage in his development and he does need to work on his run and spread from the contest. In tight he works through packs excellently and his stop and go and change of direction is probably matched only by Lovell in this draft. He has a bit of a jitterbug style making him very difficult to tackle. He has good strength and holds his feet nicely in the contest and can brush through tackles.
He does need to tidy up his disposal skills at the next level and this was very evident in the last couple of games of the Champs. He is prone to miss a target especially with the little inside out stab which he seems to favour. There is a bit of technique work that needs to be done when he gets to a team as at the moment he closes his body a bit too early on his field kicks. He also needs to add some zip to his handballs as they are often too short or take a beat too long to get to the target. I do like it that he keeps his head up when running and seems to see the field well. If he can tidy up his disposal skills I can see him being a dangerous runner through the midfield.
Partington’s biggest strength is his clearance work. He is always on the move in clearance situations and reads the ball off hands well. Additionally when his teammates win the ball he moves to good spots to receive the clearing handball. So he is both a good clearance winner and a good receiver in the clearance situations. As mentioned above he moves through traffic very nicely and works well in the phone box. He is reasonably clean although admittedly he will bobble a few. His hands are reasonably quick but he doesn’t always find a target with his flick outs. This was probably impacted by the quality around him at the Champs.
Athletically Partington tested very well at the Champs finishing in the top 20% in most of the disciplines. His agility was very good and at 2.96 for the 20m and 14.1 for the beep he has the speed and endurance to do what he wants to do at the next level.
Personally I like Partington and think there is quite a bit to work with. There is plenty for him to work on but his inside skills give him a valuable skill with which to start his career. I loved Partington the first time I saw him this year and am happy to leave him higher than most have him.