Young Talent Time 2012

[Dietrite1943]

Chris25 I would be interested in your thought's on SA's Nathan Stark. I think he could be the 2012 'Lachie Neale' from South Australia.

 

[Chris25]

Stark had a good game last weekend against Tasmania. He wasn't one I was really looking at too much, he is only small so I thought he would be more of a rookie selection at best. But he got a fair bit of time in the midfield, and showed good speed and attack. Kept seeing this puff of blonde hair running through the packs. Will be interesting to see how he goes against the Div 1 teams, and if he gets that same midfield time.

The one I think we should be looking at is Oliver Johnson from Norwood. He'll likely be a late selection, but he would suit us quite well. Pretty much a centre square specialist, he racks up the possessions and consistently gets the ball out to the runners - would be averaging well over 30 disposals this year. The team list says he is 181cm and 74kg, but he looks bigger than that on the field.

 

[pavsbootlace]

Stats are finally up for last weekend.

http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/17944/Default.aspx#fixtureid=7919&tab=Stats

 

[Chris25]

Don't know if anyone is planning on going, but WA are playing NSW/ACT tomorrow - 12:00 at Joondalup. Our Scholarship holder Thomas Head will be playing, likely as the focal point up forward for NSW. So something to look out for there.

 

[the doc]

Don't know if anyone is planning on going, but WA are playing NSW/ACT tomorrow - 12:00 at Joondalup. Our Scholarship holder Thomas Head will be playing, likely as the focal point up forward for NSW. So something to look out for there.

It will be interesting to hear how he goes. He sounds like quite the athlete. Is Moller playing or is he injured?

 

[more_of_bito]

Chris is Head a legitimate best 22 forward option for NSW or have they included him because he's a scholarship player for the dockers and playing in WA?

 

[pavsbootlace]

Don't know if anyone is planning on going, but WA are playing NSW/ACT tomorrow - 12:00 at Joondalup. Our Scholarship holder Thomas Head will be playing, likely as the focal point up forward for NSW. So something to look out for there.

I'll be there. I can do a half-arsed match report later if anyone's interested.

 

[DR JAY]

It will be interesting to hear how he goes. He sounds like quite the athlete. Is Moller playing or is he injured?

At last weeks rams game they were saying Moller out for season. Massive unit, starting to fillout.
Huges loss to rams.

 

[Nickos66]

I'll be there. I can do a half-arsed match report later if anyone's interested.

Please!

 

[Taylor]

The stats show Head with 1k, 1h and 1m. Did he get injured or was he just playing deep forward? The score looks like it was played forward of the WA midfield.

 

[Tundrawolf]

The stats show Head with 1k, 1h and 1m. Did he get injured or was he just playing deep forward? The score looks like it was played forward of the WA midfield.

Where are you getting those stats from?

 

[Taylor]

Where are you getting those stats from?

They are at this link:

http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/17944/Default.aspx#fixtureid=7919&tab=Stats

 

[jinxd]

The stats show Head with 1k, 1h and 1m. Did he get injured or was he just playing deep forward? The score looks like it was played forward of the WA midfield.

Yeah, he came off grabbing at the back of his leg. Looked like he did a hammie. The ice bag was brought out for him. Didn't come back on.

 

[pavsbootlace]

Please!

Ok, you asked for it.

I should start by saying that I don't know any of the NSW/ACT boys so it was difficult to know who was who from jumper numbers alone. That, coupled with the fact that they were comprehensively thrashed, means I don't have much to say about their players. Except that Lonnie Hampton looked dangerous when he was near the ball, Caleb Vearing is lightning fast and looks pretty good and Thomas Head was absolutely pantsed by Nicholas Rodda from West Perth.

Now for our boys.

Mason Shaw and Marco Paparone didn't get much of the ball but kicked 3 and 2 respectively and both would be reasonably happy with their game. Both looked dangerous at times. I like them both.

Jesse Hogan played higher up the ground and is really hard at the ball. He won heaps of contested footy and took some really strong marks. I don't think he's as good a kick for goal as Shaw or Paparone, but I like him a lot. A bit of at Travis Cloke type.

Nicholas Rodda is a gun Full-back. He didn't lose a single arial contest that I saw, spoiled everything that came near him and took 6 marks himself. Very solid performance. The backline as a whole was very good.

Sean Lynch was everywhere and won plenty of the ball. He was good. Probably best on ground.

Dayle Garlett is supremely talented and wins a lot of hard ball but seemed to be allergic to handballing. His kicking is great but he doesn't always make the best choices of who to kick to and he seemed to not want to handball to teammates who were obviously in better position. A good coach could sort that out. He will be a star but I wouldn't have had him in the best today.

Jack Martin is exacly the sort of bloke I go to the footy to watch. Nearly took mark of the century standing on some other kid's head but couldn't bring it down but he rose above a pack again a few minutes later to bring the crowd to their feet again. I've never seen him play before, but he seems Fyfesque from what I saw today - 11 contested possessions, 10 marks. Great game.

Josh Simpson seemed a bit soft in his attack on the ball early on today. He pulled out of a couple of contests. It was apparently his second game back from a broken collar bone though so I can forgive that. In the second half however, he appeared to gain confidence and hit the contest a bit harder and took a strong mark. He was pretty good overall.

Shannon Taylor started very well, was really good in close but seemed to fade out later in the game. I think it may have been something to do with their midfield rotations though, because they had 5 blokes on the bench and Shannon as well as Brendan Lim and Sam Lowrie seemed to spend ages on the pine while some other blokes were hogging the time-on-ground.

I watched Sam Lowrie a bunch of times last year playing for South Freo colts where he was dominating before snapping both his Tibia and Fibula almost exactly 12 months ago. He seemed to play not much more than half of the game due to the slow rotations but managed to rack up 18 possies (8 contested), 10 marks and 5 tackles and he used the ball really well. He is starting to get his overhead marking back to where it was pre-injury which is a real strength.

Dom Sheed was pretty good, kicking lacked penetration.

Jackson Ramsay was pretty good and hard at the ball.

I think Adam Carter may have been injured.

Overall Best: Jack Martin, Sean Lynch, Nicholas Rodda, Sam Lowrie, Jesse Hogan. And because I was probably being a bit harsh earlier, D Garlett.

 

[jinxd]

Yeah, Adam Carter looked really good until he hurt his lower leg/ankle (not entirely sure what). He came back on in the last half/qtr and did quite well. Looks quite solidly built too.

First thing I noticed was how well our defence was going. Spoilt and intercepted everything that came their way.

Shannon Taylor was everywhere in the first half. His kicking let him down a few times. Probably cos he rushed them a bit.

Didn't notice Jack Martin until the last half. His speckie marking is worth watching for sure. Missed the first one, but the last few contested marks stuck like glue. Also spoilt an opposition player's mark. Which was well done.

Garlett ran all day. Big chase down in the last qtr wore him out a bit, i reckon. He still kept running though and ended up in the fwd 50 a few minutes later.

Jesse Hogan did well, seemed to play higher up the ground, around the fwd 50... but not sure if that was for the whole game.

 

[george2]

Knightmare has updated his draft and he still has Moller pretty high at number 16. He also has our first pick at number 8, thats not including all the compensation picks though. With our first pick he has us taking Paparone ahead of Mason Shaw which i thought was a bit interesting. our second pick was in the mid 20s and has us taking Chalmers from West Perth, i dont know much about him but perhaps Chris25 can help out with that. I would probably prefer to take Rory Atkins with our second pick if he was still available or even Irra to add some blistering pace to our team.

 

[Nickos66]

Another speculative topic.. What are the chances of us having a bid in the minidraft, say, offering our 1st rounder for Jesse Hogan? The minidraft picks won't be worth as much this year because if they can't secure trades for them, GWS'll just lose them.. I think there's little question Hogan will be one of the 2 taken in this years minidraft, unfortunately.

 

[Taylor]

In regards to Troy Menzel;
I haven't been able to see how he is playing, just that he has kicked nine and then six goals with statistics that look like he is playing a leading forward/linking half forward role. (Lots of marks and possessions that appear to stem from marks)
When he was 16 he measured about 185cm and was reasonably well built. I hate to keep reading too much into his statistics but if he is a key forward, is he undersized? Like a Steve Johnson type? Or, has he had a growth spurt and now stands tall enough to be a key position player?

 

[Chris25]

I'm not sure how much (if any) of Paparone he has seen, my best guess would be he was looking for something a little different to separate his draft from others. No doubting Paparone has been good this year, but it's a similar story to last year in my opinion - Todd Elton had been talked up for a long time, Jackson Paine came along later and was suddenly moved ahead of Elton in the rankings. The motto 'newer is always better' could be used to describe many mock drafts (including my own ).

As for Chalmers, I'll go out on a limb and say he'll be available in the rookie draft. He just strikes me as one of those players, like a Keiran Butcher or Shane Nelson. Good honest footballer. As for Rory Atkins, he was quite disappointing yesterday. Just couldn't get involved. Unlike my guy Oliver Wines, who was everywhere.

 

[Chris25]

And Troy Menzel isn't a KPP - 187cm I believe. He is a medium forward, who can push up into the midfield. Steve Johnson is probably the comparison that will get made a lot.

 

[Nickos66]

Isn't Mayes another 'Steve johnson' as well?

 

[Chris25]

Everyone is like Steve Johnson. Or if you're over 190cm and can run more than 100m, then you're automatically a Nick Riewoldt.

 

[Nickos66]

Yeah, you're either Steve Johnson or a Nat Fyfe if you're a young aspiring forward these days.

 

[pavsbootlace]

The match on the weekend was the first time I've seen Chalmers play. But, from what I saw, he's not a second round pick. He looked pretty average. I'm only talking about one game though.

 

[E Shed]

Chris do you have any thoughts on how Freo missed not only Darling but Fasolo in 2010?
Just watching Fasolo (who was my completely uniformed choice for our second rounder) I just love the way he plays, strong mark, booming kick, tough.
Pardon me if it's off topic for you, I enjoy your thoughts on D&T and you really put the hard yards in on research. Do you remember where you had Fasolo in 2010?