No. 14 Joel Selwood

[CatmanForever]

http://gfc.com.au/portals/0/images/players/cats/Joel_Selwood_small.jpg

Joel Selwood


Fast Facts

Jumper No: 14
Height: 182 cm
Weight: 82 kg
DOB: 26 May 1988
Recruited From: Bendigo U18

[Rustybugles]

The thinking footballer. Not many clangers so far - and quick recovery. Could be the best in the family!

[Lingsface]

deadset gun in the future I think, plays alot like marc murphy I feel, makes the right decisions and gets it enough to be a very valuable player.

[Prismall32]

Very much like Marc Murphy. Great recruiting by Geelong!!!:thumbsu:

[Big Nasty]

This is one first year player I can confidently say will be a superstar. A-grade football brain, reads the ball well and throws his body into the contests. Classy disposal as well.

[GeeCat]

Our best in the VFL outing today.

Not as profilic with the ball as, say, Davenport, but (seemingly) was one of very few out there with a brain working. Targetted from the first bounce, copped alot of close attention, and tagged heavily, but won the contested ball in close, made quick, good decisions, hit targets with his disposal, and consistently ran hard to create an option.

Will be back in the seniors sooner than later.

[rizzo]

Our best in the VFL outing today.

Not as profilic with the ball as, say, Davenport, but (seemingly) was one of very few out there with a brain working. Targetted from the first bounce, copped alot of close attention, and tagged heavily, but won the contested ball in close, made quick, good decisions, hit targets with his disposal, and consistently ran hard to create an option.

Will be back in the seniors sooner than later.

VFL - 9th June Report

Agreed, He copped a big hit early on into the second quarter. Came off and vomited right in front of me. He was the stand out today. Didn't wanna come off the ground at the end.

[thejester]

Our best in the VFL outing today.

Not as profilic with the ball as, say, Davenport, but (seemingly) was one of very few out there with a brain working. Targetted from the first bounce, copped alot of close attention, and tagged heavily, but won the contested ball in close, made quick, good decisions, hit targets with his disposal, and consistently ran hard to create an option.

Will be back in the seniors sooner than later.
Exactly.

[GeeCat]

Agreed, He copped a big hit early on into the second quarter.

The thing with that was, it was a contested ball to be won, and he didn't care one bit that he was going to cop it from both sides. He wanted it, and he won it - tapped it out to the loose player hanging off the pack and we were off.

Reminiscent of his very first touch against the Tigers early in the year; sandwiched in the center square as he won the contested ball.

I love him.

[GeeCat]

Joel Selwood (Bendigo Pioneers)

182/80 mid-age right foot (dual-sided) midfielder/HBF.

*STYLE LIKE: Luke Ball

*MY RANKING (not meant to reflect appropriate draft pick to use): 11

*PROBABILITY OF AFL CAREER: Definite. Ready year 1.

- Within an AFL team list, could prove capable of SUSTAINING a ranking of 5-10.

*HURT FACTORS (Offensive/Defensive/Negative): M / H / L-M

*REACH (compared to the average player of his height): 4cm disadvantage.

*TRADEMARK:

- Hard running to get to or make a contest then show courage, balance and ball control to finish up with the pill and, displaying good vision, do an accurate feed to a well-spotted target then block for that team-mate then run on.

*MAIN SELLING POINTS:

- Competitiveness
- Endurance and making full use of it
- Read the play
- Ethic
- Vision inside traffic
- Handball
- Consistency
- Ball control

*MAIN QUERY:

- Pace
- After-effect of knee injury.

*SUMMARY ASSESSMENT, RECOMMENDATION:

- A highly competitive First Dibs midfielder who is an elite play-reader with great ability to win the ball and to pressure opponents from winning it cleanly. A very balanced genuine footballer who has excellent vision and is very good by hand and strong overhead.

You can always be confident that he will get to a helluva lot of contests and be very competitive in any type of contest, ground level or overhead, regardless of pressure, and against different types of opponents. What he lacks in pace he makes up for in smarts and competitiveness. If I had to describe him in "one" word it would probably be either "relentless" or "highly-competitive".

- Shorter than his twin brothers but more reliable disposal and decision-making. In most other respects, he has the typical Selwood positives (courage, ethic, endurance, competitiveness, overhead, lack of pace).

I would expect him to go about 6-8. I ranked just slightly lower at 11 (including Hawkins) but, subject to knee recovery, he will definitely be a very good AFL player and probably plug 'n play.

*DISPOSAL:

- Very good by hand. Not failsafe but his good feeds have high hurt factor - very sharp, powerful or well-weighted, and usually to a spotted target in clear space. Very quick hands. Plenty of accurate lookaways and "gather and feed in same motion"s.

- Nothing special (in any way) about his kicking. I would describe his kicking overall as "OK". He is certainly a more reliable kick than Armitage and no worse than Hislop for hitting targets. Gibbs and Moss, for example, are more reliable kicks.

- Healthy mix of kicks to feeds and long kicks to short.

- Dual-sided.

*DECISION-MAKING, SMARTS:

- Reads the play very well.

- Plenty of players cover a lot of ground but, unlike some, Selwood routinely runs to the right areas of the ground at the right time and to the right spots at a play. Bobs up all over the place, such is his combination of endurance, ethic and play-reading.

- Excellent shortish distance vision (i.e. options within handballing distance), especially from inside traffic.

- Very footy smart. Not just instinctive smarts but in his ability to direct his team mates (incl rucks) and to have a regular eye on where players of both teams are positioning themselves. That was evident even last year in the U18 Champs as below-age. Also very good at cutting the angles, a big help when you lack some pace.

- He's one of those players whose disposal decision-making is not as reliable when he has plenty of time on the run as it is when he has little time to think. His ability to think his way out of trouble, very quickly spot the right option with great vision and instinctive smarts, and time and weight his feeds is excellent. When his brain doesn't need to be sharp, he can let himself down by kicking to a contest a bit too often.

- Very sharp evasion and alertness. Good traffic management.

- Disciplined.

*HANDS:

Usually clean, all levels.

*OVERHEAD MARKING:

- Very competitive for his size, despite (officially) a 4cm reach disadvantage. Good balance in a marking contest and good judgement and hands. Fearless and can mark from all positions, including across the face of the pack or with the flight.

*ATHLETICISM:

- For injury reasons, I wouldn't read too much (anything?) into his DC results.

- Excellent endurance

- Definitely lacks pace but is somewhat quicker, especially off the mark, than his test times over the last 2 years would suggest. (In particular his 5m and 10m DC times, which were shockers presumably due to knee recovery). A genuinely quick player will leave Selwood in his wake on a long run. However, first the player might have to get the ball instead of Selwood and/or might have to get around him and good luck to whoever can do both.

- Very balanced.

- Is furnishing into a lovely build for an AFL inside type. In appearance, Selwood looked like a smaller version of Xavier Ellis last year but has added 7kg since and looked very strong this year.

*INTENSITY, ETHIC:

- No questioning either his ethic or intensity.

- Covers an enormous amount of ground and runs very hard both ways.

- Fearless.

- Attacks both man and ball. Effective tackler.

- Has a bit of controlled aggro in him. Won't be physically intimidated but doesn't mind making his own physical presence felt.

*CONSISTENCY:

- Consistent game to game. Output can be quiet in a particular ¼ or even ½ but effort is very consistent and he never finishes a game without having had impact for a sustained period.

*AFL VERSATILITY:

- Natural onballer in a Luke Ball sense but potentially in a Kirk style as well. Could play either flank role (esp HBF), or even wing on the right opponent.

*CSI (COMPARATIVE SCOPE for IMPROVEMENT):

- No special factors. Missed virtually a year and is from the country but has been right through the system.

*SOME STATS:

- Stats summary '06 TAC:
Averaged 22 disposals in 3 TAC games. 1.7 contested markes. 4.0 tackles. Total goals 3-2 .
13 kicks per 20 disposals.
Ineffective kicks: 2.3 per 10 kicks.
Ineff handballs: 3.2 per 10 handballs (ranking No.25 for highest in comp).
Ineffective disposals: 5.1 per 20 disp.
HandBall Receives: 6.4 per 20 disp. Uncontested marks: 3.9 per 20 disp. HR+UM: 10.3 per 20 disp.
Contested Marks: 1.5 per 20 disp.
At least 24 disposals in 2 games.

- Stats summary '05 TAC:
Averaged 24 disposals in 12 TAC games (ranking No.17 in comp). 4.9 marks. 3.2 tackles. Total goals 6-6 . 13 kicks per 20 disposals. 4 marks per 20 possessions.
- Mid-way trend .. % change in disposals was -1%. % change in marks was + 4%. % change in tackles was -19%.

- Stats summary '05 U18 Champs:
Averaged 22 disposals and 5.3 marks in his 3 games. (Best TD 26).
Kicks per 20 disp: 10.
Kicks long vs short: 19-10 (7 long per 10 kicks).
Ineffective kicks: 5/34 (1.5 per 10 kicks), incl 0 clangers (0.0 per 10 kicks).
Ineffective handballs: 4/32 (1.3 per 10 handballs), incl 0 clangers (0.0 per 10 handballs).
Ineffective disposals: 9/66 (2.7 per 20 disp), incl 0 clangers (0.0 per 20 disp).
HandBall Receives: 21/66 (6 per 20 disp).
Hardball gets: 9/66 (3 per 20 disp).
S.P. clearances: 8/66 (2 per 20 disp), incl 1 BU (0 per 20 disp), incl 4 CBC (1 per 20 disp).
Tackles: 11 (Avg 3.7 per game).
Marks: 16 (5 per 20 disp), incl 2 contested (1.3 per 10 marks).

*OTHER STUFF:

- All Aust LY.
- TAC Team Of Year LY: HFF.
- AIS
- 2 Coaches Award votes '06 (polled in 1 games).
- Missed almost all '06 after knee injury Rnd 6. (Also had to contend with knee and hammy problems in the few games he did play in '06)

[Metallica_Man]

Played a great game today, got about 30 possessions!

[Prismall32]

Have to applaud this young star! Great game against a tough Brisbane. Modest young man too.

[VoRogue]

Just read an article by Robert Walls regarding the next generation of superstars and i can't believe he actually had something good to say about a Geelong player

The next generation of superstars

Robert Walls | June 23, 2007

JOEL SELWOOD (GEELONG)

The Bendigo boy had great wraps on him as a junior footballer and even though he played only a handful of games last year due to a knee injury, the Cats snapped him up with their first pick in the 2006 draft. Was shown the way as a youngster by older twin brothers Adam (West Coast) and Troy (Brisbane), who are enjoying successful careers well away from Bendigo. Good judges rate him a mini-Nathan Buckley. He does all the extras, doesn't tolerate fools, is switched on and looks set to be an elite midfielder who should one day captain the Cats.

[GeeCat]

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5954/selwood09vt3.jpg

Drink up Bluesy, you deserve it.

[TheBrownDog]

Pendlebury gone for rest of the season.

Joel was already a fair margin ahead in Rising Star calculations IMO, but now he's a lock.

[Leaping Larry]

Poise beyond his years with very few turn overs. He is rock solid and provides the Cats with another midfield option.
Who will other teams try and tag????? Far too many options, we will win it all