Academy Watch

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Saw Benny Keays live today, and whilst I am no expert of underage AFL potential talent; this kid simply knows how to play footy. An accumulator type, short/sharp movement and kicks to bring his teammates into the game. Think Jordan Lewis.

Likely to go first round according to most in the know, guess how high depends on his championships / testing.

See below notes from Bound for Glory:

Ben Keays (QLD)
The other high profile Lions Academy prospect had a great cameo today. Keays has shades of Christian Petracca and Dustin Martin in his game style. He had 12 disposals and a goal to half time, and then let Ah Chee take over in the second half. A really damaging strong bodied midfielder who can go and dominate as a third forward option, Keays looks to be a first rounder for sure.
 
From AFL.com.au

After starting at half-back, Darcy Parish moved into the midfield after half-time and finished with 25 touches, while Brisbane Lions' academy hopeful Ben Keays (24 disposals) continued to accumulate the ball.

NAB AFL ACADEMY 3.2 7.3 9.5 14.6 (90)NORTHERN BLUES 3.2 7.8 9.11 14.15 (99)

GOALSNAB AFL Academy: Schache 3, Ah Chee 2, Hipwood 2, Weideman 2, Keays, Tucker, Cole, Snadden, Curnow
Northern Blues: Armfield 4, Buckley 2, Johnson 2, Whiley, Totevski, Viojo-Rainbow, Walsh, Fields, Foster

BEST

NAB AFL Academy: Ah Chee, Weitering, Parish, Weideman, Hopper, Keays, Tucker, Nyuon
Northern Blues: Armfield, Walker, Graham, Whiley, Boekhorst, Buckley, Wilson
 

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POBT said:
Gold Coast

Gun

Nick Riewoldt
Dayne Beams
Kurt Tippett
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Hmm not sure if I'd have Tippett in the "Gun" category especially considering the other forward in that ranking. Maybe I'll except it if you move Riewoldt up a grading, to say a "BFG" à la Quake & Doom.
 
Bradley Simpson said:
are there any 14 or 15 year old young guns to look out for in the up and coming years
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BJ Shelton, u16s this season, was u15 All Australian last year. Campbell Aston, u14s this season, last season was B&F in the Div1 u13s in Brisbane League. Both originally from the Darling Downs.
 
Isn't Brad Scheer a GC academy member, not lions?
 

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Panthera said:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...rn-academy-optout-clause-20150416-1mlu26.html

And the hits just keep on coming...:rolleyes:
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I'm fine with a change to allow academy players to decline to be taken and instead nominate for the draft. I didn't realise this wasn't the case. It's really a bit of a nothing change. You already see very few father/son prospects declining to be taken and the one prominent exception was because we were interstate - not an concern with the academy. As it notes "Adjusting these rules is not a priority for the league", so I doubt it's anything we're going to see for a while if ever.
 
dlanod said:
I'm fine with a change to allow academy players to decline to be taken and instead nominate for the draft. I didn't realise this wasn't the case. It's really a bit of a nothing change. You already see very few father/son prospects declining to be taken and the one prominent exception was because we were interstate - not an concern with the academy. As it notes "Adjusting these rules is not a priority for the league", so I doubt it's anything we're going to see for a while if ever.
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Yeah, but one day another Nick Riewoldt will be discovered at 14-15 and the traditional state clubs will be in his ear within seconds :mad:

We're already dealing with several major disadvantages; I don't want the possibility of any more :cool:
 
Panthera said:
Yeah, but one day another Nick Riewoldt will be discovered at 14-15 and the traditional state clubs will be in his ear within seconds :mad:

We're already dealing with several major disadvantages; I don't want the possibility of any more :cool:
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And? If he's been in our system for three or four years from 14-15 through to draft age and decides he doesn't want to play for us after that, I don't think the other clubs are the ones to blame for that. We'd have obviously ****ed up seriously somewhere along the way.
 
If we remain a bottom four side for the next few years you can envisage some local kids possibly wanting to play for another side.
 
Beng said:
Can let Collingwood missing out on offering our Academy kids stupid amounts of $$$ to bypass us.
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A club couldn't offer a
dlanod said:
And? If he's been in our system for three or four years from 14-15 through to draft age and decides he doesn't want to play for us after that, I don't think the other clubs are the ones to blame for that. We'd have obviously stuffed up seriously somewhere along the way.
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No. They are talking about potentially making kids decide at 15 or 16 if they want to stay on until draft eligible age...that's not on :thumbsdown:

Did you not read the article?
 
Panthera said:
No. They are talking about potentially making kids decide at 15 or 16 if they want to stay on until draft eligible age...that's not on :thumbsdown:

Did you not read the article?
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Did you not read the article? There's no actual age indicated:

The AFL's ongoing examination of the academies and the future scenarios they may throw up has also led the league to start exploring whether the teenagers could instead be asked to commit to being drafted by their nominating club at a certain age.
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Emma then speculates it could be at age 16, but there's no indication in the article that that is actually what is being considered:

For instance, signing on with an academy at the age of 16 could mean agreeing to go to the club if it decided to choose you at the draft two years later.
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Presumably you have to go in the draft anyway (otherwise how will they know how much we are charged for them!) so I read it as deciding if you want to be an Academy pick option or dodge the whole thing and be a normal draftee.

Also didn't realise they didn't already have an opt out - thought it was the same as F/S.

Not sure about making them decide at 16 (or whenever) unless we only keep them in the Academy if they are prepared to be ours (which would be shooting ourselves in the growing-the-game-in-Qld foot)
 
Panthera said:
http://www.afl.com.au/video/2015-04-17/draft-stars-announce-themselves

Brief mention of Benny Keays performing well at around the 6 min mark. Did like the highlights of Schache though :thumbsu:
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Academy picks aside you'd have to think that we're almost a certainty to have a pick in the top 6 this year.

If we can somehow get Keays with our second rounder, which seems fairly likely to be me given the annual bias towards kids from the footy states, on that footage and exposed form to date it wouldn't exactly be heartbreaking to have a shot at drafting one of Weitering, Weidmann or Schache.

Or Parish for that matter.

There's always a silver lining if you look hard enough....
 
Leemas said:
Hi Quigley I am a long time lurker on this site I mainly use it to look at draft boards etc, only recently discovered and been looking at the team board which had this thread pop up. I have noticed you to be very knowledgeable on this sort of thing and I have a question for you. How does Hipwood compare to lets say Hammleman in play style, strengths/weaknesses etc. And how do you rate him? I saw last year that a few guys had Hammelman very high only for him to fall considerably. Just want to hear your opinion on him. Thanks a bunch
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I live in Newcastle so not the easiest thing to get to look at these guys prior to the champs. Hipwood played as an overager in the 16s last year and I did not get a chance to get down to them to have a look at our guys. So I have seen very little of Hipwood as yet.

I was one of the guy who was very high on Hammelmann last year and I really have no idea why he was not taken before he was. If Hipwood does as well at the Champs as Hammelmann did I would be very happy. Hipwood has similar excellent height and seems from what little I have seen to have reasonable forward instincts. He has the reputation as being more athletic than Hammelmann which would be handy.

Overall though I really do need to see a fair bit more of him before I can give you anything more than a very superficial opinion.
 
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