Draft Profile Spencer White - The next buddy?

[God Save Max King]

Why hasn't White been getting any games? How has he been performing in the Saints 2nds? The kid looks like a unit who could be damaging up forward with Reiwoldt.

He has injured his wrist and will miss the rest of the season. He didn't get games beforehand because his endurance isn't near AFL quality. In regards to your comment about his VFL production, White has been impressive and exciting in patches and a non-factor in the same game. He won't play much with Riewoldt, more after Roo retires.

 

[aussierulesrules]

He's still very very raw and lightly framed and has apparently been carrying his wrist injury for much, if not all of the season and has now gone in for season-ending surgery to hopefully rectify the issue. He was going terrifically well in the VFL earlier in the year, until he was rested for a week due to his wrist, apparently and he hasn't really been the same since then, so maybe he hurt it again around that time and has been struggling with it since.

If the surgery goes well I expect we'll start to see him in the seniors next year, all things being equal. He's certainly very exciting.

 

[loki04]

Has a ridiculously high ceiling, possibly as high as Buddy's but without the endurance. Wouldn't mind him being half the player Buddy is (50 goals a year ).

Here's half of Buddys HnA totals that you hope he can produce:

Yr 1: 10 1/2 (21)
2: 15 1/2 (31)
3: 31 1/2 (63)
4: 51 (102)
5: 33 1/2 (67)
6: 31 (62)
7: 35 1/2 (71)
8: 28* (56*)

* 1 round left.

Buddy isn't a 100 goal a yr fwd unfortunately for you.

 

[DudleyB]

Trouble is he had surgery on his wrist in October 2012 and now again in August 2013.

So the first surgery obviously didn't work and a wrist injury means he cant really do his weights properly.

So really needs to get the wrist sorted first and foremost.

 

[Defacto]

went alright today. 3 goals on debut

 

[juss]

He's athletic but still raw. Has some great attributes to work with but I imagine he will still be in and out of St Kilda's side next year.

 

[swansfan51]

The thread title is absurd... in Franklin's 3rd year he had 135 scoring shots

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

The thread title is absurd... in Franklin's 3rd year he had 135 scoring shots

Check when the thread was made. The article linked in the OP made the Buddy link, also.

 

[ManOfClay]

Some on the St Kilda board who watched him closely have said they weren't that impressed with his performance. Said he dropped a few marks and repeatedly didn't chase (at one stage Riewoldt even blasted for it). His first goal was good work against Chaplin, his second looked like he benefitted from not being defensively accountable and got on the end of a quick turnover and his third goal was a standard handball receive.

I can understand the hype but this game was hardly the makings of a superstar. From VFL form he's very likely to not even touch the ball next week (before kicking 5 the week after in theory)

 

[hayes]

Some on the St Kilda board who watched him closely have said they weren't that impressed with his performance. Said he dropped a few marks and repeatedly didn't chase (at one stage Riewoldt even blasted for it). His first goal was good work against Chaplin, his second looked like he benefitted from not being defensively accountable and got on the end of a quick turnover and his third goal was a standard handball receive.

I can understand the hype but this game was hardly the makings of a superstar. From VFL form he's very likely to not even touch the ball next week (before kicking 5 the week after in theory)

"Some" is about three people, with one of them being notorious for being negative about everything. He exceeded most of our expectations. We're well aware he's a long way off though.

 

[joop]

Some on the St Kilda board who watched him closely have said they weren't that impressed with his performance. Said he dropped a few marks and repeatedly didn't chase (at one stage Riewoldt even blasted for it). His first goal was good work against Chaplin, his second looked like he benefitted from not being defensively accountable and got on the end of a quick turnover and his third goal was a standard handball receive.

I can understand the hype but this game was hardly the makings of a superstar. From VFL form he's very likely to not even touch the ball next week (before kicking 5 the week after in theory)

If he produced that for the dogs on debut we'd never hear the end of it.

 

[ManOfClay]

Thought his performance on the weekend justified my point. One goal from a silly free kick and then later in the game let his fullback run off him the length of the ground to kick an easy goal.

He has talent but is nowhere near ready for the game in a mental sense or fitness wise. We all know Nick Riewoldt is good at giving his teammates a bake and Spencer deserved it after the weekend.

 

[Defacto]

Thought his performance on the weekend justified my point. One goal from a silly free kick and then later in the game let his fullback run off him the length of the ground to kick an easy goal.

He has talent but is nowhere near ready for the game in a mental sense or fitness wise. We all know Nick Riewoldt is good at giving his teammates a bake and Spencer deserved it after the weekend.

cause you know the delivery inside 50 was awesome wasnt it!!!

 

[paul scholes]

Watched him a few times . Talents Definetly there, but the difference between his best and worst is stark.
Like most young forwards he needs a tank and a decent crack in the weights room .

 

[aussierulesrules]

He's had major, significant wrist surgery prior to both his AFL preseasons so far, which has cost him a big chunk of both preseasons, and he's also had a rep for not having the best work ethic in the past, so it's fair to say he will benefit greatly from a full preseason or two, to get the miles into his legs and to be able to pump the weights. He has bulked up significantly from the stick he was 18 months ago, but he could certainly do with a few more kgs and as is said over and over again, he badly needs to build up his tank more, so that he can get up the ground more (to put that speed to good use- especially running back towards goal, like he almost did once against Richmond, but just got collared), do more repeat leads and of course do more of the defensive running.

I was sitting behind the goals at the end we were kicking to in the first quarter of his first game against Richmond and given the state of our season, getting to watch him was by far the thing I was most looking forward to that day and so I watched him very closely and he did so much defensive chasing in that first few minutes that I was thinking "*, he's going to be exhausted already, just from chasing tail!", as he would chase someone 50m in one direction and then Richmond would switch it to the other pocket and he'd then have to chase someone else immediately at full speed in that opposite direction and so on and I knew how buggered he'd be from all that and it wasn't even 5 minutes into the game, so with how knackered he would have probably been all game, combined with the nerves of his first game, I'm not overly surprised that he dropped 4 marks that he would usually swallow. I'm also not surprised that he didn't chase on every occasion, as I dare say he would have been repeatedly out of petrol tickets throughout that game and it's hard to get anywhere when you're out of gas.

The real positive was that he repeatedly was in position to get his hands on those balls though, plus the 3 marks that he did take and others that he contested, and that despite dropping 4 marks he still managed to kick 3 goals, so while he still has plenty to work on, you could see some extremely good signs of how dangerous he is likely to be when he isn't as nervous and when he isn't as exhausted all game as he probably was that day.

He was also extremely stiff to not kick 3 in his 2nd game as well, as there were two occasions when he was pretty much alone in the goalsquare, but on one of those Dempster blazed away at goal without looking (we had 4 alone inside 50, with Spencer closest to goal, with no-one near him) and on the other, Newnes' kick just travelled too far and went through for a point over Spencer's head.

As well as how good his kicking for goal looked in those two games, the biggest positive for mine was the way he took those two contested marks that he took in those two games, where he was able to outbody (with perfect timing) whoever he was on (Chaplin in the first game I think), protect the drop of the ball and then dive sideways for those chest marks, the way say Jason Dunstall or Tony Modra used to so often. That sort of thing is a skill that I don't think would be easy to teach and the fact that he has already shown that he can do it so well is a huge plus, especially since you wouldn't expect someone that still has so much bulking up to do to be already outbody the likes of Chaplin.

Add that to his speed on the lead, his speed when running back towards goal, his keenness to take the game on and use that speed, his huge leap (at the time he was drafted he recorded the 2nd biggest ever leap, behind Nic Nat's record) and how strong his (big- 2nd biggest at his combine) hands usually are overhead and you can see why so many who follow our club are as excited about him as we are. If he puts all that together, builds up his tank and strength more, stays relatively injury free and works as hard as he probably realises now that he needs to work, then he can be about as good as he wants to be.

Often when you have someone with the outstanding athletic traits that he has they don't have the footy smarts to go with them, but he clearly does have some genuine natural footy smarts and nous and plenty of tricks, so hopefully with patience it will all come together and be bloody exciting to watch for a lot of years. Having Roo there to teach him about work-ethic and how much he needs to run ought to help immensely of course. We just need to chain him to Nick next preseason!