Knightmare
Brownlow Medallist
- Sep 22, 2010
- 19,533
- 19,542
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chicago Bulls
- Banned
- #376
What have his performances in the reserves been like?
He certainly wouldn't command a top 10 pick after falling behind Gulden & Campbell in terms of game time/development.
My guess is that he'd fall into the 15-25 range.
Perhaps Knightmare & Mutineer might have thoughts on this?
Stephens was reasonable last year. Had 30d+ in the reserves last weekend from what I've read.
If I'm recruiting someone to my club I'd want to be high conviction as to whether a player would be best-22, and if young, long-term best-22.
My position on Stephens at this point is he could go either way, and if he does make the grade, he's not a top-10 on list piece, and more likely a bottom half of best-22 calibre piece.
I see his stocks as declining and likely to continue dropping as others from his draft develop and establish themselves at AFL level.
For a general feel with drafts normally, inside the first round, you select guys you're high conviction on, so that rules out a top-20 pick immediately if I'm considering him as a list addition. He's more-so a reasonable than overly good outside mid at this point. Something roughly 25-35 is roughly where I personally see his value unless/until he reclaims his position at AFL level and shows improvement from last year.
In an Adelaide context, I view Stephens as roughly a straight swap for Fischer McAsey. Perhaps they could even be two piece involved in a three way trade if there is another party in need of a key defender and can satisfy Sydney with that third piece of perceived equivalent value.