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Players who well and truly exceeded expectations

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Sttew

Sttew

Brownlow Medallist
Veteran 10k Posts Geelong Cats - Gryan Miers Player Sponsor 2018 Geelong Cats - Sam Simpson Player Sponsor 2017 Geelong Board Goal Kicking Comp Geelong Cats - Nakia Cockatoo Player Sponsor 2016 Geelong Cats - Nakia Cockatoo Player Sponsor 2015 Ruby
Oct 28, 2006
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Close to the Rising Sun
AFL Club
Geelong
We've got the thread, 'Players that didn't live up to their hype'. Let's spin that and focus on players who ended up exceeding expectations, possibly because early performances were forgettable, inconsistency, because they had became the butt of jokes or because they were frequently touted as trade bait.

From Geelong, the one who stands out for me is Zach Guthrie, younger brother of Cam. It took him almost 5 years to establish himself in the team, playing 33 games across his first five seasons. He was the butt of jokes and described as looking like an Auskick footballer. Premiership year, 2022, was his break out season and since then he has barely missed a game, playing 95 games in the past 4 seasons. He'd be one of the first selected in the team each week. When Tom Stewart has been out Zach has seamlessly slotted into Stewart's role.

​

 
Sttew said:
We've got the thread, 'Players that didn't live up to their hype'. Let's spin that and focus on players who ended up exceeding expectations, possibly because early performances were forgettable, inconsistency, because they had became the butt of jokes or because they were frequently touted as trade bait.

From Geelong, the one who stands out for me is Zach Guthrie, younger brother of Cam. It took him almost 5 years to establish himself in the team, playing 33 games across his first five seasons. He was the butt of jokes and described as looking like an Auskick footballer. Premiership year, 2022, was his break out season and since then he has barely missed a game, playing 95 games in the past 4 seasons. He'd be one of the first selected in the team each week. When Tom Stewart has been out Zach has seamlessly slotted into Stewart's role.

​

Click to expand...

This will sound weird but as a cats fan surely it's GAJ. People forget just how much at the time he was 'picked on name only', turned into an all time great, but at the time of drafting for most including Cats fans it was a matter of he's an Ablett give the guy a chance. Cats have been brilliant at late selections sure the father son helped but bar Hawkins none really were THAT highly regarded
 
LukeParkerno1 said:
This will sound weird but as a cats fan surely it's GAJ. People forget just how much at the time he was 'picked on name only', turned into an all time great, but at the time of drafting for most including Cats fans it was a matter of he's an Ablett give the guy a chance. Cats have been brilliant at late selections sure the father son helped but bar Hawkins none really were THAT highly regarded
Click to expand...
Yep.

He's the first person I thought of.

The second was Dane Swan.
 

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Josh Treacy. Picked up as a rookie in the Covid impacted 2020 draft, had a junior highlights video that showed some promise but equally looked like a big 17/18 year old bullying much smaller junior players in country football.

Had a couple of decent games in his first year, especially in pre-season but looked like he had concrete hands. Spent most of his second season injured during which time Amiss came in and showed much more promise. There was even some rumours about him being delisted.

Started Round 1 in 2023, got dropped, came back and was very much playing second fiddle to Amiss who looked like he was setting up to be the main man. Treacy spent a lot of that year as back up ruck and to many fans surprise was given a three year contract towards the end of 2023 - the main criticism being he was still having a lot of trouble consistently marking the ball.

Roll into 2024 and it wasn't universally agreed amongst the fans whether Treacy was in best 22 - that's until Round 1 when he's clunking marks all over the ground and kicks three goals as we go on to beat the (eventual premiers) Lions. Signs a four extension, is elevated to the leadership group and is a set and forget for the rest of the decade.

The only shame in all this is that as Treacy's stocks have risen, so Amiss' stocks have gone in the opposite direction.
 
Andrew Embley was delist candidate material circa 2001/02. Who knew a Norm Smith medalist was in the making four years later.

Darren Glass another one. Was apparently a joke when he first started in the team.
 
Harris Andrews was pick 61 so I'm assuming he wasn't rated in his draft year. Now arguably the MVP in a back 2 back premiership team.
 
bungalow_bill said:
Harris Andrews was pick 61 so I'm assuming he wasn't rated in his draft year. Now arguably the MVP in a back 2 back premiership team.
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He'd be up there.

Others that come to mind (non-Geelong):
  • Dylan Grimes - taken in the pre-season draft. So every club had 4-5 bites and all said no. Astonishing in hindsight.
  • Lachie Neale - taken at pick 58. That's pretty late, and it's not like he was rubbish at Freo, he still won two Best and Fairests there.
  • James Sicily - taken at pick 56. By anyone's measure he's ended up being way better than that.
  • Nathan Broad - taken at pick 67. Perhaps not quite as good as Grimes but a pretty solid defender
 
IMO it has to be Corey Enright who was drafted at pick 47 in 1999 and acquired from North Melbourne as part of the Leigh Colbert deal, going onto play 332 games winning 3 flags, 6 times All Australian and a Hall of Famer! Not only that he comes from "nowheresville" South Australia "Kimba" which has a current population of 608!
 
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Recent years Hawthorn....

Luke Breust (rookie selection)
James Sicily (pick in the 50's)
Jai Newcombe (MSD to be given no.3 by Matthews and looks likely to have a career worthy of a top 5 pick)
Massimo D'Ambrosio - picked up from Essendon who were only offering him scraps, to then make the AA 40 in his first season with us.
Josh Gibson - Came across as a capable defender and won b & f's in premiership years 2013 and 2015.
 

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ben keays - delisted to a b&f winner
 
5minutes_of_Dew said:
Recent years Hawthorn....

Luke Breust (rookie selection)
James Sicily (pick in the 50's)
Jai Newcombe (MSD to be given no.3 by Matthews and looks likely to have a career worthy of a top 5 pick)
Massimo D'Ambrosio - picked up from Essendon who were only offering him scraps, to then make the AA 40 in his first season with us.
Josh Gibson - Came across as a capable defender and won b & f's in premiership years 2013 and 2015.
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Still the undisputed spoil king of the AFL to this day
 
Anthony Koutoufides.

Showed great potential in the second half of 1994, then came of age in 1995-96.

His 2000 season is the most dominant period I’ve ever seen from an individual. It was like he was playing against school kids.
 

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Franc de Borges said:
Anthony Koutoufides.

Showed great potential in the second half of 1994, then came of age in 1995-96.

His 2000 season is the most dominant period I’ve ever seen from an individual. It was like he was playing against school kids.
Click to expand...

Great call, Peak Kouta reached a level nobody saw coming.
 
For someone overlooked in the 2000 draft and had to work through the 2001 season in the VFL in order to then get picked at 36, Sam Mitchell ended up having a career that might have been worth the investment.
 
LukeParkerno1 said:
This will sound weird but as a cats fan surely it's GAJ. People forget just how much at the time he was 'picked on name only', turned into an all time great, but at the time of drafting for most including Cats fans it was a matter of he's an Ablett give the guy a chance. Cats have been brilliant at late selections sure the father son helped but bar Hawkins none really were THAT highly regarded
Click to expand...
Even at the start of 2007, I did not see GAJ coming.

He was basically looking like the 2000s version of Paul Hudson - a good, classy and talented half-forward in his own right, but lacking the edge to really cut it among the absolute elite like his Dad. A highlights player rather than a full-game superstar.

Then a switch flicked and he became - dare I say - better than Dad.
 

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Players who well and truly exceeded expectations

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