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Player Watch #25 Billy Cootee - Welcome to Sydney - Pick 42

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Ok, I lol'ed at th epick.

I am now claiming bandwagon front row seats.

Lets go Billy, me and you, wild ride and best of luck.
 

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Don't mind this pick. We've drafted a couple of players in King and Kyle with high ceilings that might take a few years of development (don't know enough about Phillipou to know where he falls into this). I like balancing that with someone who can potentially give us some more depth in the more immediate future.
 

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I look forward to seeing Billy play and what he's got.

It really is a great story and I'm curious why we picked Billy when there are no doubt a lot of other similarly credentialled players out there. I think he offers us some midfield insurance in the short term, with the possibility of being an option longer term. He seems to be a neat user of the ball and able to win his own ball too. Will have had to have shown a fair bit of resilience in his career to date, I suspect.

To summarise the articles about him: his background is he comes from Mt Beauty in the Victorian Alps. He played with the Western Jets as an underager before being recruited to Essendon's VFL team, where he played 3 seasons and had the honour of captaining them (for at least one game) as a 20 year old. Then he moved to Norwood where he has played the last 2 seasons (helping the club to narrow GF and prelim final losses), including winning the 2025 B&F. He is studying construction management at university. (Happily that is a degree also offered at UNSW - I wonder if I have checked this before he has!)

Good luck Billy!
 
I think there's not a huge difference between players at this level of the draft so I think the recruiters have to back their judgement. Like Bice he has had to push himself to make it which I hope speaks to his character and determination.
I think the recruiters have done an excellent job of improving our depth in terms of body type and ceiling plus a good mix of positions and readiness to play with a degree of versatility. ✅
 

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I like this pick... little bit more experienced and hardened than your average draftee.

Difficult to see him not producing at VFL level and that means he's going to, at very least, be putting pressure on the guys in the ones to perform.
Actually think this is a great support of the VFL program. We got a couple of mids in that can legit start in there from R1 next season and then see if they can put pressure on the AFL mids.
It seems the last couple of years the club has used VFL like a put your best players in the middle U-11s team. Needs to be better overall in terms of system at least and I think that will come in 2026.
 
You don't have that set up unless you think there's better than an even chance of getting drafted.
Perhaps he knew but didn’t think it would come at pick 42, maybe we tipped him off it would come later but King not going sooner made us go sooner on his pick?
 

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