I'm not that sold on Cockatoo. From what I gather he doesn't finish all that well. From that sort of player I want it through the sticks or in the hands of a goalkicker.
He got the highest score in the kicking test at the combine, hitting 29 of the 30 targets (on both feet), so I don't think you need to be worrying about that too much!
For those who know a bit more about him, could McKenzie play games next year?
Just from a physical POV, strength-wise he could obviously play, given that he already weighs 107kg (!), but I believe his tank would need a lot of work before he is ready to step out on an AFL ground, otherwise whoever was playing on him could just run off him all day long.
What's the go with Corey Ellis? Iv'e seen some nice stuff about him, but I read somewhere that he was injured and missed the draft.
Wondering if he'll slide and how much.
He does look like someone who could very well be available around our 2nd and 3rd picks after having been talked about by some as top 10 quality at times this year. Is yet another one in this year's crop with a relatively late year birthday (October) and is also still relatively light, so could have quite a lot of upside to him. Looked to have a very nice left foot in the glimpses I saw of him in the champs this year.
I agree that Petracca seems a good player.
I'm just not sure we'll see the kind of improvement you get with time with players like Jack Steven, who came in as a pretty small unit.
Petracca is already full size ( he has lost weight ) so we won't get the improvement with bulking up like the smaller players.
Petracca has already had professional running coaching, and other stuff through the AIS. So we may not see the kind of improvement you get when someone from the sticks suddenly gets involved in a professional club.
But if he is like Ollie Wines that's good enough for me.
The thing with Petracca is that he is coming off a very strong basketball background, where short sharp bursts of running are what's mostly required and as such he doesn't yet have the endurance/running ability that he will need for AFL footy, so that is one area where he has a lot of improvement in him. I imagine he will also have plenty to learn about playing midfield still.
The thing with him though is that he just has so many attributes that translate well to senior AFL footy and particularly to the highly contested brand of footy that you see in finals, so I see no reason at all why he won't be able to dominate games of footy in the AFL, all things being equal.