2020 Academy Spotlight - Alex Davies (Cairns/Broadbeach)

GC2015

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I thought this would be fun to put the spotlight on our academy's best draft prospect each year and share information about players who are very likely to end up on our list e.g. in the past it would have been Connor Budarick (2019), Bailey Scott (2018), Brayden Crossley (2017), Jack Bowes (2016), Jesse Joyce (2015), Lachie Weller (2014), Jared Ellis (2013), Andrew Boston (2012) and Alex Sexton (2011).

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Alex Davies
Height: 191cm
Weight:85kg
Junior club/s: Cairns Hawks (Cairns AFL) / Broadbeach Cats (QAFL)
Plays like: Scott Pendlebury

Alex was raised in Cairns and is of part-Japanese heritage for those wondering. As is the case with many Aussie kids these days, he grew up playing basketball and footy. Scouted as an outstanding footy prospect during his early junior days with the Manunda Hawks (now known as the Cairns Hawks), Alex was placed in our developmental academy in his early teens. His promising junior basketball career included selection for multiple Queensland state representative teams at the junior national championships. At the age of 16 he had to choose between pursuing a career path in basketball or football but chose the latter with the intention of relocating to the Gold Coast to further his chances of being drafted. Last year he played for our academy team as a bottom ager in the NAB League and impressed enough to gain selection for the Allies as well as the U17 All-Australian team which defeated the senior New Zealand national team at the Marvel Stadium. He also played for our NEAFL team last year. Going into his final year of junior football in 2020, Alex has relocated to the Gold Coast and is considered first-round draft talent by many analysts, some of which consider him a top 10 prospect. At this point in time, we have automatic access to Alex but if our results continue to impress the league this year then I could easily see the AFL removing those concessions and forcing us into a situation where we need to match a bid for Alex at the national draft later this year.

Strengths: Contested ball-winning, distribution by hand, evasion, movement through traffic, clean at ground level
Weaknesses: Endurance, prone to rushing kicks rather than assessing and spotting options

What does everyone think of Alex? I'm super excited about him potentially joining our young and talented midfield later this year! Unfortunately I couldn't find any highlights of him playing but I'm sure we'll get some later this year. Click here to see an interview with him though.
 
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GCSportsBuzz

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I've seen him and training and kicking around with Rankine. He's a must have and very exciting. Another to look at is Joel Jeffrey from the NT, he is a gun. We got Malcolm Rosas Jnr from there last season, he is going to be a gun as well.
 

RowellAnderson12

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He is a lock, seems to get along well with the boys on Instagram post/stories. Hoping we get him with our concessions instead of a higher pick
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
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Don't be narrow minded , if you move up the ladder that is a good thing .
I don't think anyone believes it's a bad thing to rise up the ladder. The consequence of doing so is that the AFL will remove our automatic academy access and we just so happen to have a first round/top 10 talent coming through our academy this year. If we're clever like GWS have been in the past, we'll trade our way into a top 10 pick so that we can secure a top talent from interstate as well as match a bid for Davies a few picks later. That way we essentially get two top 10 picks at the end of this year instead of one.

Now that we know the NEAFL has been cancelled and the QAFL is coming back in mid-July (fixture) I think we'll see Alex play a few games for Broadbeach this year. They play Mount Gravatt on July 18th so that's probably the earliest Davies can play a competitive match at this point because the U18 fixtures still seem to be up in the air at this point. Here is a video of Alex receiving his Broadbeach jumper from his Japanese grandfather before he made his senior QAFL debut for the Broady last year:

 

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Anyone know if Davies played yesterday or will we have to wait until next week to see how he goes for Broady? Not sure how many would be this interested in watching him play but the Broady Cats play Mount Gravatt next weekend (2pm, Saturday) at Dittmer Park.

Hopefully we get some kind of update on Alex over the next week.
 

SUN OF A GUN

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Anyone know if Davies played yesterday or will we have to wait until next week to see how he goes for Broady? Not sure how many would be this interested in watching him play but the Broady Cats play Mount Gravatt next weekend (2pm, Saturday) at Dittmer Park.

Hopefully we get some kind of update on Alex over the next week.

Davies played in an intra club trial match at Broadbeach on Saturday morning, as did a few other Academy lads.

He played well showing clean hands in the dewy conditions. Smooth mover for a big bodied mid.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
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Davies played in an intra club trial match at Broadbeach on Saturday morning, as did a few other Academy lads.

He played well showing clean hands in the dewy conditions. Smooth mover for a big bodied mid.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
If he runs both ways then he will likely jump above Brodie quite quickly, we should be playing Brodie to see if he is going to make it or not
 

Goodguy72

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By the time Hugh Greenwood is in his twilight, this kid will be ready. Absolute like for like in a number of ways.
Very strong in the contest similar to Rowell in a number of ways, could add a couple dimensions to his game. Think there are a couple of academy kids that are more naturally talented skill wise but he never shirks a contest
 

GC2015

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Davies will play his first proper game of footy at 2pm today when the Broady Cats take on Mount Gravatt in Brisbane. Very interesting to see Broadbeach have named him to line up in the forward pocket but I assume he'll rotate through the midfield throughout the game as well.

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Alex was also mentioned on the AFL website this week and this is what they wrote about him. He's 191cm now and possibly still growing! For context, Bontempelli is 192cm.
Alex Davies
191cm/85kg
18/3/02
Gold Coast Academy/Allies
Midfielder
Davies is a tall inside midfielder with good hands and a nice sidestep out of traffic. He uses his body to outmuscle those around him and, coming from an elite basketball background, is agile in tight space. The Suns Academy prospect will play for Broadbeach in Queensland's competition, with Gold Coast set to nab him later this year to add to their stocks of talented young midfielders.
 

GC2015

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Stats don't always give you the best indication of how a player is going but Davies kicked a goal in Broady's big win over Mount Gravatt yesterday, although he was not named in the bests. Seems like it was a relatively quiet game for Alex but I guess that's to be expected in his first proper game back since September last year. It's also possible Broadbeach elected to play him in the forward pocket for most of the game which would have kept him mostly uninvolved. Assuming that's correct, hopefully he gets more of a run in the midfield for Broady next week.

Broadbeach are playing Labrador at Merrimac Oval on Saturday at 2pm if anyone wants to head down and watch Alex play.
 

Sunstar

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Stats don't always give you the best indication of how a player is going but Davies kicked a goal in Broady's big win over Mount Gravatt yesterday, although he was not named in the bests. Seems like it was a relatively quiet game for Alex but I guess that's to be expected in his first proper game back since September last year. It's also possible Broadbeach elected to play him in the forward pocket for most of the game which would have kept him mostly uninvolved. Assuming that's correct, hopefully he gets more of a run in the midfield for Broady next week.

Broadbeach are playing Labrador at Merrimac Oval on Saturday at 2pm if anyone wants to head down and watch Alex play.
Watched a bit of the seniors after the reserves from what I saw is that he wasn’t breaking tackles like he does with his age group but that will come in time , Gore seems more developed and kicked a couple (sort of reminds me of Papley) before he seemed to have a cramping problem. Reeves is a really raw prospect but could be a player in a couple of years
 

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Watched a bit of the seniors after the reserves from what I saw is that he wasn’t breaking tackles like he does with his age group but that will come in time , Gore seems more developed and kicked a couple (sort of reminds me of Papley) before he seemed to have a cramping problem. Reeves is a really raw prospect but could be a player in a couple of years
Cheers for the insight :thumbsu:

So was Davies getting caught when he had the ball? It's an interesting observation because he's been compared to Scott Pendlebury in the past due to the amount of time he seems to have when he has possession of the ball. Perhaps you are right though. It may just be that he's adjusting to senior football after playing plenty of U18s footy last year. We'll see how he goes next week.

A few of us who followed the reserves/U18s over the last 12-24 months felt Gore deserved a rookie spot on our list so I'm not that surprised that you would write that. Maybe he'll get his chance this year but I doubt it with the impending list cuts that are coming.
 

Sunstar

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Cheers for the insight :thumbsu:

So was Davies getting caught when he had the ball? It's an interesting observation because he's been compared to Scott Pendlebury in the past due to the amount of time he seems to have when he has possession of the ball. Perhaps you are right though. It may just be that he's adjusting to senior football after playing plenty of U18s footy last year. We'll see how he goes next week.

A few of us who followed the reserves/U18s over the last 12-24 months felt Gore deserved a rookie spot on our list so I'm not that surprised that you would write that. Maybe he'll get his chance this year but I doubt it with the impending list cuts that are coming.
Think the suns should keep their extra list spots so there still will be opportunities. Davies didn’t play bad just thought if he was playing under 18s he would have easily had over 20 possessions but instead was getting held up in the tackles by men. Reckon he could have a few more stints up forward to improve his craft as he has incredible hands
 

Sunstar

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Davies had 26 disposals and 9 Clearances last week but sadly is out for estimated 3 weeks as his elbow is giving him some grief
Probably from overuse looking at those numbers , will be in doubt for the academy series I would say
 

Sunstar

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Here are a few pictures of our man playing for Broadbeach two weeks ago:

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Looks like based on the last photo him and Gore have great relationship. I would probably not risk him playing for most of the remainder of the season given that he doesn't need to go into the draft due to preselection
 
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Looks like based on the last photo him and Gore have great relationship. I would probably not risk him playing for most of the remainder of the season given that he doesn't need to go into the draft due to preselection

But the only way to develop is to play....
Alex missed a lot of last season too.

QAFL is good standard this year with no NEAFL and available academy guys so he definitely should play a few games if his body allows.
 
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