AFL Player #22: Sam Durham

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I've always been a big fan of his. I used to say last year that I thought he was in our first 10 picked because of his workrate both when the team does and doesn't have the ball given our poor track record in transition.

But I never would have thought he could transition as smoothly to playing onball as he is. Bloody hell he's a stud.
 
What a game!! ..especially that first half
They put a fair bit of attention on him in the second half especially from Yeo. The best thing about him is he won contests at speed.

I mentioned this a couple of times through the day but the beauty is that only natural mids can do this sort of stuff. It requires footy nous, timing and bullocking. The timing part looks way easier than it is, to hit a contest at the right time at pace.

He said when he was younger he started as a mid and they moved him out when he was too small against his opponents. For a young buck he has way better techniques for inside mid craft than players with 150 games more experience than him. An absolute natural.
 
Some of stuff in the first quarter was ridiculous. Super clean at high speed and getting through contests and out the other side - it’s what elite mids do and it’s so damaging.

Also uses the ball well….distributes well to the outside by hand and has some penetration and vision with his kicking.

Quieter after that when Yeo went to him - get used to it Sam, that’ll happen most weeks now. Gave away too many frees late in the game but fantastic overall.
 
He's insane. There's no two ways about it. Completely exceeded my expectations especially from a MSD pick.
It seems extra special that Durham was plucked from the MSD.
Martin was overlooked too in the draft and is now an exceptional key player in our team.

Looking at Jai Culley for WC, it's a wonder how he will turn out after a recent ACL. Hoping he turns out great too.
 
Some of stuff in the first quarter was ridiculous. Super clean at high speed and getting through contests and out the other side - it’s what elite mids do and it’s so damaging.

Also uses the ball well….distributes well to the outside by hand and has some penetration and vision with his kicking.

Quieter after that when Yeo went to him - get used to it Sam, that’ll happen most weeks now. Gave away too many frees late in the game but fantastic overall.

I was thinking this after the game. With his growth, coaches are taking notice and planning for him. Will be the next stage that Sam will need to work through. Cant keep giving away silly free kicks if he wants to move into the top echelon of players hes tracking to become
 

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Some of stuff in the first quarter was ridiculous. Super clean at high speed and getting through contests and out the other side - it’s what elite mids do and it’s so damaging.

Also uses the ball well….distributes well to the outside by hand and has some penetration and vision with his kicking.

Quieter after that when Yeo went to him - get used to it Sam, that’ll happen most weeks now. Gave away too many frees late in the game but fantastic overall.
The good thing is we now have depth to cover a tag.
 
I was thinking this after the game. With his growth, coaches are taking notice and planning for him. Will be the next stage that Sam will need to work through. Cant keep giving away silly free kicks if he wants to move into the top echelon of players hes tracking to become
Everyone will be on to him now and will put work into to him. Let’s see how he deals with it.
 
Looking great at the moment.

Think previously looked more a effort and energy player but building to better than that.

Im sure he used to tap the ball along a bit much but now seems to have cleaned up the fumbles and has great hands to just grab it when in dispute.
 
He still has so much scope for development. Has all the tools to become one of the most impactful 2-way midfielders in the competition.

There are aspects of his game that are flashes that will hopefully develop into consistent parts of his game such as his overhead game and his long kicking.
 

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