Where I see Corey Ellis.
I see Corey Ellis as being a best 22 player should he get himself right. Never once have I claimed him to be a walk up start, the kid obviously needed time to develop from when he was drafted as a 74kg skinny inside midfielder who had foot issues. The foot issues were addressed in his first season where he had bone fragments removed from both feet that were causing problems, along the way he also had some other injuries that put the brakes on his development. Then he had some personal issues outside of footy that knocked him around a bit as well. Slowly but surely the kid has developed his game and body. While he isn't a Graham/Cotchin/Martin type of physique he has still put on 6kg of weight and has also gotten stronger.
In his first 2 years Ellis averaged about 2-3 tackles a game both at VFL and AFL level, which came from not having the strength to make his tackles stick. As his body developed and he gained strength he has increased his tackle numbers to 6 per game at VFL level, but they were still around the 2-3 tackles at AFL level last year, IMO that had more to do with where he played rather than not wanting to tackle, not many HBF average more than 2-3 tackles per game, while in the VFL he spends a bit of time rotating through the middle. He has also increased his disposals last year averaging around 20 disposals. Not massive numbers by any stretch but getting 20 disposals and 6 tackles a week is a step in the right direction for a kid that we want to develop into an inside midfielder.
The pleasing thing in the JLT games is that Ellis has brought that tackling endeavour to these games. Averaging about 5.5 tackles to go with 16 disposals a game average. Again it's not the 25-30 disposals that prime movers like Cotchin Martin Grigg Lambert Caddy Prestia are capable of getting, but as a rotational midfielder it is a step in the right direction for a 21 year old developing midfielder with 23 games under his belt. As I've said repeatedly over the last couple of days, ideally we'd see Ellis getting his 15-25 touches and laying 4-6 tackles a week. That would make him a handy player to join the likes of Graham Higgins Menadue Markov & Naish as the next midfield group coming through.
The ball is now in Ellis' court though, in the final year of his contract he needs to get it right or he could find himself out the door. Personally I'm confident the kid will make it and it would appear that the club believes he will too as he looks to be in the mix for the 22 to start the season.