#6 Lachie Whitfield (Pick 1, 2012 National Draft)

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captainMyCaptain

captainMyCaptain

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran GWS Giants Member of the Year
Apr 30, 2011
8,236
7,579
Wollongong
AFL Club
GWS
Lachie Whitfield



173593_3_1.jpg

Height: 184cm
Weight: 78kg
D/O/B: 18/7/1994
Position: Mid

Lachie was selected by the Giants with pick number one in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft after having another excellent season which was capped off with winning the Larke Medal as the best player at the 2012 AFL National Under 18 Championships.

The classy midfielder has rare awareness and decision-making ability complemented by skills on either side with hands and feet and is naturally gifted with speed and endurance and is strong overhead.

In his first year with the Giants he has played in all but one game.



GREATER Western Sydney will unveil their latest No.1 draft pick in Sunday's AFL pre-season clashes, but assistant coach Leon Cameron says he may only play half of the season proper.
Whitfield Whitfield will take on Sydney and Carlton in Blacktown on the weekend, the start of a maiden season in which the 18-year-old will attract feverish interest and scrutiny.
The classy midfielder, part of an elite group that includes teammates and fellow No.1 picks Jonathon Patton and
Tom Scully, wants to play as much of the NAB Cup as possible to seal a berth in round one of the premiership season.
But as the Giants consistently showed in their debut year, rest and rotation will be a crucial part of the teenager's AFL development - no matter how talented he is.
Cameron admitted the club would have to limit Whitfield's playing minutes this season.
Click to expand...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...-in-first-season/story-e6frf9jf-1226581873567
 
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I really like this guy. I hope they start getting him more involved in the centre or maybe play him on ball a bit more. He is probably our best skilled midfielder. I really think this years draft class was much better than last year.
 

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coniglio_number1 said:
So far on displayed form it's Patton, cogs, Tyson, WHE, smith, Greene, McDonald, ohailpin, frost > Whitfield, plowman, corr, Williams
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I mean more generally, if we had 11 of the top 14 picks in this years draft, I think our team would be stronger. For the Giants, I think Whitfield is better than Tyson and arguably better than Coniglio (though they play differently and Coniglio will probably end up being better). Plowman and Corr look good, we didn't draft many backs last time but I would take Plowman over Buntine.
 
Number one draft pick Lachie Whitfield has signed with the Greater Western Sydney GIANTS until the end of 2016. Whitfield, 19, has played 18 games in his debut season for the GIANTS since being drafted from Mount Martha in Victoria at the end of 2012. The classy midfielder has averaged 17 possessions a game and was rewarded with a NAB AFL Rising Star nomination for his performance against Carlton in round 10. ​
Click to expand...

http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/2013-08-25/whitfield-commits
 
"The best thing about being a No. 1 draft pick at the Giants is living in Sydney and being away from Melbourne," he said.

"It's actually so crazy the difference in how you walk the streets of Melbourne and you get weird looks – compared to Sydney, where no one would even turn an eye at you.

"I'm very, very happy and content in Sydney and I don't think I'll be coming back to Melbourne any time soon."
Click to expand...

It just takes time for most of these lads! They are most vulnerable after year one particularly as we are still losing more than we are winning but I'm telling you as soon as we change this there will be very few wanting to go, certainly of the ones we want to keep.

This boy is a jet, he still has to strengthen up his body a little but everything he does is class, love him to bits.
 
GWS winger Lachie Whitfield makes successful start in new role as a defender
Neil Cordy, The Daily Telegraph
March 27, 2018 6:54pm
Subscriber only
FOR a novice defender Lachie Whitfield is doing an amazing impersonation of what a seasoned one looks like.

His 34 disposals including 11 contested and 10 intercept in Sunday’s challenged Jeremy Cameron for best-on-ground honours in the Giants’ 82-point demolition of the Western Bulldogs.

It was as good as it gets for a player who is learning on the job and had never played as a defender until four weeks ago.

The loss of Nathan Wilson to Fremantle and Zac Williams’ achilles injury put a massive hole in the GWS set-up down back and forced Leon Cameron to think outside the square to fill the gaps.

Cameron’s first choice to do the job were young talents Isaac Cumming and Harry Perryman but they both ran into injury concerns themselves.

“I was pretty much the last option,” Whitfield told the Daily Telegraph.

“I’d done the majority of the pre-season playing on the wing. I had a quick chat with Leon and Mark McVeigh about the chance of me playing there and I’m still learning a lot.”

While he might still be in primary school for backline players,Whitfield has two teammates at the PhD level in Phil Davis and Heath Shaw.

“I reckon I’ve got two of the smartest defenders in the competition to work alongside in Phil and Heath.

“The little tricks they’ve got, their bodywork and when to push up and when to defend is great.

“They are both very vocal in the way they teach but have different styles in terms of getting the message across. It makes life a lot easier for me having those two blokes there.”

More in the link here http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...r/news-story/125e9e1fbabd41012c3f00b4875279e8
 
Some insight into Whitfield's move to HB

http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/2018-04-20/whitfield-getting-accustomed-to-new-role?

I wanted to ask you how that role change came about? I assume it was a personnel thing due to the Zac Williams’ injury and Nathan Wilson departing?

Yeah, it was definitely a personnel thing. I trained for most of the pre-season on the wing, then Zac Williams went down with his Achilles and Nath Wilson had already gone back home to Perth, so there was a spot up for grabs there. A few of the younger blokes put their hands up for that initially, so I didn’t think I’d be going back there. The likes of Isaac Cummings and Harry Perryman were both doing really good things on the half-back line in the pre-season but they both had minor injuries throughout the JLT Series, so I was basically the last option! But it’s worked out so far, even though it was a little bumpy initially.


Are you finding that in games when you need to go to the middle of the ground, you’re making the call to go in there yourself, or is it the instruction from the coaching staff?

I haven’t really gone up that high on the ball yet, it’s more just being able to cover the ground alright has allowed me to push up and back and play as the highest half-back. I did get moved to the wing for a little bit against the Swans, but I’m predominantly across half-back at the moment.

Perhaps I thought I saw something I didn’t, but I thought late in the Collingwood game you pushed up the ground?

Yeah, well actually that quarter I was moved forward, so I just go where I’m told. At the certain stages of games, I’m just happy to play where I’m needed.

And you said it was a bit bumpy early in the new position. Was that in reference to getting use to the position? How hard is it to adjust to a position you’ve never played before?

It’s tough! Even through junior footy, I always played midfield and forward, so playing in the backline is not natural for me. Defensively, I guard the grass more than a man, so it’s been a learning curve getting accustomed to play on a back shoulder. I try to read the footy, but I also have to react to my opponent first, and the ball second. That’s been the hardest part, and I’m still very far off being good at it.
 
Congratulations to Lachie Whitfield on his impending 200th game.

www.gwsgiants.com.au

Whitfield Yearning for More on Eve of Milestone Match

The number one pick becomes just the third player to reach 200 games for the GIANTS.
www.gwsgiants.com.au www.gwsgiants.com.au

On Saturday night in Adelaide, Lachie Whitfield, the club's No.1 draft pick from 2012, will become just the third GIANT to reach the 200-game milestone after Callan Ward and Toby Greene.

As a two-time best and fairest winner and All-Australian, he is fitting of such a landmark at the GIANTS, yet is unashamedly yearning for so much more. On Saturday night, he gets to revel in that in a milestone moment, and it's one the Victorian always envisaged securing in the orange and charcoal of the GIANTS.

"Even before I got to the footy club, I wanted to be a one-club player and I had a pretty good idea I was going to be moving to Sydney so once I wrapped my head around that, I thought, 'let's do this forever'," Whitfield told AFL.com.au. "It's a pretty cool achievement to be the third person to do it (at the club), but it's snuck up, I reckon. Milestone games are something that you want to do as a kid. I'm proud of it and I'm lucky that I've done it all at one club."

There can be little argument over the GIANTS' call to take the smooth-moving Dandenong Stingrays product with the first pick at the draft 11 years ago. He has delivered on the hype and expectation in his time at the GIANTS, while staying the course at the club as a GIANTS star. "As a kid, I grew up wanting to be a one-club player that wins Grand Finals, plays 300 games, wins Norm Smith (Medals), like every other kid does when they're 12 or 13 years old. Obviously, there's been milestones and achievements along the way, but I still haven't won a flag. There's still a lot of fire left in the belly to succeed."

There have been a few positional changes for the versatile Whitfield as well. After stints on the wing and even at half-forward in recent times, he's been brought back to his All-Australian half-back role of 2018 under Kingsley. And while his start to the season was slow by his high standards, he has flourished in line with the GIANTS' recent rise up the ladder.
 

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