Andrew Boston.

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Sunny_

Sunny_

Brownlow Medallist
Veteran 10k Posts Ex-Moderator Gold Coast Suns - Harley Bennell 2012 Player Sponsor
Mar 18, 2011
19,310
14,589
Everett
AFL Club
Gold Coast
Other Teams
New England Patriots
Pick #55 in the 2012 RD. Local zone selection.

Andrew%20Boston%20trains(2).png


Height: 179cm.
Weight: 75kg.

Medium midfielder who excelled in the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships for QLD, averaging 18.2 disposals at 70% and winning All Australian honours. Clean hands and neat disposal skills are features of his game.

Chris25.
I considered Boston to be one of Queensland's best players in this draft pool, but in the end only Cameron went as a zone selection to the Suns in the ND. He offers a nice mix of inside and outside ability, and has shown he is capable of going forward and getting on the scoreboard. As he is lacking a yard of pace, I think you'll have to mould him into an inside midfielder at AFL level but I can see him having some success in that role.
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Knightmare.
Profile: Boston is one of the better Queensland talents and has really impressed with a strong u18 champs. Boston can play either through the midfield or forwardline and stood out with his ball use. Uses it well, duel sided and decision making ability good. Boston is also a big accumulator and can win his own ball.
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Quigley.
I am feeling a bit dirty but for probably the first time I am thinking a Qlder is being overrated on BF. Boston is regularly being taken in the mid to high second round in mocks and for me that is overpaying for a guy who will struggle physically to compete at AFL level. On paper he looked good having been named the Qld MVP and made the AA team and he did have some nice games in the NEAFL. In the NEAFL he finished the year strongly picking up BOG in rounds 18 and 20 in the seniors for Broadbeach.

Boston played mostly off half forward and half back this year and was pretty impressive in those roles. His kicking is the feature which he will hope will see him get drafted. He is a kid who has worked on doing the basics right first and built from there. He is good off either foot and he is just a player who hits his targets and usually does a good job of taking the best option. He is not super long but he has definite hurt factor by foot.

Early in the year he played up forward mostly for his club and picked up bags of 6 and 4 goals in senior company. He is a fairly slight guy but he is smart in the use of his body. He will apply his strength at just the right time and place to achieve what he wanted. He is a really good shot on goal being accurate with good goal sense on his snaps. He had a perfect score in the goal kicking test at the Combine and he would be one of the better finishers around goal available this year.

He is a very strong reader of the play wherever he is on the ground and knows where the ball is going and where he needs to go a bit before others. He is also smart about what he should be doing and where he should be running and this can allow him to get a heap of the ball at the levels he has played at to date. At AFL level though he is going to be up against guys who read the play almost as well as him and are all much better athletes. Around the ground Boston has not looked very quick but his football smarts have allowed him to compensate but when you finish in the bottom 10% in the 20m and repeat sprints and bottom 20% in the agility tests you are going to struggle to be a flanker at AFL level. Opposition are going to take advantage of those deficiencies.

His best bet for an AFL career is probably as a midfielder where guys like Rockliff and Sidebottom have overcome poor speed scores with their football smarts. The problem for Boston is that he also is poor in the endurance side of things as well. Unlike Rockliff and Sidebottom, Boston is also a very outside player. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in his play at the Champs largely because he was the "star" of the Qld team but when the game was being decided it was others who were cracking in and trying to win the ball. In the midfield he either sat off the contest waiting to receive or he was following guys like Wines around and not looking to win the ball himself. At AFL level teams want even their outside mids to get their hands dirty when needs be and Boston has shown little propensity to do that even against junior players when he was the captain. What he can do in the midfield though is spread and work to good spots to receive. I think he will provide a link option and pick out targets nicely to get the ball moving. The question will be how much his endurance will allow him to do both offensively and more relevantly defensively.
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What the recruiters said.
Ashcroft says: "He played a few games in our reserves team this year, so we'd seen him on a regular basis. As a rookie pick we thought he was great value. He was an All-Australian at under-18 level and he's really versatile. Although Andrew has played a lot in the midfield, he can do a job up forward or down back as well."
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He certainly looks chirpy enough. :D

The thing with Boston is that (no offence), he has no great breakaway pace, jump, strength or endurance. Endurance obviously you can build on, but with his other traits it's hard to tell exactly what position he will settle down in long-term. Obviously these flaws didn't stop someone like Rockcliff for the Lions, and indeed, Boston's longterm position may be just as an inside midfielder with stints up forward. Think he might have a long way to go though before he reaches that level.

Still happy we got him. You don't make the U18's AA side if you're a mug.
 
Another player that had no pace , jump, strength but probably did have an engine was Marcus Ashcroft, and he probably got tackled about 3 times in his 300+ game career. I know the game has changed alot since then, but footy smarts and skills still count for a lot I reckon. Im glad the Suns have taken a chance on him.

I see Joel Wilkinson on the other end of the scale to Boston. He has all the strength, fitness and athleticism that you can get but has no footy brain and not the best skills.

Maybe if we throw Bostons brain in Wilkinsons body we might have a super player :eek:

Wish him the best of luck this weekend
 
Hahaha you got me Sunny! The snippets I've seen I REALLY like and the way he goes about it seems infectious. Seems to have all the attributes excluding elite physicality that I like in a player. Really hope he puts on a good showing Saturday night. I'm on board the Boston train!
 
Boston to build on SANFL experience.
ROOKIE midfielder Andrew Boston was among the shining lights for the NEAFL northern conference team on a disappointing visit to West Adelaide Oval last weekend, as the interstate visitors were unable to claim bragging rights over our South Australian state rivals in their 82-point defeat to the SANFL squad in the State Challenge.

Led by Southport Sharks coach Jason Cotter, the NEAFL side came out swinging against South Australia, with the game all but level as Queenslander trailed by only eight-points heading into the major break.
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Boston makes the grade.
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SEVEN months ago, Broadbeach teenager Andrew Boston wondered if he would ever get the chance to play in the big league.

Overlooked in November's national draft, the then 18-year-old feared his chance to play AFL football might have passed him by.
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14 touches @ 92%, 6 marks, 4 tackles and 3 goals. Not bad at all. Very good interim replacement for Brown if he can keep those numbers up.

I think Bluey touched on it in his presser. Just said that Boston was a 'footballer'. He's not a super athletic specimen, but his footy nous just allows him to get into the right places. He always looks like he has space when the ball comes to meet him.
 
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