Draft discusson thread

[Obeanie1]

Not at all sold on Heppell - yes it looks awesome when he breaks a tackle and kicks long, possibly to a target and possibly hit said target but what about the amount of times he tries to do too much and turns the ball over off half back or in the corridor - instant i50 for the opposition.

I don't see that happenning with Gaff, what I see with Gaff is a player who thinks (in this order) 1. do I have enough space to get the ball and dispose under low/medium pressure & 2. is my target either in the clear and able to hurt the opposition or is my target in front position and am I close enough to hit him on the chest (which he inevitably does)

Gaff is one of those players whose decision making is clear enough to set up players i50 with short kicks or to hit up running players through the corridor who can run/carry/kick long (Hurn/Sheppard/Smith/Shuey/Kerr types) so in that sense he has a high positive influence on the team and a very low negative influence.

I'll be happy with either, its so close to 50 / 50 now in my mind.

Gaff is closer to what we lack, fast accumulator who uses it well. He sounds like a Beams or Sidebottom type of mid, maybe a tad better than those two .............. hopefully.

Heppell just sounds like Brendan Goddard and from what we've seen over the past 3 grand finals that type of player can perform well on the big stage.

I just want someone who can kick well and make good decisions with hurt factor.

 

[Marlin01]

I just want someone who can kick well and make good decisions with hurt factor.

With some pace ideally.

Looks like fat Tony is arousing some interest:
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/103977/default.aspx

 

[Obeanie1]

19295774]Geez Josh Green looks bloody amazing![/B]

Kicked a couple freakish goals and showed great pace and skills in the draft combine video. Seems exactly what we need, hasn't been mentioned in the top25 much at all, would be stoked if we nabbed him with pick26 And afterall, everyone says you need a tasmanian and a ranga in order to be a successful club, with Green we'd be getting both

After going over Heppell and Gaff again, I'm really excited were getting one of them. Will both be stars for their respective clubs, I'd be very happy either way.

Agree.

Have watched the same footage and his pace taking the ball away from stoppages and his goal kicking is exactly what we lack. No go home factor to Tassie to worry about either.

His pace and style remind me of Ballantyne ................. hopefully without the DH factor.

And he's a ranga so if we turf Hansen out we still retain our 1 ranga quota.

Also I haven't seen him listed by anyone in the top 25 in the draft so he'd be a very good chance to be available at 26 or 28>30. His U18 championship stats were very impressive averaging 24 possies and 1>2 goals a game.

One of the best highlight packages I've seen for sure.

 

[Mattman93]

I can't see us going for him. No idea why though.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

I can't see us going for him. No idea why though.

Interesting logic.

I can see us going for him, because he is quick, seems to have good skills and kicks goals.

 

[Mattman93]

Interesting logic.

I think it's because it seems as if the further away from WA someone comes from the less likely it is that we'll take them.

 

[swannies]

Not at all sold on Heppell - yes it looks awesome when he breaks a tackle and kicks long, possibly to a target and possibly hit said target but what about the amount of times he tries to do too much and turns the ball over off half back or in the corridor - instant i50 for the opposition.

I don't see that happenning with Gaff, what I see with Gaff is a player who thinks (in this order) 1. do I have enough space to get the ball and dispose under low/medium pressure & 2. is my target either in the clear and able to hurt the opposition or is my target in front position and am I close enough to hit him on the chest (which he inevitably does)

Gaff is one of those players whose decision making is clear enough to set up players i50 with short kicks or to hit up running players through the corridor who can run/carry/kick long (Hurn/Sheppard/Smith/Shuey/Kerr types) so in that sense he has a high positive influence on the team and a very low negative influence.

Thanks LTAM, looks like a great summation.

So Heppell leaves himself open to have the ball kicked straight back over his head, basically? Do you reckon that can be worked on? As it's a very important aspect. Look at Crawford from Claremont in the GF. Should have kicked long to the boundary with less than a minute to go, instead kicks off the instep, tumbles to the side of the centre square and the rest is history, back over his head for the winning goal!

 

[Lynch takes a mark]

Thanks LTAM, looks like a great summation.

So Heppell leaves himself open to have the ball kicked straight back over his head, basically? Do you reckon that can be worked on? As it's a very important aspect. Look at Crawford from Claremont in the GF. Should have kicked long to the boundary with less than a minute to go, instead kicks off the instep, tumbles to the side of the centre square and the rest is history, back over his head for the winning goal!

You can either judge kicking depth at underage level or you can't - Heppell can't, Gaff can.

If you kick badly towards a defensive zone you will turn the ball over and it will be over your head faster than you can blink, that's why you trust the likes of Hurn, Goddard, that bloke from the lions etc to have the long kick from the backline - they have an excellent track records from junior level for picking the right target and weighting the kick to the advantage of the team mate down the line.

Gaff, much like the Pendles/Sidebottom/Murphy/Dal Santo/Power's of the world get a huge amount of the ball and over the course of the game will cut you up with 30-40m kicks. Heppell is not Goddard - Goddard was a CLEAR #1 draft pick and an outstanding kick at underage level, Heppell is going to be frustrating turnover merchant at AFL level IMO.

You can be an average kick but still hurt the opposition if your decision making is excellent - this is where a guy like Joel Selwood fits in, no better at kicking than the brothers but excellent decision maker to cover it.

I don't know why Heppell is even being discussed at 4, he looks more like a 12-25 type at best.

 

[swannies]

You can either judge kicking depth at underage level or you can't - Heppell can't, Gaff can.

If you kick badly towards a defensive zone you will turn the ball over and it will be over your head faster than you can blink, that's why you trust the likes of Hurn, Goddard, that bloke from the lions etc to have the long kick from the backline - they have an excellent track records from junior level for picking the right target and weighting the kick to the advantage of the team mate down the line.

Gaff, much like the Pendles/Sidebottom/Murphy/Dal Santo/Power's of the world get a huge amount of the ball and over the course of the game will cut you up with 30-40m kicks. Heppell is not Goddard - Goddard was a CLEAR #1 draft pick and an outstanding kick at underage level, Heppell is going to be frustrating turnover merchant at AFL level IMO.

You can be an average kick but still hurt the opposition if your decision making is excellent - this is where a guy like Joel Selwood fits in, no better at kicking than the brothers but excellent decision maker to cover it.

I don't know why Heppell is even being discussed at 4, he looks more like a 12-25 type at best.

Thanks again LTAM, appreciate your thoughts, and they are good ones. Heppell, well there's always a bolter and it IS bf talk.

I always like the safer bet higher up the draft rankings. Cue Masten bashing in 3,2,1....... Take a gamble later on.

 

[Pat_Footy]

I've really liked Adelaide's recruiting over the years especially the lower picks. Sloane was a great pick up in the 40's. Matt Rendel rated Heppel and Polec going at 4 so I think they probably are going to excel at AFL.

 

[WCE_phil]

You can either judge kicking depth at underage level or you can't - Heppell can't, Gaff can.

If you kick badly towards a defensive zone you will turn the ball over and it will be over your head faster than you can blink, that's why you trust the likes of Hurn, Goddard, that bloke from the lions etc to have the long kick from the backline - they have an excellent track records from junior level for picking the right target and weighting the kick to the advantage of the team mate down the line.

Gaff, much like the Pendles/Sidebottom/Murphy/Dal Santo/Power's of the world get a huge amount of the ball and over the course of the game will cut you up with 30-40m kicks. Heppell is not Goddard - Goddard was a CLEAR #1 draft pick and an outstanding kick at underage level, Heppell is going to be frustrating turnover merchant at AFL level IMO.

You can be an average kick but still hurt the opposition if your decision making is excellent - this is where a guy like Joel Selwood fits in, no better at kicking than the brothers but excellent decision maker to cover it.

I don't know why Heppell is even being discussed at 4, he looks more like a 12-25 type at best.

From what i've seen. 2 live matches and some youtube footage i actually think heppell's kick weighting is much better than gaff's. His kicking has much more depth, i would say less accuracy. Heppell seems to kick to the general area / to the advantage of his teammates rather than right onto their chest.

They are both outstanding prospects and both for different reasons. From what i've seen however i would dispute that heppell will be a turnover merchant. If anything i think the way he reads the game is much better than gaff. Gaff will put a nice little 30-40 metre pass onto someones chest but heppell will put the ball 5 metres into space in front of a player streaming forward.

It is interesting however and points to the difficulty recruiters actually have because two amateurs watching players can have such different viewpoints.

To my mind heppell is the perfect half back general and in a couple of years i'd be very happy to have him on one flank and sheppard on the other. I think players like ash smith and hurn are better on the wing if they can build the tank as their kicking depth is the key link from defence to attack.

Gaff on the other hand is your outside distributor. He's the guy you want the dinky 5m handballs heading to from the stoppages. He gets, dishes the ball and makes the right decision on how to distribute it. He wont be a glamorous player as he's the linkman between the grunts and the ball carriers. He will however be highly efficient, important to the team structure and hugely important to team success. He's basically your second touch player.

The way i see it is in open play heppell will be much more damaging but from centre square plays and in tight conditions gaff is the man for the job. Essentially we need both so its a tough call.

There is also polec and others to think about however personally im not a huge polec fan even though 2-3 months ago he was the one i was thinking we would draft.

 

[Prem87]

If Gaff was more like Pendlebury than Rosa I'd go for him, but you would choose Heppell over him everyday of the week.

Have we cooled on Darling? I still seeing him being our Bradshaw type FF.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Gaff needs to learn to tackle.

You can see him being very solid for a long period, but you can also see him struggling to justify his selection at 4 over the length of his career.

He's an excellent foot pass. But you can't help think that an Atley, Heppell or Smith will outshine him once they develop. In saying that, we havn't shown any ability to develop players so we might as well take the one thats ready to go.

 

[SillyKent]

I've really liked Adelaide's recruiting over the years especially the lower picks. Sloane was a great pick up in the 40's. Matt Rendel rated Heppel and Polec going at 4 so I think they probably are going to excel at AFL.

Rendell has some interesting views and rankings ... had Dangerfield ahead of Cotchin on his list in 2007 ... I daresay he'd have been the only one to have so.

 

[GO EAGLES]

From what i've seen. 2 live matches and some youtube footage i actually think heppell's kick weighting is much better than gaff's. His kicking has much more depth, i would say less accuracy. Heppell seems to kick to the general area / to the advantage of his teammates rather than right onto their chest.

They are both outstanding prospects and both for different reasons. From what i've seen however i would dispute that heppell will be a turnover merchant. If anything i think the way he reads the game is much better than gaff. Gaff will put a nice little 30-40 metre pass onto someones chest but heppell will put the ball 5 metres into space in front of a player streaming forward.

It is interesting however and points to the difficulty recruiters actually have because two amateurs watching players can have such different viewpoints.

To my mind heppell is the perfect half back general and in a couple of years i'd be very happy to have him on one flank and sheppard on the other. I think players like ash smith and hurn are better on the wing if they can build the tank as their kicking depth is the key link from defence to attack.

Gaff on the other hand is your outside distributor. He's the guy you want the dinky 5m handballs heading to from the stoppages. He gets, dishes the ball and makes the right decision on how to distribute it. He wont be a glamorous player as he's the linkman between the grunts and the ball carriers. He will however be highly efficient, important to the team structure and hugely important to team success. He's basically your second touch player.

The way i see it is in open play heppell will be much more damaging but from centre square plays and in tight conditions gaff is the man for the job. Essentially we need both so its a tough call.

There is also polec and others to think about however personally im not a huge polec fan even though 2-3 months ago he was the one i was thinking we would draft.

excellent analysis.

I would personally go for Gaff because of the slight extra burst of acceleration which generates energy upfield.
I think he might end up better than Pendelbury -

He generates energy which splits opposition

Plus he is a left footer which will help confuse the opposition

He also likes to bounce and run the lines and has a great tank

 

[Peredigeme]

Any thoughts on the KP players available around our Second round picks that are worth taking such as Cook or Watson maybe?

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Any thoughts on the KP players available around our Second round picks that are worth taking such as Cook or Watson maybe?

Mitchell probably. Cook Perhaps. Watson No.

 

[WCE_phil]

Any thoughts on the KP players available around our Second round picks that are worth taking such as Cook or Watson maybe?

Darling is a possibility. Not much chance but he could slide to 26. Watson and Cook are possibilities although i think watson might go a bit earlier than that. I have him tipped to go to carlton at 18. Personally think mitchell could be a very good pickup at 26 and even solly at 28 even though it may be a slight reach. Karnezis is also a good chance at around our second rounders.

Think anton hamp is also a chance for a rookie slot.

 

[Masto]

Saw this post on twitter, no idea if true, but it makes me wonder if we are after him in the PSD...

Collingwood delistee Jarrad Blight has refused to join the GC as a pre listed player. Only wants to play in WA. AFL not pleased.

 

[lewigie]

**** yes.

DO WANT.

He was homesick, that's why he hated it an Collingwood. Why would he want to move even further away?

 

[Bacchus]

Saw this post on twitter, no idea if true, but it makes me wonder if we are after him in the PSD...

Collingwood delistee Jarrad Blight has refused to join the GC as a pre listed player. Only wants to play in WA. AFL not pleased.

Offer pick 86 for him.

 

[WCE_phil]

Offer pick 86 for him.

A modship awaits for you good sir

 

[bodazoka]

Some of the Fremantle fans would of liked him as part of a trade for Tarrant....

Dont know sfa about him personally.

 

[lewigie]

Some of the Fremantle fans would of liked him as part of a trade for Tarrant....

Dont know sfa about him personally.

Apparently, said swannies, is that if Swift was already taken, we would've taken him.

 

[mezaire]

Re: Blight

Didn't know much about him so found some youtube vids and he seems to be a very pacey outside type who has been playing HBF but from what I have seen could play most places on the ground.

There is a thread on the Pies board about there delistings where some are surprised he was delisted, others a bit ho-hum about him and a few that think he was a bit selfish as a player an never quite lived up to expectation, maybe because of homesickness.

Another JON???