Toast Fremantle's 1st 2018 National Draft Pick: Sam Sturt [Pick #17]

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theGav56

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Sturt has had the pleasure of being compared to Fyfe at a similar stage of career. Super talent, skinny as a rake. Fyfe is elite, but one of the big things is the huge change in his physique. How difficult/desirable is that? On a more realistic scale, how likely/desirable is it for Sturt to play midfield?
 

Getlegs

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Isn't Fyfe Father, although not as tall, quite a stocky guy? Also didn't Fyfe himself have unusually large hands?
I get the feeling fyfe is genetically a reasonably big guy, however he may have been a late bloomer who didn't focus on putting on size to become a inside player until he got into the AFL system.

I don't know what sort of genetic background Sturt has, but if he/the club see him as a quick outside player I can't see him transforming like Fyfe did.
 

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Galvo

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I’m not sure we want Sturt to bulk up like Fyfe has. Early on in his career Fyfe was cat like in the contest with his ability to contort himself into small spaces to either get to or get away with the ball. Since he’s added bulk he’s been able to bulldoze his way through more often than not and he’s been less concerned with ducking and weaving. I’m not sure it’s a huge positive as I think that’s affected his ability to dispose of the ball cleanly at times and puts a reasonable load on him as he drives through the contest with players hanging off him.

Comparisons to Fyfe are unfair at this stage in any case. Bewley is sounding like the pick of the bunch so far with not much said about Sturt from the training watchers.
 
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I’m not sure we want Sturt to bulk up like Fyfe has. Early on in his career Fyfe was cat like in the contest with his ability to contort himself into small spaces to either get to or get away with the ball. Since he’s added bulk he’s been able to bulldoze his way through more often than not and he’s been less concerned with ducking and weaving. I’m not sure it’s a huge positive as I think that’s affected his ability to dispose of the ball cleanly at times and puts a reasonable load on him as he drives through the contest with players hanging off him.

Comparisons to Fyfe are unfair at this stage in any case. Bewley is sounding like the pick of the bunch so far with not much said about Sturt from the training watchers.
Probably more to do with Fyfe's shoulder troubles compared to when he was first drafted more than anything.
 

freodog

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Did anyone watch the Saints Draft video on the AFL app? Sam got a mention but the Saints didn’t rate him as highly. I know it’s all opinion but Sam was certainly a draft bolter
 

Scham

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Did anyone watch the Saints Draft video on the AFL app? Sam got a mention but the Saints didn’t rate him as highly. I know it’s all opinion but Sam was certainly a draft bolter

There’s no doubt there was a touch of speculation about the selection.

It seems that most rated the top 10 head and shoulders above the next lot and so while we could’ve gone with a solid next best selection, we took the bloke that due to lack of exposure, wasn’t rated top 10 but projects as good as most of them.
 

Hammersoup

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Did anyone watch the Saints Draft video on the AFL app? Sam got a mention but the Saints didn’t rate him as highly. I know it’s all opinion but Sam was certainly a draft bolter

Did hear the comment. It was along the lines of at 19 you'd be look at Sturt and someone else I can not recall. Not that much of a difference from our pick in the end at 17.

IMO his ceiling is way higher than most around this pick, then again his potential to be a bust is also higher as there is a smaller body of work t judge. I like the idea is he just turned up to draft trials and aced it, other than aerobic capacity. He has never done a pre-season, to be expected and gives us plenty to work with.
 

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Bicco

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I'm not expecting him to play next year, but if he does all I want is a couple of 'special' moments. We should have a lot of match ready players next year so he'll do well to get a game if they're not giving them out.
 

wayToGo_

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Think it depends if he tears it up at WAFL with his speed on the lead inside 50. Peel should be much stronger than last season which will help with the supply. Crowden got an early debut for catching Ross and co's eye in the pre-season Peel games - no reason Sturt couldn't as well. I expect to see a lot of Crowden bursting out of the centre and hitting Sturt on the lead inside 50 in the WAFL pre-season games. Playing alongside and learning from Merrett should be helpful as well.
 
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Fyfe broke into a much stronger team in 2010* despite being a beanpole and was a fixture in the side from that point onwards. Just keeping in the sprit of the unfair Fyfe comparisons but the point remains the same; if he's good enough he'll get games regardless of his frame.




*Round 5 debut, RS Nom by round 9 (win vs Syd in Syd). 18 games all up including 2 finals. Obviously Sturt has little to no chance of replicating that because Fyfe was a freak from the get-go but 10-12ish games would be a good outcome imo
 
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Fyfe broke into a much stronger team in 2010* despite being a beanpole and was a fixture in the side from that point onwards. Just keeping in the sprit of the unfair Fyfe comparisons but the point remains the same; if he's good enough he'll get games regardless of his frame.




*Round 5 debut, RS Nom by round 9 (win vs Syd in Syd). 18 games all up including 2 finals. Obviously Sturt has little to no chance of replicating that because Fyfe was a freak from the get-go but 10-12ish games would be a good outcome imo
Don't be silly. Sturt was pick 17, 3 higher than Fyfe so should be playing round 1, play all 25 games and win the Coleman, Brownlow and Norm Smith or gtfo.
 

Wally Walpamur

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Aint’s don’t partially have a very good track record recently (past six drafts) with their first round picks.
 
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Neither do we. Queue one Simpson late first round “speculative “ decision based on potential upside.

Stocker a good mate of young Brayshaw was a safe bet....time will tell.
 

freodog

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I hope they put up a video of Adelaide’s discussions as they traded with Carlton & had offers from at least St Kilda plus had the option of selecting a player.

Would be very interesting.
 

theGav56

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Sturt is definitely high risk because of the minimal exposure, but you don't get the ceiling he has at pick 17 without that risk. Surprised the Saints weren't interested given the vanilla-ness of there list. They chased RCD but he is similarly speculative IMO.
I would be interested to know how much of Sturt the recruiting team had seen, and where their intel on him has come from. With Sturt's limited exposed form, I imagine that they would have known more about many others looked at around the same pick.

Also, with the drafting of both Schultz and Bewley (neither featured in many discussions about mature players in the draft), it indicates to me that the club has a bit of depth in their pre-draft research. All three picks look a little bit surgical in terms of the decision making, and I am expecting them to yield results.
 
I hope they put up a video of Adelaide’s discussions as they traded with Carlton & had offers from at least St Kilda plus had the option of selecting a player.

Would be very interesting.

They have put up a GC one today so you would think they will get around to doing an Adelaide one.
 
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I would be interested to know how much of Sturt the recruiting team had seen, and where their intel on him has come from. With Sturt's limited exposed form, I imagine that they would have known more about many others looked at around the same pick.

Also, with the drafting of both Schultz and Bewley (neither featured in many discussions about mature players in the draft), it indicates to me that the club has a bit of depth in their pre-draft research. All three picks look a little bit surgical in terms of the decision making, and I am expecting them to yield results.

Wall and Lyoydd both were based in Melb, hence no doubt Freo’s melb bias for drafting recently.
 

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