Draft Watcher Knightmare's 2013 phantom draft

[La Vache]

I watched plenty of Heatherley last year and have seen bits of him since his return this season. His form is trending upwards and he's going ok down back.
The improvement he is starting to show is an increased willingness to leave his direct opponent and take the intercept mark when the opportunity is there. We saw glimspes of that in that latter portion of last season and he has continued his growth in that area of his game since coming back.

Having sat out the season he hasn't made a huge step up but he's still worth drafting in Hawthorn's situation as a rookie.

Thanks. I noticed he has gradually been marking the ball more. Will look forward to see his development as a full-time footballer next year. If he is reading the ball well that is a good place to start for a defender.

 

[Hutchy Jnr]

always watch your phantom draft. why matt scharenberg so low?
Also dont know if you have heard of Ned Brooks, def, glenelg fc,189cm. Can play the game.
Has a great set of hands and great brain. One of the best SA schoolboy players i have seen to take a pack mark.
Has to go this year. Give him some thought? Watch out for him.

 

[Knightmare]

always watch your phantom draft. why matt scharenberg so low?
Also dont know if you have heard of Ned Brooks, def, glenelg fc,189cm. Can play the game.
Has a great set of hands and great brain. One of the best SA schoolboy players i have seen to take a pack mark.
Has to go this year. Give him some thought? Watch out for him.

Scharenberg is an effective tall flanker but I like some of the midfielders better.

Have not seen Ned Brooks or if I have I haven't taken notes on him so I'm not in a position to comment on him. If you find some youtube highlight clips I'll take a look or if not then I'll do some research into him.

 

[justwatchin]

How do you see Sam Heavysides run to the draft, has been very impressive of late?

 

[Knightmare]

How do you see Sam Heavysides run to the draft, has been very impressive of late?

Heavyside certainly had a big game against Gippy Power.

The issue for Heavyside is the glut of quality small options available this year in a relatively deep midfield group. He's good enough to get drafted and in my view should have been drafted at the end of last year but if drafted he's a late/rookie option for a club.

 

[themightydoggies]

Heavyside certainly had a big game against Gippy Power.



nightmare are the dogs a chance to get M. Bontempelli?

 

[Knightmare]

Bontempelli should be available at the Dogs pick. Whether he is the eventual selection is another question entirely.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Looking at Murray Newman's struggles I wouldn't be so certain. Garlett is in another category for talent but as people they are one and the same from what I've gathered.

Newman wasn't anywhere near as troublesome as Garlett off field, which is part of the reason why West Coast wanted Newman at East Perth in 2013. FWIW the trouble Newman has got himself in has made a pretty big impact on Garlett.

Garstone is a middle of the road key forward. He's closed the season reasonably well but there are other forwards who are more dominant who will go first. He's a reasonable leading forward but he's not much of a marking presence or contested marking threat and lacks that one edge to suggest he'll become dominant.

I like him but i've got to agree, smart and strong leads are his forte. Garstone was playing mostly on Harry Taylor from Claremont on the weekend. Taylor is 17 and he'd be lucky to be pushing six foot tall and in spite of Garstone having a massive height advantage and plenty of supply he didn't dominate him as the stats might suggest. Garstone was going for chest marks and Taylor consistently got his arm around him for the punch/ spoil.

Darcy Cameron is the better of the ruck prospects this year. He's a good long term piece and may be an option depending on Adelaide evaluate those alternative path rookies to be progressing.

Ignoring the quality of his opposition. He's come on since the champs, his ruck work has improved dramatically and so has his marking.

 

[BrockBlitz]

Newman wasn't anywhere near as troublesome as Garlett off field, which is part of the reason why West Coast wanted Newman at East Perth in 2013. FWIW the trouble Newman has got himself in has made a pretty big impact on Garlett./quote]


Could you please elaborate. Most of us on BF are not at all in the know about Garlett and where his mindset is, however we would like to...

 

[Pivo]

My tip at this point. I'm hearing some rumblings around Geelong having some interest in Blake Acres. He's been exceptional when healthy but has been hidden away with injuries at in-opportune times. One to watch for from a Geelong perspective anyway.

This news delights me no end.

Hoping he gets through to us and then really hoping we call out his name.

 

[Hutchy Jnr]

Scharenberg is an effective tall flanker but I like some of the midfielders better.

Have not seen Ned Brooks or if I have I haven't taken notes on him so I'm not in a position to comment on him. If you find some youtube highlight clips I'll take a look or if not then I'll do some research into him.

there is very minimal footage of him, but ill try do my best to get some for you. If not it is possible could you reasearch into him, when you get a spare moment or too?

 

[Rodriguez Mendoza]

Hi Knigmare,
Just looking at Geelongs list and in most areas we have young players coming through, two areas with obvious deficiencies are our KPD (195cm+) & No.1 Rucks (200cm+). I think Geelong will take the best available mid with pick 1, a KPD with pick 2 (hopefully Giles) and maybe rookie a developing big Rucking.
What can you tell me about:
Peter Steefe
Angus Milham
and could players like: Sean McLaren or Cameron Conlon be converted to KPD?

 

[Richo83]

This news delights me no end.

Hoping he gets through to us and then really hoping we call out his name.

I swear, if clubs let Geelong or Collingwood pick up another gun player who should have gone earlier, I'll freaking explode. Seriously, why is Grundy a Collingwood player?

 

[Knightmare]

This news delights me no end.

Hoping he gets through to us and then really hoping we call out his name.

Geelong pick the eyes out of the draft every year so whoever Geelong expect it's probable that it's someone who will be good and represent value.

there is very minimal footage of him, but ill try do my best to get some for you. If not it is possible could you reasearch into him, when you get a spare moment or too?

Medium sizer. Has some versatility. Very strong hands and probably looking more like a 3rd tall forward. Not a great athlete.
There are some others of similar types who I sense are better (Lennon, G.Dickson, Sicily) but I'd like to see more before I make any stronger comments.

Hi Knigmare,
Just looking at Geelongs list and in most areas we have young players coming through, two areas with obvious deficiencies are our KPD (195cm+) & No.1 Rucks (200cm+). I think Geelong will take the best available mid with pick 1, a KPD with pick 2 (hopefully Giles) and maybe rookie a developing big Rucking.
What can you tell me about:
Peter Steefe
Angus Milham
and could players like: Sean McLaren or Cameron Conlon be converted to KPD?

Steefe is one of the better tap ruckmen in the draft. Tall at 205cm and has the opportunity to develop. Just needs to do more around the ground and influence games up forward more. He'd be my 2nd choice ruck prospect if I absolutely had to take someone not named Darcy Cameron being that next best tap ruckman.

Milham is a long way back in his development. He's a year older but even at 210cm he's only an average tap ruckman and around the ground offers little. Still needs to grow into his body and is very much a project. Perhaps someone gives him a go but don't expect anything remotely AFL relevant for another 4-5 years from him.

McLaren isn't draft eligable this year so he's not of relevance at this stage. I'd like to see what him next season and evaluate where he's at then before I say where he looks best suited because at this point he's an undersized ruckman until we know how tall he gets next season.

Conlon with his athleticism and at his height while I haven't seen him down back probably could make that switch with time.

I swear, if clubs let Geelong or Collingwood pick up another gun player who should have gone earlier, I'll freaking explode. Seriously, why is Grundy a Collingwood player?

Grundy is a Collingwood player mainly because he scared clubs off suggesting that he wants to go to a winner and a team who can best develop him and aggressively questioned clubs about how they'd go about developing him. Personally as an interviewer I'd find that level of motivation for success to be a good thing (and it's proving to be a good thing so far with the way he is improving without a preseason or any games through that first half of the season).

The other factor last year is clubs recognised the success that was being had through trading for established ruckmen and as such dropped the value on drafting their own ruckman due to that and the time and resources it takes to develop them.
Fortunately Collingwood noticed that overly extreme change in values with regards to recruiting ruckman and capitalised on the value Grundy represented at pick 18.

I'm staggered to see Grundy in Collingwood colours today as throughout last year he was largely considered a top 3 talent and the best ruckman since Naitanui and I'm still pinching myself seeing him in black and white. It just shows you that you don't need high draft selections to draft quality talent.
Geelong have shown it for years and Collingwood and Adelaide are two other clubs who have also had success without needing early draft choices.

 

[manny100]

Collingwood's strategy last year was nothing short of absolute genius. They won the big one in 2010 and realised in 2012 they had to refresh the list with some young talent and tweak the age profile of the list or fall into slow decline. The decision to let go players with currency before they got past 'value' age was gutsy and something that other clubs have been reluctant to do. I think other clubs will begin to use this as a 'blueprint' and we will see more and more trading as time goes by. As Emma Qualye said in an Age article recently "Draft picks are the Holy Grail". That is why Essendon fought hard in relation to draft pick penalties. Unlike Adelaide they are able to trade into the draft in the first year of penalties and receive a PP after first round next year. I use this as an example only not to comment on rights/wrongs etc.
I think the general public (excluding BF posters of course!!!) still do not appreciate the importance of the draft. If the old saying in relation to football " you can't win without the cattle" rings true then gun recruiters/recruiting teams in theory could very well be worth more to a club than the coach!!

 

[philthy05]

genius?

i disagree. who did they trade that hadnt asked to move to go home or for more opportunity?

they got lucky that players who had some value but were not integral asked to be traded.

got lucky that melb overpaid for dawes.

and got lucky that grundy and kennedy slid to their picks.

i dont think there would have been one single team that would have passed on grundy if they had 3 picks where the pies did.

 

[Pivo]

I swear, if clubs let Geelong or Collingwood pick up another gun player who should have gone earlier, I'll freaking explode. Seriously, why is Grundy a Collingwood player?

Good question. I was pretty disappointed we passed up Grundy but I won't complain about Thurlow.

Funnily enough, you boys actually grabbed a guy I liked last year in Vlastuin. Loved his work this year so you got a good one there.

 

[Richo83]

genius?

i disagree. who did they trade that hadnt asked to move to go home or for more opportunity?

they got lucky that players who had some value but were not integral asked to be traded.

got lucky that melb overpaid for dawes.

and got lucky that grundy and kennedy slid to their picks.

i dont think there would have been one single team that would have passed on grundy if they had 3 picks where the pies did.

But they engineered it though. Teams have players who want to leave all the time, but how many clubs actually trade them, and how many get a first round pick? They pulled the trigger realising they had a number of kids coming through, and came out winners. The fact that Collingwood won the trade and draft period was no fluke.

 

[L_W_P]

G'Day Knightmare

With talk on the Saints about of the possible trade of Ben McEvoy I was wondering if you could she some light on the ruck stocks for this year?

Any solid state leaguers that could walk in ala Jenkins or Currie? Any kids with potential for the longer term?

 

[Richo83]

Grundy is a Collingwood player mainly because...

Oh I know why, I feel like Richmond did their job picking Vlastuin, but I'm still staggered that Collingwood got Grundy, as well as Kennedy who I felt went too late and only slipped due to his height, which is such an irrelevance, but anyway.

 

[Best in west]

Hey Knightmare thoughts on tyler keitel ?

 

[Knightmare]

As Emma Qualye said in an Age article recently "Draft picks are the Holy Grail". That is why Essendon fought hard in relation to draft pick penalties. Unlike Adelaide they are able to trade into the draft in the first year of penalties and receive a PP after first round next year. I use this as an example only not to comment on rights/wrongs etc.
I think the general public (excluding BF posters of course!!!) still do not appreciate the importance of the draft. If the old saying in relation to football " you can't win without the cattle" rings true then gun recruiters/recruiting teams in theory could very well be worth more to a club than the coach!!

It's an interesting debate with the value of getting your draft picks right.

Getting your draft picks right does help but I put it equally down to having a strong development system, strong coaching and a strong club culture.

If any of those aspects is missing a club will struggle to build a winner so a balance is more important than a specialisation in one or the other.

G'Day Knightmare

With talk on the Saints about of the possible trade of Ben McEvoy I was wondering if you could she some light on the ruck stocks for this year?

Any solid state leaguers that could walk in ala Jenkins or Currie? Any kids with potential for the longer term?

Not a great year for ruckmen. State leagues not so much. Mark Seaby as a 2 year rental could be good for a team who are looking for a veteran depth guy.

Ben Brown I really like but he's more a key forward who can play some no.2 ruck.

Darcy Cameron as a mid draft selection would be a strong option for a team as a young ruck prospect.

So this year if looking trading would be the better option in St Kilda's situation if looking for a further ruckman. Tom Nicholls if he can be had I'd make a big move for and would probably trade pick 3 to get watching his impressive play this year.
Tom Bellchambers although he likely stays is another I really like if he can stay healthy and would be another guy I'd target.

Of those more realistic trade targets: Daniel Currie is a solid cheap enough option. Robert Warnock may be available and if not then Shaun Hampson will be. Trent West as more a no.2 ruckman could probably also be had. Tom Campbell for the Dogs has also played some strong footy in recent weeks and could also present an option. So there will be options.

 

[Knightmare]

Hey Knightmare thoughts on tyler keitel ?

Promising forward. Has had a strong 2nd half to the year. Draft eligable next year but has the opportunity with further improvement to go 1st round.

 

[aussierulesrules]

If we did happen to trade McEvoy we'd probably only be looking for the "two year rental" type you suggested, or this year's version of Dan Currie (if there is one), just to have as back-up in case Hickey went down with an injury, or when he needs a break. There wouldn't be much point in trading Mac if we then went out and got someone else who would cost a lot, like Bellchambers, or Nicholls. It would just be to get someone as back-up/support for Hickey.

The club are also apparently very, very happy with Lewis Pierce who we got in the ND last year, so we'll be hoping he'd be ready to start playing some senior AFL footy in by 2015, at the latest, plus we also have Stanley.

 

[Crokettandtubbs]

Promising forward. Has had a strong 2nd half to the year. Draft eligable next year but has the opportunity with further improvement to go 1st round.

All the potential under the sun.....except he is a hog who only plays for himself. I preferred him in a couple of state games where he was played down back, he had no option but to look for team mates there......but up forward, he thinks it all about him !