Rookie Draft

[Ford Fairlane]

When is the deadline on when we can sign him up if we choose to?

With Venter I recall Port were going to decide prior to the PSD/rookie draft on Wednesday.

 

[PJ Power]

Sorry guys, I've been living under a rock. How committed are we to Venter?

 

[*PAF]

To all the Cameron Conlon lovers I have a few questions.

Why are you so keen on a guy that has played 2 TAC cup games in 2 years and a couple of AIS games and has spent the last 18 months injured?? What are you basing that on? ...

IMO that is easy to answer.

1. Rookie list equals high risk for potential high reward at low cost/exposure with project players etc.
2. The other reason for the rookie list is to "break glass during emergency" for extra depth.

I think we are in a position where we can afford to go for option 1 with Conlon and Rioli.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Sorry guys, I've been living under a rock. How committed are we to Venter?

All I've heard is Port are assessing him. I haven't seen an official announcement about Port's commitment.

 

[PJ Power]

All I've heard is Port are assessing him. I haven't seen an official announcement about Port's commitment.

Cheers. Worth a punt if he has shown a bit on the track but clearly very speculative.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Cheers. Worth a punt if he has shown a bit on the track but clearly very speculative.

178cm 83kg rugby player with a footy background who ran a sub 11 sec 100m as a schoolboy ... no harm in taking him as a rookie outside the lists. And he's Sout Effrican born so adds to our collection of entertaining accents!

 

[rumoursofwinter]

rumoursofwinter will be happy that Jed Redden is free. I think he wanted to take him at 21 - seeing he mentioned him in the who should we get with pick 21 thread.

I was interested in Jed Redden but it was for a later pick. I really wanted Zak Jones at 21 because I thought getting an elite small defender was the best thing for our list. I thought Impey was a half forward flank.

I am interested in a lot of players on the rookie list. I really like Charlie Cameron, Darcy Cameron and Cameron Conlon. I thought Battersby would be gone by 45. Jed Redden has a great profile for the rookie list. He fits our list needs and has a huge scope for development. I think our list is at a stage when we can use the rookie list to take a punt on speculative picks... but it looks like it will be used for depth.

 

[Dobie G]

178cm 83kg rugby player with a footy background who ran a sub 11 sec 100m as a schoolboy ...

That's greased lightning. At school anything under 13 sec was tops and normally won the race. Heard nothing but good things about him, a top person-get him.

 

[S.Patrol.G]

Would love to see Battersby given a chance to train with us. Good user of the footy, wins the contested ball and good overhead. He's the type of player that miss out in the draft because they do nothing spectacularly well. Looking at who we drafted, though, he may not get a chance with us. In my opinion, he's AFL quality and given a chance could prove recruiters wrong.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

We can have 6 rookies can't we? 4 normal rookies + Flynn and Venter?

Yes but we could legally have 4 + 3 Category B rookies. But unless the club pulls a swifty we will only take 2.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Cheers. Worth a punt if he has shown a bit on the track but clearly very speculative.

The story in The West Australian was that he played school footy and club footy when he was in years 8,9 and 10. He then concentrated on Rugby and played for a local Rugby club between 2010 and 2012. He took 2013 off all sports and worked with one of our WA recruiters Frank Wood who also is a PE teacher at his old school.

Pretty determined and dedicated to play no other sports and do 3 sessions a week with Wood. So he has had 6 years were he hasn't played in a registered Aussie Rules comp.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/-/sport/19924281/ports-wa-draft-punt/

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Might be a bit difficult when the squad is off to Dubai today ...

Buddha would be a bit pissed about now with the appointment to Magpies coach. He would be staying behind coaching the train on squad I guess.

 

[It Just Is]

When we were a bottom side we used or rookie list to plug holes and drafted ready-made players. While that was the right thing to do at the time it's resulted on us missing out on the chance of finding a 200 gamer (Justin Clarke is going to hurt for a while). Now our depth is reasonable and we don't have any significant area of need it's time to go back to trying to find quality long term options. For a couple of reasons rookie drafting should always have a bias toward talls.

Firstly, they're the hardest to find. Drafting ruckmen and KPD is very hit and miss and most quality KPF are gone inside the top 10, hopefully we wont be picking that early for a long long time. Having an extra couple of marginal prospects only improves your chances of sticking gold.

Secondly, they're late developers. At 18 most 194-204cm males are either still growing or have been through a sizable growth spurt in the past 2 years. Now we've got our own reserves side we'll be giving these raw kids the best opportunity to develop as athletes and footballers.

With all that in mind I've gone through a few phantom drafts and picked out the KPP and Ruckmen that are still available. These are the guys I'd like us to choose between.

Key forwards: Darcy Hourigan and Cameron Conlon
Key Defenders: Jed Redden and Jake Pitt (slightly undersized for my liking)
Ruckmen: Darcy Cameron and Josh Miller

If we feel a guy like Luke Buckby or Willy Rioli is too talented to pass up then by all means pick them. The aim is, after all, to find the footballers who'll have the best career.

 

[Portmanteau]

Wasn't there a WA ruckman from the last couple of years who was highly touted but didn't get picked up? Might be worth seeing where he's at...

 

[Russian]

I don't see much point in taking an 18yo ruckman as a rookie. Most ruckmen who don't go first round take until 22-23 before you know if they're any good or not, might as well pick them up then. We need someone ready to play in 2014 if something happens to Redden/Lobbe and Renouf's knee is still ****ed, so I'd go for someone like Baulderstone.

Other spot I'm thinking inside mid - Battersby is the obvious one but hard to believe he'll get through another 13 picks, after that Gray is a decent option, if he's too short maybe Tsitas, Templeton or Maginness.

 

[It Just Is]

I don't see much point in taking an 18yo ruckman as a rookie. Most ruckmen who don't go first round take until 22-23 before you know if they're any good or not, might as well pick them up then. We need someone ready to play in 2014 if something happens to Redden/Lobbe and Renouf's knee is still ******, so I'd go for someone like Baulderstone.

How many good ruckmen have been picked up as 23 year olds recently? Shane Mumford's all I can think of, Giles maybe but he'd already spent a few years on an AFL list. In fact I cant think of too many cases of ruckmen around that age being drafted for the first time.

Much better chance of taking them as raw 18 year olds and developing them yourself. Even though they probably won't be ready to play AFL until they're 23 I reckon you can tell long before then whether they're likely to make it.

 

[*PAF]

When we were a bottom side we used or rookie list to plug holes and drafted ready-made players. While that was the right thing to do at the time it's resulted on us missing out on the chance of finding a 200 gamer (Justin Clarke is going to hurt for a while). Now our depth is reasonable and we don't have any significant area of need it's time to go back to trying to find quality long term options. For a couple of reasons rookie drafting should always have a bias toward talls.

Firstly, they're the hardest to find. Drafting ruckmen and KPD is very hit and miss and most quality KPF are gone inside the top 10, hopefully we wont be picking that early for a long long time. Having an extra couple of marginal prospects only improves your chances of sticking gold.

Secondly, they're late developers. At 18 most 194-204cm males are either still growing or have been through a sizable growth spurt in the past 2 years. Now we've got our own reserves side we'll be giving these raw kids the best opportunity to develop as athletes and footballers.

With all that in mind I've gone through a few phantom drafts and picked out the KPP and Ruckmen that are still available. These are the guys I'd like us to choose between.

Key forwards: Darcy Hourigan and Cameron Conlon
Key Defenders: Jed Redden and Jake Pitt (slightly undersized for my liking)
Ruckmen: Darcy Cameron and Josh Miller

If we feel a guy like Luke Buckby or Willy Rioli is too talented to pass up then by all means pick them. The aim is, after all, to find the footballers who'll have the best career.

100% agree.

Make that 200%.

 

[BIG MATTY WHITE]

Rookie picks are harder to choose...

still pinching myself about the hoon though he will be in our top 3 when hits 22 - 23 bookmark it


I like taking punts on ruckmen in rookie picks

 

[RossFC]

still pinching myself about the hoon

me too, I remember watching the draft live telling my old man that Hoon is a gun and would be picked with one of our 2nd rounders and when he missed the whole draft I was really upset.

 

[*PAF]

Hoon is not a rookie, but yeah close enough context wise.

 

[Killer Power]

I am interested in a lot of players on the rookie list. I really like Charlie Cameron, Darcy Cameron and Cameron Conlon. I thought Battersby would be gone by 45. Jed Redden has a great profile for the rookie list. He fits our list needs and has a huge scope for development. I think our list is at a stage when we can use the rookie list to take a punt on speculative picks... but it looks like it will be used for depth.

I hear Cameron Cloke is available still?

 

[Killer Power]

Hoon is not a rookie, but yeah close enough context wise.

Tommy Jonas was a rookie and probably a better example.

 

[x_les_x]

What time is the draft?

 

[RossFC]

"Baulderstone believes he is likely to need another year at Norwood before he will become a serious draft target and will start pre-season at The Parade in coming weeks, barring a surprise AFL call-up."

I think he failed the fitness test.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

We are putting a donut in front of you. If you can wait one minute before eating it we will ... never mind.