SSP - The last Rookie Spot

Maggsy

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The perceived obsession many posters have with targeting pure speed is unfounded IMO. In recent drafts we have more than addressed this - the problem was that Don simply let them sit in the SANFL while the plodders plodded in the AFL side.

Over the next 2 seasons, we’ll see the speed of some / all of Hamill, Jones, McHenry, Worrell (very quick for a player of his height), McAdam, Schoenberg and Sholl injected into a side that already contains the toe of Seedsman, Milera, Smith, Doedee, Kelly (yes he’s genuinely quick) and Brad Crouch.

Gallucci and Murphy are both very quick too, and can provide speed to the side if they’re considered good enough to warrant selection moving forward. As much as I dislike him as a player, Kyle Hartigan would be one of the fastest key defenders in the AFL too but we’re probably more talking about guys who can use speed to attack, so that takes him out.

Similarly, young O’Connor looks to have a lot of speed and power in his game. I wouldn’t exactly call Stengle slow either.

We have also let the extremely slow Greenwood, CEY, Douglas, Jacobs and Otten go in the off-season, which instantly made the list a lot nippier.



Onto the topic at hand, Shute is the clear standout for me of the 18 year old guys I have seen play, and the fact that he’s from SA is just a small bonus. He’s a class above Matthews and as an outside mid, fills a need. Hope we bring him in.
Well said mate,

We have so many untried / unproven quick types already - I'd prefer we just grab the best available option skill wise.
 

Maggsy

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Forgive me if one/some of these guys were already picked up, but i'd of thought they'd all be worth a look.

Jack Bell Key FWD/Ruck
Darcy Cassar - Utility
Callum Park - Medium FWD
Cooper Sharman - Key FWD
Josh Shute - Wing
 
Mar 28, 2011
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Definitely think Shute and Park deserve a go. We need more outside, skilled types, and both of them would jump at the chance to be on a list now that the draft proceedings have concluded, would work their backsides off

Sounds like it's gonna be Mathews, though, which I'm not upset with
 
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Given our injury curse in recent years, I reckon it will be whichever player fits the bill to replace our inevitable season-ending injury suffered during the preseason.

Or perhaps we're just waiting to see if Erin Phillips can get back to full fitness before selecting her? :p
10 times better a player than Atkins or mookay on their best day..
 
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Definitely think Shute and Park deserve a go. We need more outside, skilled types, and both of them would jump at the chance to be on a list now that the draft proceedings have concluded, would work their backsides off

Sounds like it's gonna be Mathews, though, which I'm not upset with
Odds are it would have to be a SA based player you'd think, Park or Finlay would be my favoured......Isaac Wareham a good sized balanced mid with a very nice skill set especially his kicking who showed plenty from limited opportunities for Vic Country at Championships would be player I'd suggest worth a shot. With his late December birthday he was only 1 week out from being eligible for next year's draft, I think now is the time to strike because he'll likely come back to the Rebels 2020 program as an "over ager" I expect and rip it up and then he'll be in big demand.
 

Flying_as_One1991

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Haggis said after the draft that we had a few projects we were working on. I'd love to know who we have training with us.

Haggis loves a project, expect it to be an athlete from another sport. Anthony Mundine might be looking for a new gig or is Folau making an AFL comeback lol
 
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Odds are it would have to be a SA based player you'd think, Park or Finlay would be my favoured......Isaac Wareham a good sized balanced mid with a very nice skill set especially his kicking who showed plenty from limited opportunities for Vic Country at Championships would be player I'd suggest worth a shot. With his late December birthday he was only 1 week out from being eligible for next year's draft, I think now is the time to strike because he'll likely come back to the Rebels 2020 program as an "over ager" I expect and rip it up and then he'll be in big demand.
Think Wareham has a huge chance of doing a Butts and getting on a list mid-year or next year, I rate him, but yes I think we’d go local if anything. Finlay I like, but don’t reckon we’ll go for another taller player this year

I would’ve actually said we might look at a delistee (how other clubs often use the SSP, eg Tom Campbell, Mitch Brown, Josh Walker, Mav Weller) if you asked me before the rookie draft, but we’ve already filled that quota with Keays and Crocker. They’re basically our DFAs
 
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I would love to see us give Matthews a shot, I am not fazed too much by getting a ruckman.

We're going to have a s**t year anyway so if ROB goes down we'll just bring in Strachan and play him. It's not like we're going to miss out of a premiership if ROB goes down and it will at least give Strachan a chance to get some experience.
 
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Forgive me if one/some of these guys were already picked up, but i'd of thought they'd all be worth a look.

Jack Bell Key FWD/Ruck
Darcy Cassar - Utility
Callum Park - Medium FWD
Cooper Sharman - Key FWD
Josh Shute - Wing
Jack Bell was rookied by the Saints and 19 year old Cooper Sharman is more a 3rd tall at AFL level I'd think on what I've seen of him for the Oakleigh Chargers...if we were looking for that sort of player I reckon Liam Delahunty who is a year younger might be a better option being a fair bit quicker than Sharman but equally dangerous up forward.....really surprised firstly the Giants didn't take him and why no other clubs looked at him....He was expected to go mid draft by most pundits. With speed and size like he has who knows maybe a shot at midfield could beckon, 192cm with 2.93 sec/20m is not to be sneezed at.

 
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hendo8888

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We already have 5 players on our rookie list who realistically could push for AFL games this season, so we don't need to pick up a guy for 2020 (so I wouldn't grab a mature ager from the SANFL or a delisted free agent).
If we're going to another one, I'd go for a project player.
We've got pretty decent depth is most areas, so there's no specific role we need to prioritise.
Midfield depth (Jones, McHenry, Gallucci, Wilson, Poholke, Shoenberg, O'Connor, Gollant)
Key backmen depth (Butts, McAsey, Worrell)
Small/medium forward (Stengle, McAdam, Davis, Keays, Crocker)
Small/medium backmen depth (Hamill, Sholl, McPherson)
Ruck depth (Strachan)
Key forward depth (Himmelberg, Frampton)
So if we wanted to, we can just grab a guy to stash in the SANFL for a year or 2 to develop. Even grabbing another Irishman or a basketball convert would work. Another ruck would probably be the best stash player to go for. They take a while to develop, and we only really have 2 of them.
 
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I would love to see us give Matthews a shot, I am not fazed too much by getting a ruckman.

We're going to have a s**t year anyway so if ROB goes down we'll just bring in Strachan and play him. It's not like we're going to miss out of a premiership if ROB goes down and it will at least give Strachan a chance to get some experience.
23 Y.O. Matthews has speed but at 176cm 68kg I'm interested where you see him playing and who would he be realistically replacing in our AFL team long term?
 

kulak

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For the love of god literally anyone capable of applying forward pressure

Nicks: I’m all about that turnover game. I’m thinking of going smaller ahead of the ball to make it happen.

Hamish: drafts 0 forward pressure

Murphy and Knight will have a lot of chasing to do.
 
We already have 5 players on our rookie list who realistically could push for AFL games this season, so we don't need to pick up a guy for 2020 (so I wouldn't grab a mature ager from the SANFL or a delisted free agent).
If we're going to another one, I'd go for a project player.
We've got pretty decent depth is most areas, so there's no specific role we need to prioritise.
Midfield depth (Jones, McHenry, Gallucci, Wilson, Poholke, Shoenberg, O'Connor, Gollant)
Key backmen depth (Butts, McAsey, Worrell)
Small/medium forward (Stengle, McAdam, Davis, Keays, Crocker)
Small/medium backmen depth (Hamill, Sholl, McPherson)
Ruck depth (Strachan)
Key forward depth (Himmelberg, Frampton)
So if we wanted to, we can just grab a guy to stash in the SANFL for a year or 2 to develop. Even grabbing another Irishman or a basketball convert would work. Another ruck would probably be the best stash player to go for. They take a while to develop, and we only really have 2 of them.
6 foot 11 American who runs 4.15 40m and can jump out of the stadium?
 

huludicidal

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For the love of god literally anyone capable of applying forward pressure

Nicks: I’m all about that turnover game. I’m thinking of going smaller ahead of the ball to make it happen.

Hamish: drafts 0 forward pressure

Murphy and Knight will have a lot of chasing to do.

First of all, Knight won’t be playing at all unless there’s an injury crisis. He was a bee’s dick away from being delisted and will be SANFL depth only.

Secondly, all of Jones, McHenry and McAdam are very quick, and will be playing predominantly in the forward line this year when they are selected at AFL level, along with Murphy.

Sure, longer term, Jones and McHenry (especially Jones) are probably poised to be two cornerstones of our midfield. Right now though, they’re behind all of Sloane, B Crouch, M Crouch, Smith and Milera in the midfield pecking order, and therefore will be spending most of their time forward of centre.

Throw in Gallucci (if selected) who can swing forward and hassle blokes with his speed.

I’ve left out Stengle because I’m not convinced about his capacity to apply pressure.


I’d project that Jones and McHenry will be selected for at least 18 games each this season (injury-permitting), and then you’ve got Gallucci (minimum of 12 games), Murphy (minimum 12 games), McAdam (complete wild card but I’m going to guess a minimum of 8 games) and Stengle (minimum 15 games).

Whichever way you splice it though, we already had a bunch of forward pressure on the list, we just elected not to play it last year. Nicks won’t be so daft. He’s already declared his hand.

Typical forward line...
HF: Lynch - Walker - Jones
F: McHenry - Fogarty - Stengle
Bench: McAdam or Gallucci

Perhaps one of Walker or Lynch moves further up the ground to make room for Frampton or Himmelberg, but either way, plenty of speed there. The likes of Smith and Milera can rest up there too.
 

kulak

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First of all, Knight won’t be playing at all unless there’s an injury crisis. He was a bee’s dick away from being delisted and will be SANFL depth only.

Secondly, all of Jones, McHenry and McAdam are very quick, and will be playing predominantly in the forward line this year when they are selected at AFL level, along with Murphy.

Sure, longer term, Jones and McHenry (especially Jones) are probably poised to be two cornerstones of our midfield. Right now though, they’re behind all of Sloane, B Crouch, M Crouch, Smith and Milera in the midfield pecking order, and therefore will be spending most of their time forward of centre.

Throw in Gallucci (if selected) who can swing forward and hassle blokes with his speed.

I’ve left out Stengle because I’m not convinced about his capacity to apply pressure.


I’d project that Jones and McHenry will be selected for at least 18 games each this season (injury-permitting), and then you’ve got Gallucci (minimum of 12 games), Murphy (minimum 12 games), McAdam (complete wild card but I’m going to guess a minimum of 8 games) and Stengle (minimum 15 games).

Whichever way you splice it though, we already had a bunch of forward pressure on the list, we just elected not to play it last year. Nicks won’t be so daft. He’s already declared his hand.

Typical forward line...
HF: Lynch - Walker - Jones
F: McHenry - Fogarty - Stengle
Bench: McAdam or Gallucci

Perhaps one of Walker or Lynch moves further up the ground to make room for Frampton or Himmelberg, but either way, plenty of speed there. The likes of Smith and Milera can rest up there too.
Playing McHenry and Jones out of position as stop gaps is your best suggestion. I would prefer to have them around the ball.

Gallucci and Stengle are ineffectual defensively, they waft around without doing anything to stop the player with the ball. I would play Gallucci anyway but he’s not going to provide much defense.

McAdam we all hope will make it work although pre season rumours are not positive.

Milera and Smith are half backs or wings, haha.

I can see us lining up something like this:

HF: Gallucci - Walker - McHenry
FF: Murphy - Fogarty - EH
I: Knight

Still weak compared to the last few premiers who all had multiple specialist small forwards with elite pressure and sometimes good attacking threat.

To balance out our list we should have about 2 potential Charles developing and the rookie draft / SSP is the best source.
 

huludicidal

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Playing McHenry and Jones out of position as stop gaps is your best suggestion. I would prefer to have them around the ball.

Gallucci and Stengle are ineffectual defensively, they waft around without doing anything to stop the player with the ball. I would play Gallucci anyway but he’s not going to provide much defense.

McAdam we all hope will make it work although pre season rumours are not positive.

Milera and Smith are half backs or wings, haha.

I can see us lining up something like this:

HF: Gallucci - Walker - McHenry
FF: Murphy - Fogarty - EH
I: Knight

Still weak compared to the last few premiers who all had multiple specialist small forwards with elite pressure and sometimes good attacking threat.

To balance out our list we should have about 2 potential Charles developing and the rookie draft / SSP is the best source.

McHenry and Jones aren’t “out of position” as forwards. Both have played in the forward line extensively as juniors. Gallucci is one who is probably out of position there as he has no idea how to be a forward and never played there as a junior, but you’d play him anyway. Strange logic. Jones is an absolute lock to line up in our forward setup in Round 1. The only way it doesn’t happen is if he’s thrown in the guts to cover an injury to one of the starting mids.

Also, Smith and Milera both played excellent footy at half forward for us in bursts in 2019. Smith in particular was far more effective there than anyone else we tried for the entire season.

Milera will never be used at half back again. Bookmark it. He’s a midfielder who will be rested in the forward line. Can kick goals and create for others.
 
HF: McHenry, Walker, Sloane
F: Murphy, Fogarty, Himmelberg/Frampton
Possibly a spot on the bench for one of Gallucci/Knight/McAdam/Keays/Davis
Jones and Smith to rotate through half forward with Sloane

Lynch only plays if either Tex or Fog gets injured.
 
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