Player Watch James Borlase and Tariek Newchurch

Jul 6, 2017
28,331
37,667
AFL Club
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Borlase. Now a good, wholesome, Crows family name.
Well lets hope he can build on the promise he showed this year (I personally are very bullish on him) and can be a long term p[layer for us - get to the magical 100 game mark to qualify for father Son and keep that Borlace name in the Crows family from now on.

But on Borlace, if he can get to grips with the pace of an AFL game, he has the size to hold down a defensive post - broad shoulders and strong core. I see him if he can squeeze out 1 or 2 more cms in height being a fullback for us
 

Bay62

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 28, 2014
7,892
13,922
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+1

The Borlase name is only attached to one AFL Club in South Australia as far as I know?

We are the longest existing AFL Club in this state.

18 years from now we’ll be welcoming our first father-son Borlace pick

A true Crows dynasty
 
Oct 17, 2002
3,195
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Well lets hope he can build on the promise he showed this year (I personally are very bullish on him) and can be a long term p[layer for us - get to the magical 100 game mark to qualify for father Son and keep that Borlace name in the Crows family from now on.

But on Borlace, if he can get to grips with the pace of an AFL game, he has the size to hold down a defensive post - broad shoulders and strong core. I see him if he can squeeze out 1 or 2 more cms in height being a fullback for us

I have Fisher earmarked to replace Talia. Butts to be the CHB.
 

Vhaluus

Cancelled
10k Posts
May 13, 2016
15,604
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A forward ruck ?? Who dominated underage footy and more than held his own at league level.

As I said it could be great, but I think it is certainly a high risk/high reward pick 1 (that isn't necissarily a bad thing) compared to some of the options.
 

kulak

Premiership Player
May 16, 2006
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A forward ruck ?? Who dominated underage footy and more than held his own at league level.
Thilthorpe is unproven in the position we drafted him for, which is key forward.

It would be beyond dumb to have drafted a ruck at pick 2, and I doubt that’s what we have done. I think drafted him with the intention of being the F50 anchor to balance McAsey as the D50 anchor. But he has not really performed in that role - he has just shown he has the tools in the toolkit that it is possible.
 

dplggr47

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 13, 2008
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Borlase is already a huge unit for his age - hopefully they don't bulk him up too much

Newchurch highlights, wowee - but no left foot judging by the highlight of him tackling the Sturt playing, picking the ball up and playing on but coming back into traffic to snap the goal
Neither does Stengle.
 
Apr 29, 2008
31,674
24,860
Northeast Suburbs
AFL Club
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I would argue we should take that approach with every pick.

For the most part, I agree. I think there is some value in taking a small number of "safe" picks, because I've always had a theory that you need to have at three draftees a year turn into AFL players in order to keep your list ticking over. If you're going to bring in ten new players, like we have this year, then by all means, most of them should be high-risk high-reward options relative to which pick they are, because at least a few of those bets will pay off. As long as even just a few of them pay off big, you can discard the ones that don't, and you end up better off then having ten reasonably good players trying to squeeze into a few list spots.

If you're only bringing in five players, you probably want to make sure at least a couple of them are safe bets, just to avoid a 2016 situation where a few years later we really only have one player worth a damn from that draft/trade period still left on the list (with apologies to Davis).
 

ABAB

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 3, 2018
14,263
7,677
AFL Club
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Thilthorpe is unproven in the position we drafted him for, which is key forward.

It would be beyond dumb to have drafted a ruck at pick 2, and I doubt that’s what we have done. I think drafted him with the intention of being the F50 anchor to balance McAsey as the D50 anchor. But he has not really performed in that role - he has just shown he has the tools in the toolkit that it is possible.
Wasn't he mainly playing forward in his young years hence all those exciting left foot snap goals and why recruiters consider him a forward but also a versatile ruckman and he only played mostly in the ruck in his draft year because the lead ruck for West Adelaide was injured for most of the year.
 

kulak

Premiership Player
May 16, 2006
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For the most part, I agree. I think there is some value in taking a small number of "safe" picks, because I've always had a theory that you need to have at three draftees a year turn into AFL players in order to keep your list ticking over. If you're going to bring in ten new players, like we have this year, then by all means, most of them should be high-risk high-reward options relative to which pick they are, because at least a few of those bets will pay off. As long as even just a few of them pay off big, you can discard the ones that don't, and you end up better off then having ten reasonably good players trying to squeeze into a few list spots.

If you're only bringing in five players, you probably want to make sure at least a couple of them are safe bets, just to avoid a 2016 situation where a few years later we really only have one player worth a damn from that draft/trade period still left on the list (with apologies to Davis).
I would say the time to go safe, if there is one, is when you are close to a flag

At that point you are mainly drafting instant impact players for needs, or trading picks for needs. Or at least you should be.

Whereas at present we are trying to acquire the stars who will power us to the top 4, so we just draft to maximise the chances of a star.
 
Oct 13, 2017
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I remember when halfway through the year Mutineer and others were really dissapointed with Newie and I watched a few of his games and, appart from a few really promising flashes of utter brilliance, they were right to be dissapointed.. kid seriously looked disinterested most of the time and looked as if he spent most of his time waiting for the ball/contest to land in his lap..

I joked that maybe the club has told him to put the handbreak on.. and then cruise a bit this year because there really was some interest in the media in when his highlights reel dropped.. i was told that the club wouldnt tell him to do something like that and now i dont know, maybe they did..

Sounds like they told Rowe to shut up about him, now it sounds like they told tariek himself to take the highlights reel of himself down.. is it really a stretch to think they may have at the same time also told him to just cruise his way through his games this year?. Bit of a nod and a wink..

After all.. We’ve all heard the rumours about west coast doing all the sly s**t they can to try and hide WA talent and talk them down during their draft year in an attempt to make them less attractive in the east and increase their chances of landing them a little bit cheaper..

Maybe the penny has finally dropped at the crows.. gotta start being total sly pricks and game the system as much as we can to our advantage..

Gonna be hilarious if Newie comes out next year and dominates from day 1!. And everyone starts questioning where it was in 2020.

in all honesty tho.. i’d have my money on him spending most of 2021 in the SANFL.. may get a run in a preseason game though..

really excited about watching all these youngsters next year in the SANFL games.. almost looking forward to the sanfl league more than the AFL!
 
Oct 9, 2004
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I remember when halfway through the year Mutineer and others were really dissapointed with Newie and I watched a few of his games and, appart from a few really promising flashes of utter brilliance, they were right to be dissapointed.. kid seriously looked disinterested most of the time and looked as if he spent most of his time waiting for the ball/contest to land in his lap..

I joked that maybe the club has told him to put the handbreak on.. and then cruise a bit this year because there really was some interest in the media in when his highlights reel dropped.. i was told that the club wouldnt tell him to do something like that and now i dont know, maybe they did..

Sounds like they told Rowe to shut up about him, now it sounds like they told tariek himself to take the highlights reel of himself down.. is it really a stretch to think they may have at the same time also told him to just cruise his way through his games this year?. Bit of a nod and a wink..

After all.. We’ve all heard the rumours about west coast doing all the sly sh*t they can to try and hide WA talent and talk them down during their draft year in an attempt to make them less attractive in the east and increase their chances of landing them a little bit cheaper..

Maybe the penny has finally dropped at the crows.. gotta start being total sly pricks and game the system as much as we can to our advantage..

Gonna be hilarious if Newie comes out next year and dominates from day 1!. And everyone starts questioning where it was in 2020.

in all honesty tho.. i’d have my money on him spending most of 2021 in the SANFL.. may get a run in a preseason game though..

really excited about watching all these youngsters next year in the SANFL games.. almost looking forward to the sanfl league more than the AFL!
How bad is Horne.
 
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