Delisted Paul Tsapatolis (2021- 2022)

Remove this Banner Ad

I dont know anything. Im just seeing if others have some genuine insight that is informative.
I asked a question earlier too. I don’t think anyone has anything to offer unfortunately, apart from a few basketball vids.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Glad we got a young ruck to develop. Bit of a long shot, but i hope it works out.

It’s good to beat out the other clubs chasing him too.
I was absolutely shocked to see Melbourne was one of the teams we beat for his service.
How many rucks do they need

Good to see 'Frank' climb aboard the good ship GFC. Massive long shot to make it, I know. But any sort of potential as a long-term ruck prospect is very welcome when you consider where our list is at.

Just three words, Frankie...

Hit. The. Gym.
18 years old
204cm and 100Kg
He needs to just strip down, his arms are already big
 
18 years old
204cm and 100Kg
He needs to just strip down, his arms are already big

Perhaps. I would have thought there will be areas of his physique where they will definitely be wanting him to focus so that his body is better prepared for the AFL. Will be great if he's already in good shape. But the prime factors for establishing ascendancy as a ruck in football and as a centre in basketball aren't identical. Even just the body contact involved in footy will surely mean a different training regime to what he has been used to in the past.
 
I think you vastly overrate the uniqueness of AFL ruckwork compared to other games. You also seem to ignore the fact he played a lot of footy growing up and by the sounds of it was always set on being an AFL player rather than a basketballer. It's not like he's never played the game. Basically because of basketball he's missed 1-2 years of footy. It's not that much of an impact. Interestingly if you look at the top 5 average hitout winners this year 3 of them had limited junior footy for various reasons and it didn't harm them much. Gawn did his ACL in his final year as a junior and missed almost the whole season, Witts didn't play footy seriously until age 15 and Goldstein missed a lot of junior footy because he was...busy playing basketball representing Australia at junior level. In contrast, the record of guys with typical footy backgrounds picked late in the draft recently are really bad.

Also you can't just magic a gun ruck out of thin air. These guys are few and far between. And if your level of expectation is so high that you can be negative about Blicavs, a 2x best and fairest winner and 3x AA squad selection, he's probably not going to live up to your standards. I don't even know if he's going to be a ruck but the record of rucks who are good enough to represent Australia at basketball at a junior level is way better than your average late pick (as far as I'm aware it's Goldstein and Luke Jackson who was taken pick 3).

Over all im just glad we have at least added someone.. would like to see him mark the ball and his vertical data but I agree that peopel with athletic ability can transfer from one spot to another. How he is in footy is yet to be seen but at the very least he is a no draft cost, no list spot roll of the dice.... and out of all the rolls ona footy field it seems ruck is one of the rolls that require less polish. If he has spring and doesn't mind body contact he could become a good player for us. 2 year contract..probably is short of what is needed but its a start.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Perhaps. I would have thought there will be areas of his physique where they will definitely be wanting him to focus so that his body is better prepared for the AFL. Will be great if he's already in good shape. But the prime factors for establishing ascendancy as a ruck in football and as a centre in basketball aren't identical. Even just the body contact involved in footy will surely mean a different training regime to what he has been used to in the past.
I think the size is already there. He obviously needs to change his body from a basketballers one to a AFL players body.
Needs to trim up, but I think it’s already way ahead in this area
 
Looking at some of the vids available , he has a good range of feel and skill on the basketball court. Maybe not the biggest spring I have seen but one vid him slamming a ball at 12... I do like the way he can work thru traffic and go to the ring with either hand. Potential is obvious.... but we just have to wait to see what he is like with a football
 
Last edited:
If he's 6'8 at 17/18, we might see him grow another inch or 2 and be around that 6'9 - 6'10 range which would be great.

Seems to be around 202ish ... Its tall enough if he has got the game. ...

.. what are these inches things you talk of ? LOL ..
Shows how engrained certain measurements are as an idea. Some things we have basically become used to ... do not hear too many people reference Fahrenheit for hoe hot it is ..yet we still buy tyres for our cars in an imperial diameter?
 
Seems to be around 202ish ... Its tall enough if he has got the game. ...

.. what are these inches things you talk of ? LOL ..
Shows how engrained certain measurements are as an idea. Some things we have basically become used to ... do not hear too many people reference Fahrenheit for hoe hot it is ..yet we still buy tyres for our cars in an imperial diameter?
Strangely wheel sizes are in inches, but tyre widths are in mm.

I tend to stick to feet and inches in terms of height though. Even though im a product of the 80’s. Maybe it was all the basketball i watched growing up. Cm’s has little relevance for me.
 
Seems to be around 202ish ... Its tall enough if he has got the game. ...

.. what are these inches things you talk of ? LOL ..
Shows how engrained certain measurements are as an idea. Some things we have basically become used to ... do not hear too many people reference Fahrenheit for hoe hot it is ..yet we still buy tyres for our cars in an imperial diameter?

He's anywhere between 202-206.

Using feet and inches to measure height is easier for me than using cm because of the amount of basketball I watch. Someone saying I'm 6ft is easier than I'm 183cm.

Tsapatolis isn't that tall in basketball height. If he's 202-206 then he's 6'8-6'9. LeBron is 6'9, Simmons at the least is 6'10. He's around that typical wing height, about the league average or so.
 
Strangely wheel sizes are in inches, but tyre widths are in mm.

I tend to stick to feet and inches in terms of height though. Even though im a product of the 80’s. Maybe it was all the basketball i watched growing up. Cm’s has little relevance for me.

It what you acclimatise to.

As an engineering product of the 80's I had to be familiar with microns and thousand's. Look at the speedo in the car each day most are happy with KPH.. .. It drives me crazy watching one of the USA carpenter shows watching them measure in fractions of an inch .. but again its what you get acclimatised to. I can remember years ago when people were multiplying the Celsius X 2 and adding 30 to get F but after awhile that just faded away. Dont go down the path of different amount with the same name like US gallon

To me metric is far more sensible but at times an imperial definition captures a size and allows visualisation better. metric in football seems right but each to their own
 
Last edited:
Looking at some of the vids available , he has a good range of feel and skill on the basketball court. Maybe not the biggest spring I have seen but one vid him slamming a ball at 12... I do like the way he can work thru traffic and go to the ring with either hand. Potential is obvious.... but we just have to wait to see what he is like with a football

plays small ...
 
In what sense? You mean he has the balance and ball handling of a short player? He certainly uses his height at time when calls for inside over the the top the defender. Has nice drop step

I look forward to see him with footy in hand

In the sense that he doesnt seem to have much spring - as a basketballer I'm hoping he makes a good footballer!
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top