Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
LIVE: Port Adelaide v Carlton - 7:30PM Thu
Squiggle tips Port at 63% chance -- What's your tip? -- Team line-ups »
Weekly Prize - Join Any Time - Tip Round 12
The Golden Ticket - MCG and Marvel Medallion Club tickets and Corporate Box tickets at the Gabba, MCG and Marvel.
Thank you, Ollie's dad.
I believe so, might be a little bit taller
I contacted a friend at Carey. I am advised that Olly is a hugely talented athlete and excels at most sports. Hasn’t played a lot of footy. A person of high character.
Hopefully he can thrive in a professional environment and with development, exposure and confidence he can have a fine career at the Cattery.
At that level of experience, saying he's a forward probably just means he loves kicking goals. Don't we all....Watching the Wellsy summary interview - he's 185cm. Only switched back to footy and played a 'half dozen' games. He is a great athlete and said he is a forward (even though in the footage he played literally every position including ruck).
Gotta love the rookie list.
I'm bullish about this pick. Exactly how the Rookie list should be used
Watching Dempsey’s highlights on the GFC website the kid looks a strong overhead mark.
He’s no man child who dominates at this level, but a kid who can seriously read the flight of the ball.
Looks like a very strong contested mark. Great hands and positioning by the look of it.Watching Dempsey’s highlights on the GFC website the kid looks a strong overhead mark.
He’s no man child who dominates at this level, but a kid who can seriously read the flight of the ball.
Geelong Cats AFL Draft haul could be the dawn of a new master midfield
Ollie Dempsey is the smokey of all smokey draftees and one of his coaches has lifted the lid on the basketballer-turned rookie Cat.
Josh Barnes
JUST a handful of school games were enough for “freaky talent” Ollie Dempsey to win over Geelong recruiters and land on an AFL list just six months after he returned to football.
The humble 18-year-old had a quiet celebration on Friday night after he was taken by the Cats with the 13th pick in the AFL Rookie Draft before turning up to do one final running session with his Old Carey Grammarians teammates on Saturday morning.
While the wider AFL world was surprised to hear the Cats call Dempsey’s name, those inside Old Carey and the football program at Carey Grammar had heard whispers he was on the way to the big league after seeing his outstanding ability as a rangy forward.
Dempsey made an under-12 state primary school football team but focused on basketball from under-13 level before he returned to Australian rules this year to play with his mates.
Jeremy Dickson has coached him in both the school and Old Carey programs and he said the 185cm forward had showed plenty of ability in his short return to footy.
Dickson said the competitive teen played in year 12 basketball premierships in year 9 and 10 and captained Carey as a year 11 student before switching codes.
“I think he played three under-19 games with (Old Carey) and every game he has more than 10 scoring shots, the last game he played he was playing high half-forward and wing and he kicked 6.4,” Dickson said.
“At APS level, it is a pretty high standard so anybody that isn’t a 6”5 forward and is kicking 4-5 goals each week, you know you have some freaky talent.
“He is good at ground level, very evasive and he will generally out-mark anyone that is of equal physical dimensions.”
Dickson said he had noticed Dempsey’s basketball background coming to the fore at training, where his vision allows him to see things others don’t.
“In any competitive or contact drill, he finds gaps that you wouldn’t expect are there,” Dickson said.
“He sees and computes the game really well. It is that classic point guard scenario where he sees things before they happen.”
Geelong recruiting boss Stephen Wells said Dempsey was “a bit of a traditional rookie-type selection” as a player who hadn’t enjoyed the exposure at NAB League but clearly had talent.
“He’s a very good mark, a really good footy brain and he is able to get the ball through the goals in a lot of different ways,” Wells said.
“He did all the things that we look for in those sort of players and he did it at the best level he could. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t be exposed in the NAB League so we came to that sort of player to complement what we already had at the national draft.”
By only spending one pick at the rookie draft on Friday, Geelong kept one vacant spot on the list.
That can be filled at any time until a week before the season starts or saved for the mid-season draft and Wells said the Cats chose to keep it up their sleeve because “it gives us options”.
I know these things tend to puff the magic dragon... but if you are not impressed at the potential written about in this, Im not sure what someone would want.
Be interesting to follow this one - the point guard analogy is very relevant in terms of decision making/ vision and finding space. The other attribute a point guard possesses is how to weight a pass and pass to advantage , also skills that are needed as a mid
im happy to wait and see how he goes.
That goes for all the recruits this year actually.... and whilst Conway was the first taken that does not translate in the first to play.
VFL will be another great watch next year.
GO Catters