Past #3 Dylan Stephens

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Dylan Stephens
The Sydney Swans used their first pick five since Jarrad McVeigh in 2002 to lock in a talented midfielder from South Australian club Norwood at the 2019 AFL Draft. Dylan Stephens is a prolific ball-winner and creative user of the footy by hand and foot. He played predominantly on a wing in the early matches of the 2019 AFL Under-18 Championships before starring on the inside in the final match, gathering 33 disposals in a best-on-ground performance. A penetrating left-footer, he averaged 23.8 disposals and 4.8 tackles across the 2019 AFL Under-18 Championships and was rewarded with All Australian honours. He also played some excellent football at senior level with Norwood, averaging 18.2 disposals and 4.6 tackles in 12 matches. Stephens enjoyed a breakout season for the Bloods in 2020 with a memorable AFL debut in Round 6 against Richmond alongside fellow debutant, Chad Warner. Stephens finished the campaign with eight appearances, averaging 12.5 disposals and 3.4 marks per game, while also kicking two goals.

Dylan Stephens
DOB: 08 January 2001
DEBUT: 2020
DRAFT: #5, 2019 National Draft
RECRUITED FROM: Red Cliffs (Vic)/Walkerville (SA)/St Peter's College (SA)/Norwood (SANFL)

 
An end of first rounder is effectively 1.5 Craig Birds.

But we gave up pick 25 (1.2 Craig Birds) & received pick 44 (0.6 Craig Birds).

1.5 - 1.2 + 0.6 = 0.9 Craig Birds.

So we valued Dyl slightly less than 1 Craig Bird, which seems about right.
Cheers mate, that makes things much clearer ;)
 

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Poor Dyl, feel bad for him after reading the North board. They’re calling him Cats the musical - scaredy cat references - hope he doesn’t read any of this stuff !
 
Playing on the wing for North isn't exactly prime position.

I think what's happening with Dylan is that his confidence is shot and he really doesn't want the ball.

If he's just following the coaches instructions and keeping his width, then he needs to figure out a way to meet the coaches brief, while finding ways to get closer to the action without ig oring the coaches instruction. But taking as much license as he can without copping a spray.

He needs to be hungry for the ball rather than finding an excuse to not put himself in position to get a decent amount of the footy.
 
Shame. I thought he showed enough at the Swans to suggest he could improve with regular game time in a rebuilding team, but he would need good coaching. It might be worthwhile throwing him into a defensive role (maybe half-back flank) where he's dragged to the ball and forced to compete. Then again, I know even less than Clarkson about coaching a rebuilding team.

I fear North are stuffed for the next decade. They can try to lure someone of the calibre of Horse or Chris Scott, or maybe woo Roos home as an interim coach on monster $$. As it stands at, Dyl could be in Brownlow contention and he'd still not going make schmuck of difference one way or the other. North are a percentage builder.

I don't know how much they offered Horse last time but I expect they'll be offering truck loads of carrots the next time his contract is up, with the AFL throwing in a sack or two of sugar cubes to sweeten the deal.
 
An end of first rounder is effectively 1.5 Craig Birds.

But we gave up pick 25 (1.2 Craig Birds) & received pick 44 (0.6 Craig Birds).

1.5 - 1.2 + 0.6 = 0.9 Craig Birds.

So we valued Dyl slightly less than 1 Craig Bird, which seems about right.
No way Dyl was worth 0.9 Birds. Birdy was a handy midfielder who was still getting games and twice picked up two BL votes when we had one of the best midfield's going around. He was one of our better players in finals too, especially against Hawks.

In 2012 GF only Hanners, ROK and Kennedy had more effective disposals than Bird.

Bird was sub for the 2014 GF. In a quarter and a bit of play his seven effective disposals was better or equal to eight other Swans. Only six Swans had more than nine effective disposals. If the rest of the team had put in a similar effort we might have had a chance.

Bird also had balls. He never shirked a contest. He was only a fourth round pick (59) but (sorry Dyl) he was a much better player than Dyl is likely to be.
 
An end of first rounder is effectively 1.5 Craig Birds.

But we gave up pick 25 (1.2 Craig Birds) & received pick 44 (0.6 Craig Birds).

1.5 - 1.2 + 0.6 = 0.9 Craig Birds.

So we valued Dyl slightly less than 1 Craig Bird, which seems about right.
This is helpful.
Can you let me know how many Craig Birds I need for a comfortable retirement?
 

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Played some good games with us in 2022 and hoped he'd be a reasonable player, but by the sounds of it he's having a torrid time this year.
 
As soon as he turned his nose up at our contract offer and started committing to North, I think he was putting his career in serious jeopardy.

Hopefully he got plenty of cash out of it, as everything else about that decision was a mistake.
 
Caleb Serong, Serong. Whatever will be, will be….
 

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