SA Mids

[gothedons]

Looking for the draft experts view, I just saw Twomey's top 25, which included 1 SA player (Durdin - KPB), and also looking at some of the phantom drafts, there aren't many SA mids predicted in the top 20... Given they won the championships, why arent there mids rated higher then even the 2nd tier Metro mids and who are the best mids from the SA crop?? I saw guys like Bampton, Neal-Bullen, Gore all with pretty good stats from the champs/state level games, however Langford, Laverde, Ahern etc. all seem to be more popular in the phantom drafts....

 

[Cleric]

Other than Vic players been over rated every year due to TAC cup, I think the SA mids are quite small. Take Caleb Daniel. Was elite in the U18 champs, tested very well at the combine but is too small for alot of people.

 

[Albert Ross]

Caleb Daniel (167), Jake Johansen (171), Jack Elsworthy (173) Josh Hone (172), Cory Gregson (175) and Harrison Wigg (179) were key players who are thought to be too short to be picked at all, or picked early.

Billy Stretch has gone f/s to Melbourne

Stephen Tahana and Ryan Burton are too young to draft.

SA dominated the ruck but clubs don't draft ruckmen with top-30 picks too often these days. SA used 4-5 ruckmen over the carnival are were very strong there.

They basically had some big slow giants, and some tiny nippy smalls. AFL clubs seem to put a line through both those types pretty early.

 

[Thunderstruck]

Except their smallest player has more talent than just about anyone I have seen in my 12 years of watching the kids. But people are scared of size these days which is a shame. Didn't hurt Libba or Harvey. I wouldn't draft Gregson, Johansen, Elsworthy. Hone is a 50/50 for a rookie. I'd draft Wigg due to his skills and ability to find it.

 

[Spook]

Maybe clubs are foxing. All saying "to small" then trying to get them with a later pick.

 

[LB2Snake]

Except their smallest player has more talent than just about anyone I have seen in my 12 years of watching the kids. But people are scared of size these days which is a shame. Didn't hurt Libba or Harvey. I wouldn't draft Gregson, Johansen, Elsworthy. Hone is a 50/50 for a rookie. I'd draft Wigg due to his skills and ability to find it.

Who does Caleb actually remind you of Thunderstruck ? Is he a Boomer clone?

 

[coryne]

Could any of the small mids be turned into small forwards? What are their tackling like and how is their goal sense?

 

[redandblack]

How about Brett Turner?

 

[Thunderstruck]

Who does Caleb actually remind you of Thunderstruck ? Is he a Boomer clone?

He reminds me the most of Marc Murphy in his style of play, the way he moves around the ground and especially his kicking. But he is a neater and more agile version of Murphy. Has Harvey traits in the fact he is small, nippy and gets through little gaps. His best asset is his football brain in congestion. He has very few peers in that area. If the football were a rubix cube, he'd have solved it by the time anyone knew what it was. Second best is his hands, so clean and quick, one touch hands. And third best his ability to get to every contest. He runs all day long highlighted by his 16.1 beep. And he could probably improve on that.

 

[Thunderstruck]

How many times have you seen Gregson play, live?

What don't you like about him?

Quite a few, I think about 5 or 6? Not sure but try to get to as many games as I can. Sometimes even get to the private school games. Gregson is pretty good for Sacred Heart that's for sure.

He's been good at SANFL league level and I am confident he'll make a very good SANFL footballer and be on that cusp of being better than most at that level but just unsure on his role at AFL level. In the midfield he'd need to have some absolute standout traits like Daniel does. Whilst bigger than Daniel at 175cm, he's still fairly small and doesn't possess the smarts or skills to the level Daniel does for example. He's a bloody good tackler/defender though and reads the play well, good speed off the mark. He wouldn't be a bad rookie choice for a side willing to give him a go but he'd need to really go bang to make a bonafide AFL mid. Might be the sort that goes in and out of the side. Happy to be wrong but I wouldn't take him in the main gig but would in the rookie.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Daniel would have to have the most raw talent of any junior I've seen. Imagine being the club that drafts him down the order before he grows half a foot over summer? It's luck a MFC fan could only dream of.