Player Watch Welcome to Port Adelaide Rookie Draft Pick #13 (2024) Tom Cochrane

[RussellEbertHandball]

Sorry been living under a rock in melbourne havent been researching draftees intensely, im presuming this doug bloke is toms brother and a generational talent?

Dont know if he is a generational talent, but he is rated top 5 in his U/16 cohort nation wide and he already is 194cm and plays CHB.

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

Dont know if he is a generational talent, but he is rated top 5 in his U/16 cohort nation wide and he already is 194cm and plays CHB.

That’s why we aren’t drafting KPDs

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I'm still shocked Stuart Cochrane only played 50-odd games for Port over 3 years. My vague memories of that era make it seem like he was here for years longer.

Probably because as soon as he finished playing he started working for the club in player development and player welfare, before cancer caused him to step away from the club 6 or 7 years ago.

We should never forget the work he did with the players when we were at our lowest ebb in 2010-12 years and he helped keep players at the club when they could have easily walked away.

 

[davesnothere]

Sorry been living under a rock in melbourne havent been researching draftees intensely, im presuming this doug bloke is toms brother and a generational talent?

A high IQ Buddy Franklin. (and I'm only half joking)


An absolutely superb athlete and could be the cornerstone of Ports defence for a decade or more.

 

[Powerade 08]

Sorry been living under a rock in melbourne havent been researching draftees intensely, im presuming this doug bloke is toms brother and a generational talent?

vid

Baseline on Instagram: "SA's Doug Cochrane is SUPER RAW but has some REAL potential! He proved to be all types of trouble against Vic Metro yesterday. The key back is already 194cm and only 16yo! 😳😳 @dougie.cochrane"

7,156 likes, 1 comments - baselinefooty on July 10, 2024: "SA's Doug Cochrane is SUPER RAW but has some REAL potential! He proved to be all types of trouble against Vic Metro yesterday. The key back is already 194cm and only 16yo! 😳😳 @dougie.cochrane".

www.instagram.com

 

[Enviable Tradition]

No we can't. In SA and WA aborigional kids have to come from country zones of aligned state league clubs, to have draft rights. So as Doug lives in metro Adelaide we have no draft rights if he does get into our NGA.

Thats why we got access to Lachie Jones and Port or the crows had no access to Izak Rankine.

Getting Doug into our NGA is about him spending 2 years doing training with the club via our NGA for elite sanfl juniors 14 to 18 year olds with our 4 aligned clubs - SA, WA, WWT and Norwood, so that when we try and get him in the 2026 draft he never had to leave home so to speak.

It seems a strange play as it seems there is no way for us to get him.

Are we sure both his parents were born in Australia?

It just feels like Port has a play in mind that is more than just hoping he comes back later but I just can't see what the angle is.

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[Enviable Tradition]

I’ve heard WA and SA clubs have been pushing very hard to change that metro rule. It can’t sit well with the current politically correct AFL house that they don’t treat all aboriginal players equally.

Drafts like this one with so little aboriginal representation must help the argument.

This is what I suspect the play might be.

Having a quality talent coming through probably works against us in terms of other club saying yes.

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[RussellEbertHandball]

It seems a strange play as it seems there is no way for us to get him.

There is the normal draft and we will have picks, and we can trade players to get picks and get high enough up the order if indeed 2 years time he is a top 5 player.

We can also maybe ask him to pull a hammy in his draft year, and become a slider, say like Christian Moraes this year slid down the pecking order from 12 months ago after having a so so top age year in U/18 comps he played in, in 2024.

 

[philthy05]

Stuart is exploring Aboriginal lineage and if so, we may be able to pick up Doug as an NGA.

Not at all what they would be trying to doAs reh said he’s metro and we don’t have access to metro ngas.

Also ,Centrals are aligned to crows anyway so there’s that.

I’ve heard WA and SA clubs have been pushing very hard to change that metro rule. It can’t sit well with the current politically correct AFL house that they don’t treat all aboriginal players equally.

Drafts like this one with so little aboriginal representation must help the argument.

It’s absurd that the rules get changed for us.

The current rule is about a numbers game.

The pool of aboriginal boys in Victoria divided by 10 is a lot lower than the pool of boys divided by 2 in both WA and SA. So thats why its on only country zones in WA and SA

But 5 Vic clubs have zones and rights in NT - Essendon, Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn and Melbourne. Gold Coast get Darwin so I'm not sure how much that distorts the numbers for those 5 club vs the other 5 Vic clubs and the WA and SA clubs.

If enough Aborigional kids and groups jump up and down the AFL might change things.

I’ve said before it’s a completely absurd situation

1. The vic clubs benefit in all different ways from having 10 local clubs.. when it works against them in one way why should we nerf their opponents access so that the vic clubs aren’t disadvantaged?


It’s the equivalent of asking Collingwood to spend every second week going to an airport to get on a plane and circle melb for the amount of time it takes west coast to fly to melb so west coast are not disadvantaged.

2. It completely ignores the differences between country Sa and country vic. It’s all good to say Sa has a country population of this size and this many indigenous people but more than ever sporting prospects are coming out of affluent areas. Sa is not going to reliably produce football talent out of poor towns with a population of 8000 like a affluent vic country town (of which there’s many more than Sa) is going to.



Also while we’re on the topic is Lachie jones the only country Sa indigenous player on an afl list right now? All of the crows indigenous ngas have bounced out of the league by now haven’t they? Unless they still have one maybe?

Says something if there’s as many born and bred Texans in the league as country indigenous Sa lads.

It seems a strange play as it seems there is no way for us to get him.

Are we sure both his parents were born in Australia?

It just feels like Port has a play in mind that is more than just hoping he comes back later but I just can't see what the angle is.

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There’s no play to make.

Stuart played here, and has been involved with the club for years. It absolutely makes sense why port, Stuart, and Doug would want port to train here with us.

I’ve got no doubt teams should be nervous about any go home factor with Doug, but that’s no different than what is going on with plenty of other prospects other years with links to clubs, except the vice media seems to celebrate what a feel good story that is.

 

[cosmicwinduptoy]

A high IQ Buddy Franklin. (and I'm only half joking)


An absolutely superb athlete and could be the cornerstone of Ports defence for a decade or more.

So shaping as the greatest player of all time then?

 

[davesnothere]

So shaping as the greatest player of all time then?

I have seen him play.

He's important if Port get him. I'd personally push a good player out of Port to make it happen. Port might as well.

 

[yepits2020]

I’ve heard WA and SA clubs have been pushing very hard to change that metro rule. It can’t sit well with the current politically correct AFL house that they don’t treat all aboriginal players equally.

Drafts like this one with so little aboriginal representation must help the argument.

Yes, and the AFL are already assessing it.

 

[RangaInTeal]

Tommy will play good SANFL footy and provide us a Midfield Bull, in a couple of years. Unfortunately is a Cripps/Wines onballer without the size or shape. Hard to see him play AFL footy due to size and skill, however happy to have him on the Rookie list to build to ‘Club’ feel. Not everyone on the list needs to be the best player in the AFL!

 

[Addy23]

No we can't. In SA and WA aborigional kids have to come from country zones of aligned state league clubs, to have draft rights. So as Doug lives in metro Adelaide we have no draft rights if he does get into our NGA.

Thats why we got access to Lachie Jones and Port or the crows had no access to Izak Rankine.

Getting Doug into our NGA is about him spending 2 years doing training with the club via our NGA for elite sanfl juniors 14 to 18 year olds with our 4 aligned clubs - SA, WA, WWT and Norwood, so that when we try and get him in the 2026 draft he never had to leave home so to speak.

Yeah the issue that Stuart and the club face here is that they need AFL to change the zones of SA clubs in order to gain access to Doug. It's not impossible, given AFL are looking at zonal changes, but highly improbable that they'll do it in a way that suits us.

Stuart probably can already prove the indigenous background he's claiming which will get Doug into our NGA program. But that wouldn't necessarily give us the rights to him on draft night. I'd say this ends up being the likely scenario

 

[Shaucob_Burjan]

Trying to be dodgy, but can't Dougie be hidden in a basketball club or something to Cat B him?

 

[Addy23]

Trying to be dodgy, but can't Dougie be hidden in a basketball club or something to Cat B him?

I believe to do that you need to have not played footy for a number of years

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Trying to be dodgy, but can't Dougie be hidden in a basketball club or something to Cat B him?

He's not going to be an unregistered player for 3 years to qualify.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Yeah the issue that Stuart and the club face here is that they need AFL to change the zones of SA clubs in order to gain access to Doug. It's not impossible, given AFL are looking at zonal changes, but highly improbable that they'll do it in a way that suits us.

Stuart probably can already prove the indigenous background he's claiming which will get Doug into our NGA program. But that wouldn't necessarily give us the rights to him on draft night. I'd say this ends up being the likely scenario

An indigenous rule change for metro kids means he would qualify for the crows as Centrals is aligned to them.

So that angle wont work for any special rights as the crows would say, thanks for the hard work Port he qualifies for us.

 

[Addy23]

An indigenous rule change for metro kids means he would qualify for the crows as Centrals is aligned to them.

So that angle wont work for any special rights as the crows would say, thanks for the hard work Port he qualifies for us.

Well, if the zoning stays the way it is then yes. But that is under review. My view is that it is very unlikely to change in a way to benefit Port. So yes Crows may well take him. But that is part of the changes that are under review by AFL

 

[DaTBird187]

Trying to be dodgy, but can't Dougie be hidden in a basketball club or something to Cat B him?

I'd be getting him to scrub up on his hieroglyphics.

 

[Marmozet]

So he’s Cameron Hewett 2.0?

 

[PJ Power]

Tommy will play good SANFL footy and provide us a Midfield Bull, in a couple of years. Unfortunately is a Cripps/Wines onballer without the size or shape. Hard to see him play AFL footy due to size and skill, however happy to have him on the Rookie list to build to ‘Club’ feel. Not everyone on the list needs to be the best player in the AFL!

From the tiny highlight reel, I thought there may have been some X-factor for us to work with and develop. I hate the idea of us wasting list spots on players who have no AFL potential. Hope you’re wrong about him.

 

[Tibbs]

Tommy will play good SANFL footy and provide us a Midfield Bull, in a couple of years. Unfortunately is a Cripps/Wines onballer without the size or shape. Hard to see him play AFL footy due to size and skill, however happy to have him on the Rookie list to build to ‘Club’ feel. Not everyone on the list needs to be the best player in the AFL!

I just totally ignore negative comments about height and weight. It's all in his hands. I have seen kids that were mediocre pre-draft, go on to have good AFL careers.

Below is what one pundit wrote about Lachie Neale b4 the 2012 AFL Draft. And yes I know he is no L.N., but the future is his to make.

"Lachie Neale is a good option for Rookie, but may sneak in late in the main draft. He's short (about 177 cm) and pretty slow, but he works exceptionally hard, and is very tough. He is also very, very, smart in his play, and can accumulate possessions. Probably an inside mid mainly, somewhat in the Mitchell category.

Certainly worth putting on a list and seeing how he develops from there."