Jordie McKenzie

[Don24 103]

Thought the kid played really well for his first game. We may have found a bit of a steal with getting him in the rookie draft. Long way to go yet, but seemed to make good decisions, has a nice long kick on him too that hit the target most times. Hopefully he can play out the year and continue his development.

Could turn out to be a great recruiting year for the club when you add Jurrah and McKenzie to the guys we took in the National draft...

[Yze_Magic 3]

Thought he played real well in his debut.

Layed some nice tackles too.

Barry Prendergast is making Craig Cameron look second rate so far.

[Doggo 32]

Loved the quickness of his hands in close, which he has shown all year at Casey.

Not the quickest or strongest kid, but a real natural footballer who runs to the right spots and knows how to win his own footy. Not a bad pick up at all, and pretty good debut.

[Akum 2,660]

Loved the quickness of his hands in close, which he has shown all year at Casey.

Not the quickest or strongest kid, but a real natural footballer who runs to the right spots and knows how to win his own footy. Not a bad pick up at all, and pretty good debut.

Totally agree, though he's not as slow as some. Definitely AFL standard, definitely worth his place, that's the most important at this stage. How much better he gets is up to him. Really liked his use of the ball today. With so many midfielders at the club next year, quality of use of the ball is going to be a critical factor for who gets the game.

[Guest Rojik of the Arctic]

Agree. Good first game. I'd like to see a bit more of him at this level.

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

Thought he played real well in his debut.

Layed some nice tackles too.

Barry Prendergast is making Craig Cameron look second rate so far.

No arguing that. I loved CC when he was here, but BP is kicking goals at both ends of the draft.

On Jordie... It sounds like he had a good debut, however, does anyone have concerns over where he will play? We have a whole heap of players who have made their starts across half-back. And then we have a long list of mature players who drift back and play there even though they're mature, in Bruce, Green... even Davey who has successfully made the transition to the midfield.

My concern is that we have SO many running defenders. Am I wrong? Will he play there in his future? It's all well and good that he's made a start there, and is a likely type, but will he be competing for his spot?

[jabberwocky 2,301]

Totally agree, though he's not as slow as some. Definitely AFL standard, definitely worth his place, that's the most important at this stage. How much better he gets is up to him. Really liked his use of the ball today. With so many midfielders at the club next year, quality of use of the ball is going to be a critical factor for who gets the game.

Spot on, not the most athletically gifted kid but his disposal is pretty good and I reckon with another season he has the frame to build a strong body. Has a good brain too and lloks like he will win a fair bit of footy when given more game time.

[Nasher 33,166]

No arguing that. I loved CC when he was here, but BP is kicking goals at both ends of the draft.

On Jordie... It sounds like he had a good debut, however, does anyone have concerns over where he will play? We have a whole heap of players who have made their starts across half-back. And then we have a long list of mature players who drift back and play there even though they're mature, in Bruce, Green... even Davey who has successfully made the transition to the midfield.

My concern is that we have SO many running defenders. Am I wrong? Will he play there in his future? It's all well and good that he's made a start there, and is a likely type, but will he be competing for his spot?

He's a grunt midfielder. His strengths would be wasted on the half back line, he needs to be in and around the stoppages.

Personally, I'd ignore any positioning of players for the rest of this year. If you think they're being played in the wrong position, they probably are, and it's probably on purpose.

[H_T 2,941]

Thought he played real well in his debut.

Layed some nice tackles too.

Barry Prendergast is making Craig Cameron look second rate so far.

Agree, he didn't look that out of place. Not a bad debut at all.

Agree. Good first game. I'd like to see a bit more of him at this level.

Indeed. He'd have to get another run or two.

[jabberwocky 2,301]

14 possessions, 8 kicks, 6 handballs, 4 marks, 5 tackles. 78% game time courtesy of the age. Afl stats are down so I can't get hold of contested possessions or efficiency stats, but his efficiency looked pretty good. His tackle count was the equal second highest on the ground behind Davey and equal to Moloney.

I agree with Nasher that much like Mclean and Jones he is a grunt midfielder only.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

No arguing that. I loved CC when he was here, but BP is kicking goals at both ends of the draft.

I hope you are right but it is far far too early to call at this stage.

Prendergast has been involved in the recruitment of Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Bail, McKenzie and Jurrah. Jurrah looks special. Bennell and Jetta have potential. Watts Blease and Strauss have shown near nothing.

For the record, Cameron gets sometimes an unfair rub on this site. As a recruiter, he has has some poor picks but his best year may well be 2006 where he got Frawley (12), Petterd (30) and Garland (46). And didn't Cameron handle the recruitment of the 2007 draft? Morton, Grimes and Cheney??

If this team matures into a top flight side which we all hope, Craig Cameron's imprint on the recruitment of the side will be strong, as may Barry Prendergast's name as well. Good recruitment skills is worth the gold that gives trade picks value.

[PeterJames 46]

I agree Jordie looked good. Looked like he belonged out there and after another preseason and some weight he'll be much better...

[Jarka 767]

I hope you are right but it is far far too early to call at this stage.

Prendergast has been involved in the recruitment of Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Bail, McKenzie and Jurrah. Jurrah looks special. Bennell and Jetta have potential. Watts Blease and Strauss have shown near nothing.

For the record, Cameron gets sometimes an unfair rub on this site. As a recruiter, he has has some poor picks but his best year may well be 2006 where he got Frawley (12), Petterd (30) and Garland (46). And didn't Cameron handle the recruitment of the 2007 draft? Morton, Grimes and Cheney??

If this team matures into a top flight side which we all hope, Craig Cameron's imprint on the recruitment of the side will be strong, as may Barry Prendergast's name as well. Good recruitment skills is worth the gold that gives trade picks value.

CAC's final two years at this stage look good, however it's the previous 8 years of drafting and list management which have contributed to our current position. That's why CAC receives the type of comments you're referring to. Personally I think there was a fair bit of 'hero worship' going on purely because he used to post on this site, alot of people here refused to accept that he did anything but a perfect job. I'm not surprised at all about what happened.

[Jarka 767]

If you think they're being played in the wrong position, they probably are, and it's probably on purpose.

Spot on Nasher, it's the proper way to tank, err, manage your list. I'm quite happy with seeing Bailey consistently do this

[Strawbsodwyer 0]

Yes McKenzie looked good but do we have too many "grunt" players?. I think we overcompensated a couple of years ago getting too many in and unders like maloney, jones, mclean etc. what I think we need is blokes who are going to break the lines with pace. Hopefully bennell, grimes morton can bring this to the table

[Jaded No More 59,173]

Great replacement for Junior.

[Akum 2,660]

Yes McKenzie looked good but do we have too many "grunt" players?. I think we overcompensated a couple of years ago getting too many in and unders like maloney, jones, mclean etc. what I think we need is blokes who are going to break the lines with pace. Hopefully bennell, grimes morton can bring this to the table

I agree with this to a point, but "grunt" players with good disposal are precious & rare and will become increasingly important as we climb the ladder. This has to be where the main part of our improvement will come from.

Jones and Moloney are great ballgetters, but their disposal will always be a liability that reduces the value of their ballgetting ability.

To become an elite team, we need a majority of our "in-and-under grunt" mids to also have line-breaker disposal skills.

Scully seems to have both, and maybe Trengove; I'm hoping that Blease has both; other current grunters may improve their disposal and step up into this group. But it was great to see another new player (Jordie) with the potential to have both, and he is one to keep an eye on for future.

So to answer the part of your post that I've bolded, I'd say that we definitely do not want any more "grunt" players who lack disposal skills, but we can do with any number of "grunt" players with high-quality ball use.