SUMMER TIME AND THE DRAFTING'S EASY – PART ONE

Demonland is proud to announce that it has again secured the services of "Stevo" who knows the ins and outs of the Under 18 TAC Cup scene from an insider's point of view. He attended most of those of the National Under 18 championship games played in Melbourne and Geelong over the winter, has been involved with two TAC Clubs over the years and teaches physical education and sport. He discussed his views on the 2010 draft prospects from a Melbourne Football Club perspective with Whispering Jack (and yes, we know it's not technically summmertime yet but couldn't come up with another title) ...

SUMMER TIME AND THE DRAFTING'S EASY - PART ONE by Whispering Jack

There are only eight names standing between the start of this year's AFL National Draft and Melbourne's first selection at number twelve. The AFL's new franchise, the Gold Coast Suns, has virtually revealed its hand by already naming the first three players to be selected - David Swallow, Harley Bennell and Sam Day and our resident draft guru Stevo and every other draft analyst therefore already has them down as a given for draft day which will fittingly be held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre later this month.

Indeed, David Swallow, who finished fourth in the VFL's 2010 JJ Liston Trophy playing for the Suns, was nominated even before Melbourne's Barry Prendergast called out Tom Scully's name as Melbourne's first pick in 2009. There was no need therefore for Stevo to extol Swallow's virtues although the words "potential Brownlow Medallist" almost passed through his lips when he fleetingly mentioned his name.

The only mystery remaining is whether Bennell or Day's name will be called out for second choice. We decided to take the diplomatic line of alphabetic order in presenting you the Inside Football pen pictures of the two, who Stevo agrees, select themselves as the remaining Gold Coast initial choices:-

HARLEY BENNELL - midfielder, Peel Thunder, WA

Born: 2/10/92 Ht: [84cm Wt: 70kg "Harley's an indigenous boy who has the great natural talents and flair that the indigenous kids tend to have. Fantastic with the footy, great awareness of what's going on around him, got a good set of hands and he can just cover the ground. He can play as a running half-back or a wingman as well as on the ball and his ability to run and carry and link up, for an 18-year-old kid, is outstanding. Played the first two or three games in our seniors and was among the best before he went off to play for the state side. Got clean hands, he's got an extra sense of what's around, he finds space well he gets in and out of traffic really well and he's just a real, quality player. From our understanding he will go top three to the Gold Coast." - Peel Thunder coach Trevor Williams.

Larke Medal winner 2010.All Australian 2010

SAM DAY - forward, Sturt, SA

Born: 6/9/92 Ht: 195cm Wt: 94kg "Sam's an outstanding athlete who can play forward and back and in the ruck. A player who I would say is very similar to Nick Riewoldt in the way he goes about his footy and there's just a tremendous amount of upside to him. At the moment he's playing two or three dif¬ferent sports (baseball/basketball) and once he concentrates on one I think the potential for him to be an elite player at AFL level is pretty high. Balanced up football and study really well this year despite it being pretty hectic for him and I'd be surprised if he wasn't taken top three or four. He can play anywhere really because of his outstanding leap." – Sturt football manager Dwayne Massey.

All Australian 2010

There was no way that we could set Gold Coast aside in our discussions on the forthcoming draft. When we discussed the unpredictability of the top end of this year's draft compared to last year, Stevo agreed insofar as the top seven or eight were concerned (noting as we have already done that this year's top three picks are set in stone). In terms of Melbourne's first choice at 12, he sees the fact that one club (Gold Coast) holds four of the five preceding selections as a major determinant in that unpredictability and one that could work in the club's favour.

"The reason for this is that whereas the other clubs would almost certainly be focussing on that 'best available' player, the Gold Coast's embarrassment of riches in terms of the number of early choices available to it will, of necessity, lead it along different paths.

"I'm not giving away any secrets when I describe this draft as 'highly compromised'. Not only do the Suns dominate the top half of the first round of the draft but the draft pool itself has been compromised in a number of ways starting with the rule that allowed them to pre-sign a dozen 17-year-olds last year.

"They picked the eyes out of some exceptional talent in Josh Toy, Trent McKenzie, Brandon Matera, Maverick Weller and others but they do lack talent in key positions and could do with some more talls and specialist defenders.

"Their recruiters will therefore be tempted to look at needs with choices far earlier than other clubs might do in these circumstances."

Stevo was firmly of the view that most of the best players available in the top dozen are medium sized players, many of who will be "close to or ready to go in 2011". He is aware that Dean Bailey has hinted on a number of occasions about the club's need for a strong, tall marking forward but believes it's more likely that when the time comes for Melbourne to make its first selection, that player will be a "mid".

To support this, Stevo cites the following as medium sized candidates within the range of eight players after Gold Coast's initial three selections and pick twelve:-

Shaun Atley, Josh Caddy, Reece Conca, Andrew Gaff, Kieran Harper, Dyson Heppell, Ben Jacobs, Jayden Pitt, Jared Polec, Billie Smedts and Brodie Smith. That's on top of Mitch Wallis and Tom Liberatore who have both gone to the Western Bulldogs under the father/son rule but omits Dion Prestia who, at 175cm is a bit too short to qualify as medium sized in Stevo's estimation but still, a player who could go early.

I've gone on record as saying that I support the tall marking forward option and I expressed my disappointment to Stevo who pointed out that there were few talls around who he classed as having the ability of the players he had mentioned. There was South Australian Daniel Gorringe and the fast rising Tom Lynch and young ruckman/forward Scott Lycett but nothing much else on the horizon other than the player he termed "the draft's mystery man", Jack Darling, a player who he said "could go anywhere".

That's where we stop for the time being but I'll be back with more of Stevo soon.

TO BE CONTINUED ...