Pick 2 in the Rookie Draft. 22 years old. What else do we know about him?

Tall midfielder from the ACT.

Wow another mid. Got Roos written all over it.

Wow another mid. Got Roos written all over it.

Becuase picking a key position player would be very Clarkson?

Ainslie's Aaron Vandenberg has 56 possessions in big NEAFL win over Eastlake

Becuase picking a key position player would be very Clarkson?

Ha! Just the tall mid from ACT part..

Aaron Vandenberg (Ainslie) is our first pick in the Rookie Draft - No.2 overall. He once got 56 disposals in a NEAFL match! great lets see that form. No pressure or anything.

So he must be almost as good as Tom Mitchell I guess?

"Aaron Vandenberg has won the Ainslie best-and-fairest for the second year in a row.

The onballer had a fantastic season dominating the possession counts and finishing off up forward with 20 goals.

Vandenberg finished second in the NEAFL best-and-fairest and was also selected as a midfielder in the NEAFL 2014 Team of the Year."

http://www.neafl.com.au/index.php?id=16&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1891&cHash=575a08b3ab400714dc18f111d4b58899

"Aaron Vandenberg has won the Ainslie best-and-fairest for the second year in a row.

The onballer had a fantastic season dominating the possession counts and finishing off up forward with 20 goals.

Vandenberg finished second in the NEAFL best-and-fairest and was also selected as a midfielder in the NEAFL 2014 Team of the Year."

http://www.neafl.com.au/index.php?id=16&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1891&cHash=575a08b3ab400714dc18f111d4b58899

13 of 20 matches in the best. Most goals in a match in 2014 was 4 http://www.foxsportspulse.com/team_info.cgi?action=PSTATS&pID=192877761&client=1-8334-112666-204047-16755857

Good size for a mid! The Ainsley FC website says he is good as a half-forward and half-back option also.

Looks like Casey is going to be full of mids this year. Looking forward to going to some of their games too to see some of these players develop.

AFL Canberra may introduce draft as part of first-grade restructure

He looks 22 going on 30. Very Michael Barlow like. I hope he has some athleticism to go with good height and ability to find the pill.

Vandenberg has been in talks with SANFL club Central Districts about a possible switch interstate, despite having a shoulder reconstruction last weekend that could result in his missing the start of 2015.

Also see we've found a mate for Bernie Vince to do rehab with.

According to the NEAFL Grand Final record Aaron is 188cm and 90kgs. There is certainly a theme across our Club these days that the time of the stick insect is gone.

According to the NEAFL Grand Final record Aaron is 188cm and 90kgs. There is certainly a theme across our Club these days that the time of the stick insect is gone.

Could also be because he is 22 ?

Oscar Mc and Billy Stretch are hardly what you called developed.

Our problem has not been that the players drafted were stick insects. They were stick insects who couldn't get a kick. ( we drafted some big bodied footballers and they couldn't get a kick either)

Well, I played a game with him a few years ago when he was little fatter and slower...

Then he got bloody serious about his footy and really is a dominant mid in the NEAFL. Easily Ainslie's most damaging player.

He has a bit of dynamism to him but I don't want people to get their expectations up - he is going to find it tough to step up a few levels from NEAFL to AFL.

He may even have issues at VFL level with execution of close skills, but he will get in nice and hard and low and get forward a bit.

He would be very surprised to be honest - he was headed over the Centrals in SA to play next year but he will gladly have this opportunity - he is a very self-assured bloke too. You can interpret it as arrogance, but I think all players require a bit of that...

he is a very self-assured bloke too. You can interpret it as arrogance, but I think all players require a bit of that...

I think it is a pre-requisite. If you don't believe you can beat/curb your opponent then you are behind the eight ball before you start.

Hmmm Ainslie football club......James Hird, Nathan Buckley, Shaun Smith.....

This guy might be OK....

Could also be because he is 22 ?

Oscar Mc and Billy Stretch are hardly what you called developed.

Our problem has not been that the players drafted were stick insects. They were stick insects who couldn't get a kick. ( we drafted some big bodied footballers and they couldn't get a kick either)

True and perhaps I should have qualified that with saying midfielders. As has been said before Roos certainly likes his centre square combatants to be big bodied. Over the last couple of years we have drafted

Tyson 186cm/81kg

Michie 185/85

White 188/85

Harmes 185/78

Newton 184/84

Brawshaw 187/86 and

Petracca 186/92

Even Neal-Bullen 182/77, Salem 183/81 and Riley 182/86 are relatively big boys. There is a theme here

There is a fair bit of go forward in that group and let's hope, as you said, they can play but at least we won't be easily bullied like we have done in the past. In a season or two we may even be able to bully a few sides ourselves and wouldn't that be wonderful

Clearly a very impressive young man and it looks like we're onto a winner.

Obviously there is a big step up to the AFL from the NEAFL but from the stats I've obtained and numbers I've crunched below certainly shows an excellent foundation in what was a non AFL listed player.

All stats obtained via "Sportsmate".

Stats are written in order as Round #: Goals.Behinds, Disposals, Marks, Tackles: ( - = bye or did not play).

1: 1.0, 35, 9, 3

2: 0.1, 33, 3, 14

3: 3.1, 32, 6, 1

4: -

5: 1.2, 31, 2, 12

6: 1.1, 18, 5, 1

7: 2.2, 21, 6, 7

8: 1.0, 22, 1, 1

9: -

10: 2.1, 40, 3, 1

11: 0.2, 43, 8, 5 ***

12: 0.2, 33, 6, 6

13: 0.0, 27, 4, 6

14: 1.2, 36, 5, 8

15: 2.0, 31, 1, 4

16: 0.2, 37, 8, 9

17: -

18: 1.1, 27, 1, 9

19: 1.0, 39, 9, 4

20: 0.0, 37, 3, 10

21: 4.0, 41, 5, 7

*** Round 11 vs. Eastlake is the game where he allegedly collected 56 possessions as unofficially counted by the opposing team. Discrepancies in data should be indicated. Although note that this can be a common occurrence at these lower levels. However over the course of the season the final average should be relatively accurate as the standard error of the mean (SEM) minimizes as the n-value (games) increases (in this case n = 18).

Season Totals & Averages from 18 games: 20 goals, 17 behinds, 32.4 disposals, 4.7 marks, 6.0 tackles.

Edited December 3, 201410 yr by ignition.

Canberra boy! Very happy

Imagine if he turned out like Barlow...

Which of those games were up against the Swans, Lions or Giants reserves? I want to know if he could do it against what is more like VFL standard.

Which of those games were up against the Swans, Lions or Giants reserves? I want to know if he could do it against what is more like VFL standard.

Round 6 vs GWS-R in a loss of 108 - 59.

Round 14 vs. SYD-R in a loss 64-70. Was in the top 4 of BOG who else included Biggs, Mitchell and O'Keefe.

SYD-R went on to lose the NEAFL GF by 2 points with those three stated above in the team.

Would be nice to think that one of his old Sydney boys gave Roos a call to say have a gander at this bloke ?

as the Dees FB post mentioned today, both Robbo and Davey came in as rookies (they didn't mention James McDonald for some reason!)

Three of the very best players we've had in the last 20 years

You just never know