The MFC has had some great sucess with mature age recuits in recient times and just looking over our list at present, I count 12 mature age players on our main or supplemtry lists as of the post season recruiting period. The list (largely per my memory) is per the below;

Austin Bradtke 
Bayley Fritsch
Mitch Hannan
Marty Hore
Declan Keilty
Corey Maynard
Joel Smith
Timothy Smith
Aaron vandenBerg
Corey Wagner
Josh Wagner
Guy Walker

Interested in people's opinions on:

1.  Who would be the best player on the list based on AFL performance to date;

And;

2. Who has the potential to become the best recruit over the entirity of their career


Arguably, Michael Hibberd and Neville Jetta could be included in the above list, but I've excluded them from the discussion on the basis that:

A.  Whilst Michael Hibberd was originally got his break in the game as a mature age player with Essendon, he was recruited to Melbourne as a well established, many would say elite player;

B.  Neville was originally recruited to the MFC directly from the elite U18 system in WA and whist he was relegated to the rookie list for a period, he never truly left being listed by the MFC and that environment.


Answer away...

Edited December 10, 20186 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Rippa Rita Go back to Sleep !

Nice off season topic.

1) I would have to say that vandenBerg has had the best career to date.

He really came into the team from day 1 and showed some great form for awhile. He was up and down at times which I think was part of his injuries. Despite being out for nearly 2 whole years he would hard to go past for best career so far. 35 games to his name certainly helps his case as well as coming back into the team and showing good form again at the end of the year which is fresh in my mind. I had written him off for the year and at best thought we would delist and rookie him in the hopes of him coming good.

There are only 2 other possible selections here. Bailey Fritsch nudges out Hannan for second place by a bees [censored]. Hannan is a bit inconsistent for me.

2) Bailey Fritsch. Still young and has lots of improvement left in him. A bit like an opening batsman, Fritsch has time to get settled at the crease and develop into something good. I cant see vandenBerg's bash and crash sledge hammer style giving him a long career. He is more your 20/20 type player. 

 

1. Vandenberg: He came into the club as a big body when we really needed to be more competitive. Now that we are more competitive, he us a real ace up our sleeve. Provides us with an enforcer type with good decision making and solid all round skills.

2. Fritta: He didn't really suprise anyone on here given we knew his game after an impressive year at Casey the year before. That being said, his first AFL season was terrific. He is a ripper, and has the highest ceiling of the players listed. He is a beautiful kick and is a great mark. He makes good decisions and already displays a good defensive side of his game. 

6 hours ago, puntkick said:

Rippa Rita Go back to Sleep !

Hey, we're an hour behind up here in Qld (though some would say it's 9 years 364 days and 23hrs behind), so it was around 10:30pm, just on my bedtime.

?Austin Bradtke is mature age?

11 hours ago, Dee Dee said:

?Austin Bradtke is mature age?

Austin is only 17.  Year 12 at Haileybury.  Not quite mature aged. 

12 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Austin is only 17.  Year 12 at Haileybury.  Not quite mature aged. 

That’s what I thought! Gee Haileybury get the kids don’t they - notoriously so!!!

I like Fritsch's performances so far that also have a bit of a way to go in terms of improving onfield presence. He is very capable of these positive outcomes as he continues to 'settle' as a team regular. At the same time, I really  like Hannan's efforts when his confidence is high - he does some magic at times and is close to being highly reliable before goal. Vanders is a gutsy player who contributes well to our needs for attack and defensive pressure in the forward line. Thus, for me:

1. Fritsch  2. Hannan  3. Vanders.

I would also like to state that Joel Smith gives me much confidence as a developing player of major impact to our game in the relatively near future. 

There's a few distinct categories here.

1. The Category B rookies: J. Smith, Maynard, Walker
Really anything from this group is a bonus. It's not easy finding Irish, American or non footy players. Who knows with Walker, seems athletic and a nice enough kick, but Maynard should be decent depth and J Smith I'm still very hopeful for.

2. The guys we tracked from 18: Fritsch, Hore, Keilty, C. Wagner
Jason Taylor confirmed recently Fritsch was on their radar years earlier but they didn't take the gamble with injuries. Hore was someone they looked at when he was 18. Surely Keilty to go to Casey was on the draft radar. Corey Wagner as well. I see these guys as more where AFL recruiting is going, getting guys to your VFL side or monitoring guys who go in or out of the AFL system.

3.Regulation mature age picks: Vanders, Hannan, T. Smith, J Wagner
Would be interesting to know how far back some of these guys were looked at. Vanders had a dominant NEAFL season. Hannan a very good VFL year after a strong Ammos year. Not sure how the Bull got to Casey. Josh Wagner rose through the ranks in Queensland to get himself looked at. Interesting they are all guys who had or have had a fair bit of upside, they weren't plodding midfielders or lumbering rucks. Vanders and Hannan particularly are guys who can really turn games. Bull is a bit workman like but that's to be expected for a key forward. Josh Wagner a little more vanilla but the hope was his kicking and smarts could be valuable, who knows, it might still be.

I think Jason Taylor has been on record before saying that hes been watching Vandenberg from his early days at Collingwood @DeeSpencer? 

Not a bad effort hiding him away! Get him fully fit this summer and he could be an absolute weapon next year.

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I think Jason Taylor has been on record before saying that hes been watching Vandenberg from his early days at Collingwood @DeeSpencer? 

Not a bad effort hiding him away! Get him fully fit this summer and he could be an absolute weapon next year.

Do you mean Vanders or Hore Dazzle?

Edited December 12, 20186 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

On 12/11/2018 at 6:52 AM, Dee Dee said:

?Austin Bradtke is mature age?

 

On 12/11/2018 at 6:35 PM, spirit of norm smith said:

Austin is only 17.  Year 12 at Haileybury.  Not quite mature aged. 

Yeah, ooops, ok, my mistake.

Let's hope he's a mature minded underage player then.  With the elite sporting background of his parents, that's probably a fair bet too.

We could have ourselves a real bargain in this instance given that we have the opportunity to put some good development into a great athlete whilst he's still effectively an underage player, prevent him from going into the draft.  Effectively as I understand the rookie promotion selection (which isn't very well) we could pick him up with our last draft pick providing he is nominated for such prior to the draft?

Really does go a long way to explaining why we didn't go for any project ruckman in this year's draft.

4 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I think Jason Taylor has been on record before saying that hes been watching Vandenberg from his early days at Collingwood @DeeSpencer? 

Not a bad effort hiding him away! Get him fully fit this summer and he could be an absolute weapon next year.

Yeah come to think of it I think he said something like he'd seen him play for NSW in the under 18's. Probably the same for Josh Wagner and QLD 18's. This is just a guess but I'd imagine in any draft year they look at something like 300+ maybe even 500+ kids who come through various pathways and then keep track of where they end up. It's a little arbitrary but the guys who come out of juniors and end up at Casey I see a bit differently and I include Corey Wagner in that because he went straight from AFL to Casey and back.

3 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Do you mean Vanders or Hore Dazzle?

Vanders from when Taylor was at Collingwood.

4 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

 

Yeah, ooops, ok, my mistake.

Let's hope he's a mature minded underage player then.  With the elite sporting background of his parents, that's probably a fair bet too.

We could have ourselves a real bargain in this instance given that we have the opportunity to put some good development into a great athlete whilst he's still effectively an underage player, prevent him from going into the draft.  Effectively as I understand the rookie promotion selection (which isn't very well) we could pick him up with our last draft pick providing he is nominated for such prior to the draft?

Really does go a long way to explaining why we didn't go for any project ruckman in this year's draft.

That (mature minded underage player) is one factor that would be difficult to emerge from most of the young brigade, today. Peter Knights, I think, was the only stand-out underage player to absolutely excel; but then again, there have been quite a few who did continue to mature in their football minds. The lines are blurred today in terms of 'rights of passage' that no longer exist in this very modern era and in society in general - let's hope that the MFC can evolve one or two in quick-step timing.