The Demons’ third selection within the top 20 brings 17-year-old Maggie Caris to the club.

She is an elite athlete, starring not only as a junior footballer, but as a netballer as well.

At 190cm, Caris will be looking to develop her ruck craft at the Dees, with an ability to hit the ball with both hands and follow up at ground level.

Are there many taller in the AFLW? 

You would expect she may grow a bit more too.

Apparently a seriously good junior netballer who will pursue the two sports together. Seems pretty switched on too so I imagine that there will be a lot of improvement in her over the years. Seems like more of a project at this point.

As for the height, I'm not sure if she's the tallest, but Lauren Pearce is 184cm, Emma King is 187cm and Sharni Layton is 188cm. So if she isn't then she'd be pretty close!

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823336/nab-aflw-draft-maggie-caris?videoId=823336&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601974129001

The kicking action should have a NSFW label on it, but clearly very athletic and good spatial sense. Will need to work on the footy skills, being a recent convert, but there seems to be a lot to work with.

8 hours ago, Axis of Bob said:

Will need to work on the footy skills, being a recent convert, but there seems to be a lot to work with.

I notice in the clip playing ruck she handballed as the first option - i'd be encouraging that rather than getting her to kick - very much in the Scott Wynd school of development.

Edited October 6, 20205 yr by grazman

Bit to work with there. Some great tap work.

On 10/6/2020 at 9:28 PM, deanox said:

Are there many taller in the AFLW? 

You would expect she may grow a bit more too.

I'd think unlikely as most girls stop growing mid-teens, but you never know.

On 10/7/2020 at 6:31 AM, grazman said:

I notice in the clip playing ruck she handballed as the first option - i'd be encouraging that rather than getting her to kick - very much in the Scott Wynd school of development.

I think rucks are done a real disservice by being instructed to always dish off by hand - if you never kick in games, you're never going to be able to kick in games. 

I get that you don't want your less skilled players constantly turning it over, but it really stymies players' development if they're not trusted to every kick the footy in matches.

Maggie's young and I imagine she's a long way off her pootential, so I'd definitely be stripping her technique right back to basics and teaching her how to kick the footy. I reckon you can turn just about anyone into a serviceable kick.

The other thing to remember is that her background is almost all netball, where passes are only ever made in close (especially as a shooter). So she has been trained to only look for close targets and it'll take time for her to be able to naturally adjust to the idea that targets 30m away are viable.

She’s a big unit. Tap work and handballing look good so plenty to work with. But that kicking technique is atrocious. Some intensive coaching required there no doubt.