I’m finding it difficult to reconcile many of Knightmare’s shifting views on some players.

This is where he had Jacob Van Rooyen in his 2 April, 2021 power rankings:-

“10. Jacob Van Rooyen

Van Rooyen appears to to be the most advanced key forward in this year's draft crop. Van Rooyen kicked 19 goals from 10 WAFL Colts matches last season. Van Rooyen's aerial marking and contested marking are his weapons and give him the future scope to switch into defence. Possessing a strong and advanced body for his age, Van Rooyen has good one-on-one capabilities and importantly for a forward applies forward pressure capably.”

A month later he dropped out of the May power rankings (possibly due to his bout of glandular fever) but he was back on 8 June, 2021:-

“17. Jacob Van Rooyen

Among the most advanced key position players in this year's draft crop, Van Rooyen has recently returned from a battle with glandular fever. Van Rooyen's aerial marking and contested marking are his weapons and give him the scope to switch into defence. Possessing a strong and advanced body for his age, Van Rooyen has good one-on-one capabilities and importantly for a forward applies forward pressure capably. Following his 24 disposal, three goal performance against East Perth, Van Rooyan earns a position inside the top 20.”

Despite booting 24 goals in the final six games of the colts season and displaying some consistently good form for the WA Under 19s in both defence and up forward, he has dropped out of favour from being “the most advanced key forward in this year’s draft” to an outsider for an AFL debut in 2022 and possibly 2023. 

3 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

I’m finding it difficult to reconcile many of Knightmare’s shifting views on some players.

This is where he had Jacob Van Rooyen in his 2 April, 2021 power rankings:-

“10. Jacob Van Rooyen

Van Rooyen appears to to be the most advanced key forward in this year's draft crop. Van Rooyen kicked 19 goals from 10 WAFL Colts matches last season. Van Rooyen's aerial marking and contested marking are his weapons and give him the future scope to switch into defence. Possessing a strong and advanced body for his age, Van Rooyen has good one-on-one capabilities and importantly for a forward applies forward pressure capably.”

A month later he dropped out of the May power rankings (possibly due to his bout of glandular fever) but he was back on 8 June, 2021:-

“17. Jacob Van Rooyen

Among the most advanced key position players in this year's draft crop, Van Rooyen has recently returned from a battle with glandular fever. Van Rooyen's aerial marking and contested marking are his weapons and give him the scope to switch into defence. Possessing a strong and advanced body for his age, Van Rooyen has good one-on-one capabilities and importantly for a forward applies forward pressure capably. Following his 24 disposal, three goal performance against East Perth, Van Rooyan earns a position inside the top 20.”

Despite booting 24 goals in the final six games of the colts season and displaying some consistently good form for the WA Under 19s in both defence and up forward, he has dropped out of favour from being “the most advanced key forward in this year’s draft” to an outsider for an AFL debut in 2022 and possibly 2023. 

Glandular Fever can take a long time to fully recover from and get over. He may still have some lingering effects that will impede his his initial progress. We may need to be a little patient with him if he doesn't develop as we hope to start with. It might be a little like when Salem arrived; we had to sought his underlying issues before his fitness came on in leaps and bounds. I think he will be worth the wait.

3 hours ago, Left Foot Snap said:

Glandular Fever can take a long time to fully recover from and get over. He may still have some lingering effects that will impede his his initial progress. We may need to be a little patient with him if he doesn't develop as we hope to start with. It might be a little like when Salem arrived; we had to sought his underlying issues before his fitness came on in leaps and bounds. I think he will be worth the wait.

Hence the mystery surrounding KM’s harsh judgement about this player. Or does he just have a thing about Melbourne?

19 minutes ago, Elwood 3184 said:

Hence the mystery surrounding KM’s harsh judgement about this player. Or does he just have a thing about Melbourne?

Usually you’ll end up better off if KM doesn’t rate the player 

4 hours ago, Left Foot Snap said:

Glandular Fever can take a long time to fully recover from and get over. He may still have some lingering effects that will impede his his initial progress. We may need to be a little patient with him if he doesn't develop as we hope to start with. It might be a little like when Salem arrived; we had to sought his underlying issues before his fitness came on in leaps and bounds. I think he will be worth the wait.

I'm pretty sure Junior had glandular fever a couple of years in to his career at Melbourne and had a couple of years where he wasn't playing great football.

All that I can say WJ / all the better for MFC he fills a need and will be much better than his Ranking. Probably closer to 10 than where we snagged him. Good old glandular fever.!!👍😂🤘

9 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

I’m finding it difficult to reconcile many of Knightmare’s shifting views on some players.

This is where he had Jacob Van Rooyen in his 2 April, 2021 power rankings:-

“10. Jacob Van Rooyen

Van Rooyen appears to to be the most advanced key forward in this year's draft crop. Van Rooyen kicked 19 goals from 10 WAFL Colts matches last season. Van Rooyen's aerial marking and contested marking are his weapons and give him the future scope to switch into defence. Possessing a strong and advanced body for his age, Van Rooyen has good one-on-one capabilities and importantly for a forward applies forward pressure capably.”

A month later he dropped out of the May power rankings (possibly due to his bout of glandular fever) but he was back on 8 June, 2021:-

“17. Jacob Van Rooyen

Among the most advanced key position players in this year's draft crop, Van Rooyen has recently returned from a battle with glandular fever. Van Rooyen's aerial marking and contested marking are his weapons and give him the scope to switch into defence. Possessing a strong and advanced body for his age, Van Rooyen has good one-on-one capabilities and importantly for a forward applies forward pressure capably. Following his 24 disposal, three goal performance against East Perth, Van Rooyan earns a position inside the top 20.”

Despite booting 24 goals in the final six games of the colts season and displaying some consistently good form for the WA Under 19s in both defence and up forward, he has dropped out of favour from being “the most advanced key forward in this year’s draft” to an outsider for an AFL debut in 2022 and possibly 2023. 

I’m not sure why you’d particularly care. The draft is over and soon we’ll have AFL practice matches or VFL form to assess.

But I’d say JVR got a top 10 ranking based on excellent bottom year form. Slipped out of the top 20 based on glandular and not being ready for wafl senior footy. Then came back in with some good colts games. The margin between 10-25 on a mock draft is just like the actual draft, it’s very thin.

His prediction that he won’t play in 22 and maybe 23 is surely based on our strong side and him being a young tall who struggled with his first go at senior footy. But it’s a big guess really. If we don’t have injuries or covid he probably won’t play in 22. If he’s going to be a player he’ll probably at least get a taste in 23 but unless he’s exceptional or we have lots of injuries he still shouldn’t see a lot of footy within 2 years and that’s fine too!

Edited January 20, 20223 yr by DeeSpencer

KM doesn't have a great track record. Watches a lot of footage/highlights, combines with stats and doesn't actually watch anyone off the ball live. Plus, I'm not convinced he understands what's important in the modern game. Qualifies most of his judgements and is generally just overly verbose, contradicts himself and....annoying. If you couldn't tell, I'm not a fan!

He was first to the scene and works hard, but that's about it. ESPN threw him a bone to loss lead their AFL readership from Big Footy. 

Never liked Kossie, said you could get higher production out of a....Jack Mahony. Yep. My wife took one look at Kossie in the U18 SA game and knew. This kid looked at a stat sheet and saw he didn't kick enough goals 

Ignore everything the fool says

Rant over

11 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I’m not sure why you’d particularly care. The draft is over and soon we’ll have AFL practice matches or VFL form to assess.

But I’d say JVR got a top 10 ranking based on excellent bottom year form. Slipped out of the top 20 based on glandular and not being ready for wafl senior footy. Then came back in with some good colts games. The margin between 10-25 on a mock draft is just like the actual draft, it’s very thin.

His prediction that he won’t play in 22 and maybe 23 is surely based on our strong side and him being a young tall who struggled with his first go at senior footy. But it’s a big guess really. If we don’t have injuries or covid he probably won’t play in 22. If he’s going to be a player he’ll probably at least get a taste in 23 but unless he’s exceptional or we have lots of injuries he still shouldn’t see a lot of footy within 2 years and that’s fine too!

He will be handled in accordance with his potential and our needs.No one can predict how long he will wait until his debut.  My inclination is that if he shows the same promise as Our 2019 trio or as Jake Bowey he will be selected on his merits and AFL opportunity. 

More likely to be an Aaron Norton type than Marra Ugle-Hagan  I suspect. 

But won't have to find his marks all outside the 50m line and on the wing!! 

16 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I’m not sure why you’d particularly care. The draft is over and soon we’ll have AFL practice matches or VFL form to assess.

But I’d say JVR got a top 10 ranking based on excellent bottom year form. Slipped out of the top 20 based on glandular and not being ready for wafl senior footy. Then came back in with some good colts games. The margin between 10-25 on a mock draft is just like the actual draft, it’s very thin.

His prediction that he won’t play in 22 and maybe 23 is surely based on our strong side and him being a young tall who struggled with his first go at senior footy. But it’s a big guess really. If we don’t have injuries or covid he probably won’t play in 22. If he’s going to be a player he’ll probably at least get a taste in 23 but unless he’s exceptional or we have lots of injuries he still shouldn’t see a lot of footy within 2 years and that’s fine too!

Not sure why there is this rush into getting games into JVR.

I'd be happy for him to play majority of the year at Casey (fingers crossed) until he absolutely bangs the door down like Bowey did. If he's able to sneak in some late games towards the back end of the year then I think it'll be a good outcome for JVR on a personal level and the club as well. But absolutely have no doubt the club would not be one bit fazed if he didn't debut this year. They'll just want to make sure he is developing well.

What we do know is Mark Williams mantra of tearing your birth certificate up when you arrive at the club. Meaning there is no cap put on you when you are a young draftee. If you have strong consistent form in the 2's then you'll get a game.

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Not sure why there is this rush into getting games into JVR.

I'd be happy for him to play majority of the year at Casey (fingers crossed) until he absolutely bangs the door down like Bowey did. If he's able to sneak in some late games towards the back end of the year then I think it'll be a good outcome for JVR on a personal level and the club as well. But absolutely have no doubt the club would not be one bit fazed if he didn't debut this year. They'll just want to make sure he is developing well.

What we do know is Mark Williams mantra of tearing your birth certificate up when you arrive at the club. Meaning there is no cap put on you when you are a young draftee. If you have strong consistent form in the 2's then you'll get a game.

Isn't it great to not need draftees to come in and play round 1?

2 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Isn't it great to not need draftees to come in and play round 1?

With the way Covid has impacted the AFLW, our draftees may be needed to play rd 1.

I think that DD36 summed it up well. If you're doing all the right things at training or at Casey, birth certificates, body size or experience will not be a factor in team selection.

There's no rush. Who cares what someone said last year. He's a young kid. Give him time.

2022 or 2023 or even 2024 if that's what it takes to develop to fulfill his potential.

GO DEES.

30 minutes ago, tiers said:

There's no rush. Who cares what someone said last year. He's a young kid. Give him time.

2022 or 2023 or even 2024 if that's what it takes to develop to fulfill his potential.

GO DEES.

Jackson, Rivers and Pickett all played in their 1st season. As did Bowey.

If he's good enough, JVR will play. Age is irrelevant.

Not a case of a hurry or anything else. From what I’ve seen of JVR at training, he has the attributes if required for action. 

The two most highly touted KPF’s in last year’s draft were Jye Amiss who was taken by Fremantle  and Jacob Van Rooyen. It’s interesting that in the case of the former, the Dockers have him training away from the main group. Amiss is understood to be following a personalised training program ahead of his maiden season in the AFL.

It will be interesting to see how the development of both players turns out. Of course, Freo would probably have a greater need and more immediate need for a KPF  - the experiment will be interesting.

Yeah, this should be interesting to watch and compare. I was very taken with Amiss based on his incredible accuracy. Knowing little about Van Rooyen I didn’t really have an opinion of him. If the mark I saw in the practice match footage is anything to go by though, he looks the real deal.

1 minute ago, FlashInThePan said:

Yeah, this should be interesting to watch and compare. I was very taken with Amiss based on his incredible accuracy. Knowing little about Van Rooyen I didn’t really have an opinion of him. If the mark I saw in the practice match footage is anything to go by though, he looks the real deal.

FWIW, it feels Amiss seemed like the higher upside, lower floor pick. His skill level looks superior to van Rooyen, but is less physically built/imposing.

Van Roo seems the more likely of the pair to put his body on the line and take a pack mark, but doesn't have the polish of Amiss.

Amiss maybe he might be a miss like Jack Watts who had the skills but not the body.

5 minutes ago, durango said:

Amiss maybe he might be a miss like Jack Watts who had the skills but not the body.

And the name worries me a bit too. 🙄

14 hours ago, adonski said:

FWIW, it feels Amiss seemed like the higher upside, lower floor pick. His skill level looks superior to van Rooyen, but is less physically built/imposing.

Van Roo seems the more likely of the pair to put his body on the line and take a pack mark, but doesn't have the polish of Amiss.

Really why talk about Amiss ? We were never able to get him early in the draft and have done a mighty job getting Van Rooyen. All indications are he is progressing well and Picket advised of this in his report.

Your Amiss vs JVR is a classic case  of better knowing a devil AND NOT knowing another ATALL. Have a look at his highlights. 
He is versatile and can play back as well as forward which he has gone successfully in WA Colts  and Under 19 state Football plus about 5 Claremont games where he concentrated on FF. 

 

2 hours ago, 58er said:

Really why talk about Amiss ? We were never able to get him early in the draft and have done a mighty job getting Van Rooyen. All indications are he is progressing well and Picket advised of this in his report.

Your Amiss vs JVR is a classic case  of better knowing a devil AND NOT knowing another ATALL. Have a look at his highlights. 
He is versatile and can play back as well as forward which he has gone successfully in WA Colts  and Under 19 state Football plus about 5 Claremont games where he concentrated on FF. 

 

I guess because we are deep in the off season and on a demons fan forum. Watching the GF replay and exploring hypotheticals around the draft is about all that we have for the next few weeks 🙁

 My post about Amiss was not intended to imply that we made some kind of mistake at the draft table, just looking at the only other comparable tall in the first round.

I am rapt that we actually picked up JVR he is so important to our long term plans and the other bloke may be a bit more feminine than JVR not that is an issue.!!😳

I think Jacob could be making his debut this Thursday night. 

45 minutes ago, Storma and Wiz said:

I think Jacob could be making his debut this Thursday night. 

In what / whose role?

(Was any reason given publicly for his late withdrawal Saturday?)