The Rookie Draft Central Preview of tomorrow’s Preliminary Finals.

PREVIEW | Conferences collide for preliminary finals

Will be interesting to see how Langford and Hynes go against Ashcroft and Reed. 

11 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Will be interesting to see how Langford and Hynes go against Ashcroft and Reed. 

Yze may get the stopper role on Langford???

Some talent on display today for the preliminary final.

Names to keep an eye on.

Harvey Langford, Cooper Hynes, Riak Andrew all in action today for Dandenong Stingrays.

Harry Armstrong and Murphy Reid for Sandringham

Jagga Smith, Finn O'Sullivan Tom Gross and Noah Yze for Oakleigh. 

Jack Ough, Ollie Hannaford and Jonty Faull for Rebels.

Wow.  Dragons simply too good. Too many stars. Midfield stacked with young guns.

⭐️Levi Ashcroft (32 possessions) will be pick 1 or 2.  Lions are so lucky.

⭐️Murphy Reid. Reminds me of Lachie Neale. Smart player. Quick hands.  Kicking was better today. 

⭐️Sam Marshall. Another Lions academy player. Definitely top 20 pick.  He has that smooth ruck rover midfielder style.  
 

👏Nat Sulzberger. Tassie boy. Matched it with his peers. Taller mid. Tough in the contest and had good skills.  Won the inside footy and distributed. 

👏Luke Kennedy.  In my view, one of the most underrated young players. Plays like Andrew Brayshaw.  Gets the footy.  Tidy skills and good overhead.  Covers the ground.  
 

👏Harry Oliver.  If you want a tough skilled half back, then Oliver answers the brief.  Reminds of Nic Newman type.  Excellent skills and competes hard.  Will be top 25 pick.  Likely around 23-27.  
 

👏Bailey Mackenzie.  6 goals. Smooth versatile half forward/forward.  Like Bailey Fritsch, he knows how to kick a goal.  Will likely be a bargain pickup around the 4th round selection. 

👏Harry Armstrong.  Only the one goal but he’s already shown he’s going to be a very good player. I think he’s still a 12-15 draft pick and will go 1st round for sure.  
 

* whilst not eligible this year, Jack Dalton again showed his class as a left foot wing/mid. His delivery into the forwards was excellent.  Will be closely watched next year as he moves into a central mid position.  

Stingrays outclassed today.  Hard to match the mids of the Dragons. 

⭐️Harvey Langford. Again showed he’s going to be pick 1-5. Very good overhead. Wins contested footy. Kicks 50 metre easily. Reminds us of the Bont. Only knock is he’s defensive game. Zero tackles.  Didn’t look interested in working hard without the footy.  Such talented youngsters need that ability too.  (Funny moment.  Commentator saying he is “ likely to be drafted top 40, in fact top 30 or probably top 20”… touch of the Kelli underwood calls…!!!). 

⭐️Cooper Hynes.  Tough day but is a hard worker in close. Tackled strongly.  Will be early second round pick. Dees might be a very interested team.  
👏Harrison Doughton. I’ve seen him 4 or 5 times now and he has impressed.  Mid sized onballer.  Tough day versus dragons elite but he held his own.  Good decisions.  Competed hard even though overwhelmed.  

any word on how noah yze went? 

On 14/09/2024 at 09:28, Lord Travis said:

Will be interesting to see how Langford and Hynes go against Ashcroft and Reed. 

It was a ripping contest but the class of the Dragons mids was the difference.  Langford impressed with his Bont like contest and took some nice marks   Lack of tackling agility was a worry. 

Warning … Ashcroft will be as good as his brother.  😭😭

it’s a shame that the Chargers lost (8.18.66 to 10.10.70) because they were the only team capable of challenging the Dragons imv. I only saw the first half of Rebels v Dragons but will try to catch the game highlights or replay   

⭐️Jagga Smith.  He’s small but classy and evasive.  Quick hands.  Think he’s probably getting closer to being the number 1 pick.  
⭐️Finn O’Sullivan. Not at his best again ,  but still won the footy and his disposal was elite by foot.  Also nice to see his tackling and contest work.  He kicks goals as a mid. As per prior, slightly smaller LDU.  
👏Zane Cochrane. Yes he’s going to get drafted. Saw him in a half at Carey and he stood out. Then he played a great game versus dragons earlier in the year.  He’s very good tall mid who can play inside/outside.  Excellent skills. Thought he’d be early 4th round.  Might drift into high 40s now.  Dees should be looking at him definitely.  
👍🏻 Noah Yze.  Number 15. Good size.  Played inside and I think across half forward.  Sticks a solid tackle.  I am thinking he will not get drafted but definitely would like to see the Dees pickup as a father son rookie.  

If we picked up Harry Oliver it's instant social media time.

Video as he walks into the club the first time, title - 'When Harry met Clarry'

1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

It was a ripping contest but the class of the Dragons mids was the difference.  Langford impressed with his Bont like contest and took some nice marks   Lack of tackling agility was a worry. 

Warning … Ashcroft will be as good as his brother.  😭😭

Yeah Ashcroft looks the goods. Not possible for us and weighing up the other options is interesting, and we need to take a gun midfielder at 5 to build our next premiership midfield around. Gun mids win flags. Whoever we take will be part of the next wave to  replace Trac and Clarry long term. We need another Trac/Gus/Clarry type elite midfield haul for the future. We already got Windsor as part of that, now need an inside bull next to him.

Langford seems destined to be a gun big bodied mid who can clunk marks and hit the scoreboard. He's probably the one that will be available at our pick who seems best IMO.

Lalor the other main potential, but he's injured again so won't see him again now. He's also had injury troubles the past 12 months, so unsure if there's anything in that from a durability or work ethic point of view.

Whilst I was really hoping that we’d get to see Jagga, FOS & Gross take on Ashcroft, Reid & Marshall in the CTL final, we do have two genuine key forwards facing off.

Armstrong at one end and Faull at the other should be a great watch, could have a genuine key forward shoot out.

Scouting notes from the two finals, including some names that will be of interest as the drafts approach.

Scouting Notes: Dragons down Dandenong to keep three-peat alive

Scouting Notes: Rebels snatch Grand Final spot from wayward Chargers

 

 

8 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

⭐️Jagga Smith.  He’s small but classy and evasive.  Quick hands.  Think he’s probably getting closer to being the number 1 pick.  
⭐️Finn O’Sullivan. Not at his best again ,  but still won the footy and his disposal was elite by foot.  Also nice to see his tackling and contest work.  He kicks goals as a mid. As per prior, slightly smaller LDU.

I only watched the last quarter but Finn was playing an undersized CHF role and took a couple of big time marks and looked incredibly dynamic even if he mucked up a couple a of kicks.

Jagga was Jagga. Prolific but low impact. 

If either of them was in contention for pick 1 it has to be Finn.

North Melbourne said to be keen on picking up a key position player with class and versatility. Could they take Luke Trainor of the Dragons?

1 hour ago, einstein251 said:

North Melbourne said to be keen on picking up a key position player with class and versatility. Could they take Luke Trainor of the Dragons?

There’s a little bit of concern about Trainor’s concussion history. Add that Armstrong & Tauru may have moved past him as key position prospects and it’s less likely than likely that the Roos take Trainor at pick 2.

2 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Scouting notes from the two finals, including some names that will be of interest as the drafts approach.

Scouting Notes: Dragons down Dandenong to keep three-peat alive

Scouting Notes: Rebels snatch Grand Final spot from wayward Chargers

 

 

Good to see Riak Andrew listed among the best. 

#5 Riak Andrew
Tall Defender | 192cm | 17/02/2005

Stats: 9 disposals, 5 tackles, 3 hitouts

Andrew played yet another effective shutdown role down back, restricting Harry Armstrong to eight disposals and a goal. The over-ager was beaten at times when taken up the ground but gave Armstrong nothing inside defensive 50, being aided by ample aerial support and competing hard. Among his best moments was a loose ball win against Archie Ludowyke on the last line, and his holding-the-ball tackle in term four. As per usual, he could hardly be faulted for effort.

Edited September 16, 2024Sep 16 by Colm

Yep, hope we go for Riak with a later pick.

57 minutes ago, Colm said:

Good to see Riak Andrew listed among the best. 

#5 Riak Andrew
Tall Defender | 192cm | 17/02/2005

Stats: 9 disposals, 5 tackles, 3 hitouts

Andrew played yet another effective shutdown role down back, restricting Harry Armstrong to eight disposals and a goal. The over-ager was beaten at times when taken up the ground but gave Armstrong nothing inside defensive 50, being aided by ample aerial support and competing hard. Among his best moments was a loose ball win against Archie Ludowyke on the last line, and his holding-the-ball tackle in term four. As per usual, he could hardly be faulted for effort.

That's effective shutdown jobs on Shanahan & Armstrong in the run home as well as a fun match up with Tauru.

There's a bit to work with there, well worth a late/rookie chance.

14 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Scouting notes from the two finals, including some names that will be of interest as the drafts approach.

Scouting Notes: Dragons down Dandenong to keep three-peat alive

Scouting Notes: Rebels snatch Grand Final spot from wayward Chargers

 

 

Thanks @Whispering_Jack  good reading over a morning coffee. 
I alm glad that youngsters like Luke Kennedy (Dragons), Jack Ough (Rebels) and Zane Cochrane (Chargers) are getting recognised.  This is an excellent draft and I think picks in 3rd and 4th round can still find a club some very good young players in my view.  

12 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Yep, hope we go for Riak with a later pick.

Since he's an over ager, does this mean he's no longer in our NGA (or eligible to be selected by us as an NGA?

11 minutes ago, MO FINE said:

Since he's an over ager, does this mean he's no longer in our NGA (or eligible to be selected by us as an NGA?

Assume he’s not eligible.  Who knows with those NGA rules?  Maybe Dees will need to check eligibility clause 28.3 sub paragraph 7.  

22 minutes ago, MO FINE said:

Since he's an over ager, does this mean he's no longer in our NGA (or eligible to be selected by us as an NGA?

I don't think he is. Could be wrong though.

Edited September 17, 2024Sep 17 by Adam The God

Two Dragons players who also impressed were Lennox Hoffman & Adrian Cole.  

Hoffman had a good game across half back and his run and dash has improved since I saw him earlier this year.  

He’s under the SAINTS NGA - his father was born in Switzerland.  Not sure how exactly that fits.

Adrian Cole (whose father was born in Nigeria) is a tall 6”5’ defender who is also  under the SAINTS NGA.

Both youngsters grew up in Australia.  Both defenders are likely draftees with Cole likely at 50ish and Hoffman as a likely rookie selection.  

MORRISH MEDAL (COATES TALENT LEAGUE BOYS BEST AND FAIREST)

Xavier Lindsay (Gippsland Power) 21 votes
Cooper Hynes (Dandenong Stingrays) 19
Jayden Nguyen (Calder Cannons) 18
Jagga Smith (Oakleigh Chargers) 18
Josh Smillie (Eastern Ranges) 17
Zak Johnson (Northern Knights) 16
Damon Hollow (Calder Cannons) 15
Tobie Travaglia (Bendigo Pioneers) 13
Isaac Kako (Calder Cannons) 12
Cody Anderson (Eastern Ranges) 11
Xavier Kardachi (Western Jets) 11
Harvey Langford (Dandenong Stingrays) 11