Part 7: Jason Taylor - Visionary or Over-rated - 2019

[Deespicable 2,660]

2019

Draft: 9/10 Trades: 8/10

The 2014 draft was where our culture was made, but the 2019 draft and trade period was where we sowed the seeds for the 2021 flag, solving our key deficiencies with pace a priority along with Taylor finally selecting the right young ruck/forward.

And it took us falling off the map, we lost our last seven matches to finish second last, to do it. But just when we locked up pick 2 and access to Noah Anderson, who had trained with us for a week or two during the school holidays and left a strong impression, the AFL took it away and said Gold Coast could not only have Matt Rowell, but his best schoolmate Anderson as well.

Plenty of pundits thought we’d take Dandenong’s Hayden Young and his booming left foot or Larke Medallist Caleb Serong, but Luke Jackson’s back-up efforts for WA had started to win everybody over and Taylor was a fan.

Then there were the other two plays that Tim Lamb, our new upgraded list manager, had to orchestrate with Josh Mahoney’s guidance and you would really have to ask them to explain all the coming and goings that pre-draft season and even then they probably wouldn’t remember all the intricacies.

The first was finding a player with outside run, we had the inside mids covered by then, but were deficient in the spread area. Somehow we managed to entice Fremantle’s Ed Langdon, a Sandringham mate of Angus Brayshaw who was taken at pick 54 in 2014.

Only issue was that he had finished 2019 in ripping form for the Dockers, I think he came third in their B&F in 2019. That meant Peter Bell wanted more than our second rounder for him. We ended up swapping our second rounder pick 22 for their 26 and then gave them our 2020 second rounder as well in what was a big win for us I reckon.

Then, possibly in the wake of missing out on the quality top-end of the 2018 draft, Mahoney and Lamb managed to present North with what on paper looked like a win for the Kangaroos. We’d give them our 2020 first pick (based on 2019 that would be around 2-6) and our pick 26 in return for their 2019 first rounder – which was pick 8.

That gave Taylor two high picks like in 2015 and options aplenty. Possibly initially he had earmarked Jackson for pick 8, but it soon became clear he was racing up everyone’s boards as the quality tall.

We also offloaded Sam Frost, who was out of favour, at least with Steven May anyway, for the Hawks 2020 second rounder. He’s already played 85 games for them, so that’s ended up being a poor deal I reckon.

And we went hard for unrestricted free agent Adam Tomlinson – our original thinking was to also play him on a wing. Tommo cost us nothing pick wise, but he’s been on a big salary for a fringe player.

But just before the draft we did another shifty with Freo. Aware that we may bid on their academy kid Liam Henry to force a fall and a loss of pick 9, Freo agreed to gift us picks 10 and 28 so that they could keep their high pick before a bid on Henry.  

And suddenly we had three highish picks plus Ed Langdon and the rest is history, although it took another year for the pace injection that came with Jackson, Pickett and Rivers to really bear fruit.

3 Luke Jackson – if you’ve been following this series you’d know that drafting the right talls hasn’t been Taylor’s strength. But Taylor loved his second efforts for WA and, having lost Anderson, rated him as a must-have. On his first day at training the 18-year-old took on Lever and ANB in a 400m time trial and showed his athletic ability – ANB did win though. By year two he was showing more than a few glimpses as Gawny’s back-up and then in the GF, his injection into the middle in the third term coincided with our hottest offensive period this century. After his third season a few family issues back home led to him heading to Fremantle – did we do enough to try and keep the emerging 21-year-old? That’s not a question for Taylor, but it is for Richardson, Lamb and Goody because you just wonder what would have happened if we’d offered him unparalleled  top coin to stay. 

12 Kozzie Pickett – Clearly we wanted a gun small forward and Kozzie and Cody Weightman were rated the best of that year and I think Taylor and his team were aware that neither was likely to be a top 10 pick, so having pick 8 was going to be a waste, hence the late pick swap for 28. Cody was the safe bet being a local and his aerial prowess for his size had already been seen. But Kozzie had shown a few magic signs and his crunching run-down bump video was eye-watering stuff. As it turned out, with Adelaide going McAsey (pick 6), our former pick 8 could have netted one of Serong or Young, both guns. But Kozzie has that special matchwinning ingredient – the ability to break laterally with his amazing burst of speed. I love how Serong plays but Kozzie is one out of the box and our point of difference.

32 Trent Rivers – with all the academy picks, we ended up at 32. I think Taylor was keen to get another WA kid Georgiades, who had a super bottom-age year before injury, but he went pick 18 to Port. It ended up being a really deep draft and it was a super year for WA prospects, especially after Jackson, Devan Robertson and Henry had inspired them to a rare win in the U18 champs. Rivers was one of the few players I’ve seen with the confidence to take a bounce and after a few hiccups along the way, developed last year into a quality defender before his recent metamorphosis as our best big-bodied mid.

It's a shame we didn’t have another pick that year, as another of Jackson’s and Rivers East Fremantle teammates Chad Warner went at pick 39 and I’m sure Taylor would have been across him. Michael Frederick (pick 61) has also torched us with his pace. 

The rookie draft that year wasn’t super special, with mainly academy kids making it, so it’s good that we skipped it. We did however pick up a few extras via unusual sources.

Tomlinson came as an UFA and finally seemed to find his niche as a backman in early 2021 and did a memorable job on Hawkins when a flailing arm sent Maysie packing early that year. You had to feel for the tearful big fella when he did his knee down in Tassie two weeks later. He’s got a huge tank and is a very clean footballer – he just seems to be unlucky – T-Mac’s reincarnation spoiled his 2024 for example leaving him with the unwanted tag as the best VFL defender going around.

Ed Langdon spent his first few weeks standing out on his far wing and calling for the ball – half way through the year our mids figured out he was pretty quick and went lateral to him.

We also took a punt on two players via the PSS – Harley Bennell and Mitch Brown. Brown proved a good back-up tall, while Harley showed glimpses but the heavy-tackling game of the 2020s meant there was little room for an outside player like Harley. Worth a try though.

But ultimately it was this draft that gave us the speed and freakish unconventional skills of Jackson and Pickett that led to our flag in 2021.

In my view, it was Taylor’s best year in charge.

[Little Goffy 13,902]

Everyone is harsh on Mitch Brown because he could never live up to the Pederson-level expectations.

It is a travesty of the game that Langdon doesn't have All-Australian status, and we may soon enough see all three of our 2019 draft picks score All-Australian selections. Pickett and Rivers are maturing steadily from a high start point, while Jackson is clearly the game's best combination... um... ruck/half-forward-flanker?

Sam Frost is an OK tall defender but if Tomlinson were at Hawthorn he'd also be an AFL regular.  Swings and roundabouts.

[seventyfour 966]

Don't know how this draft doesn't get a 10/10!!

All three played in a flag in their second season.

• Jackson was good enough to command two first round picks when he left
• Kozzy is 23 and already a top 5 small forward in the league
• Rivers is showing signs of being an A grade midfielder after 90 very good games in defence 

If we got to re-do our draft of the players drafted after Jackson, who would you have taken instead? And the same for Pickett and Rivers? Only Chad Warner stands out, otherwise I would make the same picks again.

[whatwhat say what 21,858]

taylor always rated dog over anderson and was going to take him before the afl gifted gc17 a pick at the pointy end

[roy11 3,614]

2 hours ago, seventyfour said:

Don't know how this draft doesn't get a 10/10!!

Wonder what needs to be done for a 10/10

[DeeZone 8,865]

6 hours ago, Deespicable said:

2019

Draft: 9/10 Trades: 8/10

The 2014 draft was where our culture was made, but the 2019 draft and trade period was where we sowed the seeds for the 2021 flag, solving our key deficiencies with pace a priority along with Taylor finally selecting the right young ruck/forward.

And it took us falling off the map, we lost our last seven matches to finish second last, to do it. But just when we locked up pick 2 and access to Noah Anderson, who had trained with us for a week or two during the school holidays and left a strong impression, the AFL took it away and said Gold Coast could not only have Matt Rowell, but his best schoolmate Anderson as well.

Plenty of pundits thought we’d take Dandenong’s Hayden Young and his booming left foot or Larke Medallist Caleb Serong, but Luke Jackson’s back-up efforts for WA had started to win everybody over and Taylor was a fan.

Then there were the other two plays that Tim Lamb, our new upgraded list manager, had to orchestrate with Josh Mahoney’s guidance and you would really have to ask them to explain all the coming and goings that pre-draft season and even then they probably wouldn’t remember all the intricacies.

The first was finding a player with outside run, we had the inside mids covered by then, but were deficient in the spread area. Somehow we managed to entice Fremantle’s Ed Langdon, a Sandringham mate of Angus Brayshaw who was taken at pick 54 in 2014.

Only issue was that he had finished 2019 in ripping form for the Dockers, I think he came third in their B&F in 2019. That meant Peter Bell wanted more than our second rounder for him. We ended up swapping our second rounder pick 22 for their 26 and then gave them our 2020 second rounder as well in what was a big win for us I reckon.

Then, possibly in the wake of missing out on the quality top-end of the 2018 draft, Mahoney and Lamb managed to present North with what on paper looked like a win for the Kangaroos. We’d give them our 2020 first pick (based on 2019 that would be around 2-6) and our pick 26 in return for their 2019 first rounder – which was pick 8.

That gave Taylor two high picks like in 2015 and options aplenty. Possibly initially he had earmarked Jackson for pick 8, but it soon became clear he was racing up everyone’s boards as the quality tall.

We also offloaded Sam Frost, who was out of favour, at least with Steven May anyway, for the Hawks 2020 second rounder. He’s already played 85 games for them, so that’s ended up being a poor deal I reckon.

And we went hard for unrestricted free agent Adam Tomlinson – our original thinking was to also play him on a wing. Tommo cost us nothing pick wise, but he’s been on a big salary for a fringe player.

But just before the draft we did another shifty with Freo. Aware that we may bid on their academy kid Liam Henry to force a fall and a loss of pick 9, Freo agreed to gift us picks 10 and 28 so that they could keep their high pick before a bid on Henry.  

And suddenly we had three highish picks plus Ed Langdon and the rest is history, although it took another year for the pace injection that came with Jackson, Pickett and Rivers to really bear fruit.

3 Luke Jackson – if you’ve been following this series you’d know that drafting the right talls hasn’t been Taylor’s strength. But Taylor loved his second efforts for WA and, having lost Anderson, rated him as a must-have. On his first day at training the 18-year-old took on Lever and ANB in a 400m time trial and showed his athletic ability – ANB did win though. By year two he was showing more than a few glimpses as Gawny’s back-up and then in the GF, his injection into the middle in the third term coincided with our hottest offensive period this century. After his third season a few family issues back home led to him heading to Fremantle – did we do enough to try and keep the emerging 21-year-old? That’s not a question for Taylor, but it is for Richardson, Lamb and Goody because you just wonder what would have happened if we’d offered him unparalleled  top coin to stay. 

12 Kozzie Pickett – Clearly we wanted a gun small forward and Kozzie and Cody Weightman were rated the best of that year and I think Taylor and his team were aware that neither was likely to be a top 10 pick, so having pick 8 was going to be a waste, hence the late pick swap for 28. Cody was the safe bet being a local and his aerial prowess for his size had already been seen. But Kozzie had shown a few magic signs and his crunching run-down bump video was eye-watering stuff. As it turned out, with Adelaide going McAsey (pick 6), our former pick 8 could have netted one of Serong or Young, both guns. But Kozzie has that special matchwinning ingredient – the ability to break laterally with his amazing burst of speed. I love how Serong plays but Kozzie is one out of the box and our point of difference.

32 Trent Rivers – with all the academy picks, we ended up at 32. I think Taylor was keen to get another WA kid Georgiades, who had a super bottom-age year before injury, but he went pick 18 to Port. It ended up being a really deep draft and it was a super year for WA prospects, especially after Jackson, Devan Robertson and Henry had inspired them to a rare win in the U18 champs. Rivers was one of the few players I’ve seen with the confidence to take a bounce and after a few hiccups along the way, developed last year into a quality defender before his recent metamorphosis as our best big-bodied mid.

It's a shame we didn’t have another pick that year, as another of Jackson’s and Rivers East Fremantle teammates Chad Warner went at pick 39 and I’m sure Taylor would have been across him. Michael Frederick (pick 61) has also torched us with his pace. 

The rookie draft that year wasn’t super special, with mainly academy kids making it, so it’s good that we skipped it. We did however pick up a few extras via unusual sources.

Tomlinson came as an UFA and finally seemed to find his niche as a backman in early 2021 and did a memorable job on Hawkins when a flailing arm sent Maysie packing early that year. You had to feel for the tearful big fella when he did his knee down in Tassie two weeks later. He’s got a huge tank and is a very clean footballer – he just seems to be unlucky – T-Mac’s reincarnation spoiled his 2024 for example leaving him with the unwanted tag as the best VFL defender going around.

Ed Langdon spent his first few weeks standing out on his far wing and calling for the ball – half way through the year our mids figured out he was pretty quick and went lateral to him.

We also took a punt on two players via the PSS – Harley Bennell and Mitch Brown. Brown proved a good back-up tall, while Harley showed glimpses but the heavy-tackling game of the 2020s meant there was little room for an outside player like Harley. Worth a try though.

But ultimately it was this draft that gave us the speed and freakish unconventional skills of Jackson and Pickett that led to our flag in 2021.

In my view, it was Taylor’s best year in charge.

Well constructed Deespicable even though you are a hard task master, definitely a 10/10 for mine. Losing Dogga probably cost us deeply in 2023 and ongoing.

[seventyfour 966]

20 hours ago, roy11 said:

Wonder what needs to be done for a 10/10

Geelong 2001? 😅

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,259]

The MFC won't ever get a better draft haul than this one.

I hindsight, I would've loved Hayden Young over Luke Jackson due to the fact that Young's a local boy that likely would have been a long term MFC player, and he's tracking to be one of the best players in the league in a couple of years.

However, would we have won the flag without Jackson? I'd argue yes, but some posters think that the only reason behind our third quarter dominance was because LJ was in the ruck. And also consider that Young missed about 15 games in 2021 so he may not have even been in our best 22 that year.

Freo are extremely lucky to now have Jackson and Young in the same team, and are tracking towards a flag within 3 years IMO.