Part 8: Jason Taylor - Visionary or Over-rated - 2020

[Deespicable 2,726]

2020 

Draft: 6/10 Trades: 6/10 Pick swaps: 2/10 

The world changed in 2020 and young schoolboys spent the year wishing they could play, after being told by Dan that COVID could be passed around easily outside.

The result was that you’d have to be Nostradamus to predict which kids were going to make headway and the disruption meant many lost their way in life. It impacted the draft big time. Of the top 20 that season, only two are standouts – the top pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan who has taken a while to develop and pick 20 Max Holmes.

Holmes came from an athletic background and had played only a handful of school games at Melbourne Grammar where he was better known as an APS sprinter. To Taylor’s credit, he was apparently keen on him as well and I think we were planning to take him at pick 21 or 22 until the Cats swooped, gifting Richmond their 2021 first rounder for pick 20.

With Josh Mahoney out the door, Tim Lamb was now ensconced in the role of list manager, and made some very intricate moves, most of which were designed to get us a full-forward.

North’s Ben Brown had been a prolific goalscorer until knee injury in 2020, so the Roos were willing to offload him provided we offered enough. Eventually the Kangas agreed to offload the soon-to-be 28-year-old for our picks 26 and 33 with us getting pick 28 back in the deal.

The pick 26 had come via a pick swap with the Swans for 31 and 43, but as I said, losing picks was not a loss that draft. Lamb had received pick 31 by offloading Braydon Preuss to the Giants and we got the Dogs third rounder for 2021 in the Mitch Hannan deal.

Offloading our No.1 pick of 2021 and pick 25 for the Lions pick 18 and 19 was not as bad as it looked at the time because by virtue of us winning the flag in 2021, the Lions only got pick 18 back which became pick 20 and Kai Lohmann. But imagine if we had bombed in 2021.

The 2020 draft, in general, has been a bust. Bowey and Beau McCreery (44) are the only two role players to play in premierships, while Errol Gulden (32) is the big star of that year, along with Jamarra, and both were academy picks.  

Plenty of clubs were burnt. Essendon’s Adrian Dodoro tried to play hardball on Josh Dunkley’s deal and ended up losing him. Instead he got to keep picks 8 & 9 to go with 10 – Cox, Perkins and Zach Reid - three strikes and you are out they say. The Crows are still hopeful that Thilthorpe emerges, they’ve almost given up on Luke Pedlar (pick 11), North now know that they erred by not taking Logan McDonald with pick 4, instead opting for Will Phillips (pick 3), while the Giants had three picks before us and are yet to get 25 games out of any of them, albeit Tanner Bruhn (pick 12) left and looks better at Geelong. 

21 Jake Bowey – He’s only small but he was just so polished when we finally gave him a game late in 2021. Ironically Jayden Hunt got injured which meant that Bowey stayed in the side and by the time Jayden was fit to return, it was too late to make a change – we were in the prelim and Bowey was our classy little defender. Since then he hasn’t really kicked on. He had a ripper pre-season this year but then got hammered into by a Swan in round 1 and broke his collarbone. Now that he’s fit I’d actually like to see him given a chance in middle where his smarts may come to the fore. I’d hate for him to be branded as just a defender because I think he’s got more to offer and so far Goody hasn’t got any more out of him than what we saw in season one. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

22 Bailey Laurie – OK, so we just took a 175cm mid in Bowey who we turned into a defender. The very next pick Taylor takes a 179cm (5ft 11in) midfielder who has exquisite skills but lacks pace. This for a list that already has six other sub-6 footers – Kozzie, Spargo, Chandler, Viney, Neal-Bullen and Bedford. I’m sorry I just don’t see how that’s smart list management. I’m also not sure why giving up our first rounder to the Lions in 2021 to get Laurie was necessary. Wreaks blunder to me. Laurie is running out of time to show he’s AFL level. Invariably he’s the sub for us, so he never gets a chance to show what he can do either.

34 Fraser Rodman – a good athlete from Wesley, whom I suspect Taylor hoped may become the left-side wingman that we have desperately needed since Brian Dixon retired! He had height and pace but he didn’t really have a penetrating kick and after two seasons a decision was made to let him go. Thankfully we didn’t miss out on any stars soon after him.

Barely anyone bothered with the rookie draft that year given most VFL and TAC sides hadn’t been playing. We did trial a few players over summer and Deakyn Smith, a classy small defender impressed enough to become a supplemental player. He wasn’t really quite big enough to make it.

The loss of Preuss meant we were on the hunt for a ruck back-up for Gawn and Jackson and we added Majak Daw, who at close to 30, had been released by North. Daw almost got a game for us but Gawn and Jackson were remarkably durable in 2021, as were most of our players, so Daw spent much of the season rucking in the VFL practice games.

The big gamble for us in 2021 was Ben Brown, who had only played nine games and kicked eight goals in 2020 as his knees became unmanageable. He spent much of pre-season riding a stationary bike after his first knee clean-up surgery and we had to wait until round 7 for his debut against North. He had some good moments against Sydney the following week but was back in the medical room after round 9 with another clean-up required. He missed the next seven weeks and it looked like he’d miss the flag boat, but returned for the Port game as Goody trialled his new 'three-bigs' forward line with T-Mac and Jacko. By finals he was impressing with his lead-up work, often winning frees as teams chopped his arms to cope with his height. He didn’t kick any big bags but we all got used to his 50m run up to a shot on goal and he was prominent on grand final day, so his arrival gets a big tick. He was pretty useful in 2022 as well, although come finals he was sore and unable to move as freely and that’s been his problem since with four goals in a game his best return in 45 matches for us. His contract ends this season and he’ll most likely become even more involved with coaching the women’s team. Whether he transfers that to helping out our forwards in the off-season I am not sure, but he’s a very decent bloke and behind his natural mirth, he always seems quite knowledgeable.

[Engorged Onion 10,215]

Appreciate the energy and effort you are putting in. You are a very good writer and I enjoy your style.✍️ 

Edited July 25 by Engorged Onion

[DeeZone 9,823]

25 minutes ago, Deespicable said:

2020 

Draft: 6/10 Trades: 6/10 Pick swaps: 2/10 

The world changed in 2020 and young schoolboys spent the year wishing they could play, after being told by Dan that COVID could be passed around easily outside.

The result was that you’d have to be Nostradamus to predict which kids were going to make headway and the disruption meant many lost their way in life. It impacted the draft big time. Of the top 20 that season, only two are standouts – the top pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan who has taken a while to develop and pick 20 Max Holmes.

Holmes came from an athletic background and had played only a handful of school games at Melbourne Grammar where he was better known as an APS sprinter. To Taylor’s credit, he was apparently keen on him as well and I think we were planning to take him at pick 21 or 22 until the Cats swooped, gifting Richmond their 2021 first rounder for pick 20.

With Josh Mahoney out the door, Tim Lamb was now ensconced in the role of list manager, and made some very intricate moves, most of which were designed to get us a full-forward.

North’s Ben Brown had been a prolific goalscorer until knee injury in 2020, so the Roos were willing to offload him provided we offered enough. Eventually the Kangas agreed to offload the soon-to-be 28-year-old for our picks 26 and 33 with us getting pick 28 back in the deal.

The pick 26 had come via a pick swap with the Swans for 31 and 43, but as I said, losing picks was not a loss that draft. Lamb had received pick 31 by offloading Braydon Preuss to the Giants and we got the Dogs third rounder for 2021 in the Mitch Hannan deal.

Offloading our No.1 pick of 2021 and pick 25 for the Lions pick 18 and 19 was not as bad as it looked at the time because by virtue of us winning the flag in 2021, the Lions only got pick 18 back which became pick 20 and Kai Lohmann. But imagine if we had bombed in 2021.

The 2020 draft, in general, has been a bust. Bowey and Beau McCreery (44) are the only two role players to play in premierships, while Errol Gulden (32) is the big star of that year, along with Jamarra, and both were academy picks.  

Plenty of clubs were burnt. Essendon’s Adrian Dodoro tried to play hardball on Josh Dunkley’s deal and ended up losing him. Instead he got to keep picks 8 & 9 to go with 10 – Cox, Perkins and Zach Reid - three strikes and you are out they say. The Crows are still hopeful that Thilthorpe emerges, they’ve almost given up on Luke Pedlar (pick 11), North now know that they erred by not taking Logan McDonald with pick 4, instead opting for Will Phillips (pick 3), while the Giants had three picks before us and are yet to get 25 games out of any of them, albeit Tanner Bruhn (pick 12) left and looks better at Geelong. 

21 Jake Bowey – He’s only small but he was just so polished when we finally gave him a game late in 2021. Ironically Jayden Hunt got injured which meant that Bowey stayed in the side and by the time Jayden was fit to return, it was too late to make a change – we were in the prelim and Bowey was our classy little defender. Since then he hasn’t really kicked on. He had a ripper pre-season this year but then got hammered into by a Swan in round 1 and broke his collarbone. Now that he’s fit I’d actually like to see him given a chance in middle where his smarts may come to the fore. I’d hate for him to be branded as just a defender because I think he’s got more to offer and so far Goody hasn’t got any more out of him than what we saw in season one. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

22 Bailey Laurie – OK, so we just took a 175cm mid in Bowey who we turned into a defender. The very next pick Taylor takes a 179cm (5ft 11in) midfielder who has exquisite skills but lacks pace. This for a list that already has six other sub-6 footers – Kozzie, Spargo, Chandler, Viney, Neal-Bullen and Bedford. I’m sorry I just don’t see how that’s smart list management. I’m also not sure why giving up our first rounder to the Lions in 2021 to get Laurie was necessary. Wreaks blunder to me. Laurie is running out of time to show he’s AFL level. Invariably he’s the sub for us, so he never gets a chance to show what he can do either.

34 Fraser Rodman – a good athlete from Wesley, whom I suspect Taylor hoped may become the left-side wingman that we have desperately needed since Brian Dixon retired! He had height and pace but he didn’t really have a penetrating kick and after two seasons a decision was made to let him go. Thankfully we didn’t miss out on any stars soon after him.

Barely anyone bothered with the rookie draft that year given most VFL and TAC sides hadn’t been playing. We did trial a few players over summer and Deakyn Smith, a classy small defender impressed enough to become a supplemental player. He wasn’t really quite big enough to make it.

The loss of Preuss meant we were on the hunt for a ruck back-up for Gawn and Jackson and we added Majak Daw, who at close to 30, had been released by North. Daw almost got a game for us but Gawn and Jackson were remarkably durable in 2021, as were most of our players, so Daw spent much of the season rucking in the VFL practice games.

The big gamble for us in 2021 was Ben Brown, who had only played nine games and kicked eight goals in 2020 as his knees became unmanageable. He spent much of pre-season riding a stationary bike after his first knee clean-up surgery and we had to wait until round 7 for his debut against North. He had some good moments against Sydney the following week but was back in the medical room after round 9 with another clean-up required. He missed the next seven weeks and it looked like he’d miss the flag boat, but returned for the Port game as Goody trialled his new 'three-bigs' forward line with T-Mac and Jacko. By finals he was impressing with his lead-up work, often winning frees as teams chopped his arms to cope with his height. He didn’t kick any big bags but we all got used to his 50m run up to a shot on goal and he was prominent on grand final day, so his arrival gets a big tick. He was pretty useful in 2022 as well, although come finals he was sore and unable to move as freely and that’s been his problem since with four goals in a game his best return in 45 matches for us. His contract ends this season and he’ll most likely become even more involved with coaching the women’s team. Whether he transfers that to helping out our forwards in the off-season I am not sure, but he’s a very decent bloke and behind his natural mirth, he always seems quite knowledgeable.

Thanks Deespicable great read, 2020 was a real mess and a lot of kids missed their opportunities in Victoria that’s for sure. Agree Jake Bowey and Benny Brown were significant in our run to Premiership success. I haven’t given up on Bailey Laurie but he needs to transfer his VFL form to AFL in 2025 or he will be a bust for us. I am enjoying this series.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,817]

Is is just me or Bowey's late 2021 AFL games better than what he's produced in subsequent years. He was a joy to watch in that period.

BBB playing a big role post round 16 2021 was worth the price of admission alone. Can't really complain about his subsequent years.

[Wrecker46 2,968]

It looks pretty plain on paper but 2 premiership players in a weak draft is extraordinary. Particularly for a team that has 1 premiership in 50 years

[spirit of norm smith 16,442]

Bowey 👍🏻 is a good pick ; showed his skill through 2021 and still fits across half back  He’s a premiership player 👏👏🏆🏆

Laurie 💩 yes agree … why pick another small player   He was a smart small forward/mid  We had Chandler and Spargo already  I’m surprised we have persisted and extended his contract   End of 2024 should have been enough to say unfortunately it didn’t work  

Rosman ❌ had the athletic ability but footy positioning and IQ were lacking.  Showed good pace and ability at CHB but injuries impacted him.   Delisted without playing a game.  Speculative pick really.  

[Little Goffy 14,522]

'Being told by Dan'.

FFS keep it in your pants.

[KingDingAling 3,757]

Laurie will be a player.

[poita 3,902]

24 minutes ago, KingDingAling said:

Laurie will be a player.

When in the next decade will this happen, and at what level will he be playing at that time?

Keeping Laurie on the list is the equivalent of a gambler chasing his losses.

I agree that Bowey needs to be tried elsewhere, because he is not working as a defender.

[samcantstandya 1,045]

39 minutes ago, poita said:

When in the next decade will this happen, and at what level will he be playing at that time?

Keeping Laurie on the list is the equivalent of a gambler chasing his losses.

I agree that Bowey needs to be tried elsewhere, because he is not working as a defender.

Like to see Bowey up the ground as a HFF. Reckon Laurie will be a better player than Chandler