Josh Smillie. Wow. Super talented youngster. At the start of 2024, he was probably pick 1 or 2 for this years draft pool alongside O’Sullivan.  
194cm midfielder.  Great skills. Excellent overhead. Strong. Can kick goals. Easily kicks 50 metres. Hits targets. Tackles.  A complete package. Wins clearances and drives forward with good metres gained.  Dominated several Coates League games this year.   Plays like Patrick Cripps.
However he had an average national championships and missed All Australian selection.
Still he’s a star and would be amazed if he slipped.  I had him at pick 5 in my phantom draft so still potentially available for the Dees. Or he could go pick 1 or 2 still. It’s an even top 5/6 in my view.  

He certainly looks the goods SONS, would fill a big hole in our list if we can land him.

Have heard great things about him which are reinforced by the highlight package.  Yes please

The thing about Smillie is his kicking to advantage. It's very noticeable. Contrast that with our mids and half forwards, he'd fit in nicely.

I'd like 2 or 3 picks in the top 15 this year, there's so much scope in this crop. 

I'll trust JT though. 

37 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

The thing about Smillie is his kicking to advantage. It's very noticeable. Contrast that with our mids and half forwards, he'd fit in nicely.

I'd like 2 or 3 picks in the top 15 this year, there's so much scope in this crop. 

I'll trust JT though. 

Agreed. Super talented year.   I think Tigers also see the top 30 talent in this draft and want 5-6 choices. 

Yes. I love tall midfielders. Cripps, Bont, Tom Greene. 

32 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Agreed. Super talented year.   I think Tigers also see the top 30 talent in this draft and want 5-6 choices. 

They also need to desperately rebuild quickly before Tassie.

We just need one or two good years to re-set our list profile.

Edited August 29, 20241 yr by Adam The God

Looks a great talent. Not sure if I'd prefer him over Langford, but he's clearly got the attributes to succeed as an AFL player. 194cms is a big mid, Cripps size. He looks to link well and be a good kick. I didn't watch any carnival, but curious he didn't perform well or make the underage All Aus team.

Langford on the other hand won the Larke medal as best player, made the All Aus team, and at 190cms is a big midfielder too. He appears to have good drive and skills too. We likely won't have the choose anyway and just take whoever is left at pick 5, but if we did have to choose I'd trust JT to make the right call. 

Great size, absolutely ragdolls opponents in juniors which will still happen a bit at the next level at his size.

My questions are around whether he has the work rate and natural inside midfield ability to go with his size. There’s absolutely no reason to have any doubts on the ability of someone like him to be a great AFL inside midfielder, yet somehow I still have some. 

Has some unique attributes but is definitely not a finished product.

Edited August 29, 20241 yr by Axis of Bob

If I was a likely no. 1 pick, I wld deliberately drop my form as a way of sliding down the draft order and getting picked up by a better club. 

1 hour ago, seventyfour said:

Yes. I love tall midfielders. Cripps, Bont, Tom Greene. 

Yep a big bodied beast and he is someone we can market the new era of the club around along with Kolt, Windsor, Judd etc. 

 

Are we absolutely convinced he isn't Will Setterfield

23 hours ago, adonski said:

Are we absolutely convinced he isn't Will Setterfield

Reminds me more of Ollie Wines 

3 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Reminds me more of Ollie Wines 

Thats Just as bad!

7 minutes ago, adonski said:

Thats Just as bad!

That’s a whole lot better than Setterfield but not a top 5 pick! 

Please get him on board

 

On 29/08/2024 at 11:40, Axis of Bob said:

Great size, absolutely ragdolls opponents in juniors which will still happen a bit at the next level at his size.

My questions are around whether he has the work rate and natural inside midfield ability to go with his size. There’s absolutely no reason to have any doubts on the ability of someone like him to be a great AFL inside midfielder, yet somehow I still have some. 

Has some unique attributes but is definitely not a finished product.

Work rate and running capacity have been the knocks so far.

57 minutes ago, ChaserJ said:

Work rate and running capacity have been the knocks so far.

Definitely, although this is not necessarily an unusual thing for monster mids. I'm also not convinced he's a natural inside midfielder in the contest at the moment, as he is quite poor at winning the ball in stoppages unless the ball is hit straight at him and he monsters his opponent. I also don't think he has great composure in the contest either. 

But he's a 6'4-6'5 monster, with a unique trait that will definitely translate across to AFL level and good coaching could have him develop into a very good player. I just have concerns int he back of my head that he's actually not as good a footballer as people think. 

But I'm just a YouTube judge, so I am likely wrong with some or all of this.

This is a good little analysis of the effectiveness big bodied mids using Smillie as primary example and how he could develop. He could be the Patrick Cripps of this draft with so many similarities. 

 

Smillie looks a bit slow and looks a reasonable but not outstanding kick.

Cripps and Tom Green are similar players but they obviously have elite reflexes and decision making skills. It is hard to determine if he as at their level in terms of ball winning and disposal in tight.

1 hour ago, Axis of Bob said:

Definitely, although this is not necessarily an unusual thing for monster mids. I'm also not convinced he's a natural inside midfielder in the contest at the moment, as he is quite poor at winning the ball in stoppages unless the ball is hit straight at him and he monsters his opponent. I also don't think he has great composure in the contest either. 

But he's a 6'4-6'5 monster, with a unique trait that will definitely translate across to AFL level and good coaching could have him develop into a very good player. I just have concerns int he back of my head that he's actually not as good a footballer as people think. 

But I'm just a YouTube judge, so I am likely wrong with some or all of this.

Limited viewing but I feel the same. Langford on the other hand at 190cm seems a natural big bodied ball winning mid who has foot skills to go with the clearance work. He hits the scoreboard too so looks a genuine mid-forward type. 

Edited August 30, 20241 yr by Lord Travis

54 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

Smillie looks a bit slow and looks a reasonable but not outstanding kick.

Cripps and Tom Green are similar players but they obviously have elite reflexes and decision making skills. It is hard to determine if he as at their level in terms of ball winning and disposal in tight.

I would say not quick (but wouldn't say slow). The one thing I did really like is the weighting of his kicks (something we lack).In saying that Jagga, Draper, Langford, Lalor preferred by me )and possibly Reid).

11 minutes ago, Lil_red_fire_engine said:

I would say not quick (but wouldn't say slow). The one thing I did really like is the weighting of his kicks (something we lack).In saying that Jagga, Draper, Langford, Lalor preferred by me )and possibly Reid).

He would be slow at AFL level.

Definitely prefer Langford or Lalor.

On 29/08/2024 at 12:05, Winter Dan said:

If I was a likely no. 1 pick, I wld deliberately drop my form as a way of sliding down the draft order and getting picked up by a better club. 

Danger! Danger! You'll start another argument about in-season loading!

But it is an interesting conundrum. If you are sure you're going to get drafted, there would be no reason except ego to strive to be at the really pointy end of the draft so you might well, you know, spend more time on your schooling or play out of position a bit to develop your game. Those who remember the years where osteitis pubis ruined the start of several careers would have a lot of sympathy for taking it easy for spells during the season. There might even be a bit of altruism involved if you want to give a less prominent teammate a run in your usual position.