Just saw Blakey's stats on the AFL website - 194cm & 74kg!
I'm by no means fat (ok, ok - I'm a little overweight), and that is 3cm taller than me, and 20kg lighter! Hopefully the academy won't be playing in strong winds this year.
Just saw Blakey's stats on the AFL website - 194cm & 74kg!
I'm by no means fat (ok, ok - I'm a little overweight), and that is 3cm taller than me, and 20kg lighter! Hopefully the academy won't be playing in strong winds this year.
Pick # 16 Ed Richards will line up for the Western Bulldogs this weekend, the 2nd of 3 players to get a game this season who have similarities to Matt Ling that were drafted after Pick 14. Lachlan Fogarty, Pick 22, got 20 disposals in a fine debut for Geelong. Along with Jack Higgins of Richmond, these players will be a barometer for judging our selection of Ling. Team Beatson have a good record in recent years, so I'm looking forward to see how Ling goes. He's not on the injury list, so perhaps we will see him as early as this weekend's practice match.
Nick Blakey on AFL360 last night along with Rylee West son of Scott Western Bulldogs and I think Robert Scott's boy North Melbourne & Brisbane?
Robbo, probably under instructions from David King, prodded Nick a couple of times to say whether he was nominating the Swans but he just said all he wants to do is play good footy this year and think about where he might go after the season finishes.
Chris Doerre on ESPN is an amateur guru on U18s and he did his first top 20 a few days back. Had Nick Blakey at 15 immediately ahead of Tarryn Thomas the indigenous Tasmanian who is tied to North's academy. No surprises at the top of the field, Lucocious, Rankine, and the King twins who are all supposedly much better than anyone in the 2017 draft. Top 4 or 5 picks will be gold this year.
It better be muscle and he'd better be still growing because he weighs 4kg's lighter than me and I'm 183cm and while I'm athletically built, I'm by no means muscular or solid. My playing weight was 10kg's more than Blakely's current weight and I was always being told to bulk up a bit........those stat's make him sound like a beanpole who'll be rag-dolled.
I watched the Blakey thing on 360. Was pretty obvious to me where his loyalties lie - essentially said , I grew up in Sydney, my friends are in Sydney, my family is in Sydney - felt like he was going to next say - I love Sydney - you could see Robbo just about jump across the floor to get him to say - Im going to Sydney.
Anyone waiting for Blakey to come out and say definitively that he's going to Sydney need to realise he's not going to say that. He can't, and as someone from a footy family, he'd understand well that it's not entirely his choice. Even if the Swans are keen, he might attract a bid that the club thinks overstates his value and they might choose to use their available "draft points" on other players. Hopefully that won't happen, and we'll see him in the red and white from next season onwards, but he can't afford to be presumptuous.
We are lucky that Blakey is coming through in such a strong draft year. We haven't had a high Academy draft contender since Mills to see how other clubs might bid on our players, but it seemed to me that FS and Academy bids went low last draft so the frenzy to bid up these players may have passed since the Mills hype. We don't know where Blakey will be rated at draft time, but he has plenty of competition this year with top rated draft candidates. Wherever he gets bid on it is more likely than not to be a fair bid and the 20% discount will be hard to pass up, especially for a player who is a tall utility, probably the most desirable player profile for a club without particular positional weaknesses.
Liz is absolutely right in that anything Blakey says can only be detrimental to our draft position in his regard. There is no point to even suggest to journalists that he might be forthcoming with what his intentions are before the last moment possible. Certainly this has been discussed internally and well scripted.
Not entirely correct. At some point Nick will most definitely have to show his cards as to where his preferred destination is. He will either have to nominate Brisbane or North as F/S or be available as an academy pick.
Just not at this stage. It would be cocky and send a poor message as he has a big year of footy ahead of him.
Of course he can always nominate for any of the three clubs and not end up there if the bid is considered too high
Nothing guaranteed but I�d be very surprised if we don�t draft him unless they have a knock on him internally.
I assume our list management team would try and make it a rational decision and value him objectively in the draft but I�d reckon our valuation will be as high or not higher than other teams which should mean we�ll match any bid.
A crazy bid we should let pass. And we may need to do that one day but personally I think clubs are too worried about their own list to lose out on a high pick just to spite us when they know the kid is a ready made flight risk.
I know it�s stupid trying to predict where he�ll go at this stage but i think there�s a good chance he�ll go in the 6-12 range and we�ll maych that bid.
Good article up on the AFL website about the U18 Academy's impressive win against North's VFL side. Several of the likely top five picks starred.
Further down thw page this piece gladdened my heart "Nick Blakey's precise left-foot kicking," imagine if Nick nominates us and we actually have a player in our squad with precise foot skills!
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