From the hun's Tackle

[saynta]

7 THE SAINTS’ UNSUNG HERO

Callum Wilkie largely played on Carlton’s Mitch McGovern on Thursday night and the Blues forwards didn’t have a memorable night. ­Wilkie did.

Much has been written about St Kilda’s bevy of recruits this year but not enough about the rookie from North Adelaide. While he played 22 games last year, he has emerged this year and may already be the Saints’ most important ­defender.

Against the Blues he had 18 disposals, five intercept possessions, and went at 83 per cent kicking efficiency. The week before he took Dustin Martin when he went forward. Martin didn’t kick a goal.

[bergsone]

Keeping Robbo out of the side ,great recruiting

[desertsaint]

thought he emerged last year. has been great from the moment we got him.

[Saintmatt]

Phenomenal footballer. That's it - he's a footballer. Not an athlete. He knows what he's doing and rarely stuffs up or gets beaten.

I've always thought he'd be that type of guy that your mate would one day in 2026 ask you how many games has Wilkie has played and you'd respond "I dunno, 50-odd" ... only to discover he's played 140 straight and not a bad one amongst them.

[Munga]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

[skeptic]

I think he’s been heavily celebrated amongst Saints fans especially on this forum.

[Yorkeys]

Our recruitment manager is a former SAlien; local knowledge and unconventional wisdom paid off. Crows really missed an opportunity, fortunately. Shows yet again the draft isn't the only way to get elite talent. I expect that Messers Lethlean and Gallagher will be head hunted, possibly by AFL HQ, certainly by Eddie the Hypocrite. Hopefully they will hang around Moorabbin for a long time and create a dynasty of success.

[Joffa Burns]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

[SaintPav]

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Life can really be a mystery sometimes.

[shanegrambeau]

I guess he is on low coin? Or did he benefit from our enforced budget?

[Darth Vader]

Good to see the media “experts” waking up to what we’ve known for over a year.

[fugazi]

My new Favourite

[stkfc1]

Gun. Absolute gun. Can't think of anyone beating him. So composed. He must give the rest of the back 6 a heap of confidence having him out there.
Is he a future Captain? Wouldn't rule it out.
He's just made for the big time.

[Sainter_Dad]

Is he a future Captain? Wouldn't rule it out.

I could definitely see him as the captain.

[SaintPav]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Was it true that we were interested in taking Mitch McCarthy before Rohan Marshall in the 2016 rookie draft? That’s what I remember at the time.

McCarthy was taken by Collingwood at pick 7 and the Saints picked up Rohan at pick 10. McCarthy was delisted after only one season.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why ... rwovg.html

[saintsRrising]

Keeping Robbo out of the side ,great recruiting

I think that it is more that Coffield who is keeping Robbo out. Both Robbo and Coffield are more your attacking
defenders with good run and kicking to set up play.

Wilkie is more a defending who locks down on a forward as well as being an intercept mark.

All 3 are good at intercept marking.

[saintsRrising]

7 THE SAINTS’ UNSUNG HERO

Callum Wilkie largely played on Carlton’s Mitch McGovern on Thursday night and the Blues forwards didn’t have a memorable night. ­Wilkie did.

Much has been written about St Kilda’s bevy of recruits this year but not enough about the rookie from North Adelaide. While he played 22 games last year, he has emerged this year and may already be the Saints’ most important ­defender.

Against the Blues he had 18 disposals, five intercept possessions, and went at 83 per cent kicking efficiency. The week before he took Dustin Martin when he went forward. Martin didn’t kick a goal.

It only took Wilkie one game to become a walk up start first 22 player. Now that is rare.

[saintbob]

Wilkie is the new version of Jason Blake, always one of the first picked and rarely lets you down.

[ace]

He has become the preferred player for the kick in because he kicks straight and gets the depth of kick right.
I don't think those kick ins count as possessions but a good kick-in is as good as a good possession.

[minneapolis]

Phenomenal footballer. That's it - he's a footballer. Not an athlete. He knows what he's doing and rarely stuffs up or gets beaten.

I've always thought he'd be that type of guy that your mate would one day in 2026 ask you how many games has Wilkie has played and you'd respond "I dunno, 50-odd" ... only to discover he's played 140 straight and not a bad one amongst them.

Could he be the guy that overtakes Newnes consecutive games record?

[Joffa Burns]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Was it true that we were interested in taking Mitch McCarthy before Rohan Marshall in the 2016 rookie draft? That’s what I remember at the time.

McCarthy was taken by Collingwood at pick 7 and the Saints picked up Rohan at pick 10. McCarthy was delisted after only one season.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why ... rwovg.html

Wow, never knew that, thanks for the link.

Interesting to note #2 & #6 in last years B&F were both off the rookie list, with Wilkie a little more mature aged.

[CURLY]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Was it true that we were interested in taking Mitch McCarthy before Rohan Marshall in the 2016 rookie draft? That’s what I remember at the time.

McCarthy was taken by Collingwood at pick 7 and the Saints picked up Rohan at pick 10. McCarthy was delisted after only one season.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why ... rwovg.html

We were extremely keen on McCarthy as a Cat B rookie. He could play but had a serious ankle or foot injury in his first season at Collingwood which basically wiped him out.

[SaintPav]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Was it true that we were interested in taking Mitch McCarthy before Rohan Marshall in the 2016 rookie draft? That’s what I remember at the time.

McCarthy was taken by Collingwood at pick 7 and the Saints picked up Rohan at pick 10. McCarthy was delisted after only one season.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why ... rwovg.html

We were extremely keen on McCarthy as a Cat B rookie. He could play but had a serious ankle or foot injury in his first season at Collingwood which basically wiped him out.

So do you reckon we would have taken him before Rohan? They were saying that on the radio at the time.

[CURLY]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Was it true that we were interested in taking Mitch McCarthy before Rohan Marshall in the 2016 rookie draft? That’s what I remember at the time.

McCarthy was taken by Collingwood at pick 7 and the Saints picked up Rohan at pick 10. McCarthy was delisted after only one season.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why ... rwovg.html

We were extremely keen on McCarthy as a Cat B rookie. He could play but had a serious ankle or foot injury in his first season at Collingwood which basically wiped him out.

So do you reckon we would have taken him before Rohan? They were saying that on the radio at the time.

He was highly rated and he would have come for free due to being Cat B. Unsure if we could have taken both maybe.

[SaintPav]

Our trading and drafting has been astronomical in recent years, after an abyss previously. It's like we're bipolar in recruiting.
Best and fairest in North Adelaide's premiership year, and runner up B&F the year before. A solid mark, elite kick, hard, intelligent. He's a gun.
This "moneyball" term gets floated around, but geez we've rebuilt well nailing these recruits with late picks. Imagine if we hadn't, it would've been very dark times right now.

Keep in mind we drafted mature aged recruits Parker, Young & Hind and traded for Kent & Hanners before selecting Wilkie as a rookie

Fair to say our selectors ranked Parker, Young & Hind ahead of Wilkie and no other club rated him worthy of a draft pick.

I doubt even Wilkies parent could have dreamed that he would have this type of impact at AFL level, some guys are just cut out for the big time. Tom Stewart at Geelong was similar, came into the AFL as a mature aged recruit and just slotted in from game 1.

Was it true that we were interested in taking Mitch McCarthy before Rohan Marshall in the 2016 rookie draft? That’s what I remember at the time.

McCarthy was taken by Collingwood at pick 7 and the Saints picked up Rohan at pick 10. McCarthy was delisted after only one season.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why ... rwovg.html

We were extremely keen on McCarthy as a Cat B rookie. He could play but had a serious ankle or foot injury in his first season at Collingwood which basically wiped him out.

So do you reckon we would have taken him before Rohan? They were saying that on the radio at the time.

He was highly rated and he would have come for free due to being Cat B. Unsure if we could have taken both maybe.

Thank you, CURLY.