News - Seeing it differently: Inside the Saints’ draft plans

[saintly]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/ ... de=premium

[bakes]

Are you able to copy and paste the article text here?

[ace]

St Kilda will leave a list spot open for a summer train-on rookie or mid-season pick early next year as it prioritises another key forward in December 9’s national draft.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 0c880bf465

[ace]

St Kilda will leave a list spot open for a summer train-on rookie or mid-season pick early next year as it prioritises another key forward in December 9’s national draft.

Saints recruiting boss Chris Liberatore and his team will take two or three picks into the draft, with the club currently holding selections 21, 64, 67, 74 and 93.

That team has just finished the most extraordinary season of their careers, having put together a draft order from thousands of hours of footage, zoom interviews and a handful of games they watched live.

The Saints are in the envious position of having a talent-laden list in the right age demographic with few list holes, which is why they can favour the search for a key-forward if the right one is still available at their call.

As Liberatore said on Sunday, while this year’s version of junior prodigy Hunter Clark would always be selected on the back of strong Under-16 form, Nick Coffield might not have been given he was a late-developing top-10 pick.

The Saint list management team will enter the draft confident they have done enough work to secure quality talent despite all of Victoria’s NAB League kids missing an entire season of football.

But as Liberatore admitted, every list manager has had to think on their feet while recruiting in the age of COVID.

“It’s been bizarre. In the first few months of the year, you prepared as usual and then in the space of a week it changed quickly. We were stood down and everyone had individual circumstances. My wife is a physio and we have two little boys so she worked more and I looked after the kids.

“We weren’t even sure if there was going to be a draft and then we thought they might raise the draft age to 19 which would have wiped out all the kids turning 18 this year. Then we get a sense it was going to be 18-year-olds, then the South Australian and WA boys came back.

“Then we all came back to work and it was basically trying to find a way to get the best results we could in the circumstances.”

Liberatore watched several weeks of NAB League trials early in the year and mid-season was able to watch a handful of draft contenders play scratch matches in country leagues.

He even got to watch some top draft contenders, including Ollie Henry in a Geelong College-St Josephs hitout.

“I remember walking away from the ground with (Dogs recruiter) Dom Milesi and it looked like we were about to go back into heavy lockdown and we said to each other, ‘we might need to put a fair bit of weight onto that game’. The next day we were locked down.”

The Saints had part-time recruiters watching WAFL and SANFL games and full-time recruiter Chris Toche went through quarantine to watch the back-end of the SANFL season.

Liberatore says recruiters can still form an accurate picture of a player’s talent through watching footage and combining it with statistics.

“The accuracy of coding (a player’s highlights) is pretty good, but it’s not perfect,” he said.

“What it does show doesn’t lie. It’s more what it doesn’t show which is what you miss. So they don’t code it if a kid fumbles. It doesn’t show the lazy effort where a kid can’t be bothered chasing.

“So it can still miss things, but you can also back yourself in. If you have seen a kid enough you can show the coaches 25 clips of him winning really clean contested balls.

“If he is clean and tough it’s pretty rare to miss little moments where he might be scared.

“We had a few months where we watched 25 to 30 hours a week of footage and it’s all we were doing. That was our life for a month or two in August and September but all the recruiters are in the same boat.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 0c880bf465

[asiu]

The Saints had part-time recruiters watching WAFL and SANFL games and full-time recruiter Chris Toche went through quarantine to watch the back-end of the SANFL season.

thats good work

ta for the c&p

[Wayne42]

I'm intrigued about them finding a Key Forward with one of our picks, is there one out there ?

[asiu]

paddy

[Wayne42]

paddy

No way, Jose.

[Devilhead]

Maybe Jackson Callow

https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/2020/06 ... ls-allies/

[Devilhead]

He should be thereabouts our pick

[skeptic]

Maybe Jackson Callow

https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/2020/06 ... ls-allies/

I never know what to make of videos like this one

It’s three minutes of him clearly reading the flight of ball better than everyone else
A couple of stronger pack grabs where he got a good run at it
And either set excellent shots or quickly running onto his side and and snapping

I mean it looks really good but it was very much the same 2-3 qualities on display

Not suggesting that’s a bad thing but am just unsure if it means he’s limited to playing one style against players that aren’t as good as him or if he’s actually going to be elite at those qualities

[Devilhead]

I guess we will find out soon enough

[Waltzing St Kilda]

If they're not lying they're not doing their job properly.

[saynta]

Maybe Jackson Callow

https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/2020/06 ... ls-allies/

I never know what to make of videos like this one

It’s three minutes of him clearly reading the flight of ball better than everyone else
A couple of stronger pack grabs where he got a good run at it
And either set excellent shots or quickly running onto his side and and snapping

I mean it looks really good but it was very much the same 2-3 qualities on display

Not suggesting that’s a bad thing but am just unsure if it means he’s limited to playing one style against players that aren’t as good as him or if he’s actually going to be elite at those qualities

He's not bad.

[SAINT-LEE]

#21 - Caleb Poulter - a fantastic SA lad finished with avgs of 24 possessions, 6 marks 1.2 goals - quite nice for a tall mid / forward or if he's on the board Stuart boy - Tommy Powell - crafty mid avgs of 35 disposals, 9 clearances, 6 inside 50's could be gold.

If we want a KPF/D Nick Cox at 199 cm is fast and clever, plays so damn clever. I think this is one of the smartest young guns Ive seen in a while. He played wing, forward

Jackson Callow looks handy but scouting reports highlight he flounders against quality defenders, even being shut out 3 times in 2019. That worried me. But he's worth a gamble.

[skeptic]

#21 - Caleb Poulter - a fantastic SA lad finished with avgs of 24 possessions, 6 marks 1.2 goals - quite nice for a tall mid / forward or if he's on the board Stuart boy - Tommy Powell - crafty mid avgs of 35 disposals, 9 clearances, 6 inside 50's could be gold.

If we want a KPF/D Nick Cox at 199 cm is fast and clever, plays so damn clever. I think this is one of the smartest young guns Ive seen in a while. He played wing, forward

Jackson Callow looks handy but scouting reports highlight he flounders against quality defenders, even being shut out 3 times in 2019. That worried me. But he's worth a gamble.

Cox sounds like the go IMO

[Devilhead]

Nik Cox Highlights - looks good as per SAINT-LEE's comments - kicks off both feet - one grab mark - nice burst of speed - can go both ends and his haircut matches half our team

[skeptic]

Nik Cox Highlights - looks good as per SAINT-LEE's comments - kicks off both feet - one grab mark - nice burst of speed - can go both ends and his haircut matches half our team

Yeah I like him.

Precision kicking and good decision making
Seems like a decent grab and fast

Not a lot of ball winning but that’s ok.

[ace]

Nik Cox Highlights - looks good as per SAINT-LEE's comments - kicks off both feet - one grab mark - nice burst of speed - can go both ends and his haircut matches half our team

Yeah I like him.

Precision kicking and good decision making
Seems like a decent grab and fast

Not a lot of ball winning but that’s ok.

Safe kick ,hits his targets, good mark, moves well so why would he be available for Saints.
YES but Cal Twomey has him going at 21 whereas saints first pick will probably around 27 or 28 vicinity.
The last first round pick with free agent compensations, academy and father-son queue jumping taking priority.
Saints will be forced to take the best left over from the first round picks.
We can only hope.

[ace]

Nik Cox Highlights - looks good as per SAINT-LEE's comments - kicks off both feet - one grab mark - nice burst of speed - can go both ends and his haircut matches half our team

Yeah I like him.

Precision kicking and good decision making
Seems like a decent grab and fast

Not a lot of ball winning but that’s ok.

Safe kick ,hits his targets, good mark, moves well so why would he be available for Saints.
YES but Cal Twomey has him going at 21 whereas saints first pick will probably around 27 or 28 vicinity.
The last first round pick with free agent compensations, academy and father-son queue jumping taking priority.
Saints will be forced to take the best left over from the first round picks.
We can only hope.

I say pick 27 or 28 but that is a bit dishonest.
You see two guys who would go top 20, Alex Davies and Joel Jeffrey will both be prelisted by Gold Coast.
Gold Coast does not even have to bid for them, they just have to say we want and list them AHEAD of the draft for free.
Part of the AFL trying to help Gold Coast win a premiership.
That means among the talent in this cohort St Kilda gets 29 or 30.
With less than 60 picks expected this draft, St Kilda is likely to make their first pick in the BOTTOM half of this draft.
Maybe those picks 64 and 67 can be bundled to move pick 21 up the draft order a little.
They may be handy to a club chasing an academy pick.

[Gershwin]

So no-where in the quotes did St Kilda say we are after a key position forward. Strange. Had Liberatore actually said that you would think it would be in quotes.
My guess is we will end up with a mid with our first pick.

[skeptic]

So no-where in the quotes did St Kilda say we are after a key position forward. Strange. Had Liberatore actually said that you would think it would be in quotes.
My guess is we will end up with a mid with our first pick.

Indeed. I also just can’t imagine it’s what we’re specifically targeting:
King
Battle
Marshall/Ryder
Membrey

Not really short on marking options are we

[saynta]

Bowey for mine

[Impatient Sainter]

Liam McMahon might be a chance?

[Wayne42]

Liam McMahon might be a chance?

https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/player/liam-mcmahon/