TD's Thought on 2013 AFL Draft

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

Interestingly, there is clearly a focus on speed. All 3 of Freeman, Marsh and Langdon were in the top 10 at the combine for repeat sprints and Marsh and Freeman were the absolute top 2 in the 20m sprints

Kevin Sheahan, who should know something, took a liking to our drafting efforts, although that may have been simply because we managed two top 10 picks. He did however, indicate that he thought this top 10 could be as strong as any year previous, despite consensus being that the draft lacked depth

Before the draft recruiters were saying that the top 10-12 players were very even, and any of them could end up being the best pick. After the draft Paul Roos pretty much said the same in discussing why they chose to trade pick 2. He felt that they could get a player of very near the same ability at 9 and that they did not share the view that Kelly was the clear number 2 pick. The Dees were after pace and were happy with Salem at 9 and likely see him as a better fit than Kelly, Aish, or the raw Bontempelli. They wanted a mid, so Scharenberg or KK weren't their ideal selections either. It was a similar situation for us. Even if we had pick 2, I'd expect our two top mids may have been Salem and Freeman, as they have the burst speed we desperately need and are not all that far, if at all, below the level of Aish and Kelly.

What all that means is that we did very well to get two picks in the top 10, even more so in this draft than other seasons.

Freeman's a great grab for us because as lot of you are saying, we lack some pace. Marsh and Langdon well that's just a huge bonus imo - specially Marsh, and as someone already mentioned, he'd be great for the green vest. BUT just looking at Scharenberg, you can tell this kid is going to be an excellent distributor of the ball, he's got great vision and poise, he also seems to have that time and space great players always seem to have - this is what we really need, specially when we're spring boarding out of the back line - just remember our kicking, and the crappy turnovers we keep coughing up because we're putting our ball carries under pressure when coming through the middle (or at least up until now for the last few odd years). I honestly think Scharenberg could/will turn out to be the key to our future success.