Alistair Smith (Perth/WA) – Draft Profile

Height: 183.5cm
Weight: 79.0kg
Style: Outside/inside midfielder/wingman
Preferred Foot: Left
Potential: 6.5-8/10

Strengths

> Elite all-round athleticism – extremely quick (both off the mark and over distance - loves to carry the footy over long stretches with a bounce or two – has the ability to break open stoppages/congested plays), very good evasive skills/agility, big vertical leap, along with excellent natural endurance (has produced 15+ beep test scores in the past and was a very good middle distance runner as a junior) – hard runner forward of the play, but doesn’t display that same level of ethic the opposite way
> Strongly built, good core strength and well balanced
> Highly efficient disposer on his left foot – excellent pinpoint precision and accuracy with low trajectory and good ball spin – generally clean feeder by hand too (but prefers to dispose by foot)
> Strong aerial ability
> Good all-round ball winning skills both inside (reads ruckman’s hands well) and outside contests (works hard into space)

Weaknesses

> Lacks kicking power and penetration – needs to get fuller extension
> Below average ball control – not routinely clean and prone to the attack of the fumbles
> Very one-sided
> Lacks impact with defensive pressure and inconsistent with efforts
> Doesn’t kick many goals or push forward I50 enough
> Recovering from OP onset during mid-late 2008 – but participated in some testing at DC 2008 and performed extremely well

Other

> OK versatility – can play midfield (inside or out), rebounding HBF and high HFF, but hasn’t displayed all this yet – have only seen him played through the midfield.
> From Northam
> State rep at all levels (schoolboys, U16s and U18s)

Overall

I find it hard to judge Smith as despite being from WA I’ve only seen him a handful of times. He has an impressive range of attributes and screams out as someone with significant upside to be an above average line-breaking midfielder, but my lingering doubt is whether he’s just a flat track bully, as he didn’t kick on in the U18 championships – although TBF wasn’t given significant opportunity to either. Certainly one that could’ve been ranked much higher by myself if I had seen more of him at higher levels (I suspect he would’ve been given a league run if he continued showing the form he was before being struck down by OP).