Weight: 88kg
Preferred foot: Right/Dual Sided
Role: Midfield/Wing/HBF
Potential: 8-8.5/10
Strengths
> Well built and proportioned – good height and very strong build and frame - ideal for the modern midfielder – very strong through the hips and core allowing him to be able to stand up in and break through tackles effectively which he does plenty of and is very difficult to bring to ground
> Very good attack on the ball
> Thumping genuinely dual sided kick with decent accuracy, weighting and lowish trajectory – can kick upto 60m – great power in his kicking off both feet even without much momentum and a high percentage of long kicks makes him the most damaging kick in this year’s draft
> Good game sense and reading of the play in and outside contests (including stoppages)
> Excellent all-round ball winning skills and possession rate – averaged 24.7d per game at TAC Cup level and 21.4dpg at U18 Championship level – I would say his style of play is an outside midfielder who can win his own ball
> Very good level of consistency game by game
> Displays excellent decision making ability with the ball particularly by foot (outstanding vision, poise and awareness) by foot
> Decent-good goal kicking ability as a midfielder – averages 0.7gpg at TAC Cup level over 2 years, 0.8gpg at U18C level
> Strong overhead ability for a midfielder
Weaknesses
> Defensively he seems quite loose as he tends to play a forward of the ball style, so whilst offensively he often has very good impact, he is prone to being caught going the other way and his general accountability, tackling pressure also seem to be lacking, with his defensive efforts are somewhat inconsistent in intensity
Other
> Had a tendency to drift in and out of games at the U18 Championships – his game against WA was the standout and he was very good vs VM - whilst he did good things in the other games (except for vs NT where he had a shocker for the first 3/4) there were fairly long periods where he wasn’t involved in the action
> OK user and DM by hand – has very good power albeit not super quick, but would like to see him use his vision to open up the play by hand from congestion – prefers to bash and crash his way through traffic and get ball to boot, which is no problem at this level, but will be more difficult to get away with at the next level up
> Decent versatility – he is a midfielder long term, but I think HBF may be a good position for him to start off in at AFL that will utilise his kicking/DM skills, strength overhead and play reading ability, but also allow encourage him to improve the defensive side of his game and
> His DC testing was good-outstanding in all areas but TBH I haven’t seen much of it on the field (particularly pace-wise – and not a fluke given he produced similar times in all 3 attempts and has apparently produced similar times in previous testing), he rarely shows better than OK pace on-field and if anything looks a little one-paced – not sure why he doesn’t translate this explosiveness on-field at this stage
> Lived in regional NSW previously and was a hidden talent that wasn’t identified by the elite junior system until late - didn’t play National U16s (and didn’t play National U18s last year, but debuted at TAC Cup late 2008), would suggest good upside considering he has had comparatively he has less exposure at the elite junior level to his peers
> 2008 rising star winner in the Bendigo Football League
> AFL ready for 2010 R1 (if fit) both physically and performance-wise
> 2009 TAC Cup TOTY Centre and Bendigo Pios B&F Runner up – despite only playing 11 games
Stats
Overall
Martin is an excellent and polished midfield prospect who strongly satisfies a lot of the key criteria to be a high quality AFL midfielder, with good further scope for improvement in his game considering his late introduction to the elite football pathway. There are areas he will need to fine tune his game in to do so, but the skills he brings could potentially see him be rated a top 50 AFL player when he matures. He is worth an early 1st round pick.
Posts
We would welcome him at Tigerland. Supporters should allow time to adapt to AFL level. eading Mark Robinson's article about him on the weekend, also hope that Richmond (or any other club who he goes to) assist in developing him for beyond footy. He is not as smart as James Hird. It is a developing midfield with Cuz, Lids, Cotch, Jacko, Axel and Shane Edwards who will take the next big step.
ReplyDelete