Koby Stevens (WCE)

[Phasir]

Pick #23 in the 2009 NAB National Draft, had an unlucky run with injury that ruined his first two seasons with West Coast but has put that behind him & is currently tearing it up in the off-season.
Was in good form for large patches for East Fremantle when was developing in the WAFL, averaging 85+ ppg.
Could very well emulate the exploits of his young gun of a teammate Luke Shuey by getting early games from slotting into the half-forward role vacated by former teammate Brad Ebert.
The only real problems are that he might get rotated a bit with other half-forward options in the team, and that he might not get the same amount of game time as players from younger teams like GWS or GCS.
Priced as a rookie he's a valid option for a bit of a unique for 2012

[Rolder]

Yeah - but don't forget that in the most important games of the season (the finals), Brad Ebert was dropped ... so there is no "vacancy" in the best WC team opened up by Brad Ebert's departure, and the Eagles have said as much.  I still thing he might be OK, but who would you drop from the Eagle's best team of last year to fit him in ?

[AFL Babble]

His height helps. Gives him flexibility to play many roles. However, I don't like Eagle youngsters. They're never in for long and when they do get a good run, it seems to now be as sub. They nurse them, that's good for the players long-term, but sucks for Fantasy purposes. Gaff couldn't have been more impressive last year - but his scoring was held back. I think they're only good for mid-rangers of the second, third and fourth year variety now.

That being said:

"He's putting himself in a really good position to challenge for a senior spot," midfield coach Scott Burns says.

"Out of our starting 22 we've lost Ebert, but he didn't play in the last two finals.

"If you look at our last two finals games, we haven't lost any midfielders or forwards, so he's still got to get past those guys. That's the challenge."

"This year he had a full year playing WAFL and a couple of games for us in the seniors, which is a good match-day base," said Burns, who believes Stevens is capable of playing midfield, wing, half-forward and deep forward.

"There were no operations at the end, he's had a few weeks off and he's continued his running.

"He's basically gone 12 months now continually on his legs, getting that conditioning, which has really put him in good stead coming into this pre-season. He's going really well."

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I like him more as the apprentice to Embley. If he goes down, I'll look very closely... Also, don't forget we're all assuming Kerr can play a full year injury free.

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[Windigo]

His supposed to be tearing the track up at training.

[Kuruki]

Yeah - but don't forget that in the most important games of the season (the finals), Brad Ebert was dropped ... so there is no "vacancy" in the best WC team opened up by Brad Ebert's departure, and the Eagles have said as much.  I still thing he might be OK, but who would you drop from the Eagle's best team of last year to fit him in ?

Just wait 5 minutes into game 1 and Kerr will be red vested for a month or 2.

[Phasir]

His height helps. Gives him flexibility to play many roles. However, I don't like Eagle youngsters. They're never in for long and when they do get a good run, it seems to now be as sub. They nurse them, that's good for the players long-term, but sucks for Fantasy purposes. Gaff couldn't have been more impressive last year - but his scoring was held back. I think they're only good for mid-rangers of the second, third and fourth year variety now.

That being said:

"He's putting himself in a really good position to challenge for a senior spot," midfield coach Scott Burns says.

"Out of our starting 22 we've lost Ebert, but he didn't play in the last two finals.

"If you look at our last two finals games, we haven't lost any midfielders or forwards, so he's still got to get past those guys. That's the challenge."

"This year he had a full year playing WAFL and a couple of games for us in the seniors, which is a good match-day base," said Burns, who believes Stevens is capable of playing midfield, wing, half-forward and deep forward.

"There were no operations at the end, he's had a few weeks off and he's continued his running.

"He's basically gone 12 months now continually on his legs, getting that conditioning, which has really put him in good stead coming into this pre-season. He's going really well."

-----------------

I like him more as the apprentice to Embley. If he goes down, I'll look very closely... Also, don't forget we're all assuming Kerr can play a full year injury free.

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Shuey came into the best 22 from round 1 this year after barely playing previously, Jack Darling played the majority of the season before being rested midway for soreness, Gaff may have been seen as being the sub for the main part of 2011 but he was only playing as the 'super-sub' for 6 out of his 17 games, so the only reason Koby hasn't been playing more matches is that his injuries slowed him down and took his strength away & when its not that it was Ebert being in the team, the only people genuinely competing with Koby are Masten & Ebert, Embley plays on the opposite wing to Rosa and rests at half-forward, it isn't his designated position in the team so he won't challange Koby for it.  While I think Masten should get games too, West Coast seem to be losing patience with him & his inability to convert WAFL form to AFL form, so he might not even challenge for that half-forward role.
just my 2cents ;)

[AFL Babble]

I take your point about Darling, although he is not a midfielder yet, so he is kind of in a different category and as a result they may have a different philosophy on how they nurture him. Also, he did set the record for highest Champion Data ranking points in under an 18's game - so possibly he's something a bit special as well.

Personally, if I pick Kobe and he is sub in 6 out of 17 games, I will not be happy. I think Gaff could have had the year that Heppell did, but the coaching philosophy held him back. His responsibility seemed to increase during finals with the absence of Ebert.

Full disclosure, I do not know what injuries these players had in their first year, but I do know how many games they played:

Scott Selwood: 6 in 2008

Masten: 9 in 2008

Ebert: 15 in 2008

Swift: 10 in 2009

Shuey: 6 in 2010

McGinnity: 7 in 2009

So Gaff had more games than all of them, albeit as sub in 6. Interestingly, Ebert had the next most games out of those boys and now he's gone. Pure speculation here, but it wouldn't surprise if they knew he wanted to go home early on and played him a bit more because they thought it might help their cause. In the end they dropped him for finals in 2011 and he jumped ship straight after. What a ripping bloke he must be. Just kidding, if I was in his shoes I'd probably go home too.

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[Phasir]

I get why you'd be sceptical of the young guys in the team, but they all had reasons not to be in the best 22, some of them like Swift & Cockie(remember him?) were given games & failed to perform.

Selwood, pretty sure it was because of his position, that was back when he was a half back and he had to go develop his tagging game in the WAFL.

Masten, he did have some knee injury or something like that & his form wasn't the best either, was promising as a young guy though.

Ebert, was a total waste of time, the most inacurate kick in the entire AFL in one of his years and he kept on getting games instead of some of the younger guys, wouldn't surprise me if the only reason he was getting games was because he was threatening to go home.

Swift, failed to perform in almost all games he got given chances in, was/is a bad decision maker with a lack of pace/size compared to other midfield options.

Shuey, exploded in his 3rd year, the same year Stevens is in now, the only reason he couldn't play in previous seasons were injury and off-field problems out of his control.

McGinnity, was a bit the same as Scooter, took time to develop his body so he could tag AFL sized players .. bit hard tagging someone who's 10-15kg heavier than you.

In 2008 they had Priddis & Rosa as young guys they were getting games into, the same age as Shuey & Stevens are..
Stevens isn't a rookie, this is his 3rd season on the list he just hasn't been able to push into the team that had all positions covered with what were premiership players in a lot of cases early on, now there's fewer premiership players in the team & now one less half-forward he should be getting a fair few early games this year.
(And to be fair you never specified that its only young Eagles midfielders that you don't like, so can't discount Darling.)

[elli]

I have faith in this young guy
http://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7155/newsid/127591/default.aspx
even the caption underneath the photo from the WCE site says he's highly rated within the club, & its pretty hard to have a breakout season if he's not in the best 22 ;)

[Scrads]

In my team atm, I guess there isnt much you can do other than watch his NAB form and look for his name in the round 1 teams sheets.

[Colliwobblers]

flying in preseason and being compared to shuey all adds up to great pick him, but JS is the question and there are a LOT of great rookies available not to take the risk on him not round 1 anyway.

[elephants]

Possibly. Any excuse to add another Eagle into my side.

Currently fighting with...
Horsely, Mitchell, Clifton, Shiel, McDonald for 4 spots...

[Windigo]

If he isn't named round one. He should be a good downgrade target in future rounds.

[Off Tap]

I think this year he should be good enough to be a regular. Obviously he will need to prove himself during the NAB but he has a bit of momentum going at the moment.

[Andrew]

As long as Stevens is named for round 1, I'll pick him - otherwise as noted he'd be a downgrade target mid-season. Pretty confident that given gametime he will fluorish like Shuey.