In my last post I looked at the statistics from previous years from the WAFL competition, so it follows suit that the South Australian National Football League should also throw up some important numbers from this year’s draftee class.
South Australians have been rather scarce at the top of draft lists in the last couple of years, with Western Australia dominating along with perennial Victoria. Of the four draftees in the top 20 picks in 2008, we only got to see one of them, Hartlett, play in the senior SANFL competition this year, with Phil Davis, Lewis Johnstone and Ryan Schoenmakers restricted to reserves and under-age duties. For better or worse, the WAFL has become more of a draftee playground than the SANFL, and arguably it’s a better gauge of a player’s fantasy worth than the SANFL as well. Nevertheless, we did see a fair bit of exposed form from some important fantasy players, so let’s look at them in draft order.
| Player |
Year |
SANFL club |
Gm |
K |
H |
M |
Gl |
B |
HO |
T |
FF |
FA |
DT |
| Hamish Hartlett |
2008 |
West Adelaide |
5 |
51 |
17 |
30 |
7 |
6 |
1 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
70.6 |
| Jack Redden |
2008 |
Glenelg |
1 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
12.0 |
| Matthew Broadbent |
2008 |
Woodville-West Torrens |
11 |
107 |
56 |
27 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
13 |
7 |
48.1 |
| Rhys Stanley |
2008 |
West Adelaide |
2 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
19.5 |
| Jarred Redden |
2008 |
Woodville-West Torrens |
2 |
8 |
6 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
37.5 |
| Rhys O’Keeffe |
2008 |
North Adelaide |
4 |
7 |
10 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
14.5 |
| Tyson Slattery |
2008 |
West Adelaide |
9 |
45 |
28 |
23 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
18 |
10 |
19 |
32.8 |
| Chris Hall |
2008 |
Woodville-West Torrens |
8 |
45 |
32 |
11 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
6 |
2 |
40.5 |
Harrumph! Not really much to look at there apart from Hartlett, is there? It must be acknowledged that this is an excellent set of numbers for Hartlett, and must be most of the reason why Port decided to pick him instead of Tyrone Vickery at #4 this year. Over here in Victoria we don’t get to hear much of the media buzz about interstate rookies, and Port is not traditionally a very flashy club, so there probably won’t be much hype around the kid in the pre-season unless he explodes in the NAB. He is the highest draft pick that the Power have ever had, though, so it may turn out to be a case of the Power hierarchy pumping him up to combat recent poor attendances and membership figures. His fantasy popularity will be worth keeping an eye on, as if he stays under the radar he could be a very nice “unique”. Then again, my saying that on this blog might mean the opposite!
As for the rest, most of these players were drafted very low and won’t figure much in plans until they get a game in the ones, which would be very unlikely to be as early as round 1. Broadbent has the advantage of the most games under his belt, but if you thought it might be hard for Hartlett to break into the stacked Port midfield, it’s going to be even harder for Broadbent early doors.
(As an aside, it was much more time-consuming to collate these stats than the WAFL ones. I’m tired from looking through PDFs!)
Apart from Hartlett there’s not much to write home about – not that these players will have to write home, since most of them got drafted by the Crows or Power anyway. Is there anything there that tickles your fancy? Are you coming around to Hartlett, or is he too expensive for a rookie? Chew it over in the comments.
