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While I only listened on radio and watched the highlights, it sounds like Kyle had a decent debut. Certainly his run through the middle to hit up Heeney looked like a quality player. It'll be interesting to see how they try to develop him for the rest of the season. My general impression on why the first round bid was matched, was that they knew how athletic he was and that they thought that they might be able to turn him into a big bodied midfielder, with the speed to escape from congestion. Early on in the VFL season, he was playing a bit of midfield, but they may have decided that it was a bit too much to soon and switched him back to running defender. So, will they keep him in defence or have another try at converting him to a mid? Personally, I think there's more upside to the midfield option. Plus there's a couple of current academy prospects, with similar sort of profiles, who could become very good rebounding defenders, if we somehow manage to draft them: Jake Medved and Mason McGroder.
As far as I know, Medved is a recent convert, who was just running around playing touch footy, until playing for the academy this season. At 193cm, he's probably quicker than Kyle and I'd say that his disposal skills are more damaging to the opposition. I strongly suspect that he's a big fan of Blakey, because he loves to take off out of defence at high pace. Unfortunately, he may have already played himself out of our draft range, because we don't have a first round pick, and even if we traded in a pick or two, it's likely that we'll have to play the competency tax.
McGroder at 195cm is a little bit taller and a bit more solidly built, which means he has spent a bit of time as a KPD and a bit of time as a relief ruck. He's probably even more athletic, winning the Australian u20 long jump as a 16 year old and also being a quality 400m runner. While he's been in the academy a few seasons, he's possibly still inexperienced, as he regularly misses games to compete in athletics championships. His positioning might need a bit of work and he's yet to have the sort of high possession game, that tends to attract the attention of recruiters. However, when he does get the ball, he reminds me a bit of a 12yo playing in the u10s. If he does decide to pursue an AFL career, rather than athletics, he could also rise up the draft boards.
And I use the term, rise up the draft boards, quite loosely, because the only Swans player mentioned in the rankings that I've seen, is the injured McCartney. So perhaps the experts will continue to ignore our academy prospects? Which is possibly a bit too much to ask for. Perhaps a more likely scenario, is the hype coming for one of them and the other being a bit underrated. Like how the hype came for Campbell, while Gulden slipped through to pick 32.
Anyway, Kyle to midfield, and hopefully we pick up at least one of Medved or McGroder, as the perfect rebounding partner to Blakey.
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