Jones, et al, make their mark at AFL draft camp
THE results are in and AFL recruiters will spend the next few weeks poring over the stats from the AFL draft camp which ended yesterday in Canberra, particularly Stephen Hill's.
West Perth's Hill would have no doubt caught the scouts' eye with the young Falcons midfielder among the top 10 in four of the seven physical tests at the camp.
Hill was first in the agility test -- with Neville Jetta and Liam Jones, son of former St Kilda player, Bob Jones, also in the top 10 -- and he set a draft camp record with his time of 7.77 seconds for the course. Jetta recorded 8.32secs and Jones a shade behind with 8.35secs.
For Jones, the camp was something of a boost given he missed out on playing for his home state, Tasmania, at the national championships due to injury.
Described as a key position forward/defender, Jones stands at around 194cm and is said to take a decent pack mark with a leap to match. His style, when fit and firing, has been likened, among others, to Saints star Nick Reiwoldt.
The stats that matter
HOW our boys fared at the draft camp in Canberra:
REPEAT SPRINTS: This test involves players running 6 x 30-metre sprints with a 20-second time cycle. For example, if the player runs 30 metres in 4.30 seconds, he then has 15.30 seconds to recover, before starting his next 30-metre sprint:
7th Stephen Hill (West Perth, WA, small/medium midfielder): 25.44secs;
13th Chris Yarran (Swan Districts, WA, medium forward): 25.74secs.
* Best time this week was 24.82secs.
AGILITY: This is a slalom-type course where players change directions. The specially-designed circuit, roughly 40 metres in total, is set out in a zig-zag pattern:
1st Stephen Hill: 7.77secs (draft camp record);
Equal 7th Neville Jetta (Swan Districts, WA, medium forward): 8.32secs;
10th Liam Jones (Tassie Mariners, tall forward): 8.35secs.
* Port Adelaide's Danyle Pearce held the previous record of 7.79secs for this test.
STANDING VERTICAL JUMP: This is a stand and jump test, with the best results from the three or four jumps recorded. To record the jump, a vertex machine is used. A player must slap the highest possible slat on this machine for the best jump to be recorded. Each slat is roughly a centimetre apart:
Equal 3rd Stephen Hill: 72cm.
* Best leap this week was 78cm.
20-METRE SPRINT: A straight out 20-metre sprint test, with the best time recorded from three attempts:
3rd Stephen Hill: 2.83secs.
* Pearce holds the record for this test with a time of 2.79secs.
The Indigenous youth in Canberra were: Stephen Hill (West Perth), Neville Jetta (Swan Districts), Liam Jones (Tassie Mariners), Steven Motlop (Wanderers), Charlie Sharples (Sturt), Casey Sibosado (NT Thunder), Adam Varcoe (Central District), Michael Walters (Swan Districts), Chris Yarran (Swan Districts).
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Last Modified on 04/10/2008 13:57