THIS week we look at Rohan Bail, pick 64 from the 2008 draft.
When you get this late in a NAB AFL Draft it can be a bit of lottery. But I don’t buy lottery tickets.
You are hoping that a player you strongly believe will play a lot of AFL football will be there. In this regard and given the research, we hoped that player would be Rohan and I couldn’t have called his name out quick enough.
When I first started this role we sat down and looked at players who had sparked interest amongst the recruiting network in previous years to follow up, in addition to the current under 18 draft pool.
The mature age draft pick received a lot of notoriety and publicity with the choices of Michael Barlow and James Podsiadly in 2009. This was more a result of Podsiadly being a 28-year-old and the fact that the rookie rules were changed from being able to select only one over 23-year-old to an unlimited amount that year. Previous rules stated only one over 23 on your rookie list.
In 2008 we drafted Rohan Bail and Liam Jurrah as “mature age” but as they are 20 year olds they tend to go a bit more unnoticed, but this was the age demographic we were into given the phase of the rebuild we were in.
Rohan’s name was brought up by one of our recruiters who had seen him perform well in Mt Gravatt’s premiership in 2007, where he kicked four goals and was close to best on ground off a wing. From that point I monitored his progress and having played two years for Southport in the QAFL, I had contacts who could do likewise.
In fact one of my ex-teammates in Jason Cotter coached him in the QAFL State team that year where he also performed well.
The drafting of Rohan was a little unorthodox to the normal information gathering you go through.
While I have tried to lay “all the cards on the table” with the process of drafting players in these columns, some of the details to how we got Rohan are best left unsaid. I didn’t see him perform well live but you could see how easy he covered ground and that had an air of class and balance about him.
He won the QAFL Rising Star that year with Dayne Beams as runner up. He dominated off a wing and in the latter half of the year was continually tagged.
You could see his body shape had changed in 2008.
In previous years he had “trained on” at other AFL clubs with a view to a rookie spot, but from that point he had really “thickened up”. His tapes were impressive and he had obviously dominated the competition.
As the draft moved closer and the evidence became more compelling we earmarked him for this pick. Part of that evidence was to enlist Dean Bailey to do a background check as a previous coach of Mt Gravatt, as he knew the current coach, as well as our IT man Darren Farrugia who had played previously with the captain.
What did we see in Rohan Bail? Saw him as an unbelievable runner who could really cover ground. Good acceleration and pace despite being a long strider - smooth and efficient. Clean hands in the air and on the ground. Good attack on the ball and long penetrating kick. Midfielder who could go forward but with his attributes could play anywhere. He was a late developer who has snuck under the radar as a result. He also had strong character references. In the end his attributes and talent gave him every chance to play plenty of AFL football and further add to the elite endurance players we were building on our list. As a result we saw him as a great value pick at 64 and we knew we could get him.
What did we expect in Rohan Bail? We expected that despite the fact he was a 20-year-old he would take time. His development in recent times has been rapid and he didn’t get a great “look at it” as a junior. In fact he came through a very strong year at under 18 level in Queensland which included 11 drafted players in the National Draft such as Ricky Petterd, Kurt Tippet, Brent Renouf, David Armitage etc. He would need to come to terms with the fact that all of a sudden he is an AFL footballer. Especially given the fact he wasn’t even in the media guide for that draft. He needed to work on his field kicking but in time as he adapts to the pressure levels, it will get there.
What are we getting from Rohan Bail? Given his first year, Rohan’s transition into AFL football has been outstanding. On the whole he has been unlucky with injury, but in his first year he also suffered a big hit behind play and coping with the tragic passing of his mother. He debuted in round 19 2009 against North Melbourne. As was the nature of his first year, he unfortunately tore his quadriceps in the warm up and played no further part in the game after winning the first kick of the match. His big break came when Coach Dean Bailey backed him in for round two against Collingwood after the round one disaster of Hawthorn. He repaid his faith in spades with his outstanding running and ability to get in behind the Collingwood press. After three very promising games, injury cut him down again with a quadriceps injury and then returned again for a cheek injury at VFL level, which happened due to his attack on the footy. His next game was round 16 at Fremantle, where once again he made the most of his opportunities by demonstrating his running power on the big ground. He has played mainly as a high half forward where he can work up and back and use his outstanding tank. He has done quite a bit of development as a half back working on accountability. His defensive side which has been a challenge, given at the lower levels he has concentrated mainly on offence, has come on in leaps and bounds. He has graduated into “run with” roles this year being the “chief tagger” in the first seven games. He is work in progress in this role but he has performed well on the likes of Simon Black and Sam Mitchell. Rohan has shown he has all the physical weapons for a long AFL career. His versatility, competitiveness and ability to stay in the game with his endurance has been outstanding. He drives at the ball and hits the contest hard. His ability to absorb high game time helps our rotations especially in the light of the new sub rule. You can see his belief grow every game and given his background and journey into AFL football, his performance thus far is as good as it gets in this regard.
Finally the drafting of Rohan Bail is a bit like buying a bargain off the internet. You know the product is good, but you can believe the price and you hope it works as well as you think when the mail arrives. In Rohan we are getting all that we hoped for but like the Demtel man there will be more with his undoubted commitment and effort to be all that he can be.
When you get this late in a NAB AFL Draft it can be a bit of lottery. But I don’t buy lottery tickets.
You are hoping that a player you strongly believe will play a lot of AFL football will be there. In this regard and given the research, we hoped that player would be Rohan and I couldn’t have called his name out quick enough.
When I first started this role we sat down and looked at players who had sparked interest amongst the recruiting network in previous years to follow up, in addition to the current under 18 draft pool.
The mature age draft pick received a lot of notoriety and publicity with the choices of Michael Barlow and James Podsiadly in 2009. This was more a result of Podsiadly being a 28-year-old and the fact that the rookie rules were changed from being able to select only one over 23-year-old to an unlimited amount that year. Previous rules stated only one over 23 on your rookie list.
In 2008 we drafted Rohan Bail and Liam Jurrah as “mature age” but as they are 20 year olds they tend to go a bit more unnoticed, but this was the age demographic we were into given the phase of the rebuild we were in.
Rohan’s name was brought up by one of our recruiters who had seen him perform well in Mt Gravatt’s premiership in 2007, where he kicked four goals and was close to best on ground off a wing. From that point I monitored his progress and having played two years for Southport in the QAFL, I had contacts who could do likewise.
In fact one of my ex-teammates in Jason Cotter coached him in the QAFL State team that year where he also performed well.
The drafting of Rohan was a little unorthodox to the normal information gathering you go through.
While I have tried to lay “all the cards on the table” with the process of drafting players in these columns, some of the details to how we got Rohan are best left unsaid. I didn’t see him perform well live but you could see how easy he covered ground and that had an air of class and balance about him.
He won the QAFL Rising Star that year with Dayne Beams as runner up. He dominated off a wing and in the latter half of the year was continually tagged.
You could see his body shape had changed in 2008.
In previous years he had “trained on” at other AFL clubs with a view to a rookie spot, but from that point he had really “thickened up”. His tapes were impressive and he had obviously dominated the competition.
As the draft moved closer and the evidence became more compelling we earmarked him for this pick. Part of that evidence was to enlist Dean Bailey to do a background check as a previous coach of Mt Gravatt, as he knew the current coach, as well as our IT man Darren Farrugia who had played previously with the captain.
What did we see in Rohan Bail? Saw him as an unbelievable runner who could really cover ground. Good acceleration and pace despite being a long strider - smooth and efficient. Clean hands in the air and on the ground. Good attack on the ball and long penetrating kick. Midfielder who could go forward but with his attributes could play anywhere. He was a late developer who has snuck under the radar as a result. He also had strong character references. In the end his attributes and talent gave him every chance to play plenty of AFL football and further add to the elite endurance players we were building on our list. As a result we saw him as a great value pick at 64 and we knew we could get him.
What did we expect in Rohan Bail? We expected that despite the fact he was a 20-year-old he would take time. His development in recent times has been rapid and he didn’t get a great “look at it” as a junior. In fact he came through a very strong year at under 18 level in Queensland which included 11 drafted players in the National Draft such as Ricky Petterd, Kurt Tippet, Brent Renouf, David Armitage etc. He would need to come to terms with the fact that all of a sudden he is an AFL footballer. Especially given the fact he wasn’t even in the media guide for that draft. He needed to work on his field kicking but in time as he adapts to the pressure levels, it will get there.
What are we getting from Rohan Bail? Given his first year, Rohan’s transition into AFL football has been outstanding. On the whole he has been unlucky with injury, but in his first year he also suffered a big hit behind play and coping with the tragic passing of his mother. He debuted in round 19 2009 against North Melbourne. As was the nature of his first year, he unfortunately tore his quadriceps in the warm up and played no further part in the game after winning the first kick of the match. His big break came when Coach Dean Bailey backed him in for round two against Collingwood after the round one disaster of Hawthorn. He repaid his faith in spades with his outstanding running and ability to get in behind the Collingwood press. After three very promising games, injury cut him down again with a quadriceps injury and then returned again for a cheek injury at VFL level, which happened due to his attack on the footy. His next game was round 16 at Fremantle, where once again he made the most of his opportunities by demonstrating his running power on the big ground. He has played mainly as a high half forward where he can work up and back and use his outstanding tank. He has done quite a bit of development as a half back working on accountability. His defensive side which has been a challenge, given at the lower levels he has concentrated mainly on offence, has come on in leaps and bounds. He has graduated into “run with” roles this year being the “chief tagger” in the first seven games. He is work in progress in this role but he has performed well on the likes of Simon Black and Sam Mitchell. Rohan has shown he has all the physical weapons for a long AFL career. His versatility, competitiveness and ability to stay in the game with his endurance has been outstanding. He drives at the ball and hits the contest hard. His ability to absorb high game time helps our rotations especially in the light of the new sub rule. You can see his belief grow every game and given his background and journey into AFL football, his performance thus far is as good as it gets in this regard.
Finally the drafting of Rohan Bail is a bit like buying a bargain off the internet. You know the product is good, but you can believe the price and you hope it works as well as you think when the mail arrives. In Rohan we are getting all that we hoped for but like the Demtel man there will be more with his undoubted commitment and effort to be all that he can be.
