THIS week we look at Neville Jetta, pick 51 from the 2008 draft.
As we stated last week, later picks are more likely to have a greater needs emphasis with them.
Having drafted a lot of pace and kicking with our first four picks, we were keen to get a contested ball player with this selection and we had earmarked Neville as a strong possibility if he was still there.
The drafting process is always interesting as you investigate the talent pool.
You conduct a lot of interviews and process a lot of information to make your selections.
You do ‘cover all bases’ and there can be a lot of irrelevant information, given that quite often you don’t get a chance to select that player in the picking region or you finally deem them unsuitable for drafting.
So you need to spread the research far and wide, especially when you have late picks, to give yourself options on the draft table that have been well researched.
Part of that search took us to Bunbury to meet Neville Jetta and his family. We had planned to meet Neville on the same day as Jamie Bennell, but the Jettas were very hard to contact and after numerous phone calls, we had almost given up on an interview.
However, Neville’s mum Lynette got back to us and having driven to Bunbury the previous day to meet Jamie, John Turnbull and I returned to Bunbury again during our three day trip to Perth to meet WA prospective draftees.
We arrived to meet Lynette at the local Red Cross where she worked. However Neville was still driving back from three hours inland with his father Neville Senior where they had been kangaroo shooting. Unfortunately their car had broken down 45 minutes out of town.
We contemplated heading out the highway for an interview but they got going and we had an hour wait for them to arrive.
The hospitality was good at the Red Cross and we got to know Lynette who was very passionate about her footy and Neville’s brother and sister.
Neville’s cousin Lewis also arrived, which has been a reasonably well publicised meeting given Lewis’s rise to fame from that point. Just to set the record straight on that one.
Yes, Lynette did indicate Lewis’s talents, and she gave me an abbreviated CV on Lewis.
However, with no previous evidence on his ability at our club and the way our drafting panned out, it wasn’t a punt we were unlikely to take.
As I much as I respect Lynette’s football knowledge, I wasn’t prepared to make her an honorary member of the recruiting team at that point.
At that stage we weren’t even aware we would get to draft Nev. We did encourage Lewis to get up the highway to play in the WAFL, which he was intending to do and the rest is history.
We did follow him up in 2009 and he is a fine young man, who adds to the great CV the Jetta family are building in the AFL. But back to Nev.
It was an excellent interview. The Jettas were good fun and Lynette’s knowledge and passion for the game was outstanding. We finally got to meet Nev senior and junior and their bond was obvious.
As a recruiter talking to players from interstate, something hit me for the first time. I won’t forget the look on Nev senior’s face when we talked about how moving young Neville interstate would affect the family.
Neville junior was resilient on the fact that “I’ll be right”, and while I was confident he would be, it was obviously going to be difficult for all, especially Nev snr.
As we now know, the problem was solved with the Jettas successfully relocating to Melbourne to support their son. Their courage and the support of our club has been great to witness.
What did we see in Neville Jetta? Nev had a very strong season with Swan District Colts culminating in a best on ground performance in the premiership team at Colts level. He had performed well for WA in the National Championships. He tested well for speed and agility at the NAB AFL Draft Camp, being seventh overall in agility. This is demonstrated by his step and evasive skills on game day. He has very good hands and good awareness in congestion. He is an inside midfielder, good at the stoppages and tackles very well. He played back and can go forward, being a very good mark for his size. He has a little bit of X-factor in that regard. That versatility had appeal. He plays with a lot of desire and grunt. At the draft camp on the last day, when others were dropping like flies out of 3km run, he stood up. His first two laps looked like he would be lucky to finish, but he grunted it out to finish with a very creditable time. He is confident and has great belief and he gave you a great feeling of any which way the cards fall, “I am going to make it”. And he will.
What did we expect in Neville Jetta? We expected an inside midfielder who loves the contest. That his clean hands, awareness, courage and great step are ideally suited to this role and complement the more ‘outsidish’ picks of that draft. A competitor with a strong body, Nev has a bit of enforcer about him despite being 180cm. A versatile player who can play in all areas of the ground if need be and give our team flexibility. We didn’t expect him to play 15 games in 2009, but we do expect he will perform against the odds and when you think he’s down and out he gets back up. When it gets difficult, he will find a way. His commitment and family support to do a five-hour round trip to train once a week with Swans - and again on game day getting up at 5.30am to get there and perform well - was further evidence.
What are we getting from Neville Jetta? At this stage despite his flying start, Nev is a player very much in a development phase still finding his feet. He has played 23 games, but unfortunately only five of those being in wins. Most of those games were in 2009, which is tough for young players. He missed the first eight games in 2010 with injury and needs continuity to develop his running power. He has played mainly as a small pressure forward, which is not his strongest suit but you take the opportunities you can at this stage. He has shown good signs in the midfield when he has had the opportunity but he must get his running up if he is to get more. His Carlton game in 2009 and the Brisbane practice match this year have shown his ability on the inside, especially his ability to tackle and evade in close. His pressure skills and work ethic have been very good, but he hasn’t made the most of his opportunities by foot, which has been at odds with what we saw at junior levels. He is working hard and getting more midfield time at Casey to develop these areas of his game.
Finally, the drafting of Neville Jetta has been a bit like watching Vo Rogue at the races. He has burst out of the gates and made a great start to his career and just when you think he is starting to paddle and others will go past him, he finds a way and grunts out the finish to get across the line. Nev will have his challenges, but he has the two most important ingredients, belief and resilience, to take him the distance.
As we stated last week, later picks are more likely to have a greater needs emphasis with them.
Having drafted a lot of pace and kicking with our first four picks, we were keen to get a contested ball player with this selection and we had earmarked Neville as a strong possibility if he was still there.
The drafting process is always interesting as you investigate the talent pool.
You conduct a lot of interviews and process a lot of information to make your selections.
You do ‘cover all bases’ and there can be a lot of irrelevant information, given that quite often you don’t get a chance to select that player in the picking region or you finally deem them unsuitable for drafting.
So you need to spread the research far and wide, especially when you have late picks, to give yourself options on the draft table that have been well researched.
Part of that search took us to Bunbury to meet Neville Jetta and his family. We had planned to meet Neville on the same day as Jamie Bennell, but the Jettas were very hard to contact and after numerous phone calls, we had almost given up on an interview.
However, Neville’s mum Lynette got back to us and having driven to Bunbury the previous day to meet Jamie, John Turnbull and I returned to Bunbury again during our three day trip to Perth to meet WA prospective draftees.
We arrived to meet Lynette at the local Red Cross where she worked. However Neville was still driving back from three hours inland with his father Neville Senior where they had been kangaroo shooting. Unfortunately their car had broken down 45 minutes out of town.
We contemplated heading out the highway for an interview but they got going and we had an hour wait for them to arrive.
The hospitality was good at the Red Cross and we got to know Lynette who was very passionate about her footy and Neville’s brother and sister.
Neville’s cousin Lewis also arrived, which has been a reasonably well publicised meeting given Lewis’s rise to fame from that point. Just to set the record straight on that one.
Yes, Lynette did indicate Lewis’s talents, and she gave me an abbreviated CV on Lewis.
However, with no previous evidence on his ability at our club and the way our drafting panned out, it wasn’t a punt we were unlikely to take.
As I much as I respect Lynette’s football knowledge, I wasn’t prepared to make her an honorary member of the recruiting team at that point.
At that stage we weren’t even aware we would get to draft Nev. We did encourage Lewis to get up the highway to play in the WAFL, which he was intending to do and the rest is history.
We did follow him up in 2009 and he is a fine young man, who adds to the great CV the Jetta family are building in the AFL. But back to Nev.
It was an excellent interview. The Jettas were good fun and Lynette’s knowledge and passion for the game was outstanding. We finally got to meet Nev senior and junior and their bond was obvious.
As a recruiter talking to players from interstate, something hit me for the first time. I won’t forget the look on Nev senior’s face when we talked about how moving young Neville interstate would affect the family.
Neville junior was resilient on the fact that “I’ll be right”, and while I was confident he would be, it was obviously going to be difficult for all, especially Nev snr.
As we now know, the problem was solved with the Jettas successfully relocating to Melbourne to support their son. Their courage and the support of our club has been great to witness.
What did we see in Neville Jetta? Nev had a very strong season with Swan District Colts culminating in a best on ground performance in the premiership team at Colts level. He had performed well for WA in the National Championships. He tested well for speed and agility at the NAB AFL Draft Camp, being seventh overall in agility. This is demonstrated by his step and evasive skills on game day. He has very good hands and good awareness in congestion. He is an inside midfielder, good at the stoppages and tackles very well. He played back and can go forward, being a very good mark for his size. He has a little bit of X-factor in that regard. That versatility had appeal. He plays with a lot of desire and grunt. At the draft camp on the last day, when others were dropping like flies out of 3km run, he stood up. His first two laps looked like he would be lucky to finish, but he grunted it out to finish with a very creditable time. He is confident and has great belief and he gave you a great feeling of any which way the cards fall, “I am going to make it”. And he will.
What did we expect in Neville Jetta? We expected an inside midfielder who loves the contest. That his clean hands, awareness, courage and great step are ideally suited to this role and complement the more ‘outsidish’ picks of that draft. A competitor with a strong body, Nev has a bit of enforcer about him despite being 180cm. A versatile player who can play in all areas of the ground if need be and give our team flexibility. We didn’t expect him to play 15 games in 2009, but we do expect he will perform against the odds and when you think he’s down and out he gets back up. When it gets difficult, he will find a way. His commitment and family support to do a five-hour round trip to train once a week with Swans - and again on game day getting up at 5.30am to get there and perform well - was further evidence.
What are we getting from Neville Jetta? At this stage despite his flying start, Nev is a player very much in a development phase still finding his feet. He has played 23 games, but unfortunately only five of those being in wins. Most of those games were in 2009, which is tough for young players. He missed the first eight games in 2010 with injury and needs continuity to develop his running power. He has played mainly as a small pressure forward, which is not his strongest suit but you take the opportunities you can at this stage. He has shown good signs in the midfield when he has had the opportunity but he must get his running up if he is to get more. His Carlton game in 2009 and the Brisbane practice match this year have shown his ability on the inside, especially his ability to tackle and evade in close. His pressure skills and work ethic have been very good, but he hasn’t made the most of his opportunities by foot, which has been at odds with what we saw at junior levels. He is working hard and getting more midfield time at Casey to develop these areas of his game.
Finally, the drafting of Neville Jetta has been a bit like watching Vo Rogue at the races. He has burst out of the gates and made a great start to his career and just when you think he is starting to paddle and others will go past him, he finds a way and grunts out the finish to get across the line. Nev will have his challenges, but he has the two most important ingredients, belief and resilience, to take him the distance.
