Nick Duigan

Drafted By: Carlton

Height: 186cm

Weight: 85kg

Fantasy position: BACK

Price: $92,500 DT, $103,600 SC

Role: Medium/rebounding defender

Nick Duigan was recruited from Norwood in the SANFL (not to be confused with Norwood in the EFL) at Pick 70 in the 2010 National Draft as a 26 year old. He’d been toiling away in the SANFL for all of his career and was set to embark on a one year trip to Sudan to do volunteer work before getting drafted (top bloke!). Over the years he’d suffered a few niggles and missed a bit of footy, but his last two years were very consistent and it caught Wayne Hughes’ eye.

Duigan, pronounced DYE-GAN (I swear they said DOO-GAN on SEN, which is why I butchered his name in our pre-season video) is a medium sized defender with good accountability. Unfortunately a spoil isn’t worth any DT or SC points, but his fist is a great strength. He is, however, a player who likes to link up and run and carry the ball. While he isn’t a high possession winner he does have a fairly prominent attacking side to his game and is one of those classic 70m players (run it 20m, kick it 50m) who are very much in vogue these days.

He’s a fantastic endurance runner and he’s got pretty good (not great) pace. You’ll come to enjoy seeing him get a handball receive, give it off and then follow up his good work by providing another option. His work rate around the contest is a big plus in his game and with his attacking style, he’ll use it to run into dangerous positions forward of centre. He’s not one to push forward though and isn’t a known goal kicker, however you might get an argument out of Woodville-West Torrens fans, as he ripped their hearts out by kicking the winning goal on basically the final play of the Prelim in 2010 (0:40 of the video below).

His stats in 2010 do not scream fantasy stud, but there’s a couple of reasons why I find him an appealing option. For a start, at 26 years of age you know he’s been recruited to address a specific need in Carlton’s squad. If he’s not best 22, he would be very damn close, but I’m pretty confident he’ll be there come Round 1, especially as he is impressing many this pre-season (already a cult figure in the Carlton online community).

Another reason I like him as a fantasy player is that he has the sort of game that could flourish at AFL level and see a spike in his scoring. In 20 SANFL games last year (I don’t have finals stats, but every other game – go figure) he scored in the 50′s for DT on eight occasions and on top of that he had a 48, 49, 61 and 62, so his scoring spread was quite similar and with not many big scores. His three top scores were 90, 89 and 74, however with all of these stats, it should be noted that I’m skeptical about the way they award tackles in SANFL stats and think that they miss a few.

I could definitely see him being the sort of player Carlton want to get loose in defence. He’s a great runner, as I mentioned, but I wouldn’t call him an overly damaging kick – I’d go with neat to describe his kicking. No frills, gets the job done (think Ryan Hargrave). For that reason, opposition won’t put much time into trying to stop him. I’m not saying it’ll turn his steady 50′s into 80′s, but he could feasibly lift his numbers from what he put up in the SANFL due to the over possessive nature of AFL football.