At this early stage of the game it’s best to be intuitive. With no exposed form I’m going to take a look at the player from last year’s draft who I believe has the best DT game. Also, in good news, upon researching his pre-season I hear that he has been impressing down at the Eagles.

West Coast Eagles Training Session Brad Sheppard is a running defender with great play reading skills. He’s a very good athlete and ticks a lot of boxes as a player. He creates some great dash and is a fantastic kick of the ball. The way I saw him play his juniors reminds me a bit of what we saw from Andy Otten last year, except Sheppard will be a more damaging player.

One thing I’ll be valuing highly this year is players that play on winning teams – I’ve spoken before about the obvious correlation between winning games of footy and DT points. Over the coming weeks it’ll be tough to justify some of my articles with this in mind, because a lot of the kids that will get a chance are from struggling clubs, where there may be more opportunity for a kid to come in and get a regular game. I actually anticipate that the Eagles will improve to be a Top 8 team this year and that Sheppard is good enough to be a part of that.

I’m not calling him a lock for 22 games, but there’s a poise about the way he plays that should hold him in good stead for AFL football. In the short term I can see him playing off a half back flank in a rebounding role. His kicking skills wouldn’t be as good as Hurn’s, but Hurn will always attract more attention, so if it plays out this way the kid might be able to get some cheap stuff as opposition put plenty of time into Hurn.

Given his class he has the scope to move up the ground. His running game is very strong, so the prospect of him getting a bit of time on the wing on the massive Subiaco is a pretty attractive option if you ask me.

Being a first round pick he’s also a bit uppish in the price range for a rookie at $133,500, but you have the option of playing him as your 7th back. Personally, I’ve got him sitting on my bench at the moment but if I hear he’s playing Round 1 I’ll have to decide whether or not I restructure a little bit to push him onto the ground and use the extra cash elsewhere.

All reports from his pre-season have been fantastic (except apparently he was fairly average in the intra club) and there’s even a bit of talk about him forcing his way into the midfield rotation. At the end of the day, even if he’s not playing from Round 1 he’ll at least be a good one to have a look at bringing in later on. Track his NAB Cup form closely.