You’d be a hard person to impress if you haven’t taken to Lewis Jetta already. One thing is for sure, Paul Roos seems mighty impressed and it looks like Jetta is a good show for early games. It’s not unreasonable to think he might be able to play most of the season, so in that sense he’s a decent each way bet. If he does hang around you’ve got the option of leaving him there for midfield cover, or cashing him in later on. 

Even though Jetta is getting a bit of press, I find his DT stocks to have been a bit underrated. It feels as though a lot of coaches out there were disappointed he wasn’t a forward option (he played on the wing all year for Swan Districts, don’t act surprised!) and kind of pushed him back in their minds. I was kind of hoping he’d be a forward option, just to spread the talent a bit. With so many quality midfield options he’s just another one in line. 

I’ve got to admit, even until this week I hadn’t really considered him for this very reason, but I’m loving the look of him on my midfield bench. Even though he’ll play forward a lot for Sydney, I’m hoping he gets plenty of opportunity to push up the ground onto a wing and find plenty of outside ball. The threat here is that Sydney might need to push defenders up onto their wings (Malceski, Kennelly, Shaw, Mattner is a tad overkill for rebounding defenders), which could in turn limit Jetta’s midfield time. 

If he does stay in the forward line he’s still going to be an effective enough scorer. I don’t think you’d be asking too much if you wanted 60′s from him. Due to the nature of his role his scores will probably fluctuate a bit, but he’ll be a consistent enough goal scorer that even in his quieter games he can still pad his stats with a nine point play or two. 

For such a skinny lad he’s an exceptionally powerful kick. Where does he get that power from with no hips? His play reading skills are fantastic, so this usually translates into just knowing where to be. 

I do have a tendency to bleat on about mature aged selections, but I’d be treating Jetta as a fairly inexperienced sort. Even though he’s 20 years old he’s not as well journeyed as other mature aged recruits, given that he’s only had one year at WAFL Senior level (he played in Bunbury in 2008 and before that had an average season with Swan Districts U/19). He does attribute his time in Bunbury as something that toughened him up a bit though, recognising that he probably wasn’t tough enough in his first stint at Swan Districts. 

Not that it counts for much Dream Team wise, but some of the tapes I’ve seen of his WAFL games last year were freakish. His skills at ground level are something to behold and he looked like he fit right in playing his first NAB Cup game against Carlton the other week. He seems to be adapting well to AFL lifestyle so far and with the difficulty to resist Martin, Trengove and Barlow it might make Jetta a slightly more unique midfield back-up.