Michael Barlow put up great numbers in the VFL for Werribee last year. He would regularly rack up over 30 touches and was named in the best players in all but three of Werribee’s games. 

He’s a very attractive DT option because of his ability to find space and get the ball. He’s just one of those blokes who knows where to be to get the ball. With great endurance and exceptional play reading it’s no surprise he’s been on the end of so much loose ball. In my view, this sort of style is going to be even more relevant at Subiaco. There’s so much space on that ground he won’t know what to do with himself! 

The down side is that Barlow is on the rookie list, so he’ll need to earn a spot on the senior list. By my reckoning the Dockers have two free spots on their list – long term injuries to Dean Solomon (retired) and Tim Ruffles. Feel free to chip in if I’ve missed something though, because I only worked that out by checking out their senior list. 

Oddly, Freo seem to have much better depth on their rookie list than their senior list. Barlow will be competing with Matt de Boer, Clancee Pearce, Alex Silvagni and as an outside chance Jay van Berlo for those two spots on the senior list. Frankly I think he’d be pretty stiff to miss out, but Pearce’s form looked great on the weekend, de Boer had some really good games last year and if a tall goes down Silvagni comes right into the picture. 

My money would still be on Barlow to get a gig on the senior list to start the season, but it’s definitely a situation you’ll need to monitor. 

The other thing I like about Barlow is that he’s a mature aged selection. Mature aged players tend to have greater success in their first season. Just from a quick look at the 2008 National Draft I can only see five mature aged selections – Ballantyne, Post, Robinson, L.Anthony, Bail (not counting recycled players). They all played AFL in their first year and apart from Bail all spent a bit of time in the seniors. Then you’ve got rookie list successes such as Greg Broughton, Robin Nahas and even though not a great DT’er yet, Liam Picken. 

Barlow has already had a few years of senior experience that’ll hold him in good stead. His consistent performances got him onto Freo’s rookie list, but I bet there were stages last year while they were tracking his form that they wished they could just pick him to play for them! I must admit I missed Freo’s first NAB Cup game, but it sounds like he adjusted to the pace of playing against a side slightly above the level of the VFL sides he played against last year.