Western Bulldogs rapt to scoop up Jordan Roughead
Western Bulldogs rapt to scoop up Jordan Roughead
| November 29, 2008 03:40pm
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24725108-19775,00.html

WESTERN Bulldogs bolstered their big man stocks with three talls from three picks in this year's National Draft. With Father-Son selection Ayce Cordy already in the Dogs' keeping, they were rapt when Jordan Roughead slid to 31 and then claimed Liam Jones to cap a tall trifecta.

Western Bulldogs picks

Pick 14 - Ayce Cordy (father-son selection)
Geelong Falcons (Vic), 202cm, 77kg
Cordy missed most of 2008 with a shoulder reconstruction yet was still always certain to end up at the Bulldogs under the father-son rule. He ended up being taken with their first selection, No.14 overall, but would likely have been a top 10 pick if available on the open market. The 202cm Cordy will take a long time to develop but given his mobility for his size and overall potential, he is the Bulldogs’ best young ruck hope since Luke Darcy’s career began in the mid-1990s.

Pick 31 - Jordan Roughead
North Ballarat (Vic), 200cm, 92kg
Developing ruckman with good endurance who is sound at ground level. Ruckwork is a feature of his game. The Dogs were rapt that he slid to them. From Lake Wendouree FC.

Pick 32 - Liam Jones
Tassie Mariners, 195cm, 86kg
Tall forward or defender who reads the game well and attacks the ball with purpose. Good decision maker and strong overhead. Attends Scotch College in Melbourne. From North Hobart FC.

Western Bulldogs football manager James Fantasia: Our order (eg task) going into the draft was to get talls, key position players. With Ayce Cordy at 200cm, young Jordan (Roughead) at 199cm and young Liam (Jones) at 195cm that was a really pleasing result. (Getting Roughead at pick 32) was a surprise for us. In our numbers he was rated a lot higher. He was inside our 20 sort of thing.

There always seems to be a case of player x sliding down to our pick, i think all clubs use that one..........

Having said that, many phantom drafts did have Roughead around the 15-20 mark, and Alan McConnell had Cordy as his NUMBER ONE, whilst Ricky Nixon had Cordy about number 3-4.

Liam Jones seemed to be selected around the predicted mark.

So going by that, plus all being talls, i think we did extremely well.

For the record:

Ayce Cordy <202 cm> is a ruckman / forward combo, very natural around goals, great grab, reads plays extremely well.

Jordan Roughead <198 cm> is a natural ruckman who can go forward.

Liam Jones <195cm> is a CENTRE HALF FORWARD, and a natural looking forward at that, great hands, great kick.

If you watch their Youtube video's, you'll undertand what i mean, i also have Roughead on dvd playing against Tassie in the under 18's, unfortunatly Jones wasn't playing for Tassie.

Now we have developing i regards to talls:

Backs:
Everitt, Tiller, Williams, O'Shea alongside Lake, Hargrave & Morris.

Rucks:
Cordy , Roughead, Shaw to go alongside Minson & Hudson.

Forwards : Grant, Boumann, Mulligan, Cordy, Jones.

Skipper & Wight are really just depth talls without a true position.