Small midfielder/forward from Swan Dist

You beauty! Thought we would pick him up if around. Deadly player...

Michael Walters (Swan Districts)
Brief: Bottom aged, creative, hard working, footy smart small rover/forward with plenty of aggro and a deadly left foot.

DOB: 7th January 1991
Height: 177cm
Weight: 75kg
Preferred foot: Left foot

AFL player comparison: Alan Didak/Daniel Kerr hybrid

Projected Quality: 7 to 9

Background

- Played his junior footy with Midvale FC (started at 9 years old) in the Swan Districts region
- Followed the regular development pathway working through the Swan Districts system, as well as state schoolboys, under 16s (Kevin Sheehan medallist) and under 18s (AA)
- Father played SANFL

Honours:

- 2007 Kevin Sheehan medallist (B&F U16 carnival)
- 2008 WAFL Colts premiership player
- 2008 WA U18 Squad
- 2008 WAFL Colts Team of the year – Rover
- 2008 AA U18 team - FP

2008 Form:

After an excellent 2007 season, where he won the Kevin Sheehan medal in the U16 National Championships as the player of the tournament, Walters headed into 2008 as one of the pre-season predicted top 25 prospects in the draft. After a good start to the year in the WAFL colts competition he hit the start of the under 18 championships in a good vein of form and continued to impress.

His first game against NSW/ACT was excellent (BOG IMO), playing mainly off a HFF and on the wing he was instrumental in finishing the game off early with his creativeness, delivery inside 50 and goal sense. He finished with impressive stats of 20 disposal, 4 marks, 3.0. He maintained his form with a solid performance away against SA picking up 15 disposals, 7 marks, 0.2 in another comfortable win.

Back at home against Vic Country he played an OK game in an upset loss, with 11 disposals, 5 marks, and 1.2 (notably setting up others well), but I felt he was poorly coached - being left deep in the forward pocket for a lot of the time in which WA were getting badly beaten, where he would’ve been more valuable up the ground through the midfield/wing regions with his creativity.

His final two games of the U18 championships were good with 12 disposals, 5 marks and 3.0 against Tasmania and 20 disposal, 7 mark, 1 tackle, 1 SA, 0.2 game against Vic Metro, where he was named in the best players both times.

Upon returning from the U18 championships, he continued his previous good performances in the WAFL colts, earning promotion to the Reserves side. After a superb debut at that level – 27 disposals, 6 marks, 4.1, he was promoted to league footy. His debut was cut short early on with an ankle injury that saw him sit out the rest of the game. He missed a couple of weeks, before returning to the reserves for one week, then getting another opportunity at league level in the last round of the H&A season against Peel, where he produce a 11 disposal, 2 marks, 2.3 game.

He was demoted back to the Colts for the finals series, into a team that was weakened by so many of it’s star players playing league footy. Nevertheless, they had a successful finals campaign, despite losing the 1st game, and Walters was a key part of it – playing a vital role through the midfield. He had two 20 disposals, 2 marks, 1.0 games in the first 2 finals, just outside the bests both times – kicking a freak goal from the boundary against East Perth. He put in his best performance of the finals series in the GF with a 25 disposal, 4 marks, 1.3 game, influential through some torrid weather and named in Swan Districts bests.

Disposal/Decision making – Kicking 8.5/10, Handballing 9/10

- Highly creative by both methods of disposal
- Hands are lightning quick in congestion, clean, sharp feeds and combined with superb vision inside traffic.
- Accurate, low trajectory left foot kick – excellent ball spin and good technically
- Upper range around 50m (lacks some strength/power).
- First class, pinpoint delivery inside 50 to forwards – big goal assist player (lead the stat at the 2008 U18 championships).
- Left foot dominant, rarely uses but does seem to have quite good ability on his right from the little I’ve seen him use it.
- Hurt factor is high by both hand and foot .

Hands – 9.5/10

- Excellent below the knees
- Very good with bouncing balls.
- Invariably a one touch player with very good ball control
- Rarely fumbles.

Aerial ability – 7.5/10

- Very strong overhead for his height
- Not blessed with a big vertical leap and but has an above average reach for his height
- Holds his position well
- Good spoiler

Footy Nous/Ball Winning Ability – Footy Nous 9/10, Ball winning ability 9/10

- Excellent footy smarts – very good reaction time at stoppages
- Reads the play very well around the ground - links up well through the middle
- Attacks the football (as well as the man) very hard too.
- Prolific 1st possession/clearance winner through the midfield
- Very good extracting ability coupled with lightning quick hands.

Work Ethic – Offensive 9/10, Defensive 8/10

- Hard worker
- Works both ways well and his defensive pressure, particularly around stoppages is very good
- Good ability at worrying/pressuring opponents off the ball and then winning it himself.
- Good tackler in tight (doesn't have the pace for run-down tackles) and excellent attack, but has a tendency to go too high at times rather than focusing on tackling the hips.
- Frequently presents as an option off HBF to the defence for an UC mark and runs hard on the outside to get HBRs

Goal Kicking Ability – 8/10

- Highly opportunistic - can make something out of nothing
- Naturally a crumber that will play at the key forwards feet (can take a grab, but doesn't lead at the footy much)
- Can kick them from all angles I50 - tries for the freakish 'Didak'-type goals a lot - sometimes they come off, but as a consequence he can kick quite a lot of behinds (will need to exercise a bit more discretion at AFL)
- Pushes I50 with good effect from the midfield/flanks

Athleticism – 5.5/10

- Pace is below average – doesn’t get much drive from his first 5 steps and his running technique seems a bit too much hard work for mine.
- Lateral movement is good – has a nice sidestep and moves through traffic very well.
- He's run's both hard and smart (covers ground better than you would expect)
- Wouldn't expect beep tests or 3km runs to be a strong point of his (didn't test at 2008 DC) - has mentioned his endurance as an area of his game he finds weak/would particularly like to improve.
- Vertical leap is below average
- Slippery/elusive, but not strong/powerful
- Well balanced – keeps his feet well under contested pressure in traffic

Versatility – 7/10

- Would expect midfield/HFF/FP, starting off with the latter 2 as he develops the size and engine over a number of pre-seasons.
- Could play as a creative HBF playmaker

AFL Ready?

- No
- Played 2 games of senior footy and performed quite well in one game as a small forward.
- Despite being far off it physically, might be an outside chance to play a few games next year as a crumbing forward with some good state league form behind him,

Upside

- Bottom aged and physically/strength/conditioning wise he will need plenty of improvement
- Bodyshape is far from ideal at present - smallish frame and skinny-fat - has the hunched over shoulders look and skinfolds will need attention - were the highest at DC (once improved to AFL standard there should be some big improvements athleticism-wise).
- Doesn’t really project as being a big build at this stage

Overal Assessment

Walters is 100% footballer that does some special things with an oval ball in his hands and you can't fault the way he goes about his football. If he wasn't physically or athletically challenged he'd be a first round certainty, but as it is 2nd round looks the more likely spot. If that side of his game can be sorted with a few AFL pre-seasons, I have little doubt the club that drafts him will have an excellent player on their hands, that everyone will be saying in hindsight should've gone higher.

Michael Walters (DOB – 7/1/91, Ht – 177, Wt – 75)

With the success of Rioli this year a lot of teams will be keeping their eyes out for similar types of players in the hope of lightning striking twice. I was a huge Rioli fan last year and this year I think Walters is likely to be as close as you are going to get to Cyril. He does not quite have the same vision and option taking ability and his disposal although good is somewhat below that of Rioli. I think there is little doubt that both will end up in the midfield long term but both will play a couple of years up forward whilst they build up their body and their endurance. Walters is a very nice runner and is quick and very evasive and he can weave through traffic with the best of them. He has a very nice leap and plays quite a bit taller than his 177cm list height. Playing on the HFF and in the middle he lead the Champs in marks with 29 – impressive given his height and where he played. His hands are very clean both overhead and in the contest. He is very much a one touch player. He has great kicking skills and is a left footer who can deliver it lace out over a pretty good distance. He is most impressive delivering into the 50 and he had 16 inside 50s in the Champs to go along with his 7 goals. His defensive pressure is very good and he uses his pace to pressure the ball coming out of his area well. Walters is a bottom aged, indigenous player and is still fairly slight and as a consequence I would not expect to see much of him next year. That being said though he is very talented and a team taking him this year will get very good value for this potential match winner. On his midfield potential it is worth noting that in the U16 Champs last year he lead Div 1 in disposals, clearances and effective kicks (as well as goals actually). Coming back from the Champs he played senior football for Swan Districts and did well. He is a little shorter than you would like but he is a prospect that has been overlooked a lot.

This guy is a RIPPER - worth his weight in gold - smart, exciting and with more talent than you could imagine. Missed out on Yarran and Jetta but Walters may very well be the pick of the century. I am thrilled for the Dockers.

He's also a MIKE (which means we have 2 of them now).

Michael.

Im incredibly thrilled we picked him up. I personally would have swapped his and ballyntines pick.

So is their any reason why he was drafted this late?

According to the journos the recruiters are telling them that his pace and disposal (really!?) were the main reasons he slipped Onwano.

It's funny but I think he's the opposite to the Draft Camp heroes who throw out huge times after showing nothing when they play and then get picked high (eg Cam Croad a few years back). Walters seems to be the Bizzarro-Bandy which is fine by me.

He's played well and then tested worse than people thought and has therefore landed with us.

I'd prefer the player over the high tester so I'm very happy with it.

Being from WA helps kids slide too, especially when the Toast pass on them as they did with Mikechael with their last 4 picks.

Although there has been plenty of discussion about the Rich v Hill thing focussed on Freo by media in all centres, Walters has been given the "Steal" of the draft tag everywhere in the paper's I've read.

Good point too about Walters & Ballantyne and the respective picks. I hadn't considered it before but if we'd grabbed Sonny at 21 & Frodo at 53 everyone would be stoked. I think our guys knew that the Scum were taking Ballers at 35 or so if available (since confirmed apparently) and gambled that Walters would still be around. Not a bad gamble considering the Cheats drafting history.

Nice write up on him there Eastfreo, but I hope "Bottom Aged" doesnt mean that he is an Old Bum!

This kid is the value pick of the draft, if I recall correctly James Hird was taken at 50-something.

I am concerned however that the write up presented by EastFreo suggests that he is a hybrid of Alan Didak and Daniel Kerr. I guess we have to be ready for the flak he is going to cause when he fraudulently gets hold of some valium, jumps in a car with a bikie, goes on a shooting spree, then hops in a cab, causes it to crash, breaks off the aerial to threaten the chasing cabby driver, denies being in the car when it crashed and then beats the crap out of someone with his Dads help at his sisters birthday party.

I think he's gonna be worth it though.

Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm calling him Doug.