John Butcher

[ledge]

I have now seen his name up twice in articles and linking him to us, can anyone fill us in on his background please?
Has anyone here seen him play and their thoughts?

[GVGjr]

Re: John Butcher

Athletically he's very impressive. Good size and a nice mark but his skill level needs a lot of work.

[Scorlibo]

Re: John Butcher

Personally I've never seen what all the fuss is about with Butcher, and I'm not surprised he's being talked of as a slider. He looks exceedingly uncoordinated out on field, his kicking technique makes you cringe, and he doesn't appear to be super quick, nor have a great tank, not to mention he rarely gets off the ground. He does still manage to get the score on the board, but even that lately he's been struggling with. I think he may end up with Melbourne at pick 11 or pick 18, they have the luxury of taking a risky player with some upside at these picks.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: John Butcher

Personally I've never seen what all the fuss is about with Butcher, and I'm not surprised he's being talked of as a slider. He looks exceedingly uncoordinated out on field, his kicking technique makes you cringe, and he doesn't appear to be super quick, nor have a great tank, not to mention he rarely gets off the ground. He does still manage to get the score on the board, but even that lately he's been struggling with. I think he may end up with Melbourne at pick 11 or pick 18, they have the luxury of taking a risky player with some upside at these picks.

Remind you of anyone we perhaps picked up at pick 5 a couple of years ago?

[comrade]

Re: John Butcher

Remind you of anyone we perhaps picked up at pick 5 a couple of years ago?

Fair point, but Grant is super quick on the lead and has a good leap when given the opportunity. His tank is non- existant which means he's suited to playing out of the goal square (despite Gotch's insistence at playing him high). If we picked up Butcher, he'd just be competing with Grant for the full forward spot.

If we go tall in the first round, it should be for a natural CHB/CHF, but due to the lack of quality, I hope we just go for best available mid.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: John Butcher

I think he's a good prospect, and if he was available at 15 I'd quickly snap him up.

but due to the lack of quality, I hope we just go for best available mid.

Regarding your point comrade, I was thinking about this just the other day. Our best success with taller blokes has come from later picks (at this stage) whilst our first round selections have been disappointing. If Boumann continues on as well it adds more credit to the theory.

But as you have said, getting a mid in the first round is your absolute best chance to get a 200 game player, and the quality is much more assured. Talls are more speculative as a rule, and as such, you can still grab a hold of quality talls (who may need a bit more development) later in the draft who have perhaps more work, but, are in reality no better or worse off as far as their chances of succeeding.

Obviously some exceptions to this theory exist where standout talls get taken in the first handful of picks, but filling up with quality smalls isn't a bad thing in anyone's book.

Geez I love draft time.

[Scorlibo]

Re: John Butcher

Remind you of anyone we perhaps picked up at pick 5 a couple of years ago?

Actually I was always and still am a big Jarrad Grant fan, and him and Butcher aren't really that similar - where Butcher clunks along Grant's movements are mostly fluid and Grant has very good timing of his jump at a high ball, whereas Butcher can often be seen mistiming his.

Grant has a LOT more potential than Butcher, at least imo.

[ledge]

Re: John Butcher

Seems from Fantasia we seem very interested in him.