Joel Smouha – Mount Gravatt/Queensland
Ht: 194 cm Wt: 79 kg
Junior position – Ruck / Forward
AFL position – Ruck / Forward
Had a fantastic camp and might well have been the player to help himself most. He won the 3km and finished second in the beep with a fantastic 15.1. For a ruckman these results were astonishing and what he has done is announced to the AFL world that he can run with any ruckman in the competition. Overall he is very athletic and is pretty quick and has a very good leap. After the performances at camp a lot of clubs are going to going straight to the height measure to see what he came in at. I have heard that he has grown a couple of centimetres this year and so now can be considered a legitimate height for an AFL ruck although admittedly at the bottom range of acceptable. He is bottom aged and so there is still may be some more growing to do. Potential is what Joel is all about. He has reasonable skills and pretty good hands but he is very much a work in progress. He is fairly new to the game so still has a lot to learn. Rucking wise he is okay and has some games where he is very good. Notably he rucked very well against the young Lions rucks in the AFLQ earlier in the year.
Strengths: Elite endurance for a ruck and great athleticism all around.
Weaknesses: Still very raw and will need quite a lot of time to develop to AFL standards.
Question marks: : Does he have the height to be effective at AFL level in the ruck and if not can he be converted into a key position?
Draft Prediction: 50+
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