Ben Gibson – Morningside/Queensland
Ht: 191 cm Wt: 83 kg

Junior position – Key Defender

AFL position – Key Defender

Look for Gibson to be the smokey from this year’s Qld screening to be taken quite high. Gibson along with Zorko were easily Qld’s best players at this year’s Champs. Playing at Fullback he covered his man well and provided good run from defence. He is very good overhead and is not afraid to back himself to take a mark deep in defence and he has good skills by foot. He has good closing speed and athleticism and is a very difficult match up for most forwards. As with most 18 year old key position prospects he is lightly built but he has a frame that looks like it will bulk out nicely. He is listed at 190 in the material distributed at the Champs and teams might initially have overlooked him as a KP prospect because of this. It has been recently reported though that he is now up to 193 and at that height a lot of teams are going to go back and look at him closely. What they will see is a guy who has built on his Champs form nicely and produced some great games for Morningside in defence including taking Mitch Clark out of the game he played against the Suncoast Lions. A good match for the Allies is also not going to hurt his cause.
Strengths: A legitimate shut down defender who can take marks and work his man the other way.
Weaknesses: Some of his decision making can occasionally concern and he will often go for the mark where a punch would be more appropriate.

Question marks: What will he measure in at?

Draft Prediction: 45+/rookie