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1. Both similar height, both skinny (Casserley is 4kg heavier but is 9 months older), and both carry themselves in similar posture and mannerisms.2. Ellis 9 months younger.3. Both are usually much more outside than inside. Eliis more routinely outside than Casserley. Both play predominantly as Predators rather than First Dibs.4. Casserley is a confidence player and that confidence can sometimes be fragile. Ellis seems routinely self-confident and self-assured. The result is that Ellis, allowing for his outsidedness, "never" plays a bad game at the levels (TAC, U16/U18 Champs, school) that he has played to date, and is consistent at these levels. Once you've seen Xavier play a number of times, you can confidently predict, before an Ellis game starts, roughly how many disposals he will have, what the mix will be in both getting and delivery, how he will play (in terms of style, intensity and level of performance), and maybe even what opportunities his opponent will get. You could virtually give someone an accurate description of an Ellis performance without even having been at the game. With Casserley, you'd need to have been there ... and watched the entire game5. Both are probably best suited to "wing" at this stage but both have played mainly HBF this year. Casserley's best AFL role might still be as a running HBF.6. Under any sort of pressure, both tend to be "reach with the arms (whether trying to get the pill or when tackling) instead of "commit the body" types.7. Both very good kicks in all regards. Casserley has the more traditional kicking action and an action which arguably leaves him less susceptible at AFL level to being knocked off his kick. Casserley doesn't often use non-preferred foot but is comfortable using it when necessary. Ellis is essentially one-sided.8. Ellis has the better vision under pressure and is much the better decision-maker and has a better ability to read the play and know where to run to. He is also more routinely discerning in looking for targets for his kicks and he mixes his kicking distances more.9. Both good overhead, especially given their current skinniness. Casserley can take the more spectacular grab and often does, but Ellis is the more routinely reliable overhead at this stage.10. Both similar speed but Casserley is a dasher who regularly uses his speed to the max, likes to carry the ball, and runs hard both ways. Ellis rarely does any of that. Other than footy smarts and self-confidence, the hard running is the key difference between Ellis and Casserley and the main advantage Casserley has over Ellis. Casserley regularly (albeit not routinely) runs very hard both ways. Ellis rarely seems to push himself. Their draft camp results bear this out. Ellis did 13.50 beep (about avg for his size) and a very poor 11.85 (among the bottom 15% of all time) for the 3Km. These are the 2 "events" that are the most testing and gruelling. Casserley did 15.20 (among the top 3% of all time) and 10.53 (among the top 14% of all time). I concede that Ellis hasn't had the physical conditioning of many of his peers but those results are telling re the way Casserley plays (when on his game) compared to Ellis.11. Ellis is largely unaccountable. I think Casserley usually means to be but is not good at achieving it. He too often gets too separated from his opponent - sometimes because his opponent sneaks out the back unnoticed, sometimes because he is too slow mentally in reacting to a lead, and sometimes because he has chosen an inappropriate time to run forward or has positioned himself poorly. (See below).12. Casserley has already proven himself against men (most notably at WAFL Seniors level).13. Ellis was a very good U18 player last year and had a good U16s Champs that year. I've seen nothing to make me believe he has improved much this year. Casserley IMHO was a very ordinary U18 player last year but improved greatly this year and kept improving at an impressive rate throughout this season. I though his best games were against the men, including at Seniors level. Much is made of Ellis being bottom age, which is fair enough, so Casserley has a season start on Ellis. It's just that there are signs that Casserley is a late developer footy-wise and his improvement trend-line over the past year is much steeper than Ellis' (albeit starting from a much lower base).
