Selwood, as tough as nails as he is, had Ablett, Bartel, Corey, Ling, Enright, Chapman and co. around him in his first year. Throwing Martin in his debut year full time into our midfield which offers little protection to each other in terms of blocking and shepherding is what concerned me and why I have him initially on a HFF with spurts in the midfield.=
“He’s just a powerful, powerful kid; I used to do one-on-ones with him as a 16-year-old and he would just push me off the ball.
“I thought he could have played senior AFL football this year as a 17-year-old, no doubt.
“I’ve never seen a kid run into a pack of six or seven men and come out backwards with the ball . . . it’s not as though he was running through the pack, he would run in like a bull, grab the footy and run out backwards.
“There’s no doubt he’s the best kid I’ve seen play at that age; he’s just a phenomenal talent.”
Who said this Bents?
His coach at Castlemaine, ex Fitroy, St kilda and Richmond player Jamie Elliot
Jamie Elliot wasn't actually built like a brickhouse when he played for us. He made David Bourke look muscley lol.
But seriously we don't want to wreck the kid's body early on expecting him to be one of our top 3 mids in his first year. He's got a 10-12 year career ahead of him touchwood. We don't want him to end up like Cogs finished by the time he's in his early 20s.
