Pick #7 - Brisbane - Dom Sheed - 184cm/83kg - Midfielder
Sheed is the reigning Larke Medal winner despite not playing the last game due to a broken collarbone. Sheed is a talented and competitive ball-winning inside mid who just hates to lose contests. For mine, he's one of the most underrated prospects going around. He is already a very high level player. He wins a heap of the footy and uses it very well. He is another who has senior footy experience having debuted for Subiaco before his injury. Sheed has also shown some versatility where by he has played some footy resting as a forward where he is strong one-on-one and slotted 4 goals against Vic Country.
Strengths: Sheed is one of the best clearance players in this draft and his clearances don't go to waste as he is a very good user of the footy by both hand and foot. He is a very competitive player that hates losing and this shows with the ability he demonstrated up forward. What sets Sheed apart from the other inside midfielders in this draft is his decision making. He wins the ball in tight and doesn't panic, often hitting a teammate up in space by hand or when given the opportunity will hit a target on his trusty left boot. Sheed also has a big tank and can run all day through the midfield and rack up huge numbers. Finally, he is a player of high-character who has the potential to one day captain the club as well as being a ready-made player who could play round 1 next year and I think that is what Brisbane will want with all the players they just lost.
Weaknesses: Despite my high ranking of Sheed he does have his knocks. One is his apparent lack of speed, which I always thought was pretty rubbish and his testing time of just over 3 seconds shows that whilst no speedster, he's also no slouch in the speed department. His other knock is his lack of a right foot, which is a pretty accurate criticism of him but there are many left-footers with no right foot in the AFL and they seem to survive, so I think he will be ok in this regard but he will need to work on it so he doesn't become overly predictable.
Why Brisbane? Best available. Outside Boyd, I have Sheed as the next best prospect. He was absolutely dominant at Champs and has played some good senior footy. Sheed has already moved from Kalgoorlie to Perth to further his footy so the go home factor shouldn't be a real issue, which I think will be part of Brisbane's criteria for this draft. I think Sheed has future captain written all over him for Brisbane.
