Young Hansen is just keen to get a job done
Emma Quayle
The Age
June 26, 2006
Vic Country's bright young hope, Lachlan Hansen tangles with a WA opponent yesterday.
Photo: James Boddington
LACHIE Hansen treats football much like his year-12 studies. "I just reckon you just get the job done," the Pakenham student said yesterday. "You just do it. It doesn't have to be too special. You just have to get it done."
There is an unfussed side to Hansen's football game, but there are also some special parts. The pointy end of the national draft likes its players tall, fast and smart, able to mark the ball cleanly and read the play well enough to get it.
Hansen could do all of those things before Vic Country toppled Western Australia by 12 points in the opening division game at Princes Park yesterday, and did them again throughout. He glided across the half-back line, in body and in mind.
"He's just a cool character. He's a cool, relaxed person," said Country coach Leon Harris. "He shores us up. He was awesome."
That said, the jockeying for positions within the top three or four is still very much alive. If you don't like Hansen, you might like Scott Gumbleton, the big, bubbly West Australian who Hansen spent some of yesterday's match — as a forward and a defender — playing on.
Gumbleton, like Hansen, takes marks. He also is a player who can interrupt a match by launching himself at a ball, whereas Hansen plays with constant force.
Then, there is James Sellar, who matches their 195-centimetres, is about six months younger and showed his versatility yesterday, playing in the ruck for South Australia against Vic Metro.
Not to mention Bryce Gibbs. Had the priority pick system not been changed this season and Essendon, Carlton or the Kangaroos had early access to two players, the bottom club would have got their midfielder and their tall, the one to develop and the potential quick-fix.
As it stands, they can only get one and logic says Gibbs, who is clean, smart and commanding, will be up and running before the taller boys. He has poise and balance, and is a ball magnet who virtually decides where games go.
The South Australians' momentum yesterday generally came from where he was on the ground, although he could do little to stave off a big win for the locals, 17.13 (115) to 8.8 (56).
Hansen, no relation to West Coast's Ashley Hansen, played in last year's championships and was one of his side's best players throughout, but is too young for the draft. He had a hip flexor injury last month, and yesterday's match was just his second back.
With recruiters tipping Western Australia will provide a larger share of draftees and that Queensland, will have more players drafted than Vic Metro, he is also the big local hope.
Joel Selwood has also been in top-five calculations for more than a year, but persistent knee problems have disrupted his final junior season and kept him out of this carnival.
Hansen thinks no more about the draft than he did last season, but feels he's a bigger, stronger player, having gained about eight kilograms since this time last year.
"I can contest a bit better and not get pushed off the ball easily," he said.
"My marking's probably my strength, and my run. If I don't get pushed around, I can use it a lot more."
Hansen did not start on Gumbleton, who began in the WA defence, but went forward during the second quarter, and made sure to play him from the front.
Late in the game Gumbleton went forward and, like he has before, Hansen chose to sit right behind him.
The pair, teammates in the AIS-AFL Academy squad that went to Ireland two years ago, first met the season before then, as under-16s.
Their duel, and the debate over who is better, will surely continue past this November.
For now, Hansen doesn't want to dish out too much praise. "He's got a pretty big engine. He just keeps presenting when he's up forward and he's a pretty good mark as well," he said.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/06/25/1151174073556.html
