STRENGTHS:

+ Competitiveness
+ Marking
+ Scoreboard impact
+ Versatility

IMPROVEMENTS:

- Polish
- Speed

Hugh Byrne has played both deep and high forward, swingman, up on the wing, and even as a ruck chop-out at times for Bendigo Pioneers, doing enough to suggest he could be a long-term project player at AFL level. Though Byrne might lack the speed and polish of some other tall forwards who can roll up the ground, he is strong overhead and ultra-competitive.

What Byrne offers is a marking target inside 50 and someone who will crash packs - not too dissimilar to a Dan McStay who will present hard, work up the ground and double back to present again. Averaging 1.3 goals per game at Talent League level, the Pioneers forward is more of a rookie prospect, but one who has enough traits to suggest he could develop at the elite level.

DRAFT RANGE: Rookie

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Image Credit: Jonathan Di Maggio/AFL Photos