POSITION: Key Position Utility
DRAFT ANALYSIS: “Steele is a strong over-age key forward who has pinch-hit in the ruck at times for Tasmania Devils and North Hobart."
Jake Steele is an overage footballer who backed up a State Draft Combine invitation with a late combine invitation in 2020. The Tasmanian Devils tall has been plying his trade in the Tasmanian State League (TSL) for North Hobart, where has shown signs of progression. Whilst still raw with areas to work on such as his overall forward craft, disposal consistency and scoreboard impact, Steele has good mobility for a tall and a high work rate that sees him burn off a lot of his opponents.
STRENGTHS:
- Work rate
- Mobility
- Endurance
- Versatility
IMPROVEMENTS:
- Forward craft
- Disposal consistency
For a strongly-built key forward at 196cm and 91kg, Steele is actually a fairly smooth mover. He has that nice blend of endurance and speed for a bigger player, and whilst he does not have elite mobility, it is certainly an area he benefits compared to other talls. At the preseason testing, Steele recorded a 20m sprint of 3.07 seconds and agility of 8.42 seconds, highlighting his mobility, whilst his Yo-yo test of 21.3 - elite for talls - further emphasised his gut running abilities.
What Steele offers is a consistent effort each and every week. He can move well, roam in and out of the forward 50 arc and has the capacity to even be thrown into defence, or through the ruck. He has a solid vertical jump which means he can leap for high balls, though a notable area of improvement is his forward craft which is still developing. On some occasions he can mistime the leap or lead, which is something that can be developed at the elite level. Secondly, his scoreboard impact - only two goals in eight games - is far from ideal, though the Demons had a tough second half of the season as their young side tired, and brought in number one target Julian Dobosz.
Whilst Steele's disposal consistency is another area of improvement - rounding out his overall effort - what Steele will always give is 100 per cent effort. He is consistent in that approach and showed it last year for the Devils. He is someone who might benefit from being thrown behind the ball more often as the forward line can often be a lonely place when the opposition is on top, and as he showed in his season with the Devils, Steele is more than capable of playing there.
DRAFT PROJECTION: Rookie
Overall Steele is still a raw prospect who is developing facets of his game. Talls always develop later, and he has shown this season he can match it with some senior opponents. His athletic traits make him a long-term prospect and one that could be really coachable going forward. He is viewed more of a rookie prospect at this stage, but the promising sign for Steele is that he did receive the late combine invitation, and has that extra year of experience on the majority of his peers, and was able to play out an uninterrupted season.
