OVERVIEW

Nick Shipley is a member of GWS Giants' Academy and is likely to be the first Academy member to receive a bid in the 2017 National Draft. Given his invite to the draft itself, Shipley will prepare to become a Giant, as a bid is expected to come in around the third round. He is a big-bodied inside midfielder who is still learning the game. He is deceptively quick, uses his frame to his advantage and lays bone-crunching tackles. While his speed is good, he still needs to work on his agility as his turning circle is not as good as others of the same athleticism and size.

STRENGTHS

• Inside game
• Speed
• Size
• Tackling

Shipley is a relative newcomer to Australian Rules but has taken it all in his stride over the past few years. He has become a strong force on the inside for the Giants reserves and impressed at the National Under 18 Championships for the Allies. In that carnival he averaged 16.3 disposals, 2.3 marks and 4.3 tackles, while running at an impressive 50 per cent contested possession rate. Despite his size - he is already 93kg - Shipley has quick bursts around the ground and this was emphasised in his National Combine 20m sprint time of 2.97 seconds.

Along with his size, speed and inside qualities, Shipley is also a strong tackler and enjoys the defensive aspects of football. He got a taste of NEAFL football with the Giants reserves this year and laid a whopping 5.9 tackles per game to go with his 17 disposals and three marks. It emphasised to recruiters he was not afraid to take on the more mature and more experienced players of the state league and therefore he is more ready from a size point of view than many others in the draft crop.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Raw
• Agility

For all his strengths, Shipley has a couple of improvements he could make to his game. Firstly his agility could improve which despite being a quick player over 20m, he still has to learn to increase his turning ability and ability to enhance his running when changing direction. He recorded a time of 8.80 seconds in the agility test at the National Combine, which was in the bottom 10 of participants. I put this down to being relatively new to the game and elite system.

This is his second area of improvement and it is more one that comes with development. He is raw and there is plenty of untapped talent there. But it does mean that he still has a lot to learn and while he will be dilligent in his efforts to learn it, the Giants will be wary to fast track him while also giving him time to learn. They know he has the body to be playing from early on, but will still be learning new ways to attack the game.

DRAFT PROJECTION: Third round

SUMMARY

Nick Shipley is GWS-bound with the invitation to the draft confirming this. He is expected to be the first Giant to receive a bid, which GWS will match. Shipley is a strong inside midfielder who has a ready-made body for senior football. He has already shown his wares in the NEAFL and was impressive in the National Under 18 Championships. While he is still raw and needs to work on his agility, he has deceptively good speed allowing him to burst away from his opponent, as well as a good developing inside game and an aggressive attack on the contest.