{"id":19038,"date":"2015-10-12T14:58:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T04:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boundforglorynews.com.au\/?p=19038"},"modified":"2015-10-12T14:58:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T04:58:50","slug":"2015-draft-profile-nick-okearney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2015\/10\/12\/2015-draft-profile-nick-okearney\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Draft Profile: Nick O’Kearney"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bfgnprofiles\"<\/a>
\nNick O’Kearney (Calder Cannons)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Height:<\/strong> 181\u00a0cm
\nWeight:<\/strong>\u00a071 kg
\nPosition:<\/strong>\u00a0Midfielder
\nStrengths:<\/strong>\u00a0Decision making, running power, work rate,\u00a0ball-winning
\nWeaknesses:<\/strong>\u00a0Size, body strength, hurt factor, goal threat
\nPlayer comparison:<\/strong>\u00a0Brent Stanton
\nFirst year impact:<\/strong>\u00a0Medium to long-term\u00a0prospect<\/p>\n

Kicking:<\/strong>\u00a0Above average
\nMarking:<\/strong>\u00a0Average
\nEndurance:<\/strong>\u00a0Elite
\nSpeed:<\/strong>\u00a0Above average<\/p>\n

Statistics:<\/strong>
\nCalder Cannons (TAC Cup) \u2013 13\u00a0games, 17.4\u00a0kicks, 8.2 handballs,\u00a025.5\u00a0disposals, 62 per cent disposal efficiency, 7.1\u00a0handball receives,\u00a05.5\u00a0marks,\u00a04.3\u00a0tackles, 0.4\u00a0goals<\/p>\n

Vic Metro (under 18 championships) \u2013 five games, 15 kicks, 6.2\u00a0handballs, 21.2\u00a0disposals, 71.8 per cent disposal efficiency, 4.6 marks, 2.8\u00a0tackles, 0.4 goals<\/p>\n

Back pocket in the All-Australian side, half back flank in the 2015 TAC Cup team of the season, a best and fairest winner at Calder as an underager in 2014. O’Kearney is an extremely well-credentialed young man and one who will go relatively early in the national draft.<\/p>\n

Quite simply O’Kearney is a running machine, one that will grind opponents into the turf through endless\u00a0gut-running, who racks up possessions through sheer hard work. Perhaps the best word to describe him is neat; everything he does is technically correct and concise. His disposal, particularly by hand is balanced, efficient and constructive – though he tends toward the safe option, which is not necessarily a bad thing –\u00a0and his decision-making is both rapid and almost uniformly correct.\u00a0Encouragingly for a small-framed young man, his contested ball-winning and inside work has improved since his club champion year, a shift exhibited by his drop in handball receives.<\/p>\n

What will concern recruiters perhaps is his lack of so-called ‘hurt factor’. While he is a consummate accumulator and above average disposer of the ball, he is quick without possessing genuinely elite pace and lacks the killer attacking edge to his disposal that will really cut teams apart. He also needs a seriously productive summer on the chicken breasts and in the gym; he struggled with the physicality of his Frankston opponents in his VFL debut, though he earned a respectable 12 possessions and three\u00a0tackles, and at the moment he lacks the bulk to play an inside\/outside game at AFL level.<\/p>\n

Despite this, he is a very attractive prospect as genuine possession-getter and someone who will drive a team forward from midfield through his\u00a0ability to just constantly win the ball. His ability to win consistent 25-plus possession games through hard running and workrate is something that will translate easily enough to the top level, and his comparative lack of size and a perception that he isn’t particularly damaging will mean that he has the potential to slip under the radar of opposing teams. A diligent worker on his game, I have no doubt that his deficiencies won’t remain so for long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick O’Kearney (Calder Cannons) Height: 181\u00a0cm Weight:\u00a071 kg Position:\u00a0Midfielder Strengths:\u00a0Decision making, running power, work rate,\u00a0ball-winning Weaknesses:\u00a0Size, body strength, hurt factor, goal threat Player comparison:\u00a0Brent Stanton First year impact:\u00a0Medium to long-term\u00a0prospect Kicking:\u00a0Above average Marking:\u00a0Average Endurance:\u00a0Elite Speed:\u00a0Above average Statistics: Calder Cannons (TAC Cup) \u2013 13\u00a0games, 17.4\u00a0kicks, 8.2 handballs,\u00a025.5\u00a0disposals, 62 per cent disposal efficiency, 7.1\u00a0handball receives,\u00a05.5\u00a0marks,\u00a04.3\u00a0tackles, 0.4\u00a0goals Vic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-draft-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}