Long wait pays off as Doedee flies high
HE was the draft smoky with the basketball background who had to agonisingly wait three seasons to play an AFL game.
As, one by one, the 16 players drafted before him — and first 11 after him — at the 2015 national draft made their debuts, former Geelong Falcon Tom Doedee could only watch and question why he was being held back and told to refine his game in the local league.
Now the 21-year-old defensive revelation is the AFL Rising Star favourite and on track to become just the second Crow — and first since backline teammate Daniel Talia in 2012 — to win the league’s best young player award.
After debuting in Round 1 at the juicy odds of $51, Doedee has sensationally been backed into $3 favouritism with betting agency Ladbrokes.
After 10 rounds, Brisbane half-back Alex Witherden is second favourite at $4 ahead of Collingwood pair Jaidyn Stephenson ($7.50) and Sam Murray ($10).
Doedee hasn’t made Adelaide fans quite forget the man he replaced in the Crows’ backline, Melbourne’s Jake Lever who was outstanding against his former club in Alice Springs on Sunday, but he has done a superb job of filling the void left by the intercept defender’s controversial departure.
“Tom’s been really good, his footy has been exceptional,’’ said Adelaide assistant coach Tate Kaesler.
“When you look back at the pre-season there was a spot up for grabs and a lot of guys vying for it and he put his hand up and said ‘I want that spot’.
“He’s had a few things to work on which to his credit he’s done and turned himself into a really solid defender.
“He took it upon himself and it’s a credit to the kid to say ‘I want to make this position mine’.”
Doedee, a nice size at 188cm and 88kg, ranks as elite or above average in five of seven statistical categories for a general defender this year.
The St Joseph’s product is elite for contested possessions (7.1), intercept possessions (7.2) and spoils (4.9) and above average for ranking points (84) and intercept marks (2.1).
Doedee has played all 10 games for the Crows this season and his statistics are clearly better than what Lever produced at Adelaide in his first 10 matches.
They also compare favourably to what the now Demon has racked up in his fourth season of top-flight football, softening the blow of the Crows losing their 2014 No. 14 draft pick.
Doedee, whose first two pre-seasons at Adelaide were hindered by patella tendinitis in his left knee, is athletic enough to play on talls and smalls in Adelaide’s back half.
He has the height, reach and jumping ability to match up on bigger-sized opponents and the speed to go with smaller ones.
Only small forward Lachie Murphy (34.1km/h) and midfielder/half-back Wayne Milera (33) have been clocked as running faster than Doedee (32.8) among Crows this year.
Doedee’s standout performances illustrate why highly-respected Adelaide recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie selected him at pick 17 at the draft — the Geelong Falcons product didn’t start playing football until he was 16 — when most clubs had him pegged as no higher than a third-round selection.
Before debuting against Essendon in Round 1, Doedee revealed to News Corp “it eats at me’’ that he was the only 2015 first-round pick not to have played an AFL game.
“It has probably driven me a lot more than other people in that (draft) class,’’ he said.
“I felt that I was ready to play last year (2017) but the opportunity didn’t come.
“Now I want to prove that I was drafted at the right spot.’’
He is doing just that.