CATS’ NEW SUPER COOPER RECRUIT
GEELONG list manager Stephen Wells says there was never any doubt about selecting local midfielder Cooper Stephens with the club’s first pick at last night’s draft.
Stephens overcame a broken leg to shine at last month’s national combine, with the Cats hailing his character, resilience and ball-winning ability.
“He is very much a contested ball player,” Wells said.
After taking Stephens with pick 16, the Cats then swooped on tall defender Sam De Koning, a versatile player who could develop into the long-term replacement for Tom Hawkins or Harry Taylor.
The draft continues tonight.
IN the past, Geelong has been open in its belief that when in doubt, taking a local player is the right call more often than not.
And in drafting Geelong Falcons skipper Cooper Stephens with pick 16, the Cats stuck to that mantra.
Stephens was the first Falcon taken by his home AFL club in the first round since Darcy Lang in 2013.
Coincidently both were from Colac, both were taken with the same pick and both suffered a leg break in their draft year.
Taking a local early is a well worn path for the Cats, but it has had mixed results.
Jimmy Bartel was taken by Geelong with pick 8 in 2001 and proved to be a club legend, while Billie Smedts (pick 15 in 2010) and Lang didn’t live up to the status of their high picks.
But Geelong Falcons talent manager Mick Turner said Stephens was ready to step into an AFL midfield and could ultimately replace Joel Selwood as an inside bull.
“(Geelong has) a few young blokes but they obviously need to cultivate an inside midfielder, which Cooper is going to be,” Turner said.
“I had a meeting with Geelong last week and I said to them at the time, ‘Looking at your list and midfield, you need a Cooper Stephens’.”
The competitive midfielder was projected to be drafted in the second round after his stocks dropped following a broken leg in April.
An ability to find the ball in close has Stephens compared favourably to Collingwood midfielder Taylor Adams and former Falcon and now Hawthorn best-and-fairest winner James Worpel.
And Turner said those traits Stephens had shown this year and earlier in his junior career had stayed in the Cats recruiters’ minds while he worked away in rehab.
“If you go back on his background, he was an outstanding 16-year-old,” he said.
“He had already built his reputation, he just had to prove his fitness at the (draft) combine to get him over the line.
“I think it shows to me Geelong were really keen to get him so they’ve taken him with their first pick, they didn’t want to risk missing him at pick 19.”