News........ Saturday

[MagpieMad]

Malthouse guarded on draftees
Samantha Lane
afl.com.au
9:26:21 AM Sat 18 January, 2003

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse is pleased with the early progress of the club’s young draftees. But he's not making predictions about how they might fare this year.

The Pies picked up teenagers Bo Nixon, Luke Shackleton, Cameron Cloke and David King in last year’s national draft, and 20 year-old Matthew Lokan from the Port Adelaide Magpies.


Malthouse is expecting at least one of the youngsters to make their senior début this year, but isn’t counting on the club’s first pick Bo Nixon, (21 overall) to make the front running.

“Bo Nixon is our first pick, but it’s just as likely that Matthew Lokan, who’s a bit older, could play in front of him early on,” Malthouse told afl.com.au.

“But I’m certain one of those blokes will play senior footy this year.”

At 190 centimetres, Nixon impressed the Magpie scouts with his strong marking ability inside-50 when playing in the under-18s.

Shackleton, who hails from Tasmania, earned a position in last year’s under-18s All-Australian side and won the Morrish Medal in the TAC Cup.

“My way of answering questions about the current draft is ‘I’ll tell you in 12 months’. Because a lot of our players have been later picks and got games in front of the players that have been early picks,” Malthouse said.

“It’s a bit like shadowboxing. They look terrific. But you’ve got to put something in front of them that’s going to test them.”

Senior player Paul Licuria says the new-comers have been embraced by the squad, and have been impressive over the pre-season period.

“A lot of the young guys that have come in have adapted really well. They’re training really well. Bo Nixon, and Matthew Lokan is training really well. They’re probably the bigger sized players who can probably step in.”

“The younger guys Kingy and Shackelton probably need to get a bit stronger. But they’ve been training really well, skill-wise and running-wise,” Licuria.


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