What Clarko says
31. Jarrad Boumann
Thanks for your support of hawthornfc.com.au as we continue our summer series analysing our playing list heading into the 2012 season.
Today’s featured player will wear guernsey number 31 - Jarrad Boumann.
He’s a new player at our Club who was involved in a complicated trade back in October that was orchestrated by Graham Wright (National Recruiting Manager) which also involved the recruiting of Jack Gunston from Adelaide.
Jarrad played the last 12 months at the Box Hill Hawks and spent three years prior to that at the Western Bulldogs. I think Jarrad would be the first to acknowledge that he was a very young lad drafted into the Bulldogs’ system who perhaps wasn’t quite ready to withstand the rigours of an AFL program at that particular time in his life.
He came off the Western Bulldogs’ list at the end of the 2010 season and has spent most of his time playing in Box Hill’s back line since then.
What we’ve been particularly impressed with is Jarrad’s closing speed and the way he has developed his physical build over the last 12 to 24 months.
He’s big and strong and while he still needs to put a bit more bulk on, we’re really pleased with athleticism - he looks ready to realise some of the potential that the Western Bulldogs recognised in him some years ago.
His closing speed and ability to half-contest in the defensive end of the ground are two of the best feats of his game that we’ve watched closely over the past 12 months.
We’re keen to get Jarrad into our system to add some support to our back-end - if he can put together back-to-back games for Box Hill, he’ll definitely be able to put himself into contention for senior side selection this year.
Tomorrow we feature a young player who has been on our list for a few seasons in Luke Lowden, who’ll wear guernsey number 30 in season 2012.
