Isaac Keeler

”Keels is clearly, in our eyes, the most naturally gifted footballer in his age group.

”Isaac needed to learn at the start of the year that he needed to pull his finger out.

”And to his credit, he did it which was great.

”We started to see some more consistency in both contests, whether it be an aerial contest or a ruck contest.

”We saw him gut running 30, 40, 60m in games which we hadn’t seen before.

”Credit to North Adelaide and Brooksy (U18 coach Craig Brooks) for getting Isaac up around the ground in the ruck and not just leaving him as a forward.

”That has certainly helped his football. Isaac going up into the ruck allowed him to be around the contest more often which required him to defend early by tackling and harrassing, instead of just waiting for his teammates to give him the ball.

”Sticks (Brenton Phillips) and I and Brooksy were pretty hard on Isaac at the start of the year. To Isaac’s credit – I take my hat off to him – he took that feedback on board. When he came into the State program his training intensity grew and rose to a level it needed to be at and we saw that transfer into his game. He’s matured a lot so I am really proud of him.”