Josh Gibcus’ coach at the Greater Western Victoria Rebels, David Loader, has labelled him the archetypal, AFL new-age key defender.
The tall, teenage, top prospect was selected by Richmond with its first pick (No. 9 overall) in the 2021 national draft. In the lead-up to the draft, Loader provided his learned assessment of Gibcus’ prospects at the game’s highest level . . .
“If you look forward to what the gun up-and-coming forwards of the competition are like – Harry McKay, the two King boys – we are looking at guys who are 200cm, but incredibly athletic,” Loader said.
“Josh is 197cm, he’s quick, he’s got good endurance, he’s quite agile and he’s got a massive leap.
“He is the perfect prototype to play on the up-and-coming gun forwards of the competition.
“Athletically, Josh is really, really gifted and a super exciting player . . .
“He does some stuff during a game where you just go, ‘Wow, that’s AFL quality’.
“He’s a bit of an excitement machine. He’ll come out and stand on someone’s head and take a mark and you’ll just think, ‘Jeepers, this guy’s got some real power tricks in his bag’.
Gibcus, who attended St Pat’s College in Ballarat, will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of a select group of the school’s alumni at Richmond.
Three-time Tiger premiership star of the 1960s and 1970s, Barry Richardson, current-day triple premiership player, Daniel Rioli, and member of the 2017 winning Grand Final team, Dan Butler, are former St Pat’s students.
