described by Fox Footy\u2019s draft expert Ben Waterworth<\/a> as: \u201cA standout at the coalface with his footy smarts, clean hands and toughness in congestion\u201d. <\/p>\nBlues backing youth against Lions | 01:26<\/p>\n
His smarts and cleanliness could be drawn back to his decorated junior basketball career, having represented Victoria Metro at the under-18 level and quelled the likes of NBA-bound Aussie talent Dash Daniels. <\/p>\n
\u201cI played basketball all throughout (my juniors). I played in the Vic Metro team when I was in under-18s and was part of the championship-winning team there, which I was very fortunate to be a part of,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI played with and against boys like Dash Daniels and was lucky enough to share the court with some of them. It was very exciting, and basketball (has been) an amazing part of my journey. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had some pretty good opportunities \u2026 there (were) a few hard decisions, but I\u2019ve always loved playing footy, and it\u2019s always been my thing, and ever since my great-uncle (Edward \u2018Carji\u2019 Greeves) won the first Brownlow (in 1924), I think ever since I was born, I wanted to play AFL as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greeves says he admires the likes of Christian Petracca and Scott Pendlebury, who were also plenty capable on the hardwood. <\/p>\n
\u201cWatching those guys who played basketball all the way through like Christian Petracca and Scott Pendlebury (were) probably my biggest idols growing up as a kid, and Christian\u2019s someone I model my game off very closely,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like to try and take my reading of the game and my game sense probably mostly comes from basketball, and that spatial awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the Daniels anecdote, Greeves said: \u201cIt\u2019s actually funny, I laugh to my family because I played on Dash when we were about 16 and held him to zero points. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I think when he ends up in the NBA, I might keep that claim around \u2014 it was pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greeves\u2019 191-centimetre, big-bodied frame gives him a clear advantage at the contest. (Photo by Albert Perez\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Greeves prides himself on his power in the contest and believes it is the \u201cbiggest thing that stands out\u201d in his game as a ball-winner with a bigger frame. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, being a bigger mid \u2014 191, 192 centimetres \u2014 pretty unique (but) it\u2019s becoming more common for those guys to come around,\u201d he began. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut my power in and out of stoppage and extract the ball from the contest and give my teammates the best opportunity around me. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in the back end of the Eastern season, going forward and continuing to show my power in one-on-one contests and marking and kicking goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greeves has very little gauge of which clubs have most interest in drafting him, but he acknowledged it\u2019s an \u201cexciting part\u201d of the experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs the night comes closer, little things come out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201c(I\u2019m) obviously speaking to my manager … but definitely so clueless going in. I don\u2019t really know much about what\u2019s going to happen. <\/p>\n
\u201cGot my fingers crossed \u2014 it could be the first night, could be the second night \u2014 but I\u2019m hoping that it just comes and hopefully my name gets called out. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have too much idea, and I guess that might be the exciting part of the surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL draft prospect Ollie Greeves has revealed the brutal toll of the illness that cost him a national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,3486,64,63,689,55,3449,639,167872,3423,167865,167868,3237,167870,19120,3416,167871,68101,155107,147933,3435,167876,3541,167866,13482,15648,10145,167873,2105,167874,167863,167867,167878,3231,167864,167869,167877,647,167879,15700,677,19277,71040,19095,102468,163114,3509,19083,94362,108162,85,167875,3185,660],"class_list":["post-291757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-albert-perez","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-football-league-academy","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ball-getter-shapes","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-blues-backing-youth","tag-boys-grand-final","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-brutal-toll","tag-christian-petracca","tag-coates-talent-league","tag-combine-appearance","tag-dash-daniels","tag-draft-prospect","tag-draft-range","tag-eastern-ranges","tag-eastern-ranges-handballs","tag-elite-basketball-background","tag-exciting-part","tag-footy-field","tag-game-sense","tag-garry-lyon","tag-getting-influenza","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawthorn-hawks-nga","tag-highly-anticipated-make-up-time","tag-ikon-park","tag-influenza-cost","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-junior-basketball-career","tag-kicking-goals","tag-make-up-time-trial","tag-melbourne","tag-national-combine-appearance","tag-next-generation-academy","tag-oceania","tag-oliver-greeves","tag-prelim-final","tag-preliminary-final","tag-preliminary-final-win","tag-priority-access","tag-question-marks","tag-scott-pendlebury","tag-show-people","tag-spatial-awareness","tag-sports","tag-talent-league-boys","tag-time-trial","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}