Victorian Peter Wright dubbed better than Joe Daniher as Melbourne, Carlton eye forward saviour

VICTORIAN key tall Peter Wright has been dubbed better than Joe Daniher as Melbourne and Carlton eye a forward line saviour in November’s draft.

Calder star Peter Wright is touted as next top draft pick. Picture: Supplied

VICTORIAN key tall Peter Wright has been dubbed better than Joe Daniher as Melbourne and Carlton eye a forward line saviour in November’s draft.

The 203cm forward/ruckman would be a perfect fit for the Blues, who could trade up to pluck a key forward to build their next premiership team around.

Calder Cannons regional manager Ian Kyte watched Daniher blossom and now has Wright developing in the same TAC Cup team.

He said yesterday Wright was showing better signs than Essendon sensation Daniher at the same age, and still had as big an upside.

The Demons need another key tall after the sudden retirement of Mitch Clark, or could trade the early pick as they did last year with the no. 2 selection used on GWS teen Josh Kelly.

Kyte said recruiters were flocking to see Wright, aware he was gettable because the Demons had already shown a tendency to trade high picks.

“As far as being the complete player who can also go into the ruck, the comparisons are there with Joey. Is he further advanced to Joey with the way his body is and what he can do? Possibly yes,’’ Kyte said.

“Joey had a lot of time off (with injury) and only played ten or a dozen TAC Cup games last year, and wasn’t as mature in his body.

“Peter is a better kick than Joey, he marks the ball as well if not at the same height, he takes it on the lead and he can go into the ruck and jump into somebody. He is a genuine ruckman too. His father always says to us he is a better ruckman than forward but we have two other 200cm-plus players so he plays forward.”

Recruiters were wowed by a 55m post-siren Wright goal last year, with Kyte adamant he could play Round 1 next year.

He is the nominal no. 1 pick entering the national under-18 championships in a draft well stocked with key talls.

The Blues would need to offer Melbourne their first pick and another player to lure a teenager of Wright’s calibre.

“With Peter you know he can play Round 1, and Joey was always going to be better after playing five or six games,’’ Kyte said.

“He has always been a kid who stood out because of his size and he played as good a ten minutes of footy as I have seen in Round 2 of the TAC Cup. He kicked four goals in ten minutes and runs a 14.5 beep test which is elite for his height and runs three seconds dead for 20 metres, which is elite.”