Max Beattie making big impression in first year at SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens

The Eagles' 2020 premiership coach Jade Sheedy said Beattie, 19, had become a mainstay from round one after an eye-catching preseason.

"He impressed me the first day he walked into the footy club, really. He's a great young kid with a great work ethic and wants to get better," Sheedy, a 2002 Margery Medallist, said.

"He's a really elite trainer and was in the top few in the time-trials. He has some incredible amount of skill as well and a good attitude. It was pretty easy for us to fill him in in round one. He was definitely in our best team."

The Eagles are enduring a middling season with four wins, and sit just one game out of the top-five after 11 rounds. Sheedy said Beattie had emerged as a Mr Fix-It, playing just about every position through the midfield and forward.

"We'd love to settle him but at the minute we're probably just a footy club that's missing a few pieces and he's been the one that, depending on where we are missing those pieces, he's been able to fill it for us," he said.

"So he's played a hugely important role on what we've done. And to his credit, wherever we've played him he has played at a really high level.

"I hope in the back end of this year we can see him more playing on the ball for us. Moving forward, we see him as really big part of our future."

Sheedy said Beattie, who has 13 goals this season, had adapted seamlessly to SANFL demands after crossing from the Raiders in the off-season.

"The Ovens and Murray is a very good competition but when we've seen kids (from the country) it's the adjustment that hurts them; the ability to be able to train at a high level and to go from two or three nights a week to four or five. But that's been Max's real strength. He has not only come in but he has made our program better and he's made people around him better in his willingness to be able to push in pre-season," Sheedy said.

The coach said there had already been AFL interest.

"Fremantle footy club enquired about him. In saying that though we get a lot of footy clubs inquiring about a lot of people at this level, it's a pretty good breeding ground the SANFL," he said.

"But I think he has got the whole package; he's a fantastic young kid, he's got a good attitude, he's got the attributes that I've seen a lot of young kids come through that have taken the next step, and he's as good as any of them.

"His speed and his power, his toughness, he's got it all. I'd love to see him get an opportunity. I'd know he would do well at the next level, I have no doubt."

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Beattie - who is averaging 13.5 disposals and 3.5 marks this year - enjoyed one of his best games of the season on the weekend with three goals, 18 disposals and six marks.

"He isn't a player that needs to have 30 touches to be best on ground," Sheedy said.

"Because he's so dynamic, he's a player that can change the game and only need 12-15 touches to really hurt the opposition. They're rare, kids like him - in terms of being able to have huge impact with limited touches."

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