MELBOURNE is well placed to snare the best big man in the NAB AFL Draft, with GWS and Gold Coast likely to pass on imposing South Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy.

The Giants, while in need of help in the ruck, will find it difficult to pass up gifted Dandenong Stingrays midfielder Lachie Whitfield to take the 202cm giant with the No.1 pick.

The Suns are also unlikely to swoop second overall with talls Zac Smith, Daniel Gorringe and Charlie Dixon on the books.

That leaves the Demons, who currently own the third and fourth picks, in pole position to secure the skilful basketball convert, who has earned high praise for his rapid rate of improvement since coming to the game shortly before the NAB AFL Under-16 Championships.  

Former Adelaide recruiter Matt Rendell, who did some specialist ruck coaching with the SA side at this year's under-18 championships, liked what he saw from the athletic ruckman, who earned All Australian honours for the second year running.

"He's clearly the best ruckman in the draft system at the moment," Rendell says.

"He's been really competitive playing against men in the SANFL after having a really good championships this year and last year as well.

"It will be interesting to see where he goes in the draft.

"You would think that Melbourne, the Bulldogs or GWS would be looking around for that type of player.

"He'll be in the top five or so, I would think."

The Demons' draft strategy largely depends on whether Gold Coast forces them to use the No.3 pick to secure father-son recruit Jack Viney.

If the Suns don't make a bid for Viney with the second selection overall, Melbourne can use its top two picks to make a play for one of highly-rated Western Australian pair Jack Martin or Jesse Hogan in the GWS mini-draft and snare Grundy as well.

That would leave the Demons to select Viney with their second-round pick, which is clearly the best-case scenario for the Dees.

Some clubs are hesitant to use such high draft picks on young talls, given the extra time they can take to develop into regular AFL players, but Rendell believes Grundy falls into the elite category of under-age ruckmen worthy of such early consideration.

"It didn't worry West Coast with Nic Naitanui did it?" he says.

"It didn't worry Carlton with Matthew Kreuzer. I've got no doubt [he can be in that company] - he influences games.

"He virtually won two games for South Australia last year at the 18s as a bottom-ager and he was really good this year again as expected.

"He's not going to be the traditional four years [of development] - he's going to be ready to go pretty quickly because he's physically not far behind [the men].

"I'd be surprised if he didn't make an appearance in his first year, which is unusual for a ruckman. Kreuzer did, Naitanui did and I would think he would too."

Grundy played eight senior games for SANFL club Sturt this year, in addition to his starring role with the SA team, with his best performance 31 hit-outs against Glenelg.

"Brodie's a really competitive beast," Rendell says.

"He trains really well. He thinks about his footy all the time, maybe a bit too much sometimes, but he's a really good kid.

"His tap work is good - I wouldn't say it's great - but every time he goes forward he kicks goals. He might not quite have that silk touch with his hands with his tap work as yet, but that will come the more he plays and he's very good on the ground.

"He trains really hard so he'll definitely get the best out of himself and he's a real competitor, so he's at first base already."

Jason Phelan covers NAB AFL Draft news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @AFL_JasonPhelan.