Harry Taylor caught up with Cats TV for his last show of Opposition Breakdown for the season to take a closer look at the Brisbane Lions player from Ireland, Pearce Hanley.

In 2005 Hanley was spotted by Australian recruiters during the International Rules Series where he won the Ron Barassi Medal for the best player in the Irish U-17 international rules team.

The young Irishman has recently stood out to Taylor as being one of the most flexible players in the AFL.

“He’s a terrific ball user who often sets Brisbane up out of defence, averaging 21.6 disposals this year, and really gets them going from the back half,” Taylor said.

“He is also very versatile and has spent a lot more time in the midfield and forward this season. He’s had 92 inside-50s for the year, which ranks him number one for the Brisbane Lions Footy Club.

“And he is someone who we have to be very very conscious of in front of goal because he has also kicked 16 goals. He has become a really versatile player for Brisbane and the competition.

In 2008 Hanley debuted as a rookie for the Brisbane Lions and was elevated into the senior side the following year. Since then Hanley has continued to develop into one of the Lions key players.

Taylor believes Hanley has the skills to cause trouble for the Cats if they don’t negate his play early. From experience Taylor has a number of solutions that he feels could do the trick.

“How do we stop him?”

“Well in the forward half of the ground we have to make him accountable and limit his influence as much as we can. We also need to stop him from pin pointing the ball inside-50 to the Brisbane forwards as much as we possible and force him to kick the ball a bit higher and a bit wider than he normally would, to give us as defenders a better chance.”

To hear more from Harry Taylor on Opposition Breakdown click on the video above for the full episode.