#1 Andy McGrath - from April 2022

Jeez I must be watching a different player.

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Give me 5 examples of running and creating offensive chains out of defense.

Give me 5 examples of his elite handballing.

Reliable field kicking hahaha - surely he is the one that gives the most nerves with ball in hand.

This is true. There was a time we would get absolutely destroyed by small forwards. I remember this ā– ā– ā– ā–  small forward from the Lions or Port kicked 9 on us at Marvel. We don’t normally get smashed up too much by them anymore

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Oh sorry it was 12, LeCras what a day. Fark the french, Paris is ā– ā– ā– ā–  anyways

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Maybe I’m just really relieved these days that I turn up to the footy and know that we are not going to get dominated by the opposition small forwards. 2005-20 was basically open season.

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If you pretend that Bags never played for us

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we do like bags

Cheers Essendon.

You cannot go in one direction and then turn to go the other, especially when that direction is towards goal. He put himself under pressure as a result. Similar to this, he regularly passes the ball to players who are under more pressure than he is.

He’s pretty good at shutting down a small forward. That’s it. Good at nothing else. Poor disposal, if he has pace he doesn’t weaponise it, isn’t aggressive, isn’t composed and his work rate is poor, especially for a vice captain.

He stays in the team only because our list is so bad and we don’t have a better stopper for the Bobby Hills of the world. It really shouldn’t be hard to find an upgrade on Andy either from the current playing list already (Nguyen, Roberts) or from the state leagues.

Moving forward, use the cap space we have to heavily front end the remainder of his…sigh… six year deal so we can cut him from the list, trade him or at the very least, relegate him to depth on minimal coin.

Odd to label his output ā€˜fine.’

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His output has regressed over his career which must be confronting for him - let’s not pretend he hasn’t played some good footy in the past.

I get the sense he carries a significant mental load with him onto the footy field which impacts his decision making and his perception of pressure.

He just seems so ill at ease with his own game. There is no fluency or ability to think through heated passages of play- just panic responses and reflexive actions. He is struggling with touch/feel for the game and I reckon he is a deeply anxious footballer these days. Who knows if the pressure of being the no. 1 pick has just burdened him over the journey.

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Maybe releasing him from VC will put him at ease a bit and back to playing more naturally / instinctually

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He is pretty hellbent on being the next captain of the EFC - i highly doubt he will relinquish the VC.

We just need to trade him and offer to pay 50% of his salary for the next 3 years and be done with it.

He needs a real reality check if he thinks he is anywhere near the captaincy of this club

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That third QTR is the best I’ve seen him play in a long time. More of that please!

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If I pot him often, I should at least show up to give him some credit for a good game so far.

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He’s been fantastic. If Caddy or Kako played like this we’d be two handing ourselves on main st.

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No LeCras-style rubbish because we got Andy.

Good Lord

Are we allowed to say he had an exceptional game tonight?

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