That handball on the wing… Jesus Christ man like that is under 10s basics
Taranto would have been better actually what we needed GWS would have used McGrath at hbf
Tarranto and clug both have better football brains than McGrath and it’s not even close
Do you think Taranto would be playing midfield for us? chances are he’d be chained to the forward pocket
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I know your No1 pick should be a midfielder or key position player but I reckon McGrath would make a great back pocket player. Plumber attributes. And there is nothing wrong with being a back pocket.
He’s a mid but like Parish his first instinct is to handball.
Not sure how they can fix it because he doesn’t want to take on the opposition with his pace and his first reflex is to go sideways by hand or kick it over his shoulder.
I still think he will work through it but without practice on the track its ingrained in him.
Something to work on over the summer.
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Yep and it’s his first year playing as a full time mid at AFL level, has plenty of years yet to nail his craft. Lachie Neale wasn’t the raging Brownlow favourite at age 22.
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I think he’s trying to do too much.
Looking at his centre bounce attendances each week he is spending the majority of the time on ball. Maybe they need to release the shackles a little and give him some time up forward or something. We have a habit of burning out players.
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No, but in 2015 his 4th year, he was
Ranked 4th in [Total Stoppage Clearances in 2015]
Ranked 9th in [Effective Disposals Per Game in 2015]
Ranked 6th in [Stoppage Clearances Per Game in 2015]
Ranked 5th in [Total Handballs in 2015]
Ranked 7th in [Total Disposals in 2015]
Ranked 9th in [Total Contested Possessions in 2015]
Ranked 5th in [Total Effective Disposals in 2015]
Ranked 10th in [Total Clearances in 2015]
Parish knows how to release someone into space by hand though. McGrath just shovels it, by hand or foot, at the first thing he sees.
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McGraths numbers also stack up very well this year compared to his peers, also didn’t have the likes of Fyfe, Mundy and Barlow as bigger mids to help out.
Parish is very clean at ground level and can handball. To me that’s his only strengths.
McGrath is already a better player and will continue to improve. I think he will work on it over summer and come back a better player next year.
Doesn’t help us now though unfortunately.
I would have loved to have seen the midfield of:
Taranto, Shiel, Merrett, Heppell, Parish, Smith, Langford & Draper.
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Tarranto was never even close to number 1 consideration.
It was McCluggage or McGrath then daylight so it’s useless dwelling on tarranto now coz no recruiter would’ve taken him at 1 back then
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Yeah, and I’m sure GWS fans would have loved to have seen a midfield of:
McGrath, Whitfield, Coniglio, Kelly, Ward, Hopper & Mumford
If you think the recruiting of McGrath is our problem you are sadly mistaken.
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McGrath is playing the right role as an inside mid - What he can do better is a more polished outside game.
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If that’s the case. Then that’s an indictment on Dodoro and our recruiters.
You forgot Will Setterfield, I remember there was talk in bidding on him from GWS. If my memory is right we interviewed him very late in the piece. But your right not many pundits had Taranto in the top 3
Every recruiter, not just as Essendon.
He wasn’t in the conversation from any recruiter or in any mock draft done by draft experts
I had him at the 1, Clug at 2 and McGrath at 3. I wasn’t overly fussed with who we took though as I thought they would all be guns.