I think he’ll be a very good player, but he’s got no power in his legs right now. Very flat footed. His speed and agility look hampered.
You can see what he can be when he gets the ball in his hands but his off the ball work is quite bad, we are all hoping for another AMT but he lacks the class in front of goal.
HEA is a better goal sneak thus far.
I agree about the fumbling. But I also see a big issue with his tackling. Sure he is little, but he needs to be a lot stronger in the tackle. He just puts his hands around opponents without actually taking them off balance and influencing their ability to dispose of the ball.
It’s true of a lot of our players, but Kako especially
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To be honest, that’s the way I saw Kako to begin with. I don’t think he’s a goal sneak forward. He’s a high half forward. That was pretty much his role last year. He worked up to the contest, then ran back to provide pressure at the next contest.
And when he was played in the middle towards the end of last season, he was probably the only player who forced the opposition to worry about him. He’d put pressure on the opposition both with the ball and without it.
I don’t see him as a goal sneak. As you say, HEA has that, but he lacks the fitness of the way the game is played (which is to be expected).
I do find it weird how any small is consistently labelled as must being a goal sneak. The game has changed in the last 15 years and forwards are working so much further up the ground. Without looking at the goal leaders, I’d say there’s only 3 or 4 small forwards in the top twenty every year for the last 15 years. And those that are there, are from good teams that get good volume of entries and good quality. Stick them in our forwardline and they’d drop another twenty spots or so.
AMT’s best goal scoring seasons were 2021 (27th in the comp), 2017 (26th) and in 2019 (24th). AMT was awesome watching, but his peak was subdued due to how the team performed. His best years were the years we made finals which would be common (more supply and better quality).
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Agree with this - I see him more as a Brett Daniels type player who gets up to the contest. Really need HEA to make it (I think he will) to complement Kako.
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He wasn’t a forward pocket in the U18 games I saw him play, more HFF setting up the goals rather than kicking them
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I’d like him to get more midfield minutes as his fitness improves at CBA. Thought he was a point of difference last year when tried there.
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His season has been inviscerated by a profound injury.
Fair enough there are areas he can improve as a 20 year old but drawing evidence on the type of player he may become from any games this year is useless. The rest of this year is footy rehab in game form for Isaac.
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Nothing more Essington than one of our young players getting talked up all preseason as having a breakout - to then get injured just before opening round and be crap all year.
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To be fair the month or so we had him before the back injury he was definitely tracking well, more so further up the ground.
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Against Melbourne he looked incredible. Still only in his second year and coming back from injury. Happy to write this whole year off and forget about it, including his form.
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He had a decent game albeit against opposition who were clearly well off the pace that day.
You’d think we’d have learned by now…
Love to see him develop into a Murphy Reid type player, he has smarts, vision and speed, and his short game seems good. Get him around the centre and involved, he’s not our Papley
Murphy Reid is the closest like for like of a Stevie J type i have seen. He’s going to be very, very good
Kako is a inbetween type. He looks like he should be a natural small forward, but he isn’t. I’d be rotating him between midfield and HF for the rest of the year, and shoot perkins into oblivion
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kakos got a bit of that gresham im not a forward, but too short to be a mid most of the time vibe.
Thats a pipe dream. Murphy Reid is AA calibre.
Kako yet to show that.
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Yes, it’s a hope, based on some great traits he’s shown when uninjured.
Yeah similar type player, I agree. Kako can kick though, that’s what will make him better than Jade the Butcher.
That first snap he had that didn’t make the distance reinforces my point. Crumbing smalls swallow those up. He didn’t even make the distance.
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A little better today BUT needs more pace as a small forward, especially initial acceleration. Needs to work with a sprint coach to improve his speed.
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