We still give him nothing easy, no cheapies, easy goals, which comes with being a small on a bottom 6 team. Dropping not the answer, maybe rest back half of the year. But keep playing him.
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His run and pressure is awesome, it will come
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He played well tonight. When he gets the ball he never wastes it and always disposed of the ball to our advantage, even in tight situations, both by hand and by foot. He runs hard and tackles and genuinely wants to get involved in the game. He’s much more dangerous up forward than Menzie, Guelfi and Gresh. I’d play him against Carlton.
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I get he’s not hitting the scoreboard but how he plays he gives himself the chance to make an impact. At the very least he’s putting a lot of pressure on opponents and that helps us.
And when he gets possession he shows he can get space and break away.
He does need to nail those opportunities when they come, especially the set shots.
It’s valuable experience for him to learn the game at this level. You can see what he could be in a few years. The bye should help to rest up and reset.
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I really think this kid needs a spell. I really rate him but last night by the end he was getting on my nerves. He was getting in the way at every contest; neither committing himself to win the ball or tackle the player; just there hovering around waiting for the ball to spit out. Again I think it’s mental fatigue because it’s not lack of effort but more where he’s applying it. Give him a spell Brad. A week would do him the world of good imo.
Lacking confidence to take the shots he was taking preseason, but he’s still winning the ball at ground level and feeding it out to others.
Some people forget that before Kako, we had almost nobody winning those forward ground balls.
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So many times he gains possession at top speed, running away from goals. Its hard to turn and assess for a shot so he handpasses . Most teams see him as a threat, they seem to man him up like he is our best small forward. As for targeting him expecting him to win or halve an overhead marking contest, thats not really fair. I am disappointed he is not getting chances to score, but admire his team first attitude.
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Is Alwyn Davey his mentor? I know he is young, but really needs to attack the opposition harder. Like Davey, he seems to run up to the opposition player, but then backs off because he feels he will get hurt (which he probably will).
I’ve seen Kako go way harder to stick some tackles than I’ve ever seen Davey, seems an odd comparison to me tbh
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I see 2 problems with him at the moment, both of which are a bit of a surprise considering how he looked in his first couple of games.
One, he seems to lack evasiveness. He takes possession and then just takes the tackle. As a small forward you really want him to be a bit harder to tackle and stop. I hope it’ll come with more match experience. Was he evasive in U18?
Two, his kicking can be very ordinary. I think his vision is good, he sees options and tries to take them. But his delivery at the moment isn’t good. That first round the corner shot at goal should have been a simple kick, especially for a small forward, and then he kicked out on the full with a horrible up and under kick under not much pressure. I definitely think this can improve though, with more years in the system.
His strength in the contest and tackling look pretty good for a small young player.
From the tv it seems like its win your own ball or nothing. Not sure if it looks different at the ground but has seemed to be free on many occassions and just gets overlooked.
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Oh boy.
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He was given very close attention all night by the Brissy defence.
Thought he has worked his way into the game the last 2 weeks, it is a hard position to play, especially in a team at our level. I just want him to play further out from goal, he’s a creative player between the arcs, he isn’t Nick Watson and never will be.
But there was one but of play where he grabbed the ball and side-stepped nobody, so he is definitely still adjusting to the speed and perceived pressure of the game.
I don’t think he will be like Alwyn when it comes to shirking contests.
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The reason Kako looks like he lacks evasiveness is the opposition come from all directions to stop him running breaking lines.
And hes already begun counteracting this close attention by working further up the ground.
I’d love to see the stats on his score involvements as Im guessing he is involved in the chain of possessions leading to many of our goals.
He’s Caddyshack’s talisman. Keep him in.
He played very well against the Bears. He keeps improving each week. Will have a breakout game pretty soon I reckon.
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He is just a young kid finding his feet in the AFL. Should be ok in a season or two.
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