#11 David Zaharakis - Surviving half-Ironmans

A 2 or 3 game stint in the VFL would spark Zaka into career best form, has another gear but is so comfortable getting picked every week that he’s forgotten how to tap into it.
Another nice guy.

Whether a VFL stint would bring out better form remains to be seen, but he should get a VFL stint regardless because he’s been way too comfortable doing the same old substandard stuff for way too long. We should be managing Zaharakis as Adelaide have managed Bryce Gibbs - the situations and player deficiencies are strikingly similar, except Gibbs is the superior player.

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That turn over where he kicked it into the man on the mark… FMD

Should have sold candy

Was a terrible moment but was plenty of others who did similar. Parish’s left foot across half back line that was turned over. Redman & Saad multiple times with brain fades.

I’m still going with Zaka being hurt in first quarter. He was limping and then they barely played him on ball for rest of game - more half forward/wing. Still had 25 possessions so was hardly a passenger.

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Last 3 afl games

B Gibbs 48 possessions, 13 contested
DZ 76 possessions, 28 contested.

So yeah Gibbs going better, and 25 plus with 9 plus contested as an outside player. Clearly no good. Sheesh.

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Gibbs was first dropped after round 3, at which point in time he was averaging 22 touches a week; he was 4th in their B&F last year and averaged 26 touches a game. Gibbs has been the better player than Zaharakis for the majority of their respective careers.

Aside from cherry-picking data by looking at the last few weeks only, you completely missed the point with these sorts of players - them getting the ball isn’t the issue. It’s what they do when they don’t have the ball that causes issues, and it’s why Gibbs was dropped.

So if they’re not looking at form over ‘the last few weeks’ why did they ever put Gibbs back in? They know what he does.

Why don’t you Google “Bryce Gibbs recall”, and you can read any one of about a half a dozen different articles on the first page of search results with quotes directly attributable to Don Pyke about why they brought him back - or do you need me to post them for you?

You need to ask yourself why they dropped him in the first place, but don’t quote Pyke because he didn’t tell the truth.

What they do when they don’t have the ball is hard to quantify with what you happen to notice at the ground or on TV.
I’ve made this point before but thought I’d check the whole season stats just now.
Time on ground %
Dz 84.4
Gibbs 76
Zach m 78
Shiel 77
Parish 77.5
Smith 74. (Does include big injury one game)
Tippy 79
String 79
Guelfi 74
Mcgrath 77
myers 70

Tall defenders are generally higher and some forwards too.

Now imagine running around chasing Isaac Smith or any afl opponent for 8-10 minutes of the 120 mins playing time plus time on. Just that on its own. Hard work huh?

Imagine doing that as an incremental load on top of what almost all your teammate peers are doing.

Why do they -the coaches - do this? Surely we’d be better off with 8-10 more minutes of parish or Merrett and 8-10 minutes less of zacka. Or maybe those extra rests allow the impact players to get on for their burst, and play a bit fresher. The guy who on average plays those extra minutes when knackered has to hold up his end as well as possible. Maybe he’s just making it exhausted to the hole in the zone and couldn’t really chase down a suburban footballer but it’s enough to make the kicker turn the other way. Maybe the coaches recognise that.

Whatever it is, none of those other guys listed is doing that extra increment, including Gibbs.

Maybe this is all rubbish but I suspect the coaching staff have more than a rough idea of each player’s minutes, and I’m taking a wild guess this isn’t an accident. Courage takes many forms and running knackered more than your peers at the highest level shouldn’t be discounted.

But you knew all this surely? After all you were talking about deficiencies off the ball.

PS you want to see what it looks like when you are running in the red zone - have a look at Zach Merrett in round 1. You reckon he begrudges the extra 8 minutes rest he gets?

I’ve actually enjoyed his move down back, been crying out for it for ages. Thought he played pretty well last night.

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If he is the last defender, he WILL give away a free kick.

I liked Zaka’s game mostly, but fancy being concerned about what Tom Scully would do as a forward. He was always giving away a free kick because he panics in that situation.
He needs to be better than that, and his team mates need to recognise that he is a significant liability one out in defence, and provide support and not let him be the last defender

Lol
Gave away one free kick that wasn’t a free kick.

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LOL
FInd a replay of it

Brilliant by Scully. Had a firm grab of Zaha, not the other way around.

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Still one of our best ball users when going inside 50. More often than not, he picks the right option and then delivers lace out.

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For those who were at the game did it appear as though Greek and Irish swapped roles, with Conor playing as a legit winger and David playing as a permanent HBF?

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McNeice was an out, remember.

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I love Zaha, but reckon there is no room in the midfield for him anymore and would be excellent trade bait come seasons end, he very capable of giving up to 3 good years of service to a club and think we could definitely get something decent for him and be a win/win for both clubs.

I doubt that will happen. He won’t want to go, and I’m not 100% sure that anyone else will pay what he’s worth to us. And he has 2 years left on his contract.

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