That right there, that’s the problem. So it’s ok Zaharakis is mediocre for the rest of his career?
I don’t expect him to win a Brownlow but achieving consistent quality each game should be a bare minimum, or it is for any successful club. I don’t know about Essington FC.
Against Geelong? Really? I was there live and watching him, and he skated around for long, long periods and hoped to get on the end of a few cheapies. Even doing that he finished with 18 disposals. If that’s what we consider a good game for one of our midfielders for the Essendon FC than we have a long way to go.
If Zaka had 20 touches every game for the rest of his career with just under a goal a game then i’d be very very happy.
He will never ever be a player that gets 30 touches a game and kicks 30-40 goals a season.
Being realistic isnt accepting mediocrity, it’s understanding that no team has ever had 22 elite players.
Is anyone suggesting that they want him to kick 30-40 goals a year? What midfielders have ever achieved that?
We expect good performances every week, not just some weeks or when he has a random BOG game mixed in with 6 mediocre ones. If the best he can do is squeak to 20 possessions a game and have minimal/mediocre performances than perhaps we should be developing more outside/other midfielders that can actually perform week in week out and deserve a spot. I wonder how many top 4 sides say about one of their main midfielders “oh look, it’s okay if he just has 20 possessions a game and a goal every so often”. What kind of talk is that? We all know what he’s capable of, so being ok with him playing in 2nd gear is plain loser talk. I can bet you he expects more from himself too and wouldn’t be happy with what he’s given us so far in the whole. He’s a seasoned midfielder, the training wheels have come off. Parish is already far ahead of Zaka.
If expecting him to be in our best midfielders every week is too much to ask then we truly have fallen off a cliff and deserve our Essington crown.
This is exactly what I am talking about.
He is not one of our best midfielders, and we should stop expecting that of him.
Our best performed midfielders this year will be in no particular order - Heppell, Zerrett, Parish, Watson and Goddard.
These 5 are clearly ahead of Zaka. You can’t expect all our midfielders to get 30 touches a week - and this will still be considered a good performance from Zaka.
I thought his and Colyers 2 way running was very good.was one of the reasons we were good in the 1st half.
He dropped off like most in the 2nd half.
I have greater concerns from a defensive mindset about Langford. He seems very lazy when the opposition have the ball. Often see him trailing well behind when he loses the initial contest.
Zaka needs to use his ball carrying and delivery skills into the forward line. Im happy to back him in.
So you’re saying we shouldn’t expect Zaka to reach any heights this year because he’s not that good? Fck me. He SHOULD be better, that’s the freakin’ point! Who says he shouldn’t be our top few midfielders? Why is he not one of our best? Is he too lazy? Not hard enough? I’ve seen him dominate games (see Melbourne game last year). That should be the bar not the loser-talk: “if he’s better than OK than that’s good enough for me!”.
So we shouldn’t expect anything more than at best, decent games 90% of the time. Wowee. No wonder we’ve only made finals twice in 16 years if that’s what we set as our expectations.
And this isn’t a “I hate Zaka” bit so cool your jets before you all wanna tell me how well he played in the first 3 games last year, it’s just expecting more from players that have been mediocre with flashes every now and then. He’s not alone in that regard. We need consistency if we’re gonna get to top 4 one day. That’s all. With his talent he should be one of our best midfielders, not just when the team gets a run on and he can find some easy ball.
Yes, essentially I am saying he has almost reached his peaked in my view. But if you are wanting him to dominate games every week ala the Melbourne game then you are going to be sadly disappointed. He is not going to get 34 touches a game.
All I am saying is that we all need to cool our expectations on him. He is still very much in our best 22 and a very important member of the midfield, but he is not and should not be in best players.
Put it this way, Zaka is our Michael Braun in what is becoming a very very good midfield.
You don’t get it do you?
He’s the new Stanton.
So why shouldn’t he be in our best players? He’s too lazy? Not good enough?
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. So being a disappointing player for most games is his peak? Thank god you’re not our coach, why bother getting better if you’ve already peaked.
Once again, not saying I expect him to dominate games, just be in our best half dozen or so each game. Minimum. Anything less is a failure for his talent. “Very very good midfields” happen when you have half a dozen strong consistently playing well midfielders in your team, not when you have a few top end talents and a few that “go OK”.
Zakka, this will be a defining season for him. He has all the fitness and strength he is going to get, he has worked hard at this. He has a strong group of midfielders around him, I think he will get caught up in the emotion of the big games and perform well.
If he can turn that corner and bleed red and black when it matters most I will be a happy man and he will stay in the side. Round 1 is the first real test, an enormous game, huge crowd and an old enemy - he has performed on this stage well before.
If he doesn’t do anything most of the time, it will be time to play younger players ahead of him.
He’s just not good enough mate, he’s not good enough to be in our top half dozen players every week. You have too high of expectations of him.
And if you have been disappointed with his performances so far that is your own fault for having such high expectations from him.
Strong consistent performance from someone like Zaka is very much a 20 possession game, providing support and a chop out to our starting mids. What are you expecting from a very very good midfield? Half a dozen players getting 30 touches a game? This never ever happens. Very very good midfields is having 2 or 3 top end talent complimented by 4 or 5 B+ grade players, of which Zaka is.
I’d expect these players to be in our top half dozen players every week, and yes there will be weeks when Zaka is in there, when Goddard is in there, Parish is in there - but these six we KNOW will give an elite performance and effort every week.
Heppell, Zerrett, Watson, Hooker, Hurley, Daniher,
All of those players are going to have off weeks, even Watson and Heppel. Its nice that we dont have to rely on them as much, with Zerret and Parish carrying some of the load.
Zaka is a good player, no reason he cant have a great year, but we are going to have a lot of blokes calling for the ball who know how to use it, and he could spend a fair bit of time up up forward while Fantasia/Laverde/Langford/Tippa have stints in the midfield too.
This would mean a few extra goals but a lot more complaints about how he went missing, so prepare for that too.
They will have off weeks, but I think the expectation on those 6 are greater than Zaka.
We have seen all of Zerret, Watson and Heppell have elite midfield seasons (this proves they can do it)
We have seen All Australian years from Hooker and Hurley (this proves the standard they can live up to over a season)
We have seen the development of Daniher into a very very good KPF - expectation is now he has the midfield in front of him to become an elite KPF
My argument is that yes we have seen elite games from Zaka - but we have never seen an elite year. And this is ok, the purpose of having elite players is that they are above the average, and in the top echelon of players, of which i’m saying Zaka is not.
neverfarkinmind
Didn’t Zaka win the Crichton medal a few years back? Bit stiff saying he hasn’t had an elite year.
We will see how the year pans out, i think the loads will be shared out a lot more, i dont think you will find Heppel and Zerret and Watson will get 30 posessions each game, but if they do you can expect Zaka to have had an awesome game aswell as he shoild have had plenty of opportunities to get on the end of a few.
LOL (5)
He wishes he ran as hard as Stanton
I’m not against Zaka taking kick-outs though…