What is this, the new Stanton thread?
It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
What is this, the new Stanton thread?
That’s an insult to Stants. Stants rarely, if ever, put together two bad weeks. Zaka’s not in the same class.
needing a more experienced midfield around you to make you an effective player is not a defence, its an indictment.Funny how this harks back to an earlier response to a post of your’s alex, but, no, it’s just a reality.
Every team has one or two blokes like that. The AFL is littered with them.
If, when the others return, Zaka reverts to an outside mid, delivering & finishing, and gets 20 - 25 per game and 2 goals average, we’d all be very happy indeed. Not every player is in the Jobe Zerret, Selwood Dangerfield mold.
Never have been,… never will be.
If you want to go on a stats argument, then he’s averaged 20 disposals per game over his career and 0.7 goals per game (inflated by his 2011 season where he kicked 30 of his 100 goals). So quite low on your disposal expectations and well below on your goal expectations per game, on a pure statistical benchmark.
If he can average 2 goals a game I’d be thrilled. I honestly dont care how many disposals he gets, so long as they are impactful.
Main gripes with zaharakis is mental fortitude and consistency. Nothing has changed through his career with regards to that.
This season has just magnified preexisting deficiencies in his game and yeah probably made him look like a lot worse footballer than he actually is, but he needs to do more than he was doing in previous seasons too, because even then he was a very frustratiting footballer.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?That’s an insult to Stants. Stants rarely, if ever, put together two bad weeks. Zaka’s not in the same class.
It took Stants time to learn how to play through close checking and have an impact.
Perhaps zaka will come out of all this a better player?
id argue that stants still doesnt really know how to break a tag but is saved by his elite endurance enabling him to impact games when everyone, including his tagger, is knackered, which is his weapon whether he gets tagged or not
from the club website on Zaka being tagged
Dealing with it
Travis King August 2, 2016 10:06 AM
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Zacka has been tagged by some of the best opposition players.
Essendon midfielder David Zaharakis is trying to “embrace” being tagged after conceding he lost the mental battle to overcome close-checking from opponents earlier in the season.
Zaharakis started the campaign on fire, averaging just under 30 touches across the opening seven rounds, but became a target for run-with players in a Bombers midfield missing Jobe Watson and Dyson Heppell.
North Melbourne’s specialist stopper Ben Jacobs shut Zaharakis down in round eight, holding him to just 12 disposals, and the Bomber has struggled to rediscover his consistency since.
The 26-year-old had only 11 touches in a round 11 loss to Fremantle and is averaging just 15 possessions over the past four games.
“Obviously, it hasn’t been my best month compared to the whole year,” Zaharakis told RSNradio on Tuesday.
"(I’m) not in great touch and great form … we’ve got four weeks to go and hopefully I can finish off with a strong four weeks and rectify that last month.
“It definitely has been an indifferent month and I’m not shying away from that – I’ve got to play better footy.”
Zaharakis has spoken to close friends who have battled tags over their careers in a bid to work out tricks to stay in the game under heat from the opposition’s best stopper.
“First of all you have to embrace it. If you go out there and don’t embrace it and you say ‘Why me?’ you’re going to be in all sorts during the game,” Zaharakis said.
"Probably against Freo, probably the worst game of the year for me, there was definitely a change in mindset after that game about how I deal with a tag.
"That was probably one where I went out there and isolated myself a little bit and I’ve learnt a lot from that game.
"You’ve got embrace it, you’ve got a challenge as a one-on-one to beat that player, and I’ve learnt a few little tricks by speaking to a couple of people.
"You can’t just run away from a tag … you’ve got to try and lose them in a contest.
“Probably working back into your back 50 harder than your tagger is one you can get away with, you can get a few kicks in defensive half going forward and that kind of thing.”
One benefit of Zaharakis receiving attention is that young guns Zach Merrett, who is averaging 29 disposals, and Darcy Parish have escaped as much attention.
“They’ve been great stories. Zachy’s having an unbelievable year … he finds a way to find the footy each week. He pops up at contests when you don’t think he’ll get there,” Zaharakis said.
"So his work rate has been unbelievable and he’s a true professional, it’s no surprise that he’s playing the footy that he is.
"Darcy, obviously a first-year player, people can already see his talents and the future is looking bright for him.
“He’s a bull at the footy. His intensity around the ball is definitely something that stands out to people.”
The Dons, who lost to a red-hot Adelaide by 82 points last round, face Geelong at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
I don’t understand the Stanton comparison.
He has always given 110% for the bombers, never coasted and we just expected too much.
He also has stepped up when guys like Watson had been injured etc.
The only time Stants struggled is when he was very young.
Zakka has more talent than Stants and the fact he is not as good is both a dissapointment with respect to Zakka and a credit to Stants.
It’s a couple of months since Zaka turned in a good performance. Our season is over: it’s time we gave more of the kids some more time in the Ones. If we sent Zaka back to the Magoos for the rest of the season, there’d be some valuable experience for his replacement in the Ones.
If we must have Zaka in the Ones, give him a new role. Tell him he’s now a TAGGER himself. Put him on the likes of Bartel. If he learns how to think like a tagger, he may understand how to break a tag next year !
Interestingly in that same interview with RSN he said that he just couldn’t run in the first half but then his body felt great and he ran much better in the second, or words to that effect. It sounds very psychological.
Also, I agree that having bigger more experienced players in your midfield does help to free you up at times. It’s not the whole art to shaking a tag but it’d help a lot at contests.
He is also trying to work on using his situation to free up others, taking himself and his man to another opposition player to create a cluster and allow one of ours to get free and clear the ball.
But he clearly not the menacing player we saw in the first block of rounds, his endeavour is seriously lacking and a lot of it would be between the ears. He continues to get advice and work on technique to shake a tag, but he’s lost his instinct to go get the ball and play his own game.
I think we all have this idea that Zaka could be our Dangerfield or Robbie Gray like player but he simply does not have the intensity or grit & determination they do. Every contest they would have the mindset I’m going to win this footy no matter what.
They play the game red lining, Zerrett does this also, Zaka just cruises around.
If they got tagged and had 11 possessions for the game they’d be seething at themselves. I don’t think Zaka actually cares enough, has enough pride in his performance, or wants to help his team mates enough. It’s like he is automatically accepting of getting beaten by the tagger and that’s ok, clearly based on output of recent times.
And he isn’t the only one. Daniel Rich gets tagged out of games regularly too. Motlop can be also. All too hard for them to beat the tag.
Some players can. Some can’t.
When we have our A-team back hopefully he can get off the chain again.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?
Stanton was prone to butchering the ball.
Zaka needs to get it first.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
I would have thought the answer to the emboldened above is obvious. When you make extreme claims and you exaggerate for effect, responses will have a similar tone.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
We need two forums. One for those who want to join in on a circle jerk, and another for those who want to discuss footy.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
We need two forums. One for those who want to join in on a circle jerk, and another for those who want to discuss footy.
And a third for shardies wanting to stab players in the eye if they don’t perform to their satisfaction.
Maybe a fourth for biased forum-suggesters.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
We need two forums. One for those who want to join in on a circle jerk, and another for those who want to discuss footy.
And a third for shardies wanting to stab players in the eye if they don’t perform to their satisfaction.
Maybe a fourth for biased forum-suggesters.
Posters going too far in their criticism of players is rare. Precious overreactions to any criticism are a dime-a-dozen.
I don't understand the Stanton comparison.He has always given 110% for the bombers, never coasted and we just expected too much.
He also has stepped up when guys like Watson had been injured etc.
The only time Stants struggled is when he was very young.
Zakka has more talent than Stants and the fact he is not as good is both a dissapointment with respect to Zakka and a credit to Stants.
Both outside players who haven’t quite lived up to the expectations of the Bombers fans.
Both heavily crisised by said fans
Both can’t handle a tag, the very thing that stopped them going to the next level.
Both proud clubmen.
Honestly, I can’t see a more obvious comparison than these two.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
We need two forums. One for those who want to join in on a circle jerk, and another for those who want to discuss footy.
The Sorry Saga forum already exists.
What is this, the new Stanton thread?It appears so. God help poor Francis if he doesn’t live up to expectations and turns out to only be a 250 game triple premiership captain and only wins one Brownlow and one norm smith
That’s such stupid logic, please. If he plays a 100 games I expect him to contribute something of worth to the side? Why is it when people critise players, defenders always try and jump so far the other way? We just want Zaharakis to contribute something other than half pace jogging around nothingness? His last few months have been some of the worst efforts I’ve seen from a senior player in a long time. If expecting a player to contribute something is too much to ask maybe we should all give up on us becoming a bottom 8 side for another decade.
Or are you happy with 10 possesion games of nothing and no effort? No wonder we’ve been a rabble for 15 years.
We need two forums. One for those who want to join in on a circle jerk, and another for those who want to discuss footy.
And a third for shardies wanting to stab players in the eye if they don’t perform to their satisfaction.
Maybe a fourth for biased forum-suggesters.
Posters going too far in their criticism of players is rare. Precious overreactions to any criticism are a dime-a-dozen.
That’s farkin bullshite.
But whatever.
Riolio already touched upon it, but it’ll be good when he has a 30 touch, 2 goal game next year and a few people use it as proof that the discussion and criticism in 2015 was entirely baseless, unfounded and unwarranted.