With Tasmania entering the league soon and needing depth, we have a great opportunity to move on guys like Perkins.
I was so excited when we drafted him, and gosh has his career been a massive disappointment.
I think those criticisms are fair.
You’d ideally want a goal a game from him. He’s finding a lot of ball as an outlet just behind centre. Ideally, he’d be receiving more forward of centre and be better positioned to push inside 50. Part of that comes back to how we’re clearing the ball from defense.
Defensively, I don’t think the expectation is that he lays a lot of tackles inside 50. His role seems focused on pushing up and down the wings as an outlet, and then being a deliverer inside 50. When he’s in front of the ball when we enter forward 50, he’s been sitting at the arc and trying to draw his opponent away from the deep entry with leads. Defensively, his role seems focused on holding his position in the zone and not letting his opponent get involved in defensive transition. He hasn’t had a direct opponent get off the chain, but his positioning in the zone is almost impossible to assess from a TV angle – we obviously have some work to do as a team in the respect, so it’s fair to suggest room for improvement.
He’s playing quite a unique role. It’s part lead up option similar to how CHFs played 10-15 years ago, and then part inside 50 distributor. It reminds me a little of how Tom Lynch played at Adelaide (albeit, Lynch kicked more goals).
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very good… 
he’d not get a game at richmond or west coast.
has been an absolutely liability with and near the ball.
still waiting for a breakout 25+ possessions 4 goal game. zac bailey style.
and not little roberts style cheapies. impact.
as sad as it is, it’s more likely to come from gresham huss nguyen edwards.
The days of being able to trade players you didn’t want to teams coming into the competition ended with what we did to Freo. Trading anyone to Tassie for more than a handful of beans is just not going to happen
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Watch though how often his opponent runs off him to sweep the ball deep into our backline
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How many half forwards in the comp are averaging 18 or more touches a game? That he can do that in our forward line is a bloody good effort. Expecting a goal a game from someone in our forward line is also ridiculous. He is not dominating, but he is doing a good job of providing a link in a chain. Some of you are letting your bias cloud your judgment.
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Which specific opponents are you thinking of?
Some of you should actually watch the game with a lot more attention.
This is why people get frustrated. You need more return from top 10 picks than just a role player. ADW is a pretty good example of a role player. Hell, i think he has more upside than perkins
He’s proven he can be very good, occasionally. Thats what drives people mad
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This is true. But the problem - a major, long-standing problem - is what he’s like when the opposition has the ball, or the ball is in dispute. He’s ■■■■■■■ terrible, and has been from year one.
We are clearly incapable of fixing him. Trade, and let it be someone else’s problem.
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this is some common sense analysis.
I recon in a good team Perkins would look heaps better.
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That seems to be an area we have not excelled in. If we are ever to climb the ladder, we need far better development of our draft picks.
I get that, but at some point we need to forget the draft pick and just react to what we see on the field each week. Every good side has it’s role players, and it’s looking like we have one in Perkins with a pretty well rounded skillset.
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Who was his opponent last week?
He would never get a game in a good team. He would be a VFL player for them
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Everyone looks good in a good team. That’s what good teams do. We don’t need players who look good in a good team, we need players who make our team a good team.
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No, we need that bloody round 1 vs hawthorn player, like farken.
He has been better the last 4 weeks but that’s because we’ve set his bar really really low.
Struggling to find a more useless first 100+ games from a player from any era at Essendon.
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he is trying. but he’s below average in a poor team against poor teams.
if i have to choose between zac bailey and perkins. im going bailey.
he was meant to replace our impact player stringer.
he’s the complete opposite.