If you look at his pre-draft highlights package you can see that breakaway speed is a part of his game. Two obvious caveats to that are that U18’s will be slower than AFL opponents, and highlights packages can be misleading. But when you combine the eye test at U18’s with the measurables at the combine, I think we can have reason to hope he’ll start to display that acceleration in the seniors with more confidence and experience.
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Hooker was faster before the major hammie issues.
If I remember correctly hooker had a major injury in his draft year as well that was part of the reason we got him super late? Was that leg related?
20m sprint is at the combine to test speed, power and acceleration. Archie is an explosive athlete, it shows in his 94cm vertical leap as well.
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OK, well clearly the numbers don’t lie, but from what I have seen, he doesn’t appear explosive like the players I have mentioned.
From memory he had glandular in his u18 year and went undrafted. We picked him up late partly because overlooked 19yos tend to not attract much attention.
The leg injuries (hammies I think?) came later, and he had to rebuild his running style and lost a bit of pace as a result/
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He hasnt shown off his athletic traits as much as I thought he would, hopefully next year he will with a bit more confidence and understanding of his role.
He was also considerably quicker when was 20 kg lighter. But Chook was super quick early days. Loved him under Knights when he would play on immediately after taking a grab. Not many could go with him.
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We need to test your eyes at the next combine.
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Chicken or egg. Did he lose speed because he stacked on muscle, or did he stack on muscle to compete after he lost speed? It was very much option B from how I remember.
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I think I was getting him mixed up with Courtney Johns
To me, Archie seemed like a guy who wasn’t quite ready for AFL yet, but they pushed him through anyway based on his huge potential. And he was able to find ways to contribute fairly regularly, although he ran out of legs by the end.
I hope by next year there is a proper VFL program running, because I’d put Archie in the middle at VFL level, and have him play there until he’s good enough to do that role in the seniors.
He looks like a legit inside mid to me. He might be a goal kicking mid, but he’ll never be much of pure forward imo. It’s a waste to keep playing him there.
I still think he’ll be the best player at the club one day.
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Yeah, Hooker definitely bulked way up after his injuries impacted his speed. Not to say he wouldn’t have to a certain extent anyway, sometimes trading a little speed for more strength is a fine compromise. But he clearly changed his body and the way he competed to make up for the loss.
What’s really sad is that so many people have forgotten how genuinely athletic Cale was when he first came to the club. Pre-injury he was one of the only KPDs that Franklin couldn’t burn off, but now all people remember are his peg-leg chase down the wing.
I don’t agree with that. I don’t think he’s shown much ability to win the ball in the contest yet. Very few clearances. Sure, he had less opportunity given he wasn’t played on ball, but even watching him at stoppages around the ground he didnt look like getting a sniff of it.
It could come in the future, who knows? But at the moment he seems like a classy outside type.
Nothing wrong with my eyes, I have perfect 40 40 vision.
Ok then.
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Either Chook or Hurley was gonna take the gorillas, and Chook had a better frame to build on than Hurley. I think Chook’s loss of speed was a bit of A and B, but I reckon the intention was always to build him up so he could compete with the bigger forwards in the game.
I think he will be a star. Probably got more games than warranted due to the shitshows that were our VFL side and the actual VFL season being affected by covid.
Showed glimpses of what he will be. I think we will be glad we drafted him.
Even I’m surprised that my eyesight could do all that, but there you go!
I don’t agree with that.
The things he showed this year, was an amazing ability to track the ball and move through heavy traffic, stay composed while standing up in a tackle, and a delightful side step.
He obviously still has a bit of midfield / stoppage craft to learn, but he won’t learn that on a flank.
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