Former #17 James Stewart

LOL.
And the rest.
I remember a respected poster here saying he was no good.
I asked him who was a better CHB. He named the AA full back. And that’s it.

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I wasn’t impressed with his intensity the last few weeks but yesterday was impressive, if he keeps bringing that he’ll be very handy indeed.

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A Sheeds special.

Going to be interesting seeing Stewart vs Marchbank in this years granny.

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What’s Sheeds got to do with it?

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He recommended him to Essendon, he obviously knew him from his time at the Giants, believed he had all the tools to become a player.

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I’m not sold on him. He got a couple of cheapies out the back early, and worked hard up the ground to win a bit of ball on a day when we dominated, but I don’t see a skill set that is going to translate to consistent performance.

I’m yet to see him positively influence a marking contest. He just never seems to be in position to mark it, and gets edged out of position easily. His attack on the ball is passable, and he has no physical presence for a man of his size. And his opponent was allowed to zone off, leaving Hooker and JD to regularly contest 2-on-1s.

You’ve basically just described why our forward line works.

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Maybe he got those cheapies because he fkg worked for it?

His first goal he was involved up the ground then had a good workrate to get back to slot it through. how the fark is that a cheapy?

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well you see, he ummm…well, he was just running around there and it…ummm, yeah nah

A very good pickup by the club and is part of a developing and exciting forward line. Can’t ask for more than what he has given.

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Yeah. I don’t think he’ll be an out and out gun. But he’ll be a key part of our forward line where so many cogs aredangerous. walla,raz, green, lang (resting), lav, joe, hooker, stewart). Going Forward we’ve got 8 players that’ll be forward with 4 (5 if you include joe) working up the ground ferociously. Not all of them will have good days, likewise bad days. but theres 8 players with goalkicking ability.

Then you got francis that could end up anywhere. I think we should go another goalkicker of some sort at end of our draft this year for some more depth.

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He was good against Port but I’d want to see more before naming him the second coming. He is 23 y.o. so getting to the point that you want to see consistent form and not just glimpses. He may end up as a depth player in the event of injuries IMO.

Watched the replay this morning.

First goal he got a handpass running into an open goal from 15m out. Not involved up the ground as you said. For his second his opponent left him to go third man up against Hooker, Hooker squared the contest and it spilled to Stewart in the goal square. So yeah, cheapies.

I agree that he works hard. Seems to be a good athlete. I just don’t think he offers anything in the air or a physical presence. His opponents are able zone off him and out-number JD and Hooker. Considering this, I’d rather Langford or Francis come in and play a third tall role.

He was up the ground at a contested part of the play. not directly involved (ie touched the ball) but he did shepherd then ran hard to get into space. Why do you hate stewart so much?

At which point he scored goals.

Forward line works.

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Maybe Francis in 12 months time. He’s miles behind Stewart at the moment though.
I’d rather Langford learning to play midfield in the VFL, then providing a similar output to Stewart in the AFL in a role that won’t be his long term.

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Saturday night was the first time I had seen Stewart play will real mongrel and win some really good contested balls.

I then reminded myself we are playing the biggest downhill skiers in the AFL - Port Adelaide, who ran up the white flag after about 5 minutes.

If Stewart can “maintain the rage” against the Swans and win contested call again then he really would have taken a step towards cementing a spot in our best 22.

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I reckon he might be OK. He moves well for a big guy. As the third banana its crucial he can get a ground ball as well. I like him

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He’s more like a Gunston where there’s a fair bit of hard running to make an easy mark look easy. I think there’s a question whether you want more grunt out of a 198???cm guy, but personally I couldn’t care less as long if he keeps being this effective

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What about Begley in his spot? Not a Stewart hater I’m glad he’s realised he should be throwing his weight around, but Begs was impressive that first NAB challenge game.

To be fair, he’s the last person anybody will kick to going forward when they have Clunker, Clunkiher, Clunktasia, Tippa and Green all down there as well.

That’s why he’s perfect, he runs to the right spots, is usually pretty decent kick for goal too, the perfect forgotten man up forward.

That’s why he got on the end of those cheapies it’s because he’s the sixth biggest threat down there but he plays like he knows that and we won by 70 points.

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