Didn’t stop, prop, and turn it over like he’s prone to. He was pretty good I thought. Looked a lot more assured ball in hand
Membrey has never beaten Hurley.
He has kicked 10 goals vs Essendon in his six games. 8 of which were in 2016, the other two in that 2015 flogging.
I’d say, if they have played on each other, Hurley has well and truly got his number.
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It’s good that his disposal was better but I want him to defend better. That should be his main job. He better be focussed on that this year, not running around looking for cheapies
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If he is a serious worry for you then I would to be your doctor.
Didn’t help that the ball kept getting bombed in like a tsunami he would have been frustrated with the lack of midfield pressure.
What he was really annoyed with was his fellow defenders giving away off the ball free kicks when he had best position.
We are ■■■■■■ when Hooker retires
Seriously?? amazing this is what you have come up with from last nights hitout
I think zerk and Ridley and franga will be perfectly fine
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Early run on Panic $$$s this morning. Carry on.
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haha…good one mate. Have a look at my other posts re last night. I’m not worried about the team as a whole from last night at all.
I’m also not worried about Hurley based on last night’s effort. I won’t judge him or other senior players at all on JLT.
I’m just saying, that this year he better be focused more on a defensive role (and I hope the coaches are smart enough to have made that his role) than the distributor role he played in the first half of last year.
The Hurley that beat Franklin is the style he should be playing every game, even if he can’t do it to that level every week.
He’s not good enough by foot to play the distributor role.
THE FUTURE
They were really bad free kicks. Put it down to inexperience but hopefully the coaches and Hurley and Hooker show them the best way to disguise it.
Couple that Hartley gave away were terrible
He makes me nervous, but he was pretty good. I think he’ll have a good year.
Having Hooker back in will help him out a lot. He won’t have to worry about what the other defenders are doing quite so much.
The main reason our defence looked disorganised was we were too tall, and the mids were giving Carlton way too much ball in the centre.
The balance of the defensive group was way out of whack to begin with. No way can you play all of Hurley, Hartley, Francis, Ambrose & Ridley in the same backline - I thought we’d figured this out already.
Hooker comes in for Hartley and another more mobile small needs to replace Ambrose in the defensive rotations - maybe Guelfi rotating off the bench.
All things going to plan, our back six for round one should be the following IMO:
Francis Hurley Ridley
McKenna Hooker Saad
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And then we’ll get good challenge from Redman and Gleeson early in the season. We might be in strife if Hooker or Hurley get injured. I’d put Brown in defence before Ambrose or Hartley.
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All defences look better if they’ve played together enough to know each other’s game.
If you’ve got 5 players that team together you can successfully drop in a sixth ( cause of injury etc) without missing too much of a beat.
Hurley Saad & McKenna know each other.
Ambrose has rarely played other than with Hurley.
Hartley and Ridley have teamed together but not with the others.
Longy is new to the backline full stop.
And this combo is split up in intra club games.
Wait till the backlines settled before judging Hurley.
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One on one Hurley is vulnerable, whether it be in the air or on the ground.
He’s a good player, but the days where we used to compare him to Rance are surely over. He’s not even in the same postcode as Rance.
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He’s probably still at least 80 odd % of the defender he once was, but no doubt the ban impacted him as much as anyone, even if purely mental. Probably doesn’t quite enjoy his footy as much? Just my view. Won’t quite see that 2014-15 full beast mode again and that’s a shame.