nobody is saying Townsend is going to be a great player for us or be BOG every game, people are just excited at the positives that he could bring to our team
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Just out of curiousity, when we have one (or less with sanctions) first round picks a year, how often do you expect to take “big inside mids” with a first round pick?
By my calculations we’ve taken Myers, Kav, Heppell with first rounders since 2007, and Hislop with a top 20 pick which was a second rounder. Begley was also playing inside midfielder for the last part of the year at U18 level and taken early second round.
shhh, you’re not doing it right
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Go back and read the posts ffs. Its right there in the first one.
I said he will win a Brownlow.
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Goob stuff.
Both will play rd1 imo
When I say the Essendon way. I’m talking the way we used to do it. We haven’t had a tough side for a long time and look at the results.
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Actually for an AFL listed guy he really wasn’t great in the VFL midfield this year either, was much more effective as a forward in the half a dozen games of theirs I saw, and even then wasn’t terribly effective as a forward.
We played them twice late in the season and he really couldn’t get near it as a mid, he spent a good amount of time with Aaron Heppell and Hepp gave him a bath …Townsend finished that first final with 13 possessions and a goal, Heppell 26 possessions and 4 goals.
Pretty much the same result when we played them 2 weeks earlier, Heppell had 26 touches and a goal while Townsend had 14 and a goal.
Over the year in the VFL Townsend played 18 games, averaged 18 disposals and kicked 21 goals, those are not the numbers of a VFL mid tearing apart the comp.
For comparison Aaron Heppell despite spending the early part of the year as a small defender averaged 20 disposals a game in 20 games.
I’ve watched a lot of VFL footy the last couple of years and Richmond are on TV a lot, he hasn’t been any particular standout even at VFL level.
LOL what?
He’s been clearly the best player in their VFL team for 3 years yet hasn’t won a single Best and Fairest, and has only been runner up once?
Getting in the best all those times is great, but what if most of them he was 5th or 6th best? In the VFL?
He’s been a good solid and consistent VFL player for them, but the suggestion he’s been their best player at any time in that period seems to be at big odds with how he’s been viewed internally given the best and fairest results. I remember at the time he was seen as a very surprising and fortunate winner of the Liston in 2017 in a year he could only finish 4th in his club B&F, and despite only playing 1 AFL game this year still couldn’t win their VFL B&F.
He’s a solid VFL player who was killed by our current VFL captain (among others) in a couple of encounters late this year, this myth that he was somehow dominant at VFL level needs to be put to bed.
In truth he was basically the last player on Richmond’s list this year. Despite Richmond having a huge injury list early in the year he still couldn’t get a game for their AFL side, Mav Weller played one more AFL game than him for some context.
Yes he’s hard, yes he’s antagonistic and seems like a smart*ss on field (anyone who watched the VFL will have seen him in multiple fights with our guys this year) but he’s really not very good. From what I can gather he doesn’t find the ball at a very high rate for a midfielder and doesn’t use it very well when he does, other than kicking for goal which he seems to be very good at. In his last 4 games of 2019 (including 2 against us) he had 14, 13, 12 and 11 possessions and kicked 4 goals combined. If one of our VFL mids had done that people would be calling for them to be put in the cannon from the VFL list, let alone the AFL one.
If he’s been picked up for depth purposes and spends the year in the VFL then I disagree with the move but OK I guess, I’d rather take a flyer on someone who hasn’t been in the system for 8 years but whatever, but if he plays in front of any of our young players who are crying out for development time I think we’d all be entitled to ask what the hell they’re thinking, and I think that would put him as the very definition of a list clogger, wouldn’t it?
Langford, Parish, Clarke, even McGrath at times last season struggled to get midfield rotations (and games in Clarke’s case) due to overcrowding in our midfield and therefore didn’t have a lot of opportunity to develop their games or get to another level, putting another 1 or 2 year middle aged recruit in front of them would surely be counterproductive to the future development of our list. Right?
I hold no hopes, high or otherwise however I do wish him all the best and sincerely hope he proves me wrong
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i know it’s probably moreso just semantics, but what we actually need is the coaches to allow these players to be given the chance displace players.
now that we have 2 of richmonds coaches who have had success not playing favourites as bad as this club, i’m hoping we start to see said displacing more and more.
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Pretty hard to argue with that summary and your thoughts.
Without a doubt he has been the most prolific and consistent Tiger over the 3 year period and the only one to win the Liston. I absolutely stand by that.
Which player has been more dominant for the VFL Tigers over the 40 game period I outlined?
Sorry my reply is ■■■■■■ on the phone… in response to Pevster …
Oh OK I get what you’re saying, you’re not saying he’s been their best player at any point of that 3 years, you’re saying he’s been their best player overall throughout that period?
Well, I mean I guess that’s true, but why would anyone care about that?
The reason he’s been their best player over that period …if indeed he has is because all the better players than him in each of those years have left - either been delisted or gone to other clubs. Anthony Miles for example was clearly their best player for 2 of those 3 years, won back to back club B&F’s in 17-18, but he left and went to Gold Coast. So yeah I guess Townsend wins that honor by attrition, but I’m not sure it’s much of a compliment when he’s never won a B&F for them or been their ‘best’ player at any given time - he’s just the guy who couldn’t get a game but stayed on the list so spent every week in the VFL.
The compliment is that 2 of his coaches rate him enough to bring him over.
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Sure, but does that prove much?
Everyone gets picked up because someone’s a fan of them - a scout, Disco, forster knight, or a coach.
Would we be happy if they’d gone after Steven Morris or Anthony Miles?
Who’s the goose who has made a meme of themselves by cutting up their last years AFL membership over this?
Seems like a good place to hand out “lid-on thread” flyers.
Essendon supporters historically always give a higher pass bar to also-rans from other clubs, partially if they threaten to take the spot of a drafted also-ran
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I wouldn’t bother.
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Can’t expect every player we target to be a superstar Townsend will play a role and play it well.
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