#21 Archie Roberts - thru 2026

Re Rising star, I think it should be weighted to 1st year players more. Unless the 2nd/3rd year player is absolutely a star.

I remember thinking this when McGrath and Heppell main competitors were older players, so probably fair to still think that way

Was absolutely our catalyst to get things started in the 3rd quarter last night. It was his first few possessions which gave everyone else the confidence to take the game on. Next thing he had Caldwell lift at stoppages and then Caddy got going.

It was almost like Roberts said fark this, I am not going to be part of another loss where we just roll over. The kid has some fight and is an absolute ripper. We are lucky to have him.

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Same as Joel Freijah

He’s kicked 2.2 for his career.

Im not sure thats a weakness haha.

Would have to be the worst left footed kick to play AFL.

we do need to have a discussion about his disposal.

Way too casual with his disposal, needs a spell.

Absolutely nails some kicks.
Others… Oof.

It’s an issue, but he’s young. Hopefully something they’re working on.

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I really like Archie. But his disposal by foot is basically Heppell 2.0.
Soft floaters that spin nice, usually hit the right spot, but just take way too long to get there.

Who would you bring in to replace him?

We had Clarke, Johnson and Roberts all playing today.
Similar turnover rate to McGrath.

Guess we could go another tall, but I wouldn’t be dropping him

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I really want to put him in the :white_check_mark: list alongside Clarke & Johnson but I just can’t. It’s his kicking & unfortunately that is a skill you just can’t learn this far out into his playing career

His body of work is not even close to drop-worthy.

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Yep, it is pretty clear he is prone to 3-4 really bad kicks a game. He is still a very good player but he needs to work on stamping that out of his game ASAP.

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Geez pretty harsh critics in here!

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I told you ages ago

It’s either “wow what an amazing kick” or “what the actual fk was that”. Nothing inbetween.

He’ll be fine long term.

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Casual would be the last way I would describe Archie Roberts, he would still be one of my first picked every week.

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Zero chance he needs a spell. Room for improvement in his decision making but way more positives than negatives.

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Going to be a very good player, but had a stinker tonight

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Just a concentration thing IMO. He’s a very good kick who has too many lapses. Can be fixed.

McGrath and Roberts are similar, some kicks are amazing and some are howlers, most of their kicks are just easy kicks moving the ball on out of defence which both are perfectly capable of doing reliably.

The key for both of these guys is having genuinely dangerous kicks around them like Clarke, Johnson and Reid. With these guys there is less need for Roberts and McGrath to be the ones taking the high-risk vs reward kicks and then they can focus on getting it into the hands of the elite kicks.

1 Like