#21 Archie Roberts - thru 2026

His kicking is officially a problem.

He will be the McGrath type whipping boy once he stops getting leeway for being young.

No it isn’t and no he won’t.
He cracks in ridiculously hard each week and is very smart in his positioning on the ground.

His kicking can be hit or miss but I am backing him in to keep improving it.

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Skilled, committed and hard working. Keeper.

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Kicking is CACA

Unfortunately yep.

I like him and think he will make it but 8 Turnovers from 20 touches is NQR.

If any older player did that, this place would be on the warpath.

If Stallion is writing him off then he is going to be a good player.

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He’s is going to be a very good player. But if he doesn’t fix his disposal efficiency, he is going to turn into a McGrath

He is starting to show symptoms of Essington infection.

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He is a better kick in the AFL than his VFL days though, similar to lual in that sense. His kicking in the VFL was appalling, i would say in the AFL overall it’s been slightly above average, with a few howlers thrown in.

There’s no doubt his kicking isn’t great, but he more than makes up for it with his ball winning ability and aggressiveness. Bit like Mark Johnson in that respect.

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I agree with this but the balance is you can only have so many of these sort of guys in the one team IMO. Players who you give a pass to because their effort and physicality is exceptional but their ball use is spasmodic to poor.

More than happy to have Archie Roberts in my team though on balance. He sets the right tone. Just need to get a couple more gun kicks in this side. Especially off half back (and on the wing) where we are incredibly suss without Zach Reid who unfortunately is a permanent sick note.

his kicking needs work but the mechanics are sound i think. i suspect it’s one of those things that would improve as the rest of the team improves around him and he gets a few more unhurried disposals and has some better options to kick to. maybe i’m being too kind

2024

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Vibe in here versus the sheer and utter human foamer toxicity on display when our other kid Tsatas misses one is outstanding popcorn viewing.

At least we all agree on Perkins and Hobbs.

To me, there are a lot of similarities to Hepp.

Strengths of both being their footy IQ and competitiveness.

Weakness of both being their slow loopy kicks, and their athleticism.

Hepp had a great career, but as his athleticism declined even more, his kicking became an even bigger liability.

Obviously, It would be great if Archie had the career of Hepp. But it could be even better if he could get some more penetration to his kicking now.

I wouldn’t have said Roberts has a particularly loopy kick. I think his ball looks pretty reasonable through the air but he doesn’t quite get it to the advantage of his teammate enough. I don’t recall him being one guilty of popping up hospital passes for teammates to sit under with regularity

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Tsatas truthers are in every thread now.

If Tsatas cracked in like Roberts, there would be a lot more people outraged by his non-selection. In his last game Tsatas couldn’t be bothered breaking out of a jog to chase despite coming on fresh half-way through the last quarter.

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Isn’t he like 19 years old and pick 70 in a team full of spuds? Give the man a spell

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I feel like you quoted me, then illustrated my point.

Regardless, the difference between Roberts’ best and worst kicking is significant. But overall, he offers immense value to the side.

Had a look at his tape from the weekend, every kick.

He kicks a a pretty flat ball that is fast through the air. I suspect he often is kicking the ball just a little too hard. I lot of his kicks a carrying just a little too far or sliding slightly off the instep. I think both of these issues would show up less if he just took a little bit off it. It’s often happening in ones where he’s going slightly around the corner on.

I reckon he’ll clean this up with a bit more experience and having better leading patterns ahead of him that use and create space more effectively.

I don’t think he the technical deficiencies in his kicking that McGrath, tsatas have. Or heppel. I think he’s got a bit more variety than Redman too though he doesn’t have redman’s penetration or his straight line laser

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