#21 Dyson "Go jam it” Heppell - 200th game this week (Part 1)

had a shocker yesterday ■■■

And lets all hold hands and sing as the sun goes down?
Loser talk. The responsibility falls directly at the players’ feet. Time to toughen up, cut the sh*t and change things and not magically hope the club changes after 14 years of failure. I truly hope the players hurt, because they embarrassed all their fans with their efforts.

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Really, really, disappointing year. The year off hurt him a heap, I really hope he has a big pre-season and comes back a lot better. The game has got quicker in the middle, you need to have the speed to run both ways, or be a bull like Kennedy etc. He is not either of these things and perhaps the middle is not the place for him.

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I actually think he could play the Kelly role on the HBF. Is a great reader of the play, and good overhead. Played there in his first season if I remember correctly.

He can’t kick it like Kelly though and he isn’t as quick. But yeah he was good in his first year in the role. I think sides know him better now and would really look to exploit him by playing through his man on the lead

Both points are true. His speed especially a big concern.

Zac Merret will be thinking that way I reckon he’ll be the only player who would be filthy at the what team dished up yesterday and work his butt off in the pre season to help make the team better.

Agree that EFC will go on and it will always be our team.
Disagree that the players are feeling it at a more personal level. On the beer right now having a deserved end of season knees up but probably not caring about the effort that the supporters put in yesterday compared to the effort they put in as players. Swans were always the favorite but the guys should have still show some fight and spirit.

Hepp should play off half back with pinches up forward. he’s too slow and not enough of an in and under bull. I just hope he can show half the desperation that Kelly did in that role - it’s not a trait that stands out to me in Hepps game - Zaka has been attacking man and ball more fiercely in recent times

I’d rank his season a 4 out of 10. Hoping he is one of those guys that struggles with the burden of captaincy then works through it and gets better.

I just can’t believe people are still suggesting Hepp play as a half-back.
He’s an inside mid or nothing imo. If he drops off as an inside mid, the only other hope for him is that Woosha starts playing a tagger (or we get a new coach) and he re-invents himself like Ling did

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the chance of him reinventing himself as a tagger is about as big as him becoming a desperado a-la Kelly backman. Only that the latter would require a change in mindset whilst the former would require both the changed mindset and a new set of upgraded wheels to run with the best mids going around.
outside mid -once again - slow… maybe if everyone around him are speedsters then we can do it - but if Myers, BJ, Zerret, Langford, Howlett, etc etc are anywhere near the middle then Gd help us.

He’s far too slow to play HBF these days. Even in his second year as he started transitioning to the midfield, when he was at half back a few teams played speedier guys on him and seemed to play through his man more than normal as they knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up. And that was what, 2012?
The game has gotten even faster and and more defensive pressure orientated since then, especially in the forward line. As a Half Back Hep would get eaten alive by top sides. Either that or he would be rushing ever second possession he had.

He just needs to get back to the great inside game he was developing in 2014 and we need to make sure the midfield around him has good balance.

And as an aside, talk of putting him at HB is like playing chess with players and ignores the reality that he is a person and he probably wouldn’t want to go back there.

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Ling was slower than Heppell and he made a great tagger.

Why do you put Zerrett in the bracket of slow mids?

Really? Iirc ling played his jnr footy as a goal square full forward which would suggest at least some off the line acceleration.

I also could have completely made this up but there is something in there in the vault with some dust on it about this

Spot on. The game is different now to 2011-2012, where it was more a contested game. Hepp’s competitiveness was a real asset off hb.

The game is now quicker, and HB really plays to none of Hepp’s strengths anymore.

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Yep. NFI how people see im as a good fit for HBF

Chuck him on the HBF to stop us drafting HBFs??

Genius

Really good players find a way. He’ll be fine. He lacked some touch this year, double grabs and little fumbles which then made him look slow. Get clean hands and a lot of that vanishes.

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This is what we did to Heppell. Anointed him next captain after about two seasons.
Let’s not do that again. Let’s wait until we have decided we need a new captain and then worry about who is the best.