Also, on the first draft of that message, elite level mids kept appearing as ‘elite level mods’. Hi @DJR
always pictured him as a joe type, laughing at mistakes and ■■■■.
I bet he has some wrist twirling action at his computer but I highly doubt it is Blitz related.
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Hugely hypothetical, but no, not really.
Realistically he’s more likely to go Hodge style, and put himself where he’s needed.
Our senior blokes, Hepp, Goddard, Hurley, Zaha were all very hard at it, as were just about the whole team. Hepp was floating his kicks, did have a shocker that way but was otherwise brilliant. I reckon they got a feel for how hard at it they’ll need to be all year and what they need to work on skills wise after the repeat efforts have them gasping. Invaluable. Would’ve been more impressive if they had a ruck though. Belly had it easy, though was very good himself.
I reckon that is his strength, he’s hard to pin down, and able to hurt you in 5-6 different ways.
Get hard into him at the clearances, he’ll drop back to half back and sweep. Beat him there, and he’ll launch from half back and work his man over with gut running. He’s very good overhead, so he can sit deep and intercept.
So he’s deceptive - he is very very good at a lot of things.
He’s had a few bad games here and there, but I reckon he’s had max 2 or 3 quiet games in his whole career - and he’s into his 6th or 7th season now? That happens for a reason.
makes up for whatever flaws he has by being absolutely everywhere, running behind for hand offs, at the coal face, tackling hard, filling space defensively
Easy around the ground but couldn’t convert the ruck advantage to centre clearances. Port did very well to rove to him, which admittedly isn’t the most difficult thing the world to do, his hitouts are pretty predictable.
I think Hepp was better against Port, because his hair looked a little neater.
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Yeah agree with all of that, good analysis.
What’s your current take on his kicking? A lot of his strengths (marking, endurance, reading of the play) can be negated if he’s not hitting targets once he gets the ball.
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He’s kicking like ■■■■ right now.
Deep, thoughtful analysis, huh?
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He went to ground on a few occasions yesterday when he shouldn’t have and coughed up a few but otherwise he was pretty good
Yup.
He’s just… good!
“If you take apart a cat to see how it works, the first thing that happens is you have a non-working cat” - Douglas Adams
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The only stats that matter: number 2 (back and sides), number 4 on top
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Dude sounds like he’s speaking from experience which is a bit weird
I think Hepp is still getting comfortable finding his level between on-field leader and pure player. Sometimes, when this is not 100% instinctive, the mind can go into little freezes. It needs to get to the stage when he can instinctively lead without looking inwards so that his mind will free up to play as he can play.
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It’s funny how so many posters talk about our future best 4 or 5 mids and always leave out Hepp. He’ll be a gun for at least another 5 years. If we somehow end up with 4 or 5 better mids then him we’ll really be laughing
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What’s his strength? He’s a f*cking competitor. That’s why he’s in and under contests, it’s why yesterday he had 5 clearances, it’s why he had 13 contested possessions, it’s why he’s a good intercept mark (often backing into a contest in doing so) and it’s why he’s the captain.
No doubt his kicking is a bit shonky right now but his confidence in it will come back.
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Why is that?
Why will his kicking improve? Practice and games. He can appear laconic, but he is driven to succeed. Don’t let the hair style fool you.