#25 Jake Stringer (Part 1)

Lets worry about him getting a kick before comparing him to the greats of the game.

At this point around stoppages he often runs in and pushes one of the key opposition mids in the chest, to take him out of the contest then turns to face the ruckmen. This is not the ideal way to rack up possessions. but it does give Zach / Darcy / our other small mids a better chance to get the ball. Stringer is averaging 3 clearances himself while doing this blocking and is in our top 5 for clearances. Sure, once the ball is locked down for another stoppage, he appears to watch . But he is trying to keep his feet, waiting to receive the loose ball coming out.

He got 3 clearances in the Freo game. Thats when we were losing hitouts by a big margin.

IMO its not “doom and gloom” as far as his midfield efforts are going, but he does need to make incremental improvements each week, as does Langford. Its too early to make the call to make him a full time forward.

There will be a bit of pain until we get a big gain from him in the midfield.

But the naysayers are becoming more strident every week. Both in here and amongst the special comments people.

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I reckon I’ve seen quite good signs.

He has shown ability to decisively clear the ball at the centre bounces. He applies quite good pressure around the contest when he is there, which I am surprised about, and has shown that when rested forward he still has the potential to scrap one or two goals (hes been in positions to score)

I reckon its more than worth persisting with for a extended period of time. Give it a season, give it two, he has the ability. He needs to build up his tank and that will come with time, but having seen his two games I am pretty confident that he will make it IF given the opportunity.

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How many of them were brought in from another club and then thrown straight into the deep end?
Jake has moved to a new club with new surroundings and then thrown into an unfamiliar role, can clearly see he is struggling with it. Looks lost at times out there and no offence to him but he doesn’t seem the smartest player on his list so perhaps he is struggling with the complexities of playing in the midfield. Play him in a role he is familiar with and let him get some confidence

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Aceman, that might be true. But Stringer has played over 90 games and has already been an AA player.
Give a good player the chance to show what he’s got. Clearly they were impressed with his power and breakaway speed during the pre-season. Its a big mistake to be too reactive. This was nowhere near a belting, our midfield did not play “badly” and Stringer was nowhere near the worst player on the ground.

We just need to see more of this, first 1 a game, he has done that, then 2 a game, then maybe 3 a game, more than that and he would be bog.

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I see your point and can see how much he has to deal with but he wants to play midfield - it was one of the reasons he chose to come to our club. We’re two games in, maybe give him more time to find his feet.

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Or keep playing him so he can actually see and learn where he’s falling short.
And the chicken littles can just learn that things take time.

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The deep end? R2 of the season in our full strength midfield is not the deep end.

And the happy clappers can still be happy in 6 weeks time when he is still struggling

OK.
I said all pre season I thought he’d struggle in midfield and we’d be pretty weak in midfield after failing to put any significant development time into the youger generation last year

This makes me a “happy clapper”, because reasons.

Given Tippa’s form of seven touches on Saturday night, he might be dropped, especially Fantasia is fit. Green stays. My forward line would be: Fantasia, Daniher (last chance before being dropped), Green, Stringer, Stewart, Zaharakis. Drop Brown (has been a disappointment since being drafted to Essendon) and move Hooker to his rightful place at either CHB or FB, depending how tall the full forward is. Maybe it is about time we ran with two ruckmen. Leuenberger is a good mark and can kick goals. Watched him the other day kicking goals from the boundary line with ease. Or McKernan who is more mobile, a good mark and can kick a goal. Francis, Laverde and Myers must all be a chance soon if not this week against the Dogs. Saturday night was pitiful. Zerrett should not have played. Too many passengers, too many errors. Looked slow at times and over used the handball when a good kick to position would have been more beneficial. Changes need to be made as there is certainly some dead wood playing in the side at the moment.

We need to stop with this dropping Daniher idea, it’s just not going to happen.

Two games ago he was lauded as the next big thing, due to overtake buddy as the greatest forward in the comp.

For all the brilliant games he’s played for us, he’s afforded a few bad ones. I imagine he would be personally filthy on himself already, I don’t need to see him kicking or punching the ground to know he wants to play better than he is.

edit: for the sake of relevance I’ll add that we have learnt nothing we didn’t already know - Stringer will take time.

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Sounds like they’re playing him in the Myers role

Needs to go into the 2’s

Needs to work on his game despite where he plays and get his work rate up

No he doesn’t

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Can we have a bomberblitz reserve page for all these nuffys that we can drop to the 2s?

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They probably go to mynt thursdays tbh

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I somewhat agree, but also think the main issue is, as long as he is competing when the ball is near him, the rest will come whether it’s midfield or forward.

the way our forwardline was on saturday, him sitting up forward would have done nothing for him. and not surprisingly not many of our forwards had a hugh impact or numbers.

When he was recruited cooney and others said it will be a 2 odd year process to get him back to his best.

IMO as long as he’s creating a contest ( last week backing back in a 2 on 1 situation and causing the ball to go out, is a prime example of that) that’s all one can ask for or expect atm. he’s doing some nice little things, the big flashy things will come back in due course.

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Well he is elite and we are playing him like he is so leave him in the 1’s

He was the one who wanted to come to EFC and play midfield so it’s part his responsibility aswell.