The guy is both the fittest AND the strongest player in the club. He's probably also the most aggressive. The upside if the coaches can improve his offensive game is pretty large. I think people underestimate what we have in this guy.
Completely agree.
In time he may prove to be as important in defence for us as Dale Morris has for the Bulldogs - able to blanket talls & smalls of all shapes & sizes. He could keep Jack R shut down one week and get movoed on a dangerous Tory Dickson at qtr time on another week and completely shut him down.
Looking at the Chrisitian Petracca highlightsâŚwhat a beast, he will rip teams apart this year. Ambrose looms as the best match up against him in the competition due to his combination of strength & fitness.
Short of a complete lapse in form I would be picking ambrose every week to play in defense on either tall or small - the perfect, flexibile defender.
What a draft Dodoro had in 2013 as the AFL world descended down upon us and draft picks were lost leaving us with only 3 picks - Zach Merrett in the 20âs, Fantasia in the 50âs and Ambrose as a rookie/pre-season pick. Arguably Dodoroâs best drafting effort, ever.
The guy is both the fittest AND the strongest player in the club. He's probably also the most aggressive. The upside if the coaches can improve his offensive game is pretty large. I think people underestimate what we have in this guy.
Completely agree.
In time he may prove to be as important in defence for us as Dale Morris has for the Bulldogs - able to blanket talls & smalls of all shapes & sizes. He could keep Jack R shut down one week and get movoed on a dangerous Tory Dickson at qtr time on another week and completely shut him down.
Looking at the Chrisitian Petracca highlightsâŚwhat a beast, he will rip teams apart this year. Ambrose looms as the best match up against him in the competition due to his combination of strength & fitness.
Short of a complete lapse in form I would be picking ambrose every week to play in defense on either tall or small - the perfect, flexibile defender.
What a draft Dodoro had in 2013 as the AFL world descended down upon us and draft picks were lost leaving us with only 3 picks - Zach Merrett in the 20âs, Fantasia in the 50âs and Ambrose as a rookie/pre-season pick. Arguably Dodoroâs best drafting effort, ever.
I mostly agree, but donât see him playing on genuine fast and agile smalls.
And I think the intimidating reputation built by tackles like smashing Hill in final seconds against the Hawks will make opposition forward lines become more timid around him. A small factor, but creating fear has value.
The guy is both the fittest AND the strongest player in the club. He's probably also the most aggressive. The upside if the coaches can improve his offensive game is pretty large. I think people underestimate what we have in this guy.
I reckon Hocking has him pipped for white line fever.
The guy is both the fittest AND the strongest player in the club. He's probably also the most aggressive. The upside if the coaches can improve his offensive game is pretty large. I think people underestimate what we have in this guy.
I reckon Hocking has him pipped for white line fever.
Those inside the club will tell you Mason Redman has them all covered.
He (Ambrose) played key defence in a side stripped of its key players , often undersized, no Hurls or Hooker, often no Hartley and still virtually NONE of the competitions key forwards got hold of him in a scoreboard sense. In fact, the evidence suggests that he frustrated the hell out of all of them and well and truly got inside their heads.
Fark me, ive seen luminaries such as kent farking Kingsley have nights out against full strength Essendon sides. How the hell Patty didnt concede bags of goals last year escapes me, but he didnt.
Thereâs no such thing as "Only a stopper " for your Full back. Its the â â â â â â prerequisite and everything else should be secondary. 'Limitedâis nonsense in the sense that no one else could have got that job done imo last year. He finished 10th in the âleast goals concededâ for 2016, and half those in front of him didnt play on key opposition. He was more frugral than the supposed golden child, Alex Rance. And we were at half rat power.
No idea if heâs best 22 for 2017. But he was totally unlooked for, and incredibly effective, in a shredded 2016. Massive respect and heâs clearly more useful than even many Dons fans seem to realise.
Absolutely spot on. We really have great flexibility in defence but I think having Hurley as the intercept player and disposing of the ball with Hartley and Ambrose on the key forwards makes sense to me. I like Brown down back and he could take the Hurley role with Hurley locking down a key forward, but people saying Ambrose doesnât do enough need to understand his primary role.
At a few games last year, I ignored the rest of the match and just watched Ambrose.
He destroyed players. When the forward he was grinding away would inevitably be rotated to the bench, heâd just turn his attention to the replacement and destroy him too.
He was exceptional in circumstances where good defenders could be excused for folding.
Heâs hard, heâs crazy-fit, he reads the game beautifully.
His fitness is still probably underrated. One of the fittest on the list I think and is prepared to run out the game.
Extremely reliable and great at the defensive stuff⌠my only concern is his ability to find the football and create an attacking option when needed. I donât think you can play modern AFL with a purely defensive mindset.
I would, personally, have him as the third tall but I could understand if they went a different direction.
I donât think anyone is suggesting that Ambrose didnât perform incredibly well last year, are they?
No one is hating on the bloke; the criticisms are really just based around areas of his game where he clearly needs to improve, along with querying his role in the side now that the other key talls have returned.
If he didnât have areas of his game that needed improvement, he wouldâve been given more than a one year contract extension at the end of last season.
Agreed, itâs got little to do with Ambrose at all. Most everyone was very happy with his work in the backline last year.
The problem is youâve got 30 legitimate candidates for the 22 in round 1, and someone has to miss. For many it is natural to go with the attacking options over the strategic / structural options.
I think the contract negotiations last year were heavily influenced by the unusual circumstances of trying to get all the players back on board. It may be something as simple as acknowledging that we may have some older blokes retire next year, and therefore have more room to do better for Ambrose at the end of the year depending on how we go in 2017 and who wishes to play on.
In terms of the last paragraph there is no way Ambrose got a 1 year deal so he can get a better deal at the end of this year. The reality is that if he was highly rated they would have given him more than 1 year firstly because he would be cheaper that way and secondly to reduce the risk of someone else poaching him.
The 1 year deal reflects what several posters on here have been saying. That is that Ambrose is a good stopper with some attacking deficiency and inability to play other positions. The club rates him to some extent else he would not have got the one year contract.
This will be a make or break year for Ambrose.
While our midfield continues to lose the clearances, contested possessions and the inside 50 count, I dont think we can afford not to have 2 dedicated lock downs in the defence. In the meantime we will continue to have to play +1 in defence at times and have players like Zerret running down to the last line shore up the backline. If we can reverse those key stats, we can afford to start playing a full on zone defence, replace lockdowns like Ambrose and play more attacking intercepting defenders ( for instance Francis, Brown or in future Ridley). Realistically, thats probably not going to happen until we are a solid top 6 side.
