is this his last year on the rookie list?
if so, are we able to delist and re-rookie him? or does he have to be elevated to keep him?
i honestly cant see him getting a list senior list spot and sadly dont think he has earned it.
Apparently you can delist and re-rookie
you would think he would need to have a really great end to the year in the VFL to even be considered for another year.
Hasn’t done nearly enough for mine to stay on the list
I’m in neither camp as I haven’t seen enough vfl this year to judge his developement (although it could be argued if he developed enough I’d have seen him in the seniors)
he is a candidate for permanent delisting, however if we don’t have someone better to add why wouldn’t we persist? Delist and re-rookie is the most likely scenario imho
We could easily bring in 3-4 during trade and free agency, we did 4 in 2016.
2 DFAs and a cheap trade.
I’d take Bobcat in a final any day over Longy. You don’t pick players in finals for the experience. Everything is on the line for the win, and by any measure Bobcat is the better player.
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I’m surprised we’ve lost a game with how good Howlett and Bird get every time they’re left out.
He’s played 7 games mostly at half forward and contributed the grand total of 1 goal. If you think that’s worth persisting with, good for you.
You pick guys in finals the same as you pick them through the year. If we need a tall guy, pick a tall guy. Need a clearance guy, pick a clearance guy. Need a quick small forward, pick a quicksmall forward: and we’re short a quick small forward.
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Can’t agree.
Despite form issues etc at least with Bobcat you know he will provide a physical contest always. In finals football he is the kind of player you need to battle on. Now he is not in our best 22 at the moment but if he was required you know at this point in the year he is the guy to give you that contest.
I love Langford but at this current point without playing AFL for sometime I am not convinced he will give us the consistency in the contest. Long even less so.
Bobcat has been ordinary. Quite ordinary. But reducing his performance down to the amount of goals he has kicked misses the point as to why you would pick him at this stage in the season.
And if we wanted someone purely to give a physical contest, then neither green nor Fanta nor J Stewart would’ve played a game, and Howlett and Bird would have played all 22. That’s not what the forward pocket role calls for so I’m not sure why we’d go to Howlett.
Howlett has actually played some reasonable patches of footy this year, but only when he was in the midfield for injury cover or whatever. Most of the time, he’s been at half forward or forward line, and he’s been poor. This should not be a surprise.
He still has something to give as a grunt midfielder: but he is a terrible forward.
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At least Howlett has played well as a forward at AFL level. Long has no exposed form as a forward at any level.
I agree that Howlett is a lot better midfielder than fwd.
I think that the selection committee won’t be worried about going exactly like for like. We don’t need to. They don’t select Howlett with the expectation that his is gonna kick a bag.
Your argument is very black and white. This is the first season in forever that selection seems very predictable because we have been very like for like. This is unusual and somewhat been a function of having minimal injuries. But mostly sides are picked on talent. Mostly. And that’s why GWS ins and outs are all over the place and they adapt there structure
I think howletts talent for contested work will be valued over others in finals footy should a spot or 2 become available.
3 years and 4 coaches ago.
Silly argument that you could make for any old guy vs any younger guy.
And saves you the bother of actually discussing any of this on their own merits.
With a few exceptions they’ve gone pretty close to like for like all year. The elevation of Long suggests they’re not going to change. Why on earth would you want or expect them to change things on the eve of a final?
I doubt they select Green with the expectation he’s going to kick a bag either. What they would expect is he uses his pace to chase when we don’t have it, he breaks into space when we do have it, and looks for crumbs in dangerous positions.
That’s his role. It’s a role that needs a quick guy.
It’s not a role that will ever make sense for B Howlett. Just as it would be silly to expect Green or Lojg to play the nuggettty midfield role that Howlett’s suited for.
I respect your opinion in this. I am no Howlett defender and think his time has probably passed and perhaps he won’t be on the list next year.
I just think in an elimination final I would have him way ahead of the other fringe guys from 21-26 best players for this year at this moment.
Depends on the role, surely? He’s a long, long way from the sort of player you jig things around to fit in.
If we were down a Jobe or Myers I’d have him top of the list (outside the 22).
If we were down a Green or Fanta (and we will be down at least one) he’d quite rightly be behind a few.
We know exactly what he can and can’t do: that cuts both ways.
Merit has got everything to do with it. I doubt Howlett will ever play again, but on merit he is a mile ahead of Long. Howlett has been picked for ~10 senior games, predominantly in the role that you say he is unsuitable for. Long rarely bothers the scorers at VFL level, yet you’re convinced he would be a better option? Based on what exactly?
I’ve got these two things on the front of my head and occasionally I direct them towards a game of football and I see one guy who has good pace and evasion and vision (albeit not the skills to match what he wants to do) and I see one guy who couldn’t run out of sight on a dark night.
We put Begley in for Green, which is not like for like.
We didn’t have a like for like player to choose from
Exactly.
Sometimes you need to fenaegle.