Perhaps as you rightly acknowledge his wage demands were not conducive to our salary structure and strategy. The fact is we don’t know what the list management team has in the pipeline. If leaving Rockliff go through to the keeper means we can target Wines, Sloane, Kelly etc in the next few years well you can understand the decision.
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This is just a bunch of words devoid of any meaning.
What profile?
What is the club setting us up for?
Seriously, if you’re going to be so unnecessarily self righteous in your responses, maybe at least explain what the fark you’re taking about?
I just had a closer look at his stats (see http://www.wafl.com.au/players/view/5496)
- 2015: Claremont, no senior games, 12 games with Colts, 7 with 20+ disposals (0 with <13), 12 tackles in GF, 11th in B+F [overlooked in draft]
- 2016: Claremont, 5 senior games (none with more than 6 kicks – dropped back to Colts), 10 Colts games, 6 with 20+ disposals (2 with <13, inc GF), 13th in B+F [overlooked in draft]
- 2017: Claremont, 19 senior games, 4 with 20+ possessions (but 9 with <13), 4 games with 5+ tackles (but 7 with 2 or less tackles) [drafted]
There’s a bit of inconsistency there, although this could relate to him playing different roles?
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It has already been discussed in here SMJ, and in a few other threads. We are not going the slow , poor kick clearance player, we are looking for speed, carry, run and precision kicking. Rockliff is an okay player but he is limited and he is not within the profile of player the club is looking for.
Yeah, an average of 15 disposals at WAFL level doesn’t scream midfielder to me.
From a List Management perspective he does seem a strange choice unless we do have him pencilled in to play a more defined role than an out and out midfielder.
He’s 20 and unless he absolutely blows it out of the water in preseason I expect he will start the year in the VFL and most likely behind about 4 or 5 other players to play midfield.
He’s got a very steep learning curve to make it.
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Rockliff is a “okay player”?
He’s a poor kick?
He’s limited?
Fk me. Honestly. What the actual fk. That is the single worst underration of a opposition player from a Essendon supporter. Rockliff is a gun, and you thinking otherwise just shows how completely one eyed you are. Ridiculous
I wish we had a few limited okay blokes who could lead the game in clearances and get it 35+ times regularly
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He is soooo awesome that only one club actually went after him when he became available.
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You think only 1 club wanted him?
We’ll agree to disagree. Regardless of getting him or not, if your going to pretend that Rockliff isn’t a very good player, then I’d say your judging of footballers isn’t very good, or your just that arrogant that you’ll make up utter bullsh*t to try and make yourself look right
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Rockliff is an okay player but is limited, if you think he was close to be on a par with Watson then you have rocks in your head. Even with Watson we still sucked in the middle and the lesser Rockliff wasn’t going to fix that.
Other clubs asked some questions but only one club actually went after him with intent.
Every time you guys talk up Rockliff he gets even better than the last time.
From BigFooty’s MightyDons4
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Or we teach our guys to do what Sydney’s midfield has been doing for years, shark it off opposing ruckman.
So the Bird replacement, but a better kick?
Have you ever thought that maybe he may not have wanted to play for us.
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A % won per game stat would be a more interesting stat from a comparison perspective though.
% win % loss % draw
Agreed. Give him a crack at being a mid but he seems to have enough tricks to fill other roles… including, potentially, as a small defender as others have mentioned.
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That’s over in the stats thread. Or as close as I can get without having stoppage numbers available.
All three picks seem to be development cases to me. Unsurprising given how late they are. Guelfi seems to be a tenacious type. Someone who wont take getting picked for granted and likely to have a good work ethic. I reckon he is the most likely of the three to get a game this year. Though I wouldn’t be putting money on it.
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I’ve said it before, but the Lions were very very happy for him to go (coming directly from a 3 time Lions premiership player who still has very close ties to the club, although not an official role). They wanted him gone last year (and he wanted to go), but no club was interested at the asking price. He pulled his head in a bit after that and he was a bit cheaper this year in terms of dollars plus nothing needed to be given up in a trade, which was why it was easier to find a suitor.
It will be very interesting to see how he goes at Port and what effect he has on the team as whole.
I’d say with our policy of picking up players of good character, there is a fair chance guys like Kerr and Looney had some input in what he’s like and that played a part in why we didn’t chase him.
Plus as others have said, maybe he simply didn’t want to come to us.
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I don’t think character was taken into account with Stringer.