Except that at Hartleys age Hooker was an All-Australian, nor did Essendon ever try and fail to delist him
When did we try delist him?
You know you donāt need to try to do thatā¦ you just do itā¦
Youāre the last person left on the Hartley bandwagon
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He jumped on hartlys wagon but the closer he got to the front he realised no one is driving and itās heading towards a cliff. Then he looked over his shoulder and realised that everyone has jumped off.
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We didnt. We tried to trade him to the gold coast so we could pick up josh caddy back in the day, but he refused.
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Percebushby on Hartleys bandwagon
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No, the one he refused was the trade to West Coast for 2 picks in the 20ās.
Gold Coast refused the trade for Caddy.
Iām still on the bandwagon.
I just donāt think he is playing in the right position. As a fullback/CHB I find he is too defensive and doesnt go for marks. Too interested in where his man is at and spoiling. Has he ever been tried forward where he can focus on the ball rather than his opponent?
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Iām not confident he will make it now. He gives away far too many frees in marking contests, definitely the last 2 years. The strange thing is he looked a better player in 2016 when given the fact that team was gutted by 12 players not being available is all the more remarkable. IMO itās the reason why Hooker has been sent back to defence. If Harts has just been a solid, dependable AFL defender and held down the full-back position Hooksey wouldāve stayed up forward, where he did score 41 goals in 2017.
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Definitely gets caught out of position sometimes and goes the grab on the jumper
That Hooker move back didnāt work initially really either.
It all started to look good when the midfield and fwd pressure actually clicked like it should. As well as better ball movement.
No defender looks good without that really. Least of all a depth player.
IF ā¦ he comes in this week with Hooker fwd itās probably as they feel Hookers presence there is needed to have us score effectively as a team & more than any associated goals Hartley might give up comparatively.
We are only here due to injuries so have to make do
It would be a very risky/ballsy move to our Hooker forward and bring Hartley in imo.
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Hooker is far too valuable to us in defence. He aināt moving, itāll be Francis to play forward this week
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I really hope he does make it. Heās a ripper bloke. Not sure heāll get much opportunity but heās adequate depth IMO for now
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Totally agree with this. Wish he had a bit more confidence in winning the ball down back rather than the totally defensive mindset where he focuses on the man and not the ball.
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His hoof and his fist are actual weapons. Top of my list of blokes who I want to make it. But heās got a bit of the Langfords it feels like and heās bad man on man.
Really thought weād found something special in 2016. But heās gone backwards so fast itās almost unbelievable.
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Hartley kicking out after a behind would be a weapon for us, but you have to go with Hooker back as the first option.
Iām still not convinced heās actually gone backwards. I reckon we just accepted some of his mistakes at the time and wrote them off as (a) a young guy just coming back into the system and still learning and/or (b) the backline was swamped so he was bound to lose some contests.
Heās basically just kept making the same mistakes and theyāre more visible in a team that is competitive
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Iām still very interested in examples of Michael Hartley getting so soundly beaten that everybody has formed such a low opinion of him.
As I said in another thread (that had nothing to do with him), heās played at least 30 of his 40 senior games on the oppositionās best forward. 15 or so of them were in a wooden spooner team. If he was as sh*t as everyone says, thereād be a long list of ā ā ā -kickings.
But there actually isnāt. Buddy kicked 7 on him, and Hawkins 6, both in 2016. (Yet as an interesting note, he has also kept both those guys goaless, which nobody else on the list has ever done.)
Heās certainly no Cale Hooker, and heās become surplus to our needs, but heās not as bad as many are making out, and certainly not as a one-out defender.
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^ That.
Lucky I got on the bandwagon earlier, itās starting to fill again!
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