You do know St Kilda/Hawthorn/Fremantle made Grand Finals (and won some) with guys like Stephen Gilham and Zac Dawson as KP defenders, right? I think your view of what makes an AFL standard may be a little out. I think Collingwood would have liked to have someone of his quality in the finals last year.
Obviously a good chunk is your opinion, but my opinion is its wrong. IMO heās varied between usually being adequate to good in most of his AFL appearances, and hardly played the last two years as we havenāt had a huge number of KP defensive injuries. I think the number of times heās failed majorly is significantly overstated by the Blitz community, who may have too many years of Hooker/Hurley/Fletcher/Wellman as the standard, all of whom were AAs.
And given how teams have struggled to find defenders, the idea there are 6 better ones out there ready to go is a claim Iām skeptical about.
Not a terrible player but I wouldnāt trust him not to panic and give away a holding the man free at a crucial stage in the pressure finals brings.
Also the reason he has hardly played in the last two years is simply because the coaches donāt rate him. Between Hooker possibly being needed forward and Ambrose having multiple injuries there was plenty of times in recent years things could have been shuffled around and Hartley brought in, but they chose not to. Of course coaches arenāt always right, but in this case they are.
You & I have clashed in the past, whereas I rarely (if ever) disagree with HM, however, on this occasion I reckon you are spot on.
Heartsā āsignificantā failures have definitely been overstated on Blitz.
And with very few senior opportunities in the past 2 years, how is it possible to truly rate him?
This is why I went with the following top 4 recruiting priorities the other day.
1/ Ruckman (but donāt use a high draft pick on one).
2/ Mid - can never have enough (top draft pick).
3/ Small forward (depth).
4/ KPD - Hooker, Hurley to eventually be replaced by Zerk, Franga, Ambrose, Hearts (backup) + a new KPD.
Hurls is only 2 years older than Ambrose/Hartley so theyāre not exactly long term replacements.
I suspect in the next couple of years we will look to pick up another KPD though itās a low(er) priority atm
Mabior Chol from Richmond isnāt getting a look in despite their injuries and whilst playing as a Ruck/KPF I think he would make a good defender, he certainly has all the tools.
In any other Club, Hartley would get a game. He is competing against Hooker and Hurley and also Ambrose. At 199 cm and 100 kg, he would be Carlscums best defender. He must be on a reasonable package to stay at the Bombers.
Iām really not sure he would. Maybe 1 or 2 clubs max. He isnāt a good enough one on one defender and doesnāt have enough other tricks to make up for it
Iām not convinced he would be a best 22 player at other clubs or otherwise he would be there.
Heās not being held out by Hooker and Hurley heās just not good enough. If he was good enough they would have no issue with sending Hooker forward when we had no other talls down there but they didnāt.
If he had clubs interested he would be gone already.
IMO heās varied between usually being adequate to good in most of his AFL appearances, and hardly played the last two years as we havenāt had a huge number of KP defensive injuries. I think the number of times heās failed majorly is significantly overstated by the Blitz community, who may have too many years of Hooker/Hurley/Fletcher/Wellman as the standard, all of whom were AAs.