#36 Michael Hartley

Humble_NSW_Fan · July 20, 2019, 1:34am

Stays in for mine. Gives us that ability to move Hooker.

his game was very solid. Welcome back Hearts.

Sugar_Winton · July 20, 2019, 1:43am

I really liked his game and he is a good match up for 2m Peter. Not sure we can go with all of Clarke, Hartley, Ambrose, Francis, Hooker, Smack and Brown. As others have said it’s a good opportunity to rest Hooker.

chef · July 20, 2019, 1:57am

Has only just turned 26, really hope we keep him on the list

M10G10 · July 20, 2019, 4:08am

Walla likes this post

HirdMentality · July 20, 2019, 4:15am

With Hooker being hobbled and a potential liability down back, Hartley should have the rest of the season down back.

He finally showed his kicking last night. And was a big reason as to why we scored heavily from defensive 50.

munna1 · July 20, 2019, 4:23am

Strongly disagree. We needed a ruckman badly. Smack actually competing better in the second half was as big a reason as any that we won. There ruckman dominated the first half and was bog by a mile

munna1 · July 20, 2019, 4:24am

Give hooker the week off and play harts agaun

percebushby · July 20, 2019, 5:05am

Even if Hooker isn’t rested, he’s carrying an injury and can’t keep up with a leading forward. He has to play forward along with Brown. Smack is FP, changing with Zed Clackers in the ruck. Hartley Ambrose and Francis are the three talls in the back line. QED.

Stringer (whom you forgot to mention) is interchange, moving between midfield and HF.

Fugging ridiculous Harts has had had to wait this long for another game. The begrudgers can go to hell — Harts is a gun — and always was !!

leon_baker_4 · July 20, 2019, 5:12am

The question is whether you can play both Ambrose and Hartley in the same team. Both pure stoppers but don’t offer much the other way. Ambrose doesnt have the brain fades Hartley does but I think Hartley has the ability to become more attacking.

Eastie_Boi1 · July 20, 2019, 5:19am

With Saad, McKenna, Redman and sometimes McGrath we can probably afford a couple of guys who aren’t overly attacking.
Hooker was pretty defensive in his movements anyway; just better at marking opposition kicks than Ambrose or Hartley.

percebushby · July 20, 2019, 5:53am

You’ve answered your own question.

Ambrose is a pure stopper, who regularly smothers a key forward for a whole game. Invaluable.

Hartley is more varied than that. Good mark, though he often prefers to fist the incoming ball away. A brilliant long kick, with pinpoint accuracy. His so-called “brain fades” were the product of inexperience and overwork. The inexperience was both on his part and on the part of those around him: he wasn’t used to working with them, nor they with him. The overwork came as a result of an incompetent midfield putting too much pressure on the back line. There was no respite for them: Hartley being the new boy got the blame.

If you check back with video of 1st team games he played in, you’ll see that Hartley was left in no man’s land far too often (Hooker never did that, but I’m sorry to say that Hurley did more than once).

Now with Ambrose, Redman, Gleeson and Guelfi in the team, and Francis, too, Hartley has players he’s used to working with in the Magoos, players he has an instinctive understanding with. Add in McKenna and Saad ,and in the near future, Beserker, and you have a back line to equal any in the competition, with or without Hooker.

It’s taken since Anzac Day 2018 to give Harts a recall. This is the bloke that put his body on the line for the Club and got his nose spread across his face for it. Courage and determination.

How do we thank him ? We leave him in the Magoos for a season & a half. It’s been a long time, but at last he’s had a recall.

Davo · July 20, 2019, 6:07am

https://media.giphy.com/media/S1v34xXh76xxu/giphy.gif(image larger than 2048KB)

Davo · July 20, 2019, 6:10am

But anyway it’s not about being rewarded or not being rewarded. It’s simply, we have Hooker and Hurley. And Hartley (up until this point) could only play their position. He’s not a stopper like Ambrose, and he’s not running and attacking like Gleeson or Redman types.

RockyIV · July 20, 2019, 6:23am

Didn’t miss a beat, fantastic.

stir_fried_ewok · July 20, 2019, 6:26am

I loved Hart’s game. Even his ground ball work when he was rucking I thought showed some real intent.

ZClarke needs to play if he is fit, as he badly needs as much AFL level match practice as possible between now & finals, as TommyB sounds a fair way off.
So assuming no injuries, how do we keep Harts in and bring back ZClarke as that is one tall too many?

Nocturnal · July 20, 2019, 9:15am

I do like to dream what his kicking could be out of the back half. That pass in the third broke the field open. It is such a weapon.

samwoods · July 20, 2019, 9:35am

This is one reason that it would be a good opportunity to rest Cale.

I do hope we don’t make the mistake of going in too tall.

aboods · July 20, 2019, 9:37am

The coaches have been very consistent with the structure. If Zlarke comes in a tall will go out

HirdMentality · July 20, 2019, 10:13am

It’d be far easier playing in Rutten’s defensive structures than in whatever defensive structures we’ve been running the previous times he’s been called up to fill a hole.

percebushby · July 20, 2019, 11:09am

“SORRY! The owner has set this GIF to ‘Private’.”

And Hurley is far from being the beast he was a few years ago — he’s really best suited to third tall these days — while Hooker at present can’t run; as we saw on Friday he can’t keep up with an opponent down back; he may manage as a marking target up forward, but really needs a rest as he’s obviously carrying an injury.

Mick Hurley won’t be back this year. If Chooker gets a rest, Beserker will be called up alongside Michael Hartley. That’ll make some back line !