#36 Michael Hartley

who else?

legit which other tall defender do we have?

ambrose? injured.
Brown? injured.
…???

Thin Air: I hear he plays well but he is a bit light

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ENTER THE FRANG

I’d been hoping for his recall for a few weeks as I wasn’t 100% sold on Brown playing as a key tall, not a 3rd tall back/forward, but a key defensive post player. Got to say was quite disappointed with his game yesterday, which I find hard to write as I’m a big fan of his and how he played last season, but he really struggled to impact marking contests yesterday. I hope it was a “blow out the cobwebs” type of game having been out of the team, but unless we send Hooksey back with the injuries to Ambrose (boy, did we miss him? Shows how far he has come as a defender!) and Brown, there can be little change made at selection, so we have to ride with him and hope he comes good.

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Yep get your point. There is a guy called Hooker, where it has been decided he is a forward and that’s it. Except that he is now thrown behind the ball to save the game in the last couple of minutes in each quarter. But because he is now a forward, there is no consideration to making a change during the game if we are getting done.
Mckernan and Stewart have shown more at reserves level than Hartley did - of what I saw - Coll and Nth games.
So there was an option to play someone else.
Then there is Francis who came to the club as a defender, and to be honest is the closest replacement to Ambrose we have.
Langford could have been recalled to cover his forward line roll.

Point is, if he is mentally struggling at the moment, then we shouldn’t play him. Its not fair on him or the rest of the team if he cant compete at the level required.

an absolute shadow of the player he was in 2016… needs to get his head right and needs the support of the coaching staff.

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But i remember him last year getting towelled up by some absolute spuds, then beating some quality. He is a bit of a bellchambers for mine, built like tarzan plays like jane, has been poor this year so far but not sure if these so called personal issues are affecting him.

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He’s the guy everyone was yelling to bring back in, remember?

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Hawkins to kick 12…players, what the ???

At the end of the day we can only judge him on his footballing output as that is what is expected of him.

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We need to work out our preferred backline system and stick with it. Personally I prefer Hurley/Hartley/Ambrose and will back Harts in. He was good for the most part last year and he’s the best we have with no Ambrose and Brown.

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That is my preferred KP back 3 as well. Only concern is not enough attacking intent from Hartley and Ambrose. However if we continue to play them together this facet of their game should come.

I do worry about Hartley’s attacking side. You just can’t spoil these days, you need to hurt them the other way and I can’t see us carrying both Ambrose and Harts. Ideally Harts plays best forward, Ambrose most dangerous, and Hurley mops up.

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Is he being instructed not to kick or does he have confidence issues? He is a beautiful kick, yesterday he had the ball 80 metres out and handpassed to a running Myers (on his right, running into a Docker). Head exploding.

People are worrying about the attacking side of his game - I’m more concerned about his one-on-one defence - He showed flaws in this aspect last year and was awful against Fremantle.

I’ll disagree with this in part.

I thought he was a good defender last year, albeit with a torrent of ball coming into our backline.

This year he has been complete rubbish. Mistiming his spoils even if he has managed to still be in touch to contest. Deserved to be dropped, and is very lucky that Brown / Ambrose are injured.

There just must be something that we don’t know about. His form drop has been quite alarming, and he just doesn’t seem the type of bloke for it to be simply a football issue.

I thought he was good last year, coaches wanted a change in his game and he obviously has not adapted, maybe the coaches are wrong.

Maybe being a solid player in a ■■■■ team makes you look a lot better, Dea has found the same thing, even Kelly to a degree.

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We’re still pretty ■■■■.

I’ll back him in though. Fists like that don’t grow on trees.

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No,… but they do grow on limbs, …

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