Having Hurley, Ambrose, Hartley, Brown, Francis and hooker who can go back, loosing Hartley to help get a gun mid is something I’m open too.
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I think he has a huge trade value for us anyways, wasted in the 2’s.
With likes of Francis and Riddley coming through he might find it hard to keep his spot.
I’m pretty pro Hartley but the only way he’s worth a gun midfielder is if he’s packaged with Parish or a top 10 pick. And if he was ever worth that by himself I can’t see us wanting to let a 200cm FB who’s worth a gun midfielder go very easily.
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Are they really? Francis gets puffed from the warm up and Ridley weighs about 25 kilos and is going to need at least two more pre seasons before he could play key back at AFL level.
Yes Really! If Francis isn’t ready by next year he is a fail and will most likely demand a trade home anyways. Riddley put on 7kgs whilst having time off for his back injury, surely he can add another 7kgs in the off season.
This is all hypothetical of moving Hurley into a full time key back position based on the opinion that as you get older you slow down and bulk up, and the fact the we have these kids coming through who can play the 3rd tall intercepting marking role.
Essentially true with some provisos. Maybe I made my call too early with 3 games left to play this year. I guess we dont get a definitive answer to that until the start of 2018.
I’d expect it would be a first rounder and Hartley for a gun mid.
Hartley gets no where near enough love around here, does a very good job most weeks.
Playing on the best forward means you WILL get goals kicked on you, no matter who you are
Even Fletch had bags of 10-12 kicked on him earlier in his career when he had to play on the number 1 forwards (I’m not comparing him to Fletch)
Not getting much love from the match committee this week either.
Been dropped twice now this season.
He’s in good company. Lang, LAV, Gleeson, Hartley. I’m hoping this is just a bit of tough love for a bunch of players Woosh reckons will be our future.
He will be back the following week . He is a good match up on Peter Wright.
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Clearly, there is something very specific in his game he has to work on and he must keep falling back to bad habits.
I suspect it’s the fact he tends to 'spectate" the game once the ball moves on from his immediate zone rather than running to assist his teammates or doing something defensive. His opponent leads to the ball too often and Hartley tends to give up putting pressure on the lead a little too readily for my liking.
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Ridley is not competing for Harley’s spot and won’t ever do so IMO
Its interesting to compare his performances on Peter Wright and Eric Hipwood.
Wright has been an easy target for Hartley, they bomb it long, and Wright tends to rely on his height.
Hipwood has height and speed, and leads out and Hartley is all at sea against him.
Hartley can easily be turned, and once that happens , he loses contact and fails to even make the forward pay by falling on top of him after he marks.
Then Harts also has a specific problem against a giant dinosaur forward like Hawkins, but he did brilliant job staying with Buddy and holding him to 1 goal . Buddy is strong, but has a huge turning circle and does not accelerate fast, but plays further out than a Hawkins
I must admit I was surprised they dropped Hartley, but I think it may be more due to matchups and nuances in our defensive strategy in the Adelaide game.
I think he’s been doing well all things considered, but obviously there are areas he could improve.
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For sure! There are VERY few players who dont have things to improve but Yep I think he’s been doing a good job most of the time
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I think he’s been below average and a liability for over a month now
Can’t fathom how he sits 5 metres off his opponents when he’s more often than not caught ball watching
Also the amount of times he doesn’t fly at all and gives away an uncontested mark is infuriating, he’s our biggest spoiler and he always seems to stay down as if someone else is supposed to do it
No michael, it’s you.
He’s a trier, but the fact of the matter is if he played for another club we were coming up against we’d be looking to exploit his deficiencies to our advantage.
He seems to lose concentration and, as others have said, ball watch and get caught out of position as a result. The more mobile types make him nervous, and there are too frequent occasions when he seems to panic and give away absolutely dumb free kicks.
Much of that might be mitigated if he was more adventurous - going for the intercept mark, or letting fly with that big boot of his to open up the play rather than going for safer dab kicks. He doesn’t play to his strengths enough, which is curious, and I reckon one reason he’s in and out.
I’m sure he has some improvement in him, but until then he’s pretty much what he is now - defensive back-up. Handy, but no more.
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This bloke will end up costing us a final this year.
No he won’t, he won’t play. Jesus he was WOG today