Because he was injury prone. But I reckon to be rookied, injured for two years, delisted, play VFL for two years (for a B & F) and then re-drafted and then entrusted with minding the best FF for two seasons must mean there’s something there.
No I didn’t, and I never understood those who did. I think they saw him get run down trying to take a player on every couple of games and then decided he was ■■■■ despite showing good signs defending.
Had 2 chances to absolutely kill his opponent and pulled out both times allowing his opponent to mark it uncontested.
How can a bloke his size not know how to spoil the fkn thing
I’m sure there’s some doubts internally about him. He was dropped a couple times but was recalled through necessity when Ambrose went down & later Hurley. We had a crack at getting Mackenzie last year, I wonder if we have another go as he’s a FA? Is he an upgrade on Hartley?
He’s a depth player. The fact we rely on him as much says we lack depth.
I would be open to either of two things (and this has been a change for me): I would pick up Lever if possible, or i would pick up Stringer and move Hooker back.
Hookers copped it because his decision making with the ball in his hands was fkn diabolical (still is at times) early on but he was not bad defensively and his clunking down back was elite.
Why do you always mention player ratings. It’s based on the last 2 years and for our club, they couldn’t be any more irrelevant.
As for Hartley, with extra quality around him and natural progression, he has no excuse for going backwards this year. Thought we had a good player on our hands last year, but he’s been massively disappointing this season. Looks and plays like a pothead.
As for our the rest of our backline, we had a returned superstar (Hurley), the no.1 draft pick (McGrath), a wily old veteran (Pops), a top notch KPF stopper pre-injury (Ambrose), a big improver (Gleeson), an explosive rebounder (Irish), a tough as nails small stopper (Bags)…and we’re still ■■■■. This tells me we lack something in the coaching department, because the ingredients for a good defense are there. Our midfield don’t do them many favours, but this group lose more 50/50s than a good backline should. Hurls needs to get back to defending and others need to step up in place of McGrath (midfield) and Kelly (retirement), otherwise it will continue to be rubbish next year as well.
Two defenders - one an AA, the other a whipping boy. Could anyone discern a difference between their abilities y/day? Didn’t think so…
Shows how fkn appalling Hurley was…