#37 Dylan Alwyn Clarke - at Woodville West Torrens

probably. looks really good bar his kicking which is still quite poor.

Itā€™s not beyond the realms that Jobe was in the same situation with his kicking early days. Re: Clarkeā€™s kicking, do you see any similarities between them?

Lets leave aside the look of his kicking, ( which is horrid) we need to look at effective kicks and his decision making with ball in hand when kicking.
As to weird looking kicking action, just take a look at Irish: very very unconventional, but probably now an elite kick. Strangely, he did quite well in kicking at the draft combine. Strange.

Here is how AFL Player Ratings saw him in 2017 ( bear in mind he played Half forward from Round 10 onwards )

4 VFL Had 25 possessions, but turned it over a bit. Needs to understand his limitations better at times. -
5 VFL Hard worker in close in midfield with 18 touches, four clearances, and five tackles. Steady. -
6 VFL Ball use could have been better, but again worked hard in tight in midfield. -
7 VFL Started well then drifted out a bit, but ended with 26 touches and eight clearances. -
8 VFL Just the three kicks ā€“ one effective ā€“ but worked hard enough in midfield. -
9 VFL Ball use was scrappy but found it well enough in midfield. -
10 VFL Just one effective kick, but did some good work by hand. -
11 VFL Used the ball much better throughout than he has been. 22 possessions and four inside 50s. -
12 VFL Got a bit of the ball, but not as much as heā€™d like. 15 possessions and four tackles. -
13 Bye.
14 VFL Had 16 touches and booted a goal. Just fair. -
15 VFL Won the ball fairly well and had six inside 50s. Ball use was fair. -
16 VFL Worked hard when he didnā€™t have the ball, but just the 13 possessions. -
17 VFL Understands the game. Gets in really good spots and is rewarded by winning the ball. -
18 VFL Quiet day with just nine disposals at 44.4% efficiency. -
19 Didnā€™t play for Essendon VFL.
20 VFL Bye. -
21 VFL Tackled hard in the middle, but unable to get his hands on the ball a great deal. -
22 VFL In and out without having a massive influence. -
23 VFL Tackled his heart out against the Cats. Brave effort.

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Those ratings seem to just support the opinions that his kicking is/was not up to scratch.

Will be very interesting to see if heā€™s improved it over the off season

Agreed. Lets just hope he gets better at kicking this year. Remember WOB? Ball winning ability great, kicking poor, Outcome: Delisted

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I personally believe that if you are a first possession player like Clarke is then your kicking doesnā€™t have to be elite. Most of his ball will be won in close and freeing up the runners.

Elite kicking would be a minor miracle.
Would settle for effective kicking - ie hits targets and has the vision th choose good options, even if only over short distances.
I like the kid - he has some really good parts to his game, but just getting your hands on the ball makes for a one dimensional mid. Opponents very quickly learn to hang off and wait for the error, or dwell on the receiver- itā€™s the ability to choose a variety of disposal options, from the quick give, the sweeping handball, the break into space with a short pass to a lead up player, etc that keeps opponents honest and opens things up for teammates.
Useful depth, but needs to work on more aspects.
If kicking is a step too far then elite hand balling skills may be achievable and then weā€™ll see.

What is his speed and endurance like?
Could he make a tagger?

Which is what the opposition used to do with Pev.
It was interesting watch Geelong play us in their strong era, where all our midfielders would be hammered when getting the ball, except for Pev, who they coralled - they wanted him to kick it, get the turnover on their HB line & rebound

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Endurance excellent.
2016 Draft Combine, Top 5 in Beep Test (14.12) 3km Kicking Test equal 4th. Time Trial 3rd place (9.52)
Essendon : 3rd 2017 pre christmas 2km time trial

Speed, Agility, Dont go there.

Do you know how many kicks it took him to hit 3km?

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Yes sorry, typo. please read 3km Time Trial.

Rhys Palmer despite having freak endurance & ball winning ability ended up being pushed club to club based on his poor kicking.

Priddis for all his poor kicking woes became very effective at short kicks keeping within his limitations. As an inside mid you have to be able to get ball to boot quickly and generally under physical pressure which he did well.

I personally donā€™t think Clarke will ever make it as his ball drop doesnā€™t allow for getting ball to boot quickly nor guiding it down well to be able to handle being pressured physically and still hit targets.

Hope Iā€™m wrong as he has endurance, courage, leadership and and ball winning ability down but the kicking will be his Achilles heel unfortunately.

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Conor started from scratch, less to unlearn than Clarke.

Jobe was never as bad as Clarke, and showed a fair bit of creativity with his kicks when he was playing VFL. Maybe that was forced because he knew he didnā€™t have much range, but Clarke currently (2017) has less range, awful technique, and zero confidence in his kicking.

The only good bit is he knows it, and generally doesnā€™t try to do more than his skills allow.

He played as HFF for much of the year and kicked 2 goals from 18 games despite being a handy contested mark. Heā€™s not getting a game as a 100% midfielder without a stack of improvement or a stack of injuries.

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He had approximately 126 kicks in 2017, so he probably made it to 3km.

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We had Crowley on the list and didnā€™t use him as a tagger, clubs rarely use a tagger now days, youā€™ll see players going to players if theyā€™re killing it ala Libba on Kennedy in the 2016 Grand Final but those days of Ling, Crowley, Jones etc are long gone, you simply canā€™t afford to carry those guys anymore

Is a genuine award winner in my ā€œI forget he is on the listā€ award

Problem is that even if he gets to the point where he is hitting 60-75% of his kicks, his kicking action is so diabolically bad that confirmation bias will make you think he is worse than he is. Needs to see a biomechanist and get it completely remodelled

Reminds me of Markelle Fultzā€™s jump shot

Matthew Leuenberger

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I raise you Mitch Brown