I reckon his football age is around 2 years less than his actual age because of how much football he has played. His development is happening in the AFL instead of the VFL and that development is really quick.
He’s going to make mistakes but he won’t need to step up to AFL.
I reckon if we’d picked him up with a 5-10 range pick we’d be pretty happy. He cost us nothing.
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I’d actually class that one as a pack mark. Pack included Hurley and Saints key spud.
And there’s another step forward for Conor.
It didn’t even seem to surprise him but sure as hell surprised me.
He actually did share the man love after Myers last goal.
I love this man
Yep. I reckon at the point of the “Brush Off” he was a bit dirty on himself for a couple of clangs, and also was sort of thinking/saying, “There’s still a lot of work to do here, let’s not get carried away just yet”.
Kinda serious & professional, and, dare I say, “Leader like” response? I liked it.
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He’s moving so fast there’s motion blur.
Looked like Bird
There were several times over the course of the game where Conor, McGrath, and even Gleeson just put the ball under the arm and opened the game up for us at half back. Compare that to the 2014 elimination final side where we had no one who could do that and we relied almost entirely on slow methodical ball movement.
Of course we also now have guys forward of the ball who can also do it and, perhaps more importantly, have the pace and desire to shut down the opposition’s quick rebounders. I love the way tippa and Fanta man the mark for a kick in at the moment. If the guy dares to play on he knows he is going to get drilled.
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I’ll disagree with you there: Winders, Dempsey plus Colyer and Glees and Zaha (nippy without being lightning).
We’re definitely quicker side now (Demps+ Winders out for McGrath Tippa Raz Green) but it’s also a mindset change, or rather a consistency of mindset change. Remember how frustrated Bomba would get about our ball movement??
FWIW 6 bounces a game in 2014 vs 8 in 2017.
Didn’t winders spend most of 2014 injured? Demps could never kick like Conor can and I always felt that he was never as aggressive wth the ball after his knee
Agree on Colyer. Gleeson was a baby and not ready to take it on line he can today
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I’m surprised by that bounce stat. Thought we’d be higher than 8 now and lower than 6 then
My memory - not that it’s that reliable - is some games we were pretty attacking, others we were very much not, very inconsistent (even compared to this year’s side).
Our quick guys are certainly better now, as a whole. Sometimes felt like Dempsey was basically there to balance out a lot of slow slow guys higher up the park who offered very little outside the contest.
His sidestep around Lonie? on the wing in the first quarter even better. Ended up falling to the ground.
Side rant: that could just be the difference between having guys who bounce the ball after 3 steps and guys who run their full measure first. I find it strange they still record running bounces rather than just how far players run with the ball, it’s not like they don’t have the data.
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Watching the replay a number of our players bounce after 3 steps like McKenna does - happened repeatedly in one patch I think in Q3. Hooker even did it and I can’t recall him ever bouncing the ball before.
Seems like something they’ve been coached to do.
Conor also had another moment where he was grabbed while bouncing but it wasn’t called back this time. That goal could very easily have been allowed a fortnight a go and killed off the lions.
I understand the early bounce if you have time. Means you can focus on settling to kick and grab a bit of extra meterage rather than having the bounce or kick dilemma as they close in
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Tacit admission by the AFL that the ump’s got it wrong last time.
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It may have something to do with balance.
Some players may feel more comfortable as soon as they take possession if they bounce the ball early, particularly the quicker type players I’ve noticed, and settle down easier on the run with it.
Others probably need to run almost their full measure until they feel more comfortable.
Might just be an individual thing rather than being coached to do it perhaps?
Add to that the Stewart goal which was paid running too far, it appeared borderline.
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