#47 James Kelly - #BackIn

Put Conor under his wing.

Kelly has footy IQ by the truckload. Conor needs footy IQ. perfect match.

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Well, skipworth has contributed a lot off the field (yum!) but didnt have nearly the amount of talent Kelly or Goddard have.

Chappy and Coons were okay for us, but I dont think their old clubs missed them too much.

The rest never really made it at their old clubs let alone with us.

Goddard and now Kelly have been immense for us, and if Kelly could go around again in 2018 then his legacy at the Bombers would be quite significant.

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I didnā€™t think he would be re-signed. I was wrong and copped my suspension

BUT

Farking hard ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– . Absolutely love that when he can hurt someone legally in the contest he takes it. ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā–  outstanding and Breust was just continually smashed in that game.

Playing very well. Absolutely a great player to have in our back half at the moment.

Again; I must admit I didnā€™t think Stants, Kelly, BJ and Watson could all play in the same team. All were excellent on the weekend. Stants really surprised me. The one furthest from his best was Jobe and I think he is going to have a great season so itā€™s all roses after rnd 1.

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How old is he now?

Just turned 33 in December

He may be 33yrs but heā€™s playing like heā€™s 23.

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I barely noticed Stanton, apart from TIPPA2Stantsā€¦

I actually thought that was a positive about the team. I have always felt that guys like Stanton become maligned because the ā€˜fan baseā€™ expected them to be these A grade level elite mids and they just werenā€™t. Stanton is a very good, solid footballer with elite endurance. Basically a very good player to have in your footy team but I donā€™t see him as the ā€œmain manā€.

The emergence of Heppell, Zerrett and Parish have meant that a guy like Stanton can ā€˜floatā€™ around the back of packs and clean up the left overs. Drift forward and calmly slot two goals and still be running as hard at the end of the game as the start.

Essentially we are now asking guys like Stanton to play at the level/role they were suited to, not the role we hoped for etc.

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Iā€™ve never seen a player care less that heā€™s about to be tackled. Itā€™s like he doesnā€™t even see the opponent.

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I wonder if heā€™s had much martial arts training over the years. I noticed his body on body work was very good a while back, for example standing under a mark and then subtly moving from front position to the back, by getting his opponent to lean into him then moving out of the way.
Obviously this could just be good knack for winning contests but he always seems much more balanced than his opponent.
Also the way he moves through traffic, or sidesteps, is just so natural. LIke you said, he is barely aware of them as he is focussing on other things, like the best option to deliver the ball, etc.
All good footy players can do this but he just seems to do it so casually.

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Heā€™s like a ninja.

Koga or Iga?

I was thinking the Wada-ha Koga Ryu sub-branch.

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Breust probably thinks he is more like akuma

You could tell heā€™s really experienced in playing (and beating) Hawthorn in big games.

That spoil in the last where he crunched that dude, amazing.

Also does the James Hird sling shot tackle superbly.

End of the day, geelong turfed him way too early. heā€™d be doing wonders for them.

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yes and no. He might still be contributing but they had to move some guys on, list was getting way too old. You could even argue they held onto them too long, where they might have got something decent for them had they shipped them earlier.
Heā€™s perfect for us as we have a relatively young list, particularly in the midfield, where he can have a huge impact on their development.

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Set up the first few goals, was 20% sharper than anyone else on the field in the first ten minutes.

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Not one of their HBFā€™s force him out of the team.

Apart from selwood and danger theyā€™re a rubbish team.

Bartel was more cooked than those they kicked out.

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I agree. Nothing coming through underneath. Guthrie, Duncan, Motlop, etc etc etc all guys that have stalled and not reached the levels they wouldā€™ve hoped. Part of that is not having access to decent draft picks, which they could have got had they moved some of them on earlier rather than hanging onto to them until the very end at which point they all left for nothing.