don’t disagree, but i’m not entirely convinced just how much upside there is.
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His strengths are endurance and kicking, he’s a natural winger for mine.
He needs to improve each year(for a few years) to make it, but improving this year will be a big positive. Some of our other young mids have looked ok but not kicked on(Clarke, Mutch, Begley etc).
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More than… others.
Blitz also got blinkers on
Ham 17 possession & 4 tackles
Cox 9 possesions & 1 tackle, and worst on ground stats wise.
‘Ham’s gotta go!’
They both should stay in IMO.
I think Ham will end up having a good year for us, Dan Jordan certainly spoke highly of him.
But like all more outside mid types reliant on us winning footy at contest and getting it out to them which we aren’t great at
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Well one lad is a 19 year old coming off no footy for 2 years playing his first game of AFL
The other is 22 and has had a couple of preseasons under his belt
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Cox has it though. There where a couple of moments where he showed how much talent he has. He’s got huge upside. I kinda agree with Ivan there, as in Ham doesn’t project as a future AA. But he can still make it.
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And players stop developing at exactly 22yo and/or 16 games, whichever comes first.
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I’m not against Ham staying in the side at all but the quality of the possession has to be taken into account if you want to compare the two
Cox hit 55 metre passes perfectly
Ham at this stage takes too many dinky kicks to contests etc
From the article that DJ was interviewed for
**BRAYDEN HAM**The 21-year-old was thrown into the deep end in many respects as a slightly-built kid in his first two years at the club.
But after gaining valuable experience at the top level, having played 15 games, the former No.72 draft pick is on track to potentially become one of the bargains of the 2018 draft.
The beautifully-skilled midfielder has put on an extra 4-5 kilograms in the gym over the summer, and having produced an excellent pre-season so far, has grown in confidence and looks set to become a regular member of the Bombers’ senior team in 2021.
“He’s got some assets that actually suit our game plan really well. He’s an elite runner who has an ability to cover the ground,” Jordan said.
“By his own admission, he’s probably been a bit light and not quite confident against the big boys, and that can often happen with these younger, lighter guys coming in.
“But he seems to be a much different player at the moment, and I think certainly last week [against Carlton] he showed that as well, he got his hands on the ball probably 9-10 times in the first quarter, and kicked a couple of lovely goals and a couple of nice [forward-50] entries for us.
“He’s got a lovely left foot, and being able to use that coupled with his running ability and also his understanding of the patterns that we need in terms of our game plan, I think it’s a big year for ‘Hammy’ and I think he’s shown some great signs. I think he’ll really cement himself in our side and in the future become an important cog.”
One of Essendon’s biggest weaknesses in recent years has been its connection between midfield and attack, and Ham looms as a key figure in improving that part of the game for his team this year and beyond.
“He’s got two things – one, he’s a ‘metres gained’ player, so he grabs the ball and he’s keen to carry it and kick the ball long and that’s really important in today’s footy,” Jordan said.
“Once he gets his understanding and being able to assess the field around him, and that comes with a little bit more confidence and knowing you’ve got a little bit more time in game as well, and we’ve already seen evidence of that over this pre-season, he’s been able to evolve his field of vision and then having the capability to execute going inside 50.
“He’s one that certainly we’d like to get his hands on the ball going inside 50 because he generally gives us a quality entry.”
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My point is I’d rather ham or Cox (or Perkins or…) than cutler, or Clarke, or anyone else with glaring deficiencies.
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Ham has speed, elite endurance and a good kick. With bench reductions, those attributes are even more important in the modern game.
We need more than two players who can play wing, to spread the load. Just because Cox and Langford can play wing doesn’t mean Ham isn’t needed. Langford can’t do it for 100% of the game.
Good mix would be Langford rotating mid / wing / forward, covering the wing minutes where Ham is resting on the bench. Gives Langford 20% wing, 30% mid, 30% forward, 20% bench. Ham 80% wing, 20% bench.
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Snelling not up to it IMO…slow, small, little impact in contests, offers a bit of pressure… but just an opportunist forward at best, zero x factor.
He managed to kick 3 goals from 5 games in 2019, then 1 from 10 last year. He definitely needed to add size, but if he can kick goals this year he’ll be more chance of staying on the list.
Langford should be mostly wing IMO (with resting forward). He doesn’t have the contested game nor the stoppage nous to be a 30% mid. Having him and Cox on the wings gives us two legitimate marking targets around the ground who are both great runners and good kicks. I’d just have Merrett and Shiel to fill in the 30% of game time needed on the wing, which can push Parish into the centre mid rotation more where he is most useful to the team. Ham can then be replaced by a more skilful half forward. I just think thats a much better set up.
Ham is now entering his third year on the list coming in as an overager, and so far hasn’t shown that he can consistently apply a close to sufficient contested game, nor get the ball enough. He’s played 16 games now in only three of them has he got more than 14 disposals, in only five games he’s had more than 2 tackles, and he so far only averages 2.6 contested possessions a game. His probably best comparison is Liam Baker from Richmond, given the similar age and size, yet Baker gets the ball 50% more than Ham, tackles 30% more, and gets double the contested ball.
He’ll probably play most games this year, and why not, as we are a developing side and i think he has more upside than a Snelling or a Guelfi, but he’s someone i’m unsure we can continue past that, just as we are one of the worst contested teams in the comp, and IMO its one of the key areas we need to improve on across the ground, and Ham is obviously the weakest player in that area. If we were to delist him, i think he would clearly be a cheap option for a Melbourne or a North or need that outside run and ball use
id rather relton Roberts than Clarke or Cutler. offering more than them isn’t exactly hard
I think we need to ignore Ham’s 2020 stats. Game length was reduced and he was much thinner.
He’s going to be most damaging late in quarters when the opposition tire. Didn’t happen in 2020 due to reduced game time. He’s also bulked up considerably and focused on his contested game.
17 disposals is an improvement on 2020. I’m in the headspace of giving him a few weeks to adjust to a more contested role over longer quarters. In 2020 he was one of the few players who aggressively moved the ball forward.
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Yes, Ham has porked up since last year.
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What’s your beef with Ham?
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So you think Ham is cooked?
Righto, I’m done now… got the tired and obvious meat puns outta my system…
…wish i could do better but a good meat pun is a rare medium well done.
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I think the leg of ham will be quite tasty. He’s my smokey pick to shred some teams this year.
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