While Richmond coach Damien Hardwick labelled Townsend’s performance as “impressive”, Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton emphatically declared the hard-nosed 24-year-old as “the toughest player in the AFL”.
Have you watched Begley at VFL level?
He has never forced his way into the senior lineup like some other players have had to.
I’m all for young players getting a run at AFL level but now it’s time they earned their positions.
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If people consider Begley, Lav (who I’m a fan of) as best 22 then Townsend is best 22.
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Except to get him we are losing out on Brown, not Cyril.
I love it. No doubt Caracella has said he will find into our style and system
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Good VFL player.
More than 5 AFL games and we’re probably going very badly
We have style? We have a system?
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Yep. Even if we pick him up we still have 6 list spots to fill and some very late draft picks. I’m not sure why people are annoyed by this one. He’ll be a handy player.
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Did Cara say why they wouldn’t play him this year?
I’m not actually saying Townsend offers nothing. I’m just bemused that offloading one supposed “journeyman” and replacing him with another is somehow seen as a step forward or a good move.
If he had demonstrated form as a clearance player and simply couldnt get a game behind Dusty, fair enough. But he doesnt, and Richmond didnt rate him a whole lot at anything since 2017.
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We have style, we have grace, Rita Hayworth, gave good face…
*The mere fact that that song line has stuck with me is probably cause enough to end it all now.
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I wouldn’t compare Brown with Townsend in role so I its probably a little irrelevant whether Townsend comes on board.
Browns role is a key role in the forwardlline and he didn’t have the talent to perform it.
Townsend would be just a cog in the side and would be just playing a role for us.
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Why are they in the VFL?
I kinda get the “we lack a hard edge” but we also lack height, marking forwards, crumbing forwards, speed, good disposal, talent, and probably a ruck.
Baguley had a hard edge. Hocking had a hard edge. Ryan Crowley, hard edge. You still need to be able to play as well.
I’m not sold, unless he is a VFL listed player, his VFL stats are very unremarkable let alone AFL.
That’s precisely why you go to the draft. Get your talent and then compliment them with rookie listed role players. Bags, Hocking and now Townsend are just rookie picks.
I’d much rather punt on a Sydney Stack than a known Townsend.
But this is the old philosophical pondering on what the rookie list is for.
and fwiw, Bags, Buddha, Crameri etc werent 26-27yo when we rookied them.
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Mitch Robinson can’t play.
But he’s been pretty instrumental in Brisbane’s new found intent and brand.
You need a baseline of talent obviously but I’m convinced you need a few hardnuts and if the said hardnuts can help make other teammates walk a bit taller then you get a benefit far beyond the individual benefit that any one player brings.
Good coaches can make some small tweaks to existing playing lists to get a different result and we have Rutten and Caracella with the main say on how we are going to play.
A lot of teams that get success seem to suddenly leap forward.
There is a fair amount of talent getting back on the park (hopefully) this year and so if we can add some hardness too and some gameplan tweaks I think we can start pinching wins against the really top line teams.
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So you’d knock back a Tippa or Charlie Cameron or Dean Cox for this guy? What rubbish!!!
We need to find as much talent as we posisbly can. Big guys, small guys, forwards, mids, backs, rucks.
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191 games @ 20.1 disposals a game
I don’t reckon he’s played more than a handful in the reserves in 10 years
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yep, Robinson is rough around the edges, but he’s been best 22 wherever he’s played for most of his career.
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