Just on Ben Howlett, I get the feeling that he just doesn't have a specialty, and that kind of makes him expendable in most peoples minds.
Jobe - clearance king
Goddard - Experience, polish, inside & outside
Stanton - runs all day, always gets a hard tag and so frees up other players
Zaka - sublime foot skills, pacey, loves a goal, won a B&F (dont forget!)
Melksham - Tough nut and willing to take the game on, excellent disposal
Hocking - Best tagger
J. Merret - Excellent delivery, smart player, fleet footed, upside is limitless
Howlett... Hard worker... and...ummm... doesn't really seem to bring anything to the team the others don't. That seems to be the general feeling towards him. He doesn't really have any glaring holes in his game since he built up his endurance, but he doesn't really have any aces up his sleeve either.
How does everyone else see Benny?
I must say it was a magnificent effort that won the 2 on 1 contest that allowed Dempsey to goal in the last qtr against the dogs, we need more of that from him. Benny was looking very sharp in the pre-season and I thought he was up for his best year yet, but it just hasn't happened for him.
Maybe he will just always be a good honest footballer?
He's a tackling machine.
That example of the two on one from Howlett is his ace. He had a very good run of 10 or so games a few years ago where he was doing this consistently. Busting packs, emerging with the ball, 15 mtr dash and deliver. He was also kicking goals. It's exactly what we need of him again. However, like some others on our list, you just don't know if we're going to see it again.
i think the merrett's and gleeson both have a bit of speed but not their are only a handful of blokes in the league who are chance of catching me kinda speed. i'm thinking motlop, jetta, rioli. both hills, yarran, white, maybe dangerfield and griffen.
davey in his prime had it, ditto lovett.
maybe we just need to get dempsey back to full form and fitness.
one outside the box, sam blease has some serious jetts but is injury prone and suffers a little from colyer's ailment.
The pace thing is overrated. I’m with saladin, win enough contests and you’re able to move that next step confident knowing your team mate will get the ball. All of a sudden you’re 2 steps quicker.
Lose the contest and you’re 2 steps slower.
Perhaps this is where the run on goals against comes from. If the ball winners don’t win the ball (as has been the case lately) then the “next” in the chain is caught out because Bomber wants them sitting off the pack to get the next possession in space. The opposition then wins the ball and we’re suddenly slow to transition the other way.
This whole decade long malaise started when Hird lost a one on one to Brad Scott on the hff on GF day 2002,and they scored on the rebound.
Only time it happened in hirds career.
Fortunately, the only time it happened must have been in a half time display.
in robbo's article today he says (as an aside) that we are statistically the worst for kicking goals from centre clearances. yet i quick glance at the afl stats shows we are 5th over all for centre clearances. where are we breaking down.
my sense is we have actually improved our ball movement away from centre clearances this year with much less dump it long kicks out of congestion.
Just on Ben Howlett, I get the feeling that he just doesn't have a specialty, and that kind of makes him expendable in most peoples minds.
Jobe - clearance king
Goddard - Experience, polish, inside & outside
Stanton - runs all day, always gets a hard tag and so frees up other players
Zaka - sublime foot skills, pacey, loves a goal, won a B&F (dont forget!)
Melksham - Tough nut and willing to take the game on, excellent disposal
Hocking - Best tagger
J. Merret - Excellent delivery, smart player, fleet footed, upside is limitless
Howlett... Hard worker... and...ummm... doesn't really seem to bring anything to the team the others don't. That seems to be the general feeling towards him. He doesn't really have any glaring holes in his game since he built up his endurance, but he doesn't really have any aces up his sleeve either.
How does everyone else see Benny?
I must say it was a magnificent effort that won the 2 on 1 contest that allowed Dempsey to goal in the last qtr against the dogs, we need more of that from him. Benny was looking very sharp in the pre-season and I thought he was up for his best year yet, but it just hasn't happened for him.
Maybe he will just always be a good honest footballer?
sorry, but if we're talking about honest...I honestly haven't seen any of these characteristics above re Zaharakis, for a very long time.
I watched from the ground very closely on Anzac Day - and I came away pretty disappointed.
Sublime kicking skills? 'Sub-par' is fairer. his field kicking was awful v Collingwood; and he hasn't 'loved a goal' for quite some time.
He certainly loves kicking behinds though.
Howlett has definitely given the team far more in previous weeks than Zaharakis. I'm surprised David hasn't been dropped.
My point was that players are 'tagged' as having certain attributes, often based on 1 good season, 1 game or 1 passage of play. Zaka can't be discussed without someone reminding us he won a B&F, whoever brings that up has his B&F year stuck in their mind.
I think most players, especially our mids, are pretty much the same. Some are better inside than outside, some are a bit quicker or have flashier skills, or have a slightly better tank, or a slightly better overhead or at ground level, but as a package they aren't all that different, and we are all very quick to generalise or pigeon hole players.
We often don't know the players role either, we'll say he's no good overhead because we've never seen him take a contested mark, but he might have been told to impede his oppnents run and bring the ball to ground.
This generalising only gets us so far and often makes fools out of us, and the coaches have a much better idea of what certain players strengths and weaknesses are, and how much scope there is for improvement, and how soon.
Jackson Merrett is nowhere near having “…excellent delivery…”.
Against the Dogs, for example, he repeatedly butchered easy no pressure passes to team mates. Had 3 shockers in space of 5 minutes at one stage.
He, IMO is a panic merchant, & too often turns it over when a player at this level really shouldnt.
No doubt potential is there but if he is going to secure a place in a team that wants to challenge for a Flag then he has got to improve his poise, decision making & kicking.
Disagree on that TWS. He's not bad. He's not great yet either. He is definitely improving in my opinion. They are a lot sharper and bullet like this year. He has added penetration to his kicks also. He has sailed a few through from about 48metres out this year whereas in the past they'd drop on the line or float off weakly with a slice.
in robbo's article today he says (as an aside) that we are statistically the worst for kicking goals from centre clearances. yet i quick glance at the afl stats shows we are 5th over all for centre clearances. where are we breaking down.
my sense is we have actually improved our ball movement away from centre clearances this year with much less dump it long kicks out of congestion.
do our fwds not lead to the right spots?
what's going on?
I don't know what percentage across our games and or games in general, but i'm noticed alot of kicking the ball wide from center clearences.
It stuck out to me at first, cos the few times i noticed it, the target was missed, and by some way and it went out of bounds.
Maybe we and other teeams are doing this to try and restrict turnovers and counter attacking footy through the middle ?
Who knows but that's a damning stat considering we base most of our game on clearence and center clearence work.
Hawthorn's midfield of the 80's - Tuck, Greene, Condon, Loveridge, Pritchard etc.
All played around 50 games in the magoos before consolidating a senior spot. It didn't seem to hurt them.
Yeah, but where are they now....not one of them remains on an AFL list! Your point is clearly floored .
Ideally, you’d want a young mid into the side to help out the current ones.
Myers and Melksham have been average all year.Time for Bomber to stick em in the guts. Bring the best out of them and get them going towards their peak. Hepp, BJ, Hocking and Howlett can also play that role.
What about outside run? Stants is elite at that, Zaka has improved drastically, and Zerrett is getting quite good at it with his zip and elite kicking.
Kavanagh to me, is the one we need in the side as ‘depth’. We need to get games in him ASAP, not only because if Jobe’s absence, but for his long-term position at our club.
Very injury-riddled, but has potential. I remember him playing good games last year, then eventually dropped, not because of poor form, but because a senior player was returning.
He’s finally fit, fresh and playing well in the 2’s. I say, now is the perfect time to release him in the midfield.
Myers has been average??? Before his injury he was leading the league in clearances! With a number of the natural depth missing (Dalgiesh, Hams, Browne, Jerrett) Watson’s injury came at a bad time. I’ve not been reading the VFL reports for the last few weeks, but Kav is the most like for like type of player. Maybe we’ll finally see Melks step up this year, he’s been awfully disappointing.
You can’t replace a player like Watson but we still have more than enough talent to still be a force. Heppell, Myers and Melksham have the ability to be a massive extraction trio for us. Hopefully Melky can step up to last years form while Myers works back up to his early season form where he was one of the AFL’s best clearance players.