Yeah, no doubt the consensus on here is a strong sense of optimism about J.Stewart. I think he produces some skillful moments and I like him best when he floats up to the wings and leads up hard and uses his overhead marking - more of this next year and I will fall in line on the bandwagon.
At this stage he still looks like a player that can cash in with some flair when the going is good (reinforced to the average punter by EFC highlights packages) and that’s why to me he has a bit of the Jesse White, Josh Hill, Andrejs Everetts abut him.
EDIT: Not that the above players mentioned are\were complete hacks - but just average footballers.
I don’t see it as optimism. Optimism that he will get better, yes, but even on output he was better than satisfactory.
We are talking about a guy who in the first season with a new club managed to kick 22.16 from 16 games and have a hand in many more.
He did that as a third tall target in a side that was restricted for opportunities and shares the responsibility around in the forwardline.
His propensity to get up the ground and provide a link as well as get back and provide a target when required was excellent.
If he were at a club like Collingwood where he would get far more opportunities to score goals and played all 22 games it could easily have been a 40 goal or more season.
At 23 he still has a lot of scope for improvement also.
We’ll see. I don’t think I have made any outrageous definitive claims - just that I’m yet to be convinced. In the rush for people to form definitive ‘opinions’ on players and commit energies into defending them - I’m comfortable sitting in a zone of uncertainty around James Stewart. I’ll be really pleased if he continues to develop and improve his game.
I’m just going to throw this out there. Is smack a better third tall option than Stewart because he is a legit second ruck which would allow JD to stay at home.
Stewart is a better fwd than smack, you could argue the toss about who is actually a better mark, both are prone to dropping ones they shouldn’t.
Can’t think of a game where snack actually played as the third tall. He was either no.1 Ruck or a hooker fill in
Yeah, Collingwood probably not a good example because Moore and Stewart are similar players.
I actually think Stewart has more capacity to improve his contested marking though than Moore.
Stewart gets his body into good positions but when he gets his hands up his hands turn to stone. If Stewart builds that strength in his marking then I see him being better than Moore.
Having 2 full time dedicated rucks are overrated, look at richmond they put grigg in when the nank was resting. smack is a total coinflip on whether he does anything without giving away 10 frees. i’d rather keep stewarts option presenting because when he does get a sniff at goal he converts.
Also i’d rather smack be moved on in the off season. 3 off seasons ago.
Speaking of Grigg and the non-ruckman tactic, and the “can Stewart relieve in the ruck?” question.
A photo the other day showed Myers clearly out pointing Stewart at a ball up.
Is this the new cunning plan?
Myers to keep his spot and do relief ruck duties for five minutes or so around the ground?
Frees Joe Dan up to only take centre bounces when Belly is off the ground, and let’s him have a bit of a run without getting stuck in the back pocket throw ins.
imo Stewart is exactly the sort of player Collingwood needs, and if they picked him like they should have, twice, then Stewart, Moore, and Collingwood generally would be better.
As it is, it looks like Moore’s going to play back and screw them anyway.
It’s still a million times better than Stewart’s. Woosha talked in the offseason about trying to find a way to make sure Daniher doesn’t ruck. I don’t really see how that’s going to happen. I can’t see Smack gaining a regular spot in the team and Stewart was just so bad in the ruck they wouldn’t put him there. There is no-one else.
So Daniher is going to be the second ruck again I reckon.
I haven’t read this thread for ages. Legitimately shocked there are still people arguing for Hooker back.
The guy who kicked 41 goals (only 18 players in the comp kicked more goals last year).
The guy who was a sufficient threat that it meant that Joe wasn’t double teamed for the first time in forever and, whaddya know, he had his best ever season. And, also whaddya you know, our forward line didn’t look like garbage for the first time in forever.
And he did all of this while basically being as fit as me the whole year.
Hooker has also trained with the forwards all pre-season. I don’t understand the debate.
Joey is second ruck. He is a machine up the ground who has changed games playing outside 50. Anzac Day for example. His not your old school full forward like Kennedy. His a roaming beast, who can still kick 5 or 6.
I think the clearest argument for why Hooker is so pivotal in our forwardline is that when he didn’t play in the final against the swans, we broke down forward of centre. With our attacking game plan, he is (in my opinion) much more valuable deep in attack.
Saad letting Mcgrath have midfield minutes IMO is the biggest coup of the offseason.
loved that trade getting Saad in and reckon we eyed it off a long way out.
I view Smith and Stringer as unexpected bonus projects. Both with some issues but will make us a better side when they are up and running. Certainly those two were opportune. Maybe the industry had sussed Stringer out for a while.
Having a look at our round 1 team last year with basically a full squad to pick from (apart from Bellch), it was evident that the preferred lineup included Hartley and Ambrose in the same team. I do think this suits us and it was pretty clear in the Sydney final that we do need those two playing together along with Hurley and Gleeson as our best defensive mix.
Whilst Dev Smith hasn’t started as a pure on-baller before, it appears that the club are keen to pursue this and I think he could play this role effectively. Both him and Zach are two way players and the balance is great with players like Parish, Goddard, McGrath, Stringer etc able to rotate through.
Hooker definitely forward, had an impressive first full season at that end of the ground kicking 41 goals and releasing Daniher. Could get even better.
Colyer and one of Langford/Laverde is a toss of the coin, Trav’s best deserves a spot in the team and I am hoping him and Dyson return to pre-ban form. It really seemed that the midfielders who came back struggled more from the year off, let’s hope they bounce back.
Really hope Begley gets games this year also, hard to fit him into that forwardline though.