All the senior WC players said that he brought energy to the group. He has the personality and the physical attributes to be an all time great. I would happily trade away 3 first rounders for him.
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He’s yet to prove this just yet. Understandable given he’s only played one year and been fawned over by an entire state and been treated like a rock star. Odds are he gets there. But it’s also not a given either.
If he sees out his contract then the good thing is you’d have a strong indication of his professionalism one way or the other after three seasons.
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Imagine the confidence that would give a bloke just being worshipped by a whole state.
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2 plus Martin
I don’t know. And his moment might have passed by then. He should have been appointed in 2004 (?) when Sheedy was reappointed. If he didn’t apply he should have been invited to.
Depends on your view of tall in a modern forward line. I’m probably thinking more the mobile third tall who most likely isn’t that tall. Against actual talls then no.
Yep, I reckon you’re right plus we need to keep going to the draft rather that repeating sss and ssss again
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My two pennies on Harley. There’s a reason why most draft watchers had him down as the best junior prospect they’d seen in years (not necessarily the results but the traits were out of this world). Suggesting its hype due to fend offs is a little insulting.
This has been one of the stand out qualities since we first saw him as a 16 year old playing for the Pioneers. He has an infectious joy in the way he plays. Fend offs are scratching the surface, the kid just craves physical contact, will go out of his way to create it and then bounce up off the ground with a big grin on his face. Whenever there was a coming together of the draft class, for the academy, for media days, for combine testing whatever, Harley was always the pied piper of the group, the one that every other kid wanted to hang out with. Its natural charisma and leadership.
He’s never been elite at testing by the way, from memory his 20m sprint wasn’t great and neither was his 2km, but he has bravery to take the game on and use whatever he has to its fullest. He’s completely fearless.
I don’t know how you value all that exactly, is he worth 2mil per year and 3 first round picks? Perhaps… I’ll leave that up to others.
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The fend off is one of the most elite skills a player can possess. The reason is it draws multiple tacklers into the contest, leaving their opponents unattended.
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Gee mate it’s only February, settle down.
Absolutely this, holding the ball until all pressure is on you and being able to release to a team mate effectively, can change a game.
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Which is in stark contrast to most of our guys who at the first sign of impending physicality just flick it away to the nearest teammate and often just transfer the pressure on to them.
Not everyone can get away with taking on the tackler though. You have to have a certain explosiveness and ballistic power about you to go along with a bit of an arrogant, kamikaze mindset for it to end up being an attribute. Perkins probably showcases this ability in some doses.
If you’re taking on the tackler but you’re slow and not all that clever you just end up like Hobbs getting wrapped up.
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Rowell will retire before Merrett.
Merrett can play till he is 36
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Hard no to Rowell, doesn’t have size at AFL level to play his bash and crash style, will be the next Jaeger Omera.
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This was my biggest sell on Rosa this year. He selected players on type/position, not the usual “best player available” crap. He also balanced this with future picks to allow us to continue to assess needs next year.
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There looked to be a clear focus on competitiveness.
Dodoro didn’t value that trait. He had bigger focus of good high school grades and clean bedrooms.
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Versatility, too. And composure? That’s a thing?
And decent kicks of the footy something that dodoro was never a fan of
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Well, I’ll be buggered.
Knock me over with a feather.
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