The end of year cannon - who should be fired into the sun?

I’d have said his 2016 AFL and 2017 VFL form would be the nails in Long’s coffin, but you obviously see it differently.

Long’s 2017 VFL form wasn’t that bad if the club upgraded him to the senior list before AFL finals!

I thought he looked ok at AFL level. Obviously not ready for regular senior games, but ok. (And I have good memories of him hitting Joe on the lead).

His form this year seems disappointing (I don’t see much VFL, so going by reports), but later in the year he started getting more of it, which had been a problem. That suggested to me that he was staying involved more, which is improvement. His disposal efficiency seemed down a bit, but it’s always been a slow development process for Jake.

I will understand if he’s delisted (although will be disappointed, as I think there’s a player there). But I won’t understand if they delist Long and keep Morgan, as it really seems that Morgan’s played about 3 serviceable quarters over 2 years.

And this isn’t to say I think they should delist Morgan. If you take players as projects they need a few years to grow and get confidence in their body and their ability to belong at the level. But of the 2 I’d be delisting Morgan first.

(I have others is delist before both though, so it depends how deep you want to go)

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That upgrade was straight out weird. He wouldn’t have been available until the prelim at best.

Delist Long and Morgan and hopefully use the late picks that frees up on guys like Hind and Boyse who offer a hell of a lot more.

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I think in both formats he showed some glimpses, but nowhere near enough consistent impact. That after his taste in 2016 he couldn’t elevate his VFL game in 2017 for me is reasonably damning. Also, I don’t think he was that great even in the second half of the season. This link kind of supports that Long VFL performances, with really two good games in that period.

Could send him to Brisbane (given they likely will lose Rockliff) as steak knives to Schache deal.

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I think we agree on where Long’s at. He needs to do more, but has shown glimpses. To me it’s worth persevering, more so than with Morgan, who has barely asked glimpses at VFL level.

But I understand that others are less patient.

I said at the end of last season, that Long is no chance to get game time with the returning players coming back.

12 months ago I didn’t believe we should be judging him on not getting game time in the AFL in 2017 as a failure, but his ability to improve in the VFL.

I still believe this, and think he should still be on our list as he has improved in the VFL this season. He has good speed, and elite foot skills… something our list lacks.

He needs to be given a chance at AFL level next season imo.

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Maybe morgan has finally gotten his head in the right space & with being injury free at the back part of the season, he may show signs of significant improvement next year.

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It probably doesn’t, but I wondered if upgrading him took a week off his VFL suspension if the seniors were playing after the VFL team were eliminated and he was upgraded but suspended?

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Gotta admit I thought Morgan looked OK late in the season.

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Well EFC just uploaded an image of Jack Merrett running, saying 56 days after a broken leg and Jackson Merret is up and running again. It’s probably and odd thing to do if your going to delist him… or perhaps I’m being completely off-season over speculating bored.

Jackson Merret is running again, 56 days after a broken leg.
We would like to thank him for his great service to the club and wish him all the best in his future.
Jackson waves back as he runs

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And to be clear, I’m not going to be particularly fussed if Morgan gets the chop. I’d say he’s on pretty shaky ground.

I agree that playing AFL should not be the requirement of a “pass mark” for Long. However, I think he had to build on his AFL debut in the VFL this year, and I just don’t think he impacted enough games enough of the time. He’d do some good things in most games I saw, and some bad things, but didn’t generally touch the ball enough.

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Pretty much this

In my opinion he has no hope of ever making it in the AFL. He’s actually only average in the VFL

I love Michael but how long do we give this guy. He’s hardly a kid anymore

He would need to come back and test through the roof with a number of PBs youd think

It would be baffling if Merrett got another year. He only played half the games last year and he was available all season.
This year he didn’t play in the 1’s. Was he even named as an emergency?
Possibly would have got a game late for Colyer if he didn’t get unjured, but to be honest the fact the coaches didn’t have enough faith to use him in Colyer’s spot at some point earlier in the season probably shows he’s not rated by the coaches.

I’m interested in Merrett vs Bird as far as “you have to keep one”…