I reckon people are underestimating Fantasia. I reckon he’s right up there with McKenna and just below Saad for speed.
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If Stewart is our 20th fastest player, then the team is pretty…pretty friggin’ fast.
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Agreed the team is pretty fast. As I said however these are not scientific assessments.
Mckeena is only fractionally slower over 20m than Saad, and both are elite in repeat sprints & agility. Whilst I agree that Fantasia is very quick, these other two are blinding fast.
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Point taken from several comments about Travie … see how he goes in Season 2.
Others have mentioned Myers. Extraordinary bad luck injuries wise, he is another that has a big ? against his name. Refuses to go onto his right foot. Panics in tight with the aget in hand and never, I mean never takes first option. It was always drummed into us, take the first option. His kicking was atrocious too. I taped all our wins and have been watching them all summer. Very poor.
Look at the scoring power on the forward line…hate to be playing in a backline against them.
The overall scoring power across the ground potentially could improve to another level whereby our Scoring Power will be pretty awesome in 2018. This is given Stringer and Smith had poor years by their standards due to personal issues and injury. All playing are pretty elite in kicking skills.
Woosha loves dudes who hit targets.
PLAYERS WITH 2017 GOALS IN BRACKETS AFTER NAME
BACKS BAGS HARTLEY MCKENNA (5)
HALF BACKS FRANCIS (2) HURLEY (2) SAAD (3)
CENTRES ZACH (9) HEPPEL (11) ANDY McG. (1)
HALF FORWARDS STEWART(22) HOOKER (41) AMT (34)
FORWARDS STRINGER (24) DANIHER (65) RAZ (39 DIDN’T PLAY LAST 4 WEEKS OF SEASON)
TBELL (9) GODDARD (5) SMITH (15)
I/C BEGLEY (5 IN 3 GAMES), ZAKA (11), PARISH (7), GREEN (17 BEFORE INJURY)
NEXT IN ORDER AND WHY NOT IN TEAM.
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GLEESON – UNTIL HE PUTS MUSCLE ONTO FRAME HE WILL BE TOO EASILY PUSHED OFF THE BALL EG SYDNEY AND HE WAS JUST CHUCKED OUT OF THE WAY BY THAT RANGA.
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RIDLEY – WILL BE WATCHING HIM CLOSELY AS WILL EVERYONE DOWN BACK
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MUTCH – VERY, VERY CLOSE
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LEUY – PICKED THE WORST TIME TO GET SICK LAST SEASON. SO CLOSE (1)
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MYERS – POOR DECISION MAKER. GOT TALENT BUT RARELY SHOWS IT. (4)
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BROWN – PLAYING WELL UNTIL THAT BAD INJURY
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AMBROSE – IF ONE OF THE BACK TALLS GOES DOWN STRAIGHT IN
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LANGFORD – STILL NOT CONVINCED (3)
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COLYER – HITS THE BALL TOO HARD AND FUMBLES CONSTANTLY IN TIGHT (12)
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LAVERDE – WILL MAKE IT WHEN GETS CONFIDENCE IN HIS BODY. HAD BAD LUCK WITH LTI. (1)
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DEA – FEEL FOR HIM. WAS GREAT IN 2016 UNDER TERRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCES AND HE IS BEHIND THE 8 BALL
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CLARKE - GOOD WRAPS AS A BIG BODIED MID. A WATCH
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RECRUITS – VFL SEASON BECKONS AND CONDITIONING AWAITS. A WATCH ON GUELPHI THOUGH…
Gleeson is to 2017/8 what Ambrose was to 2014/5. People continually have him in the gun, apparently failing to note that he’s always picked when fit.
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Yep, Ambrose is a lock for mine
Agree i thought orazio was our quickest player this season therefore I’d have him at 2 behind saad.
Tippa isn’t as quick as some of the others he is just smarter with his speed and has more strength to break through tackles. The excitement when he gets it makes him seem quicker.
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Yep. Returning players both at EFC and those outside (Ryder, Hibberd, Carlisle) generally returned close to their career baseline - good players (Ryder, Carlisle, Hurley, Hooker, Hibberd, Heppell) came back fine or even better, old guys (Monfries, Watson, Stanton, Howlett, Hocking) struggled and were pensioned off, and fringe strugglers (Myers, Colyer) battled away as they’ve done the majority of their careers.
Ya just get excited about that forward line don’t ya? The super scary thing for the opposition is that it will be better again in 2018. Serious upside!!! Amazing balance and variety… The fact that Walla and Fantasia were picked with bargain selections reinforces the sheer genius of Dodoro…Then throw in Stewart or Laverde who will be desperately fighting it out for a place, and Begley (our rich mans Buckley)… Even better is that the speed of ball movement from half back with McKenna, Saad, McGrath and co will simply be electric… Lid well and truly off… Just need to get it in there
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I’d disagree with a couple of those, though it mostly seems ok-ish.
Stewart is actually quite fast. Gleeson is nowhere near as slow as some people reckon. I think Trav is faster than Walla. Stringer faster than Smith - on a burst.
All opinion, of course. And then there is ‘over what distance’. Fun to play around with, I guess.
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I don’t think a single EFC player came back as good or better than before.
But it’s interesting that Hibberd, Ryder and Carlisle probably all did. I’m not really sure what that says
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Although Stewart is rated at no 20 - I dont think he is slow. Point is that everyone on this list over 20 m is pretty quick.Without doubt we have the fastest team in the league.
If you ain’t on this list I don’t consider you fast.
Carlisle took a while to warm up. Hibberd did too to a lesser extent.
The returnees did all seem to struggle for consistency of output over the season.
(Didn’t see enough of Ryder - possible exception)
Missing a couple of games with a niggle seemed to help - Hibberd, Carlisle, - but many - Hepp, Hooker, Jobe, Hurley would have a run of form, followed by a flat spot.
A couple of times, for example, Carlisle was being talked up as in outstanding form, only for him to be toasted or commit multiple errors the next game.
That learning to come up every week was commented on by a few returnees as the toughest aspect.
Compounded when carrying late season injuries as per Hurley and Hooker.
So I’ll take last season as a base line indicator but not a definitive ruling on blokes like Colyer, Myers, Heppell.
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Thanks heaps, Nackers, Tippa and Scorch, for the updates.
Interesting re McNeice. I didn’t get to watch him play last year. How’d he look in the two games he played? Did he get dropped or injured?
Obviously, one training session means nothing, but would you say that he stood out enough, not just with his leadership but also his skills to make you think that he can take Baguley’s spot?
As for the talks re Coyler, I am one of the guys who don’t rate him. I know he can run fast but I remember he couldn’t outrun one big and tall guy last year, and he got called out for HOB. Can’t remember which match but it was on a wing and he had ample space. He just couldn’t accelerate away. He is only good for line-breaking – only when he has acceleration. He is not explosive like Buddy or Dangers. And on the basis of what I said before, clearly not agile enough. One-line runner, imo.
It seems to me Colyer was too ambitious trying to do clean pickups of ground balls in close at full speed. I think he might need to tap the ball forward so it pops up to waist height and he can run onto it… This is the technique used by Conor, and he usually ends up with the ball.
I think he got a whiplash injury from a tackle at training.
Was that the James Frawley one in Rd 1?
Can’t really remember, I think it was later in the year. I only remember being triggered because I fully expected him to blitz it.