Redman going down and Gleeson still in recovery, may give Jok a small chance on the HB line. Heād be competing with Ridley and a handful of other talented youngsters though, itās gonna be an interesting preseason and JLT.
Itās amazing how a big leap in the fitness level can produce an equally big leap in apparent talent. Jobe was the clearest example: after a few years where he barely got near the ball and couldnāt do anything with it when he did, he lifted his fitness level dramatically over a summer and became the Jobe we remember. An earlier example was Joe Misiti. In the mid 90s he had a few years when he found a bowl of pasta much more attractive than the training track and his form and effectiveness dropped right off; then he pulled himself together again over a summer and became the midfield engine of the Hird/Lloyd/Lucas team of 2000.
I thought in the last game vs Port Laverde looked noticeably leaner and his effectiveness was far greater than anything weād seen before.
I think if Jok is gunning for anybodies position it would be Guelfi. Loving the competition we have for spots at the moment. for the last couple of years iāve felt like weāve been trying to piece together a best 22. Now itās tough to decide what 5-10 really deserving players have to miss out. Thatās a very exciting thing. To think now that when a player pings a hammy i wont be so depressed, iāll be a little excited about who might step in.
Theyāre definitely being super conservative with injuries. We had a shocking run last year and they appear to be taking the cotton wool approach. Which i think is great.
Smith and Hepp took the biggest hammering of their lifetimes this season. Doesnāt surprise me at all if they want to keep them on ice until after Christmas. Theyāll be fine.
Really hope Begley and Gleeson get up early in the season.
He can mark and kick well, certainly elite running capacity. But perhaps ability to impact in a game consistently/understand structures a different story
I think I also read that he had only played about 8 VFL games with Collingwood after 2 years with St. Kevins in the amateurs.
If so there wasnāt much exposed form to go on and as a more mature age recruit clubs tend to be naturally more conservative with their recruiting anyway. So he was probably always only going to be a rookie where you only have to guarantee 1 year on minimum wage.
Thatās my best guess anyway, someone else will no doubt have a better idea of what the recruiters were thinking
It is referred in a post from about a week ago from Sugar Winton.
spoke to a friend of mine today who is a very astute Collingwood supporter and has watched a fair bit of Jok. He said he is a serious athlete, massive tank, good speed and agility and very flexible in terms of what position he can play but with below average footy IQ. Lets hope we can get him there because his physical attributes are impressive
Contradiction in terms here. Can play in a range of positions implies a certain level of footy IQ. But would playing in a single position be better to develop his footy IQ for that position to enable him to take the next step.?
AFL is a more disciplined, structured game than VFL. Some players show glimpses at VFL level and come up to AFL level and become stars. They just seem to thrive in the elite environment. The big question is will Jok make the transition, and if so, how long will it take? We are the first team to get the chance to actually roll the dice on him at AFL level.