It may take us quite some time to see how well our VFL side actually are travelling.
It’s almost like our fixture has us playing the worst side first, and working our way up.
I think the big test will be to see how he goes defensively against better competition.
How long was Conor in the VFL before getting a debut - was it 1 year, or 2?
I’d be willing to bet St Kilda’s development coaches aren’t as good/ well resourced as ours.
He was drafted in 2014 right?
He played 2 games late in 2015 and 12 in 2016.
I guess he probably got a go earlier than expected due to extenuating circumstances
Yep.
So he had virtually a full year in the VFL, becoming a regular in his 3rd year.
Zac Tuohy had a full year of reserves, then another year before becoming a regular.
Pearce Hanley played 3 games in his first 2 years, became a regular in year 4.
And they’re really the 3 best Irishmen of the past ~10 years.
What I’m getting at is a lot of the Irish guys do take a year or three of development.
Maybe St Kilda felt they needed results quicker than that, or he wasn’t getting there quickly enough. (Maybe they just made a bad call!)
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Are these VFL streams a regular thing now?
I think they pick a couple of games each round to stream.
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We also played Conor in attack for his first year and a half, he probably would have forced his way in sooner had we started him in the backline from day 1.
Conor did some pretty extraordinary things as a forward that was ultimately to his detriment.
They persisted with him forward because it.
His second game was incredible as a half forward - I think kicked 2.3, had over 400m gained. I recall posting he showed more in that one game than Kavanaugh, Browne and a couple of others had shown in 2-3-4 years.
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I remember seeing him do some awesome things at Punt Rd in his first season that made me think we had one.
Walla is probably on the other side of the coin to Conor. Did some great things down back that kept him there too long.
Until they found that oppositions were picking on him because of his lack of height, and having them kick high to his opponent.
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I am pretty sure that McKenna said that he insisted on playing/being developed as a forward first in an interview. I can’t find the article, but I remember he said he wanted to play forward because that was his position in gaelic footy.
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He has improved overhead a lot since then.
Having said that you can’t have a defender that is poor overhead.
Myers is another good example.
Spot on.
They started training Conor at halfback, as you often do when trying to teach newbies to read the play. Very early in that first preseason they reached the conclusion that back was too easy for him, and switched him forward.
I wondered why Dylan Clarkes numbers were down compared with last year. This at least partly explains the reason and why others were able to get off the leash.
Dylan Clarke
Stats: 20 disposals, one goal, nine tackles
From the coach: ‘Clarkey’ played predominately inside and I thought some of his work was really good. His repeat efforts, follow-ups, and getting first hands on the ball were really good. He didn’t have a big game in terms of stats but he had a person running with him in the first half, which is probably a credit to how he’s rated around the competition. He worked through that and had a good impact on the game, and even finished with a nice goal, which I know is something he’s been working on.
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Well, I guess he did kick 4 goals against the full u18 AIS academy squad when they toured Europe and all he had was a bunch of no hopers around him.
In the he didn’t waste too much time in his development up forward like some have (Hurley). And when he becomes a fully fledged midfielder the time he spent up forward will make him a deadly option resting forward.
I genuinely think he has brownlow potential, if, he is able to become an inside capable midfielder.
I would say a very similar story here. His position in GAA is most suited to the HB role, bear in mind he only had 1/2 a season in that role before he was thrown forward. What i’ve seen from his games thus far is his ability to take a ball from deep, beat a guy 1:1 and then bomb one accurately. Ref: Mozzies goal on the time stamp above.
Not taking him for a 3rd season seems baffling given what he has shown us in those two games.
It certainly is baffling that they would recruit an Irish guy, with no experience and with his attributes, then boot him so quickly. It can’t be a professionalism thing, as if it was poor he’d fit right in at StKilda.
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