#37 Dylan Alwyn Clarke - at Woodville West Torrens

That’s some limited thinking.

Of course you can teach an old dog new tricks, just takes longer and requires patience. And to think Connor didn’t have an ingrained kicking technique is rediculous, he has been kicking a round ball across his body since he was a toddler.

With the same level of instruction, diligence and effort from Clarke I have no doubt he can become as good a kick as Connor.

I think its harder to adjust clarkes than it’d be for conor’s.

With kicking a soccer ball in a straight line is way harder than a footy.and the actions are separated enough in that you can keep the theory of how important ball spin is with the soccer ball with afl. but you change your action drastically.

clarke’s been doing this his whole life and if you don’t get it right at an early age you’re almost farked.

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Just getting Clarke to a level where he isn’t a liability when called upon would be enough. Yeah, it would be great if he learnt to kick as well as McKennna, but only a couple of player in the team kick that well. Perseverance can only get you so far.

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I know it looks bad, but he kicked lace out I50 on the run, then kicked a set shot from 40m against the pies. But no doubt its a weakness and his kick to handball ratio is low as a result. I am sure they aare working hard on it, because hes a first round inside mid with a 3rd round kick.

I get so sick of this talk here about teaching people to kick. Yes it can be done, improving people here and there. But kicking actions cannot be overhauled. There are VERY VERY few examples of players going from poor kicks to even “good kicks” (much less very good kicks).

Kicking is the hardest thing to coach and it’s the most important thing in the game, I’d have it as reason #1 most otherwise talented players don’t make it. I’m hoping Clarke can get to “serviceable” levels as he seems to have a fair few other tools but there’s a reason he was passed on until the 60s.

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I don’t think that is accurate. 1st round pure inside mids usually have a number of traits superior to Clarke.

He was never rated better than late first round iirc. After the season ended he entered freefall because his kicking action looked bad, and they discovered he did not kick well under pressure ( which is an elite skill tbh) on the other hand at the draft combine he actually scored highly in the kicking tests. On Sunday he kicked an I50 lace out, then got the ball back and kicked a set shot from 40 out.

However if he was a gun inside mid, I guess he would be playing in the AFL side by now. Clearly we are now able to see that he needs to make a lot of improvement to play in the AFL.and thats not unusual for inside mid draftees.

I was more saying he doesn’t necessarily have the other top end traits first round inside mids usually have. He wasn’t known for being clean with the football, or for great vision, he has no speed, no outside game, no break away, and of course his kicking isn’t elite. Guys who are inside mids who get picked in the first round usually have several elite traits in addition to racking up getting the ball in the contest (if they have ALL of those other traits they go first few picks). Clarke doesn’t really have any of those beyond getting first hands on the ball.

Which is not meant to say at all he won’t make it, or anything like that. I’m just saying lets not talk him up more than he has shown yet.

I have suggested before that Clarke is a possible tagger. He is comfortable playing tough contested work on the inside and is said to have an elite tank.

It was thus interesting to me when in his season review Shaw said this: “…Dylan Clarke is a big bodied inside mid that with another pre-season could develop into a diligent run with player. He has character and excellent leadership…”

Cue the chorus that his kicking is bad. OK, when he came to the club his kicking was enigmatic. He was #1 in the kicking at the draft combine, but his action looked terrible. The fact is, he has been working hard on his kicking and it has definitely improved.

Now what we need is Woosha to review his idealogical rejection of tagging, and teach Dylan Clarke to play the run with role, and when next year play him in the AFL as a tagger.

Tagging does still work, and maybe it is even more important in finals…

Who were the taggers on all the stars in the demolition last night?

Blicavs on Kennedy was the notable one.

No he wasn’t. Ridley was.

Considering we never tag, ever, it’s not a option

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My bad recall, Clarke was in the top 10

Kicking test (score out of a possible 30)
Jordan Ridley (27)
Isaac ■■■■■■■ (26)
Jarrod Berry (25)
Ben Long (25)
Sam Walker (25)
Josh Williams (25)
Ben Jarman (24)
Tom Williamson (24)
Dylan Clarke (24)
Kym LeBois (23)
Willem Drew (23)
Josh Battle (23)
Jake Waterman (23)

WOB, in 2016 and 2017 we did not tag opposition players, but we were regularly tagged by our opposition, most notably Zerret multiple times in 2017 and very notably Zaha, many many times in 2016.

Never say never. Woosha may tag in 2018. Lets see.

I’d like to agree with you and us not curbing players influences really hurt us this year

“Essendon type” - check

Nearly a sensible haircut

Bad kick - check

Can someone confirm he comes from a great family?

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[quote=“SplitRound, post:273, topic:3765, full:true”]

Blicavs on Kennedy was the notable one.

If only Smack had it in him.

We’ve done this one, haven’t we? We have had around 7 or 8 games at least when we have had a ‘curbing influences’ player.

Even today when we have full on team defence structures, every team in the comp has a specific player who is skilled in tagging, while we might t persist with “playing the way we want to play” aka not tagging, sometimes a player needs to be shut down. We are not yet good enough to ignore players like Kennedy, who eviscerate us.

Isaac Who ?