Looking forward to seeing how BBB goes this season too. As long as his knees hold up he could be the outsider to break through into nailing starting in our forward line… Got a good attitude
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Id expect all of Baldwin, Voss and Weed to spend most of the year in the VFL to be honest.
I expect Weideman to be playing fwd/ruck to allow Wright to stay permanent fwd. The main reason we got him.
Weideman having been trained up for this with Dees I assume knowing Jackson was likely out the door, and Weideman actually playing #1 ruck in VFL through their finals series and having an impact.
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Anything that keeps Wright at FF suits me.
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Im not exactly against Wright playing in the ruck though, by memory when he did play there he was pretty good
Weideman spent the latter stages of last season training in defence during the week and then played the final month of the VFL as a permanent ruckman, returning to the position he played at Vermont in the Eastern Football League until his bottom-age season with the Eastern Ranges..
The Whitefriars College product amassed 35 hitouts and 18 disposals against Southport in Casey’s Grand Final win at Ikon Park, after 37 hitouts and 14 touches in the preliminary final win over Brisbane.
Life in red and black is expected to be divided between playing inside 50 alongside Wright and backing up Sam Draper in the ruck.
“The month I did have in the VFL playing as a permanent ruck, I took a lot of confidence out of that,” he said.
“I feel like if I can get that going at AFL level, it just adds another string to my bow. I think at Essendon I can play that second ruck role and get around the ball in the midfield while being a key forward. I’d love to play both those roles.”
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Interesting, cant say ive read that before. Im not against it though.
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Weideman doesn’t leave a contender when contracted to go play VFL at a bottom 6 team
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He’s a similar type to Stewart IMO. Good size and athleticism, but doesn’t really crash packs or jump at the ball. I think he’s a VFL player unless we have injured players to replace.
Yeah, he’s fine when he plays in the ruck. It just completely messes up our forward line, which is the real issue.
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especially pertinent since 2MP’s breakout season means opposition defenders and coaches are going to put a lot more effort into him.
2MP and our coaches need to be ready for that.
And as you say, we need the other forwards and coaches to work out other reliable scoring options away from 2MP.
So an opportunity for Weideman is there for the taking.
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Or we could trade for one we have all this salary cap space we need to use
I looked up his VFL stats. The final three games of the year he had 19, 37 and 35 hit-outs, scoring 1.3 across those 3 games (all finals, playing Sydney, Brisbane and Southport). I’ve been pretty down on getting him, but I didn’t see those games. If he is a lot more effective in the ruck, that would bring something else and boosts my hopes for him.
And to be fair, removing those three games improves his goals per game average for where he played forward. To 1.75. Although that is still less than Baldwin for the year (2.2) and about the same for Voss in his first year (1.7).
https://vfl.aflmstats.com/player/Sam_Weideman
https://vfl.aflmstats.com/players/2022
https://vfl.aflmstats.com/player/Patrick_Voss
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I agree, stress fractures of the shins & feet are very much caused by running too much, on hard surfaces AND the big one is the athletes age …as kids bodies mature these stress injuries tend to disappear, so we absolutely could have someone in Weid that rises to the challenge, just like 2MP has.
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Have you looked at the comparative vfl numbers from this year?
Baldwin and Voss peformed better than jones at VFL level.
Baldwin was poor at AFL., but early on in recovery and low in confidence.
I would throw a blanket over all our tall forward options after Wright.
Would assume Jones and Weideman get first crack, but might just come down to preseason performance.
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also need to see how Weideman goes getting supply from our onballers
Jones if he gets it right has a lot of upside, but such a long way to go!
Needs to be VFL for atleast first 6 games
Weeds would be starting ahead rd 1
Hahahah!!! That’s one of your best yet Doe.
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Can win a game off his own boot in 15 minutes of football apparently.
I’m yet to see it though.
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