Zakka and Skippy... Our New AFLX Captain and Coach

Welcome to the captaincy Zakka

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Surely he’ll be part of the leadership group this year then

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Shows how seriously we’re taking it.

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I still laugh at the days where @Mendozaaaa would post the same photo of a VL doing a burnout in every Zaka-related thread.

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At least Woosha is in Melbourne. Clarko takes Hawthorn so seriously, he is swanning around in Minnesota watching the Superbowl in the leadup to the AFLX, which is 2 weeks away.

While there were blackouts in Frankston, too.

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I think this is a great move with Zaka.

Kudos in itself for getting the nod but forces him to step up and take on more responsibility, and hopefully that transitions into season proper.

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One year contracts would have been the better option to motivate Zaka in my opinion.

Hopefully he can show some consistency this year.

Pretty sure there were plenty of suitors out there willing to offer more. What worked for Mark mcVeigh isnt going to work for everyone else.

I’m happy that he got his contract but at his experience and skill he needs to produce far more regularly now.

It’s players like Zaka that have epitomized where we have been for the last 15 years.

Zaka been excellent for a few years now

When the players were out suspended he really stepped up and whilst had a quiet start to 2017 it was because he was moved to outside mid role, once switched with Goddard back to inside he was great.

But certainly don’t want him coasting so the captaincy and added responsibility a good thing IMO.

As for the contract. Other clubs were well into him with GC offering big $$ so he got what he did.

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Also McVeigh had stopped doing the one year contracts by the time he was Zaka’s current age

I agree he does epitomize the essendon of the past decade but i actually think he has been superb the past 2 years when he has been played right in the middle and not on a wing and when he hasn’t been getting tagged. I don;t think he will get tagged this year and hopefully he is right in there at the centre bounces and then we will see a full year of consistency from him.

I’m not arguing Zaka wasn’t great last season although he did show inconsistency.

If we are to be as good as we can be then its Zaka’s age group that need to show far more consistency and leadership and I don’t think he does that.

A lot gets said on here about the young guys but it’s equally important that Zaka, Belly, Myers and a few others put in good years.

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If you go around offering insulting one year contracts to your better players under 30, you probably won’t have to worry about renewing too many of them in another years time.

In other news, they’ve confirmed you may play a maximum of 14 players across your 2-3 games and 3-4 hours.

Which makes it an awful last warmup to the real stuff.

It’s like being named the captain of the 20/20 Australian side.

Are we assuming Zerrett won’t be playing AFLX?

Pretty sure i read somewhere today (can’t find it now) that said Heppell, JD and Zerrett wont play AFLX

He was great in the first half of 2016 and then very poor in the second half, being beaten with regularity against any tagger that went near him. He struggled in the first few months of 2017 but finished off very strongly and had a good second half of the year. I’m hoping we get a full year of top notch Zaka in 2018.