Training 2024 Preseason Thread

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I think people obsess over foot skills too much. I'll take competitiveness over foot skills every day of the way. Sparrow has the full package. One of the best kicks for goal in the demons midfield. Sure, I'd like to see him get more of the footy but not every player is going to be a 25 possession mid. Especially when playing half forward.
Competitiveness over skill. That you Simon?
 

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Sparrow isn't just great, he's this generations Clinton King. He's the Hayden Skipworth we never had.
 
Can everyone agree Sparrow has upside now or is he still a lost cause in some people's eyes?
haha people are just too stubborn to admit defeat. he actually stood up in clutch moments in last years finals. When everyone was spraying behinds, Sparrow kicked a nice one against the pies. One of our better players in the finals.
 
haha people are just too stubborn to admit defeat. he actually stood up in clutch moments in last years finals. When everyone was spraying behinds, Sparrow kicked a nice one against the pies. One of our better players in the finals.
kicked one nice goal in two games, very impressive. 🤗
 
Jack Viney here.

If you wanted skill, go back to the James Strauss and Sam Blease days.
If I wanted skill I'd take Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield, Steele Sidebottom and Nick Daicos. Why are you naming dud players?

Building a team full of contested ball winners isn't going to get you anywhere. You need to have good mixture of both inside and out. Why were Hawthorn and Richmond so successful in their glory years? They had a combination of both.

It's the exact reason why we brought in Jack Billings (which you stated was a dud recruit mind you) because based on the observations in the two games he's already had a significant impact with our ball use going inside 50.

Another reason why we targeted Caleb Windsor in the draft and already showing that he'll add a fair bit of outside speed and skill with more games under his belt.

Cannot believe this actually needs to be explained to you.
 
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If I wanted skill I'd take Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield, Steele Sidebottom and Nick Daicos. Why are you naming dud players?

Building a team full of contested ball winners isn't going to get you anyway. You need to have good odds mixture of both inside and out. Why were Hawthorn and Richmond so successful in their glory years? They had a combination of both.

It's the exact reason why we brought in Jack Billings (which you stated was a dud recruit mind you) because based on the observations in the two games he's already had a significant impact with our ball use going inside 50.

Cannot believe this actually needs to be explained to you.
yeah, what draft picks were those players again? remind me. Billings hasn't done anything yet. he was mediocre again Richmond and ok today. Don't try to wriggle out of this. You made fun of Sparrow and he went on to be best on ground or 2nd best on. Own it.

So tell me, of Billings 6 field kicks today, how many of them improved the ball use going inside 50. tell me. Considering he only had 3 inside 50's...

And then you mention Windsor's skill? His foot skills are his biggest flaw in his game, if that wasn't obvious enough last week, it even popped up today in the tv graphics with foot skills being his weakness.
 
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yeah, what draft picks were those players again? remind me. Billings hasn't done anything yet. he was mediocre again Richmond and ok today. Don't try to wriggle out of this. You made fun of Sparrow and he went on to be best on ground or 2nd best on. Own it.

So tell me, of Billings 6 field kicks today, how many of them improved the ball use going inside 50. tell me. Considering he only had 3 inside 50's...

And then you mention Windsor's skill? His foot skills are his biggest flaw in his game.
Hard to take this bloke serious with these kind of comments when he thinks Taj Woewodin hasn't even debut for the club.

I'm not sure what draft picks had to do with this discussion. Billings was a pick after Josh Kelly and Caleb Windsor was two picks before Steele Sidebottom.. again, what's your point? The fact that our outside players in Billings and Windsor are pretty much drafted exactly the same numbers as those guys?
 
Hard to take this bloke serious with these kind of comments when he thinks Taj Woewodin hasn't even debut for the club.

I'm not sure what draft picks had to do with this discussion. Billings was a pick after Josh Kelly and Caleb Windsor was two picks before Steele Sidebottom.. again, what's your point? The fact that our outside players in Billings and Windsor are pretty much drafted exactly the same numbers as those guys?
we were talking about Sparrow..you expect the same output from him as top 3 picks like Daicos, Josh Kelly, Whitfield etc.?

also, you didn't answer my question. which of billings 3 inside 50 kicks made you think that he's improved our inside 50 efficiency?

Also, I knew Taj had debuted what are you on about. I was at the game. It was just an oversight. Give tonight a rest. Sparrow has spoken. Dominated today.

You should be happy.
 

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yeah, what draft picks were those players again? remind me. Billings hasn't done anything yet. he was mediocre again Richmond and ok today. Don't try to wriggle out of this. You made fun of Sparrow and he went on to be best on ground or 2nd best on. Own it.

So tell me, of Billings 6 field kicks today, how many of them improved the ball use going inside 50. tell me. Considering he only had 3 inside 50's...

And then you mention Windsor's skill? His foot skills are his biggest flaw in his game, if that wasn't obvious enough last week, it even popped up today in the tv graphics with foot skills being his weakness.
Went at 91% disposal efficiency.
 
we were talking about Sparrow..you expect the same output from him as top 3 picks like Daicos, Josh Kelly, Whitfield etc.?

also, you didn't answer my question. which of billings 3 inside 50 kicks made you think that he's improved our inside 50 efficiency?

Also, I knew Taj had debuted what are you on about. I was at the game. It was just an oversight. Give tonight a rest. Sparrow has spoken. Dominated today.

You should be happy.
Sparrow is a tease. Come back to me when he does that week in week out, that should be the benchmark for him every game now.

You would have froffed at his disposal count tonight had he decided to pull his finger out the moment the ball was bounced in the first quarter instead of running around without a touch.
 
I agree re Windsor, seems everyone thinks blokes on the outside have automatically good foot skills. Yet to be convinced by Windsors.

He is looking good but so did Jayden Hunt early on.
 
Melbourne Football Club Crying GIF by Melbournefc


And this is Topkent
Did we lose by 10 goals
 
Sparrow is a tease. Come back to me when he does that week in week out, that should be the benchmark for him every game now.

You would have froffed at his disposal count tonight had he decided to pull his finger out the moment the ball was bounced in the first quarter instead of running around without a touch.
So you're focussing on his first quarter and not his domination that happened afterwards. says alot. If I can credit Ben Brown when he played well, the least you could do is give the credit when you know it's due.

3 goals is a benchmark. nice, so you expect him to win the Coleman :)
 
sample size of 5 kicks doesn't change someones weakness.
And a sample size of 20 possessions in a preseason game from Tom Sparrow doesn't change the fact that he's had 74 AFL games of mostly mediocre performances 🤷‍♂️
 
FWIW, I thought Sparrow was excellent and I hope he goes on with it, but my word do you make it hard to root for players that you're enraptured by.
 
Just watched the full highlights. Windsor with some good goal kicking composure, Pickett looked fit and powerful and Billings with a nice left foot. Other than that seemed to be alot of blasting inside 50 for contested marks against and not alot of nuance. Can't see some mind bending change.
 

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