Delisted Billy Longer

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Just realised, this might not satisfy the "No Cleavage" rule for BigFooty uploaded pics! :eek:
 
Here's what the 2015 Champion Data Prospectus had to say about Longer:

Won 38% of his ruck contests - ranked below average.

Hitout-to-advantage rate of 25%. Of those the Saints scored 15% of the time - ranked 19th of the top 25 players to be involved in ruck contests.

Had the fewest avg disposals of any ruckman who played at least 10 matches.
 

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Round 1 Review -

9 touches
4 marks
20 hitouts

Billy was solid at best going head to head with Mumford.

He tries his heart out and always puts up a fight but he was outclassed by the big Mummy and his ability around the ground.

Billy's leap gave him an advantage at the centre bounces but his timing was put off once Mumford began changing the angles. This is something he will need to educate himself on and be ready for in future games. Is Darren Jolly still our ruck coach?

Overall grade - C+

He did enough to deserve a game against Zac Smith but after a big game in the VFL I wont be suprised to see Tom Hickey come in.
 
BILLY Longer says his St Kilda teammates helped deliver the wake-up call he needed after arriving unfit for pre-season training late last year.

The 21-year-old, who is currently keeping Tom Hickey out of the team after blistering form against Gold Coast on Saturday night, returned from a US holiday having not maintained his fitness over the break.

After visiting Cancun with some of his teammates and Mississippi, he came back to Australia but didn't pick up his off-season program to the extent he should have.

The result saw him banished from training with his teammates for a few weeks when pre-season resumed in early November, after his time trial results showed he had fallen behind.

"[The holiday] was great fun but I guess when I came back and it was time to knuckle down I was still in a bit of holiday mode," Longer told AFL.com.au this week.

"I thought I'd done the work but you don't just have to go through the motions I suppose, you need to do it with intensity and I guess that's where I was lacking in the off-season, with diet and all that as well.

"It was a bit of a wake-up call when everyone else was coming back and running personal bests and I was behind."

Longer said "everyone at the club" helped get him back on track.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-17/longers-wakeup-call
 
Sorry for the bump mods.

Think we're already seeing the work of a great addition to the coaching in Adam Skrobalak, Billy Longer has made great strides forward this year. Marking improved, ability in the ruck improved, just looking like an all-round better player and still only 21! Not sure how Hickey is going but if he's improved half as much as Billy has it would be a great sign for the FC.
 
Rahul said:
Sorry for the bump mods.

Think we're already seeing the work of a great addition to the coaching in Adam Skrobalak, Billy Longer has made great strides forward this year. Marking improved, ability in the ruck improved, just looking like an all-round better player and still only 21! Not sure how Hickey is going but if he's improved half as much as Billy has it would be a great sign for the FC.
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I was not as high on Longer's performances up to this week as others were. The stats suggested he did pretty decent against the Suns, some people were giving him B&F points, but he got owned for about 30 minutes and similarly didn't keep his good periods going long enough against the Pies.

Against Carlton he stepped it up a level. He still has bad periods in the game, but I think this is his fitness building. We aren't spelling him much at all, so its inevitable his leap will be affected by the late 3rd (I do wonder if that's all that smart a tactic by Richo, given Longer ends up playing his worst at the point in the game we need to win some ball).
 
ike2112 said:
I was not as high on Longer's performances up to this week as others were. The stats suggested he did pretty decent against the Suns, some people were giving him B&F points, but he got owned for about 30 minutes and similarly didn't keep his good periods going long enough against the Pies.

Against Carlton he stepped it up a level. He still has bad periods in the game, but I think this is his fitness building. We aren't spelling him much at all, so its inevitable his leap will be affected by the late 3rd (I do wonder if that's all that smart a tactic by Richo, given Longer ends up playing his worst at the point in the game we need to win some ball).
Click to expand...

Agree

Last 2 weeks his opponents have had their best game of the year.
 
mysainters said:
Agree

Last 2 weeks his opponents have had their best game of the year.
Click to expand...

And I think the GC guy broke a record against him? He got praise for "bouncing back in the 2nd half", which is positive spin on "had a shocker in the 1st half".

I do see definite improvement though, I think he was doing really well this week and was beaten more by running out of energy than poor play.
 
Time to get my boy back on the first page...

What a season Billy had in 2015! Started off by talking me into getting a membership and then just rolled very nicely into the #1 ruck spot for the Saints.

Finished the season ranked #7 in the AFL for total hitouts and #10 for average hitouts per game. He still needs to work on his around the ground play though as he only averaged a little over 9 touches a game, not enough for a modern day ruck. While I dont expect him to turn into Todd Goldstein I do think he could realistically be our Shane Mumford or Ben Hudson; contesting the initial tap but then following up with ground level work, clearances and tackling.

It's not really a shock that Armo and Steven had their best years at the same time Longer was emerging as a beast in the ruck. I fully expect him to build a rapport with these guys as well as Dunstan, Acres, DMac, Freeman and his mate from the u/18s in Jack Newnes.

I'd also like to see Billy isolated forward more often. I think his marking was something that he really gained confidence with as the season went on and there were a number of big defensive grabs that reminded me of Ben McEvoy. With Billy's size and aggression a 5-10 minute spell camping in the goal square could be worth 10-15 goals a season in the future.

I'm expecting 2016 to be a bit of a holding pattern for Longer. With the cap on the interchange and the removal of the sub I think the #1 ruck is going to have to play alot more minutes on the field. Given his age and the sharp rise from 2014 to 2015 putting that sort of expectation on him wouldn't be realistic.

If Billy can lift just a couple of percentage points and get his disposals up over 10 a game and kick say 11 goals for the season (one every 2nd week) then I think that is a pass mark.

Looking forward to another top season from the big fella!

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You'd have to say it's a big year or two coming up for Billy. Now that we've signed another ruckman, there's a stack of competition for his spot.

I'm only guessing, but I seriously think he would've been shopped around last trade period, and no one was interested. As it stands, it looks as though Holmes may have overtaken Billy (based on games played last year). Billy is also miles behind Hickey.

Can he take his game to another level? I hope for his sake that he can, but personally I don't think he's a guarantee to be on an AFL list in two years time. Hope I'm wrong.
 
Even if Billy doesn't ultimately pan out, he gave us great service in trying times and circumstances and only cost us Dan McStay (pick 25) and Jake Kolodashnij (pick 41 on-traded to Geelong), while gaining us Josh Bruce - 92 goals and counting... - and whatever he might fetch in a subsequent trade.

I call that a win.
 

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Watching the highlights of both Longer and Hickey they are different ruckman. Longer is more the crash and bash type whereas Hickey tries to hit it towards a saints player . On their day they both can be as good as anyone , it's just a matter of whether they can do it week after week. Hickey did it last year and Longer the year before. I would like to see them try have both in the side just to see if it can work.


Sent via HAL
 
So Billy has now had three consecutive games in the AFL, and after two solid but unremarkable games, played arguably his best game for the club against Mumford on Friday night; his ruck work being a huge reason as to why our mids were able to get on top of the Giants, especially the 17 hitouts in the last quarter.

His averages so far this season:
Disposals 5.7
Marks 1.3
Tackles 3
Hitouts 37.7

Longer actually ranks 5th in the AFL for hitouts per game, which, channelling Richo, is "pleasing". It would be interesting to know how he's going in terms of hitouts to advantage, but Champion Data don't release those stats to the public. :mad:

Obviously the biggest area Billy needs to work on, as has always been his knock, is his impact around the ground. If he could even modestly improve his marking to around 3 per game it would be a big step forward. Unless this happens the Longer/Hickey debate will probably rage on here. Nevertheless I think he has justified his spot in the team and should remain there for at least another couple of weeks, especially with Hickey injuring his knee in the VFL.
 
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There seems to be a narrative that the umps unfairly penalised Gawn, which allowed Longer to gain an ascendancy in the ruck. But I actually thought he was just plain better.
 
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