Opinion Butcher

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StrappingTape said:
I think his form drop off just comes from mentally thinking that no matter what he does he won't get picked anyway. Previous years he has been dropped and then no matter what he's done not been able to get back in. Take last year for example, started roughly the same way as this year and then when he kept kicking goals and we needed a KPF he was overlooked in round after round for the likes of Sam Gray. You can almost see it in his face, gets dropped and he knows even if he kicks 50 goals by mid season in the SANFL no one is going to give him a go anyway.
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I'm sure if Butcher was in consistent form that demanded AFL selection he'd be playing AFL.
 
For all the talk of Butcher being inaccurate... at AFL level, he's not really. He still shanks it occasionally, but just as often it goes straight through.

34 goals 14 behinds doesn't take into account out on the full, and it doesn't say "which were gimmes from the goal square"...

...but many of those goals were about 40m out on an angle. Think of his game against St. Kilda in 2013:



He's definitely a worse kick on goal at SANFL level. That's just indisputable.

Is it the taller goal posts? Is it the lack of jeering from a local crowd? He just seems to kick better at AFL level.

Think of who is compared to the most... Levi Casboult:

Casboult:
46 games
36 goals
36 behinds

Butcher:
24 games
34 goals
14 behinds
 
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We're currently sitting at page 131 of this thread. For better or worse Butcher has enjoyed a lot of focus over the last few years. If he had made a decent case for selection with consistency and accuracy he'd be playing, it's pretty simple. You don't see long threads debating the future of Arron Young or Jake Neade. There's 131 pages of comments here because every one of us would like to see him succeed. The idea that there's some concerted effort to keep him down is ridiculous. You don't see huge debates over whether we should gift Sam Gray whole games at AFL level so that he can find his feet. There's the sentiment in boxing that you don't leave it up to the judges, otherwise you open yourself up to forces beyond your control. Butcher needs some KO's.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
People need to remember the pain so they dont make big statements which are incorrect.

You remember incorrectly. 90% of 6 goals is 5.4 goals. He miss kicked 1 - maybe - from the toughest pocket at footy park.

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If he kicked 1 or 2 goals in that game, I think not as much pressure would have been put on him and he'd be a better player right now.
 
RossFC said:
If he kicked 1 or 2 goals in that game, I think not as much pressure would have been put on him and he'd be a better player right now.
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He kicked 4 the next week and played a ripper against the bombers under the roof.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
He kicked 4 the next week and played a ripper against the bombers under the roof.
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I understand that, but of the 131 pages, the Bulldogs video has been posted dozens of times. It's almost as if people think he needs to play like that every week or he's a bust. Kicking too many goals early in his career caused a boatload of pressure on himself and he can't handle it.
 
The history of the game is littered with blokes that played good games in their first handful or so then went to fertilizer soon after, not sure why we keep bringing his early games up.
 
RossFC said:
I understand that, but of the 131 pages, the Bulldogs video has been posted dozens of times. It's almost as if people think he needs to play like that every week or he's a bust. Kicking too many goals early in his career caused a boatload of pressure on himself and he can't handle it.
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That's been part of what i've been saying for years.

1 goal 8-10 touches and 3-4 marks is a passable game for a 20 game 3rd tall forward. If he's hitting close to those averages, we should be persisting with him.

If he was a 50 game player and not a 23 game player, this would be a very different discussion with a much clearer picture of where he's at, and we'd also have someone with 50 games of experience to come into the side when we lose a player like Ryder.
 
Salter was a victim of the old SANFL structure.

When he wasn't injured, We were trying to turn him into a defender, the WWT coach played him forward. No progression was being made so we cut him loose.

In the current structure we could have thrown him back and forward whenever we want and he could have been versatile utility like Westhoff.
 
JimmyBeerCans said:
.... not sure why we keep bringing his early games up.
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That is where the interest, even fascination, lies. I was in Melbourne for the Essendon game in 2011. It was a game where the umpires slammed us in the final quarter to let Essendon squeak home but where it seemed Butch was winning it for us off his own boot until then. It amazes me he only scored 4 goals, he must have set up a few more for others because I remember how exciting he was.
I can't think of another story like it. If he been a dud right from the beginning, well we've had enough of those.
 
RossFC said:
Salter was a victim of the old SANFL structure.

When he wasn't injured, We were trying to turn him into a defender, the WWT coach played him forward. No progression was being made so we cut him loose.

In the current structure we could have thrown him back and forward whenever we want and he could have been versatile utility like Westhoff.
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the issue was us back then, he always was a forward, not sure why we tried to turn anyone who had a skilled right foot into a seagull defender.
 
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