Toast David Myers, building...

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Lance Uppercut said:
Nah. No way. He was a lot skinnier in his junior days. A running half back maybe, but always a midfielder
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Myers almost exclusively played behind the ball for WA (as guys who kick the ball that well tend to do) and just played pretty loose and set up play with his kicking.

Do not recall him playing any key position footy, although i didn't see him play any WAFL
 

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Lance Uppercut said:
Nah. No way. He was a lot skinnier in his junior days. A running half back maybe, but always a midfielder
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Yes a tall running back with a booming kick. His height allowed him to get across to help out a tall defender but WA always looked to get him on the end of a chain of handball and with a bounce carry the ball 30m and then kick long to complete a 90m play. Essendon had him down as a future midfielder on draft day. I remember their report on the clubs website the day we drafted him .... I even remember he was wearing a s**t beanie!

Anyhow Ben the Gooner this is why the good intelligent kid with a some talent but lots of perspective is worth his weight in gold, and why Bomber looks to draft them. It would have been easy for Myers to put too much pressure on himself when things weren't working out for him and collapse under the weight of his own expectations. Instead he just kept plugging away and knew that a gun runner may lose a lot of mobility when he puts on kgs, but if you listen to the physio and be smart about it you'll get it all back.

eth-dog I don't agree that Myers did well as a tall back. He struggled there and it damaged his confidence a bit. It wasn't all bad but he wasn't doing enough to make the team consistently in that role. It has been good for his development though as the contested work has made him a better inside mid in the long run.

I have been on this kid since Knight's first dreamtime game. He was sent back in the last quarter and as a first year player was under a high ball with only his opponent and himself inside defensive 50. He was completely out of position but pushed back hard and made a contest that drew the contest then forced the ball out of bounds. The pressure of being 19 and in front of 80k+ for what may have been his first game would have been immense. I was impressed. I then bumped into him a few weeks later at the shopping centre when Essendon was looking totally s**t. I asked him what is going on and to my surprise completely up front saying that it's s**t and he thinks it's purely confidence issues among the boys ect ect. The way he spoke I was even more impressed. .... a few months later every time I saw him at the super market he has a particular woman on his arm .... I was even more impressed!

After Watson goes we are spoilt for choice regarding captaincy. One of Myers or Heppell is going to be extremely unlucky to miss out I think.

While we are still in shock at how s**t Carlton are I will bring them into this. If they were to somehow fit Myers, Frawley and a GWS KPF into their salary cap next year then they would solve a lot of their problems. ...... thank god they're going to burn it all on Gibbs!
 
rines said:
I just worry about becoming too 'one paced'.. obviously Myers is playing too well for it to be a factor atm.. but it is my only remaining slight tiny minuscule worry moving forward with Myers.. That we could be opened up against a quick outfit..
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Is that becasue Myers is particuarly slow or because he's the latest medium paced player to become a lock in as a midfielder? In any event it will be someone else's problem because he's an animal in close and is an excellent kick of the ball.
 
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Don't doubt for a second that Myers isn't a key to our success, i think his kicking will end up being in the elite bracket, just needs to lower the eyes a bit more
 
Ben the Gooner said:
I think the opening clearance on Sunday was the first time Myers has hoofed it all year, so the "lower the eyes" criticism seems to me to be criticism for the sake of criticism.
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I was thinking on Sunday that he isn't long kicking it enough this year o_O
 
Has definitely improved significantly this season - albeit off a sample of only three games. I criticised him extensively last season and into the pre-season on the basis that he wasn't a top eight midfielder in the team. I thought there was a genuine risk that he might be overtaken by other younger midfielders who were improving at a faster pace.

He seems to be playing a little smarter this season but it is mostly that he is putting himself in the position to succeed. He isn't going missing for lengthy periods during the game. He seems to have a few more tools to rely on now rather than simply a blazing left boot (which was both wonderful and terrible at different times last season). I'm not too concerned with his pace; everyone looks quick when the ball is moving well.

The teams natural improvement is going to come from guys like Myers, Melksham and Merrett taking that next step and becoming consistent contributors. At this point it seems that both Myers and Merrett have taken that step (after one game too early to say anything about Melksham).
 
I made a point of watching Myers closely the past two weeks.

This guy has improved dramatically. He flies under the radar.

The only knock I have on him, is he sometimes gets sucked into the contest instead of defending his man over the back causing the overlap. Brad Hill exploited it early in the hawks game.

Its the only thing I can really knock him on. Lowering of the eyes etc, I can agree with. But I wouldn't be surprised if he is instructed to pump it long as often as possible, especially on the run, to stretch opposition zones
 

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I am expecting to see more long pumping towards the pointy end of the season. Hopefully the forward line will be playing to a working system and there will be a long target at all times. The pressure increases too so I also expect there will be more occasions where there is no time to look for a long option.
 
Ben the Gooner said:
I think the opening clearance on Sunday was the first time Myers has hoofed it all year, so the "lower the eyes" criticism seems to me to be criticism for the sake of criticism.
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Usually takes about 12 and 24 months months of playing without a previously known flaw before people recognize it as being resolved.

Think that he should be looking to kick longer more often including the occasional hoof. It's an attribute the team should benefit from. Should certainly be having a crack within 55m of goal (65m is probably still realistic but it is probably inconsistent with team first goal sharing values).

The only criticism of his game I can think of is that he doesn't change direction/transfer weight well in close which keeps him a bit too one-sided and he tends to misjudge the flight of the high ball a little but we're bordering the being completely pedantic if it really is a concern.
 
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BrunoV said:
The only criticism of his game I can think of is that he doesn't change direction/transfer weight well in close which keeps him a bit too one-sided and he tends to misjudge the flight of the high ball a little but we're bordering the pedantic if it really is a concern.
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Don't go there! You'll give the flogs 24 months worth of s**t posts based on how "yeah, Myers might be averaging 35 possessions and 4 goals a game, but his weight transfer in close is shocking"
 
Lance Uppercut said:
Our midfield is being (finally!) recognised as a strength, and being called a "monster midfield".

This guy is a major contributor to that, along with Watto and Hocking
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But hang on.

Our midfield only has Watson, and he can't kick for s**t. Heppell is a half back flanker, Stanton can't handle a tag and Goddard will never be as good as he was at the Saints.

Face it man, our midfield is an embarrassment - if only we'd recruited and developed our blokes with all the awesomeness of Richmond, Carlton and North.
 
Jade said:
But hang on.

Our midfield only has Watson, and he can't kick for s**t. Heppell is a half back flanker, Stanton can't handle a tag and Goddard will never be as good as he was at the Saints.

Face it man, our midfield is an embarrassment - if only we'd recruited and developed our blokes with all the awesomeness of Richmond, Carlton and North.
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No one rated it 6 weeks ago, don't think I saw any 'experts' picking us to make the 8, all these people are so fickle with their bandwagon jumping
 
Jade said:
Face it man, our midfield is an embarrassment - if only we'd recruited and developed our blokes with all the awesomeness of Richmond, Carlton and North.
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ain't that the truth.

I think the 24 month rule is a good one. Therefore, it should take the footy media and general flogs about another few months to work it out?
 
Kyptastic said:
When he wins the Norm Smith I imagine?
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I want Jobe to win that. I'm just thinking more that our 8 mids get 200 possessions between them on GF day. Easy.
 
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