Opinion Dear Billie Smedts

[muttonchops]

Dear Billie

You have been at our club for 3 years now and came to us as a highly rated 1st round draft pick. Injury cruelled your first year at the club and over the last 2 years you have managed 27 games. I think you can play as most people would acknowledge. But AFL careers come and go quicker than you will ever believe. Your time is now and if you don't step things up you will fall by the wayside fast.

Billie in your time at the club I have seen players go past you. Guys like Guthrie, Murdoch, Caddy and Motlop. You should be up with these guys. There have been whispers coming out of the club and I often take these with a grain of salt that the club is not impressed with the way you go about things. It time to turn things on their head.

So often in AFL footy when players have breakout seasons you hear the main reason for it is their pre season. This pre season is your time Billie. You need to attack this pre season as if its your last. You need to leave no stone unturned you need to do every session, you need to push yourself like you have never pushed before you need to be the most professional player you could possibly be. You need to come into next season a fitness machine.

I am not sure we have seen that sort of attitude from you as yet. I am sure you think you are training hard just as Gary Ablett USED to think. But think again Billie. You have the talent and all the attributes to be a great player but I think you just need to change your attitude and not be the class clown anymore. You need to be a professional athlete and act like one. If you can do this you are the sort of player who can really help lift this great club that one step further into the big dance.

Have you got it in you Billie. I bloody hope so.

Your Faithfully
Muttonchops

 

[beckhamsam69]

Would be cruel to trade him but if a great opportunity came I wouldn't put it past GFC. I get the feeling the club is willing to do anything to improve the list for the future. That being said Billie could be a great player, but we have a few issues with our list that Billie can't fill.

 

[Whit3y]

where are these "leading teams sessions" we hear so much about?. couldnt they help him

 

[The rabbi]

A good summer in the gym wouldn't hurt.

 

[Stocks_go_Up]

He needs to get more grunt and aggression, not sure what gym routine he is on but it isn't working. Definitely a comedic personality, just hope he is taking his football seriously.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...n-cat-pre-season/story-e6frf9jf-1226227460150

 

[Scottland2007]

Dear Billie, my 4 year old has more upper body muscle than you. I can only put this down to 1 thing, please eat ALL your dinner every night this preseason. If it helps I will fly the spoonoplane. Sincerely. Scottland.

 

[meto]

For a first rounder has only shown glimpses...has a loose kicking style that's there abouts but not often good enough,....hasn't sized up much.
I think they should consider moving him on if a good deal is there, is under performing.

 

[Catdog]

Hope that he has a good look at what the others guys are doing then do extra.

Attitude to training and eating has to be top notch.

 

[Catgirl]

I remember how stoked the club and us supporters were when we got him. Touted by Simon Beasley as the greatest schoolboy footballer he had ever seen, it was hard not to be excited.

He has all the talent in the world, and Wells and co obviously saw that in him when they drafted him too. I don't think they would stuff up a compensation pick for a player like Gary Ablett Jnr.

If Smedts can bring in Christensen's attitude in the gym, gain Kelly's upper body strength, and work himself to get a Selwood physique, he could exceed current expectations and finally deliver on his promise.

 

[Partridge]

A good summer in the gym wouldn't hurt.

And respect for the game and the opposition would help too.

 

[Hoffy95]

I hope we use him as trade bait whether we actually intend on moving him on or not.

Will soon make him realise pretty bloody quickly he's expendable.

 

[beckhamsam69]

I remember how stoked the club and us supporters were when we got him. Touted by Simon Beasley as the greatest schoolboy footballer he had ever seen, it was hard not to be excited.

He has all the talent in the world, and Wells and co obviously saw that in him when they drafted him too. I don't think they would stuff up a compensation pick for a player like Gary Ablett Jnr.

If Smedts can bring in Christensen's attitude in the gym, gain Kelly's upper body strength, and work himself to get a Selwood physique, he could exceed current expectations and finally deliver on his promise.

Unfortunately I just don't see him mimicing Bundy for an inside mid role. Don't think he has the natural physique or the mindset. I see him as a talented outside mid distrubutor who can play up forward and kick them from the boundary. Not the sort of player who can help out the skipper in the guts, just not hard enough. Not saying he will never be good but not what we need. Like you said, a schoolboy.

 

[PatrickBateman]

A good summer in the gym wouldn't hurt.

Smedts - FIGJAM

Nope. No hope for Smedts. He's a talent, that is all. He's been the most talented player throughout his life and has reached a point that many like him do at the top level. AFL is almost more about hard work and intensity and anything else these days. Talent just pushes the best players above the rest. He's not a hard worker or trainer. Should move him on.

 

[alfy!]

I always find these threads so strange.

 

[Catgirl]

Smedts - FIGJAM

Nope. No hope for Smedts. He's a talent, that is all. He's been the most talented player throughout his life and has reached a point that many like him do at the top level. AFL is almost more about hard work and intensity and anything else these days. Talent just pushes the best players above the rest. He's not a hard worker or trainer. Should move him on.

Wow.

 

[Jon Douglas]

At the time of picking him it was like Geelong got their man. All was good.

But as talented as he looks and we hear he just does not perform as well as expected. GFC gave him senior games to provide some experience but we only ever saw flashes of what we had heard of him.

It does seem from the outside he needs a big pre-season and a harder edge. Maybe a different attitude is needed. But this year coming should have been a season we were all saying he was going to have a break out and be a player than can help us get a Premiership. Now I am just hoping he shows some progress and do not expect that much really.

I have Caddy, GHS and Murdoch ahead of him - and reckon even Thurlow and Bews might be ahead of him next season. Something has not worked if this is the case.

 

[Jon Douglas]

Wow.

Do not take Patrick's comments too seriously as he has a tendency to really write some out there posts.

Don't worry - you will soon find his out.

Some on this Board even reckon he could be a troll !

I tend to think a passionate Cats fan but a hard, hard man.

 

[thejester]

This stuff about not living up to expectations is rubbish because those expectations were always rubbish. People are acting like when drafted Smedts was supposed to be some kind of Judd-Hodge cross breed. He played in the back pocket for Country FFS.

 

[Hoffy95]

Smedts - FIGJAM

Nope. No hope for Smedts. He's a talent, that is all. He's been the most talented player throughout his life and has reached a point that many like him do at the top level. AFL is almost more about hard work and intensity and anything else these days. Talent just pushes the best players above the rest. He's not a hard worker or trainer. Should move him on.

Sounds a lot like Ablett and SJ.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Maybe geelong have too outside players?? i am not saying billie to be traded but maybe one outsider could be traded for an inside one.Billie has talent but he didnt really star to much at VFL level maybe injury set him back he want to pick it up next season.

 

[cynical]

Billie was disappointing this year but talks of trading him are crazy. He can kick 55m and has a great side step an elite agility.

Needs to put on a bit more weight but should be played in the 22 regardless next year. I don't mind if he gets the Hawkins/Varcoe treatment next year.

Have a bit of faith, not everyone is physically and mentally mature in their early 20's.

 

[meto]

Billie was disappointing this year but talks of trading him are crazy. He can kick 55m and has a great side step an elite agility.

Needs to put on a bit more weight but should be played in the 22 regardless next year. I don't mind if he gets the Hawkins/Varcoe treatment next year.

Have a bit of faith, not everyone is physically and mentally mature in their early 20's.

Crazy??????.........get off the parochial soap-box!....if you can strike a good deal you take it these days!
He hasn't lived up or delivered, being young shouldn't guarantee a contract.

 

[geelong_boy]

This stuff about not living up to expectations is rubbish because those expectations were always rubbish. People are acting like when drafted Smedts was supposed to be some kind of Judd-Hodge cross breed. He played in the back pocket for Country FFS.

Exactly. How many players have hit their peak by their second year? (I'm not including his injured first year). How did Corey, Enright and Chappy seem in 2001? Kelly, Bartel, SJ in 2003? Perhaps the murmurs are right and that he's not working as hard as he could be but it's a part of maturity and being pushed by those around him. I thought his second half of 2012 was very good for essentially a first year player but like others I was disappointed with his 2013.

I'd be staggered if they gave up on such a talent so early.

 

[someday-somehow]

I seem to remember one A Mackie taking a while to develop. Talk was along the lines of "get in the bloody gym" and "for christs sake eat a steak".

Similar physique?

 

[Claude Balls]

I seem to remember one A Mackie taking a while to develop. Talk was along the lines of "get in the bloody gym" and "for christs sake eat a steak".

Similar physique?

Smedts actually has a reasonably wide set of shoulders, unlike Mackie who was always a pigeon, though he does like to have that extreme wiriness that suggests his metabolism is so fast he might never manage to put on more than 6 or 8 kgs over several years. But even that would make a huge difference. Ultimately he just needs to mature a bit, realise the privileged position he is in so that he doesn't waste it, and with another 30 games he'll be a good player.