Traded Jack Billings

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joop said:
Along with the game against Port last year, on the weekend against GWS was the worst game I've seen him play.
Hopefully kicks it up a gear this weekend.
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Never really got into it. Missed a few kicks he'd normally nail too.

Ah well can't expect 30 touches week in, week out...yet.

He's gonna start copping a lot of attention soon, will need to learn how to deal with it.
 
Really good article on JB in herald sun- you have to be impressed with the calibre of young men we are taking in the draft- hard working , articulate and always looking to improve.
Let's hope he has a big game today.
 
The son of Graeme and Letitia and brother of Sarah and Kate, Billings played under-9s at Kew Comets, where regular watchers referred to him as “Rolls”. Rolls Royce, that is.

It was here that Billings met McDonald.

The pair were thick as thieves through juniors and just about every rep side you could think of. Injury and illness have stopped them from playing an AFL match against each other, but the great mates are well aware the moment will finally arrive next week.

Billings played for Oakleigh Chargers and Vic Metro, where he was a two-time under-18 All-Australian.

At Scotch College he had an idol in Rioli, six year levels his senior.

When Rioli’s first AFL season ended with a Hawthorn premiership, it brought Billings’ dream that bit closer to reality.

“We used to go and watch him when the (Scotch) firsts played on a Saturday and he did everything then that you see now — huge marks, unbelievable pace and just magic,” Billings said.

“He was just a massive hero at that school and seeing what he did made it seem a little more achievable.

“I’ve taken a lot of stuff off the wall, but I’ve got one photo of him. It’s weird because you play against him on the weekend.”

For all his promise, Billings has not been spared challenges.

A nightmare run with injury last year was further tested by reports Essendon would push to include him in the Jake Carlisle trade, citing his childhood support of the Bombers and his dad’s involvement with the club’s Bill Hutchison Foundation.

Saints coach Alan Richardson went straight to Billings.

“I was quickly made aware the club was like, ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing’,” Billings said.

“My head space at the time, I was just thinking about my rehab and just trying to get back. I didn’t really think much of it, to be perfectly honest.”

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...y/news-story/e1dac633acb1c10fbd11227c23828b98
 

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Time out helps build Billings
Josh Gabelich - @GabelichJosh

3 May 2016 10:51 AM


Jack Billings endured a frustrating 2015. For the first time in his entire football life, he was confined to the sidelines for an extended spell, forced to watch the second-half of the season unfold from afar as he recovered from a stress fracture in his shin.

But whilst some players who are brought down by long term injury pack their bags for a European Summer or time abroad, or close the newspapers and turn off Fox Footy, Billings isn’t one of those players. He lives and breathes football. He always has and always will.

Growing up in football heartland and attending Scotch College, with its rich football tradition, the former pick No. 3 is a self-confessed football tragic. So when he was forced to miss the back nine of last season, Billings found it even more difficult than he might otherwise had due to his obsession with the game.

“I love footy and I’d probably say I’m a footy nerd. That’s why my injury last year was so challenging because I just had to let go. It was the first time in my life when I didn’t watch a game on the weekend,” Billings told the Herald Sun last weekend.

“I actually learnt a lot about myself and footy in that time and I realised how much I love the game and the simple things, like literally going out on to a ground on the weekend and playing.

“There’s media, there’s commitments, you’re playing a professional sport, but at the end of the day you’re just playing a game of footy.”

During his time away from the game, the midfielder-forward with the pristine left foot tapped into an unlikely source in the form of another classy left footer in Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury.

As Billings’ glittering underage career reached a crescendo at the beginning of this decade, Pendlebury’s career accelerated from good to great.

And as an admirer from distance for quite some time, the opportunity to sponge information from the four-time Copeland Trophy winner has assisted Billings to emerge out the other side of adversity in a better place than he entered.

“He’s been someone I’ve always looked up to. We caught up over coffee and it was just good to pick his brains about all things footy — training, recovery and diet,” Billings said.

“He didn’t know me from a bar of soap, but he went out of his way. I was going through a frustrating period and it just shows you the type of person he is and why he’s such a good leader.

“He gave me advice on what he did at his age, how he got the best out of himself and he helped me put a few things in place through pre-season and in general.

“But he stressed that you make your career and that it’s up to you. You’ve got to get to work.”
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Given five of the first seven selections in the 2013 National Draft, including the two picks before Billings was taken at No. 3, had to pack their bags and relocate states; Billings acknowledges how fortunate he has been to live his dream without changing postcodes.

“It’s been a really good thing in that I go home and I’m just a part of the family, not this AFL footballer. I’ve still got all my school friends that I see and you just get treated normally,” Billings said.

He may now be in the early stages of his third season in the AFL, with 31 games next to his name, but Billings is still an avid football follower at heart.

He may no longer have posters of his heroes adorned all over his bedroom walls, but he still keeps one of another gun Scotch College product in Cyril Rioli, who used to terrorise the APS competition before he was drafted by Hawthorn.

“We used to go and watch him when the (Scotch) firsts played on a Saturday and he did everything then that you see now — huge marks, unbelievable pace and just magic,” Billings said.

“He was just a massive hero at that school and seeing what he did made it seem a little more achievable.

“I’ve taken a lot of stuff off the wall, but I’ve got one photo of him. It’s weird because you play against him on the weekend.”

A quarter of the way through 2016, Billings is an emerging star on the rise, with the disappointment of 2015 firmly in the background. A handful of his numbers are moving in an upwards trajectory and he continues to loom as a critical component in St Kilda’s climb back up the ladder. Sit back and enjoy the ride
 
Ok this has been coming from awhile but does jack need a good bake or maybe a demotion to the seconds?? Has been cruising, running at half pace and choosing when he goes. Has more talent in one finger then half the side yet seems to be going at half pace.

Thoughts
 
Really
 
still very young and raw, keep playing him the game time will benefit him considering he missed most of last season with injury. Plenty of time for Jack to come good and he will
 
Crap thread.
 

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I said that two weeks ago and got howled down here, he just looks disinterested of late, he barely got involved today.

Some games he looks a million bucks like the Collingwood and Hawks games but other games he's barely worth a dollar.

I hate to use the term downhill skier on him but he seems a bit that way, looks great when we're dominating but goes missing when it gets tough.

I rate him as a player, he has talent to burn, but I question his ticker.
 
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Plugger35 said:
I said that two weeks ago and got howled down here, he just looks disinterested of late, he barely got involved today.

Some games he looks a million bucks like the Collingwood and Hawks game but other games he's barely worth a dollar.

I hate to use the term downhill skier on him but he seems a bit that way, looks great when we're dominating but goes missing when it gets tough.

I rate him as a player, he has talent to burn, but I question his ticker.
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Don't think the Hawks game was a game we dominated.
 
can't drop him, still got it 20 times and uses it well, in three years that will be 30 touches and he'll be a game winner. His intensity will probably get better with age, but even if it doesn't he's going to be a bloody good player for us. The boys that can't get their hands on it more than ten times need to be rotated through sandy first, and we have some very winnable games coming up where our mids will be on top and jack will be in his element.
 
Getting sat on pretty hard and got no protection from the umpires again.
 
Kill this thread already.
Pointless imo.
 
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