Modern Day coulda been champions

[Mitchell Madness]

Luke Brennan
Had a decent set of skills, but would only run one way

 

[Upgrayedd]

Agree with, same sentiments towards Daniel wells, oesteo pubis injuries have taken a little bit of a toll. Still a good player though.

I reckon if he had played as many finals games as hodge he would be as many fans drooling over him. Freak of a player. He's copped some nasty injuries. And even non footy related stuff but his class always shows when you need him. Depends on how durable his body is and how lucky the roo's go in 2-3 years he might still have some good football to showcase to everyone

 

[Upgrayedd]

Luke Brennan
Had a decent set of skills, but would only run one way

Same boat as rusling. Would beat most people in a 70m sprint. Cant do anything else. Rusling did 3 knee's and people think he could off been a champion. Brennan got found out and axed

 

[Viva la Mattner]

Damian Cupido, according to Sheedy the most naturally talented player he has coached.
Just a lazy campaigner!

Football's version of Mark Cosgrove

 

[Footy 1st]

Lewis Jetta - Has the Rioli 2012 GF Highlight reel then the 2014 GF reality reel...sad
Buddy - soooo many shots on goal, champion player the could've already been immortal!
David Wojcinski - very good player, should've played 08 GF on Hodge instead of Stokes.
From a footy fan& Hawks fan point of view and the 1st two have a chance to prove their worth.

 

[JunglistPosse]

Our couldhavebeen is a champion!

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Matt McGuire - Injuries destroyed him.
Xaiver Clarke - Had too much hammy issues
Luke Ball - OP
Luke Penny - Had a carrer ending injury
Kosi - Body got destroyed.

Those 5 remain fit we win a flag.

 

[beta_condition]

Xavier Ellis would of been a great player if it wasn'tt for the fact he was made of balsa wood, great skills and as tough as Hodge. Tore apart the 2008 GF as a 20 year old.

 

[Grave Danger]

Stuart Dew - dual premiership player is pretty damned good, but could have been an absolute legend if he'd used that cannon he had for a left leg more often.

 

[Righteo]

Paul Hasleby.

 

[ronpingwins]

Trent Hentschel

 

[couldhavebeen]

Graham Moss ,won the Brownlow and went back to WA straight after .
Became captain coach of Claremont .
I'm a Claremont fan and the guy coached the team to premiership flags but he could have got Essendon a couple of flags and become an Australian legend instead of just a local boy.

 

[bradrowe#32]

Same boat as rusling. Would beat most people in a 70m sprint. Cant do anything else. Rusling did 3 knee's and people think he could off been a champion. Brennan got found out and axed

Rusling was quick, but he was also a good contested mark and a decent kick. As he came from an athletics background, he just wasn't a natural footballer.

 

[kranky al]

Graham Moss ,won the Brownlow and went back to WA straight after .
Became captain coach of Claremont .
I'm a Claremont fan and the guy coached the team to premiership flags but he could have got Essendon a couple of flags and become an Australian legend instead of just a local boy.

Which says more about the victorian slant the afl has than anything else

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Josh Drummond owns this thread. One of the best natural kicks of the footy I've seen.

Sure, but you need more than that to be a champion. There's been a lot of phenomenal kicks that have been very good players for a long time (Lindsay Gilbee, Nick Davis, Stuart Dew, Leon Cameron), but not champions (Darren Jarman, Nathan Buckley, Jason Akermanis). Did Drummond have that bit extra?

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Damian Cupido, according to Sheedy the most naturally talented player he has coached.
Just a lazy campaigner!

Football's version of Mark Cosgrove

I think 'too much talent' can be an issue across any sport, as funny as it sounds. Unless they really want to do that bit extra, guys like Cupido can get by on natural ability until they make the AFL and they've also been told they're God's gift since they were in their early teens. Then they come up against guys that are the absolute best at what they do and they don't have that work ethic to go to the next level. Cupido came through the ranks with Sam Mitchell, interestingly enough. Talk about taking opposite paths to the AFL.

From Geelong, there's a few, but I wonder what Nathan Ablett's career would have been looking like now, if he'd stuck it out at Geelong. That's a great 'what if' because it changes so many things for Geelong, from 2008 through to the present. If Ablett was there the whole time:

• Geelong probably doesn't recruit Podsiadly (which means Podsiadly almost certainly never plays AFL).
• Lonergan potentially is delisted (looked decent as a key forward in 2008 - does he get that opportunity with Ablett there? - and was terrible as a defender in 2009)
• Mooney is potentially given the tap on the shoulder a year or two earlier.
• Ablett and Hawkins would probably still be Geelong's key forward pairing going into this season (with a couple more to go).
• Does Ablett Jr still go to Gold Coast at the end of 2010 and does he take his brother (who could well have been a 40-60 goal a year boom recruit, if he'd stayed at Geelong and continued his career trajectory) with him?

 

[CocoMambo]

Sure, but you need more than that to be a champion. There's been a lot of phenomenal kicks that have been very good players for a long time (Lindsay Gilbee, Nick Davis, Stuart Dew, Leon Cameron), but not champions (Darren Jarman, Nathan Buckley, Jason Akermanis). Did Drummond have that bit extra?

That is how good his kicking was though, if he had the ball within 65 metres you would be getting ready to mark it down as a goal. Had multiple games of 3 goals playing half-back and was also very disciplined defensively. One of those players that you walked into every game thinking at least you have won the matchup between Drummond and whoever he was playing on. The Lions team during his playing years had a lot of poor players and was overall a very average list but could beat any team on the day due to players like Drummond (When he could actually get on the park) carrying the team. Although some of J Browns superhuman efforts in his heyday certainly helped.

 

[Milanista28]

Podsiadly.

 

[captain cotch 9]

Podsiadly.

He was on a couple of AFL rookie lists before joining Geelong.
Richmond and Essendon both had him at 1 point or another.

So he is just a late bloomer than anything.

 

[bradydaw91]

Nathan Brown was on track to win the brownlow in 2005 before that horrific mid-season broken leg. Practically dragging the tiges over the line in games with his goal kicking. He never returned to that form.

 

[Milanista28]

He was on a couple of AFL rookie lists before joining Geelong.
Richmond and Essendon both had him at 1 point or another.

So he is just a late bloomer than anything.

He was stuck behind Lloyd and Lucas at Essendon, I'm more saying he didn't really get a gig early if he had he could have been anything.

 

[The Final Word]

He was on a couple of AFL rookie lists before joining Geelong.
Richmond and Essendon both had him at 1 point or another.

So he is just a late bloomer than anything.

And on Footscray's VFL affiliate before joining Geelong to play VFL and be a strength and conditioning coach. Considering the lengths they've gone to find a ready made goalkicker over the years, they missed out on Pods.

 

[Mofra]

Adrian Campbell - early 90s tall forward for the Bulldogs, suffered what was considered at the time one of the worst knee injuries in AFL/VFL history. Was a shadow of the player he was when he finally returned.
The kid who was behind him in the pecking order (Chris Grant) went on to be alright.

 

[Mofra]

And on Footscray's VFL affiliate before joining Geelong to play VFL and be a strength and conditioning coach. Considering the lengths they've gone to find a ready made goalkicker over the years, they missed out on Pods.

Yep - Eade didn't rate him, Rhode didn't either (Rhode was also against drafting affiliate VFL ruckman Ben Hudson, we could have had him for nothing but had to trade for him later after the Crows took him).

 

[captain cotch 9]

Nathan Brown would of been favorite to win the brownlow in 2004 until he broke his leg.
He was never the same after that injury.