Opinion The won't/will make it thread

[Whit3y]

Simpson will be in the top two ruck man in the comp if fit next year. How you could have him as a no while the likes of Brown and Schroder and Burbury are yes's is beyond staggering.

so if simpson is in the top 2, assuming you think he is no 2, who is no 1?

 

[Catdog]

so if simpson is in the top 2, assuming you think he is no 2, who is no 1?

Hamish

 

[Whit3y]

Hamish

well answered

 

[vinum coupe]

well answered

Well whitey has spoken.

I'm off to sportsbet

 

[Vdubs]

Brown - No
Schroder - Yes- solid player
Hartman - No
Cowan - No
Bews - No
Smedts - yes- elite
GHS .yes - very good
Murdoch - Yes- good player
Kolod - N/A
Stringer - No
Lang - Yes- elite
Bale - No
Hunt - Yes- solid player
Simpson - Yes- elite
Walker - Yes- very good player
Burbury - no
Kersten - Yes- very good player
Thurlow - Yes- elite
Hamling - Yes- good player

What is the basis for your very goods? Is this what you hope, as there is v little current evidence to substantiate.
Murdoch, at best, a maybe v good
Kersten, ??
Walker, at best, a fair player
GHS, ??

 

[David the Cat]

Well whitey has spoken.

I'm off to sportsbet

You're off to sports bet?

I'm off to buy more shares.

 

[manboob]

You're off to sports bet?

I'm off to buy more shares.

With all your dirty Swiss Francs I bet!

 

[The rabbi]

Naitanui to Geelong in 2015






(I'm a bit of a dreamer)

Really

 

[geelong_crazy26]

geelong_crazy26 , what criteria are you using for Lang and Bale ? And if Bale is in the list waht about Toohey and Jensen ?

I know its a off season thread but there is something premature about a few of these posts , just like to hear what you thoughts are.

Bale I actually missed, I intended to put N/A next to him, as I have very little opinion on him so far, nor have I really watched any footage of him or given him much thought. Same goes fir Jansen and toohey at this point

Lang is just my estimated guess based on him playing and what I have been told from my family friend inside the club involved with list management.

Both lang and smedts to me share that very classy slick ability, also in tight/tricky situations, to me they look like players that posses outstanding lateral movement and core stability, very classy ball users that at their peaks are players you would want around the football in close quarters, the type that could break open matches

That's a lot to say about two very young footballers, but from what I have seen that's the read my crystal ball has on them for 5-7 years time, I am in particular a huge smedts fan, have been in love with him ever since watching him at underage and hearing my family friend involved with the list management go on and on about his freakish turning and lateral movement. Apparently whenever they do drills involving a quick or sharp turn, smedts takes everyone else to the cleaners at it.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

What is the basis for your very goods? Is this what you hope, as there is v little current evidence to substantiate.
Murdoch, at best, a maybe v good
Kersten, ??
Walker, at best, a fair player
GHS, ??

Walker I rate more than most do here, he is only 20 years old, he chucks himself at contests like a raging bull and has a big tank, tons of courage and can take a damn good mark! People tend to forget how much patience is required with a tall key forward, I think at the moment a lot of his movements and especially his leaping into contests is off timing, he also wrestles with his defenders a little too early in my opinion.

I remember Wayne Carey said this about Hawkins a while back and I believe walker does it too, that they begin wrestle with their defender too early one out, when you have a quality defender on you, if you wrestle with them too early in a contest, you allow them too much time to asses and compose themselves, there is a real timing and art to it, some ing I think Hawkins has drastically improved on

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Didn't Carey actually come down to the club to talk with Hawkins about his game?
Seemed to immediately prove after that

very good question, i actually am going to ask if he ever did come down or not next time i speak with my friend down at the club, i never got around to asking it, nor was it ever publicly mentioned if he did or not

 

[The rabbi]

Walker I rate more than most do here, he is only 20 years old, he chucks himself at contests like a raging bull and has a big tank, tons of courage and can take a damn good mark! People tend to forget how much patience is required with a tall key forward, I think at the moment a lot of his movements and especially his leaping into contests is off timing, he also wrestles with his defenders a little too early in my opinion.

He was one of the few shining lights for Geelong in the 2013 VFL grand Final.
He also seemed to thrive in Box Hill-Hawthorn's unsociable, physical style of football.

I could not help but think (while I was at the game and also watching the recording of it) that a good many of the Geelong players did not feel comfortable with the physicality of Box Hill's game.

If he could do something about his relatively poor disposal then I think that he could possibly be a good KPD.

 

[you pick one]

He was one of the few shining lights for Geelong in the 2013 VFL grand Final.
He also seemed to thrive in Box Hill-Hawthorn's unsociable, physical style of football.

I could not help but think (while I was at the game and also watching the recording of it) that a good many of the Geelong players did not feel comfortable with the physicality of Box Hill's game.

If he could do something about his relatively poor disposal then I think that he could possibly be a good KPD.

Yep reminds me a lot of my Blue Dog,hope he makes it.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

He was one of the few shining lights for Geelong in the 2013 VFL grand Final.
He also seemed to thrive in Box Hill-Hawthorn's unsociable, physical style of football.

I could not help but think (while I was at the game and also watching the recording of it) that a good many of the Geelong players did not feel comfortable with the physicality of Box Hill's game.

If he could do something about his relatively poor disposal then I think that he could possibly be a good KPD.

im not too upset by the VFL grand final loss at all

after the AFL preliminary final match you can really understand how they would have been in high spirits and pumped up while our boys were flat


i remember two of the three things carey said back at the time hawkins wasnt doing correctly

1- he was timing his leads wrong
2- he was wrestling too early with his defender

i remember thinking at the time, that the second point he made was so incredibly true about hawkins, it felt like the apple had just landed on my head under the tree hearing it. i dont think walker is too different in this regard, i see a lot of quality aspects to walkers game, his deficiencies arent anything that cant be fixed up

i think the main deficiencies in walkers game i can see are

1. he wrestles too early with his defender
2. he doesnt lead creatively enough, or enough, he will often lead once in a straight line and then be out of the play, doesnt push for a second or third lead like a riewoldt or brown will, and get into position further up for the next marking opportunity
3. he often leaps a little too early in contests

none of these are things i dont believe he cant fix

others on here don't rate him, but i think he has a good future ahead of him

 

[Vdubs]

Didn't Carey actually come down to the club to talk with Hawkins about his game?
Seemed to immediately prove after that

Hope it was just advice he gave him

 

[Vdubs]

im not too upset by the VFL grand final loss at all

after the AFL preliminary final match you can really understand how they would have been in high spirits and pumped up while our boys were flat


i remember two of the three things carey said back at the time hawkins wasnt doing correctly

1- he was timing his leads wrong
2- he was wrestling too early with his defender

i remember thinking at the time, that the second point he made was so incredibly true about hawkins, it felt like the apple had just landed on my head under the tree hearing it. i dont think walker is too different in this regard, i see a lot of quality aspects to walkers game, his deficiencies arent anything that cant be fixed up

i think the main deficiencies in walkers game i can see are

1. he wrestles too early with his defender
2. he doesnt lead creatively enough, or enough, he will often lead once in a straight line and then be out of the play, doesnt push for a second or third lead like a riewoldt or brown will, and get into position further up for the next marking opportunity
3. he often leaps a little too early in contests

none of these are things i dont believe he cant fix

others on here don't rate him, but i think he has a good future ahead of him

Great points.
But there is the issue of his kicking.

 

[The rabbi]

im not too upset by the VFL grand final loss at all

after the AFL preliminary final match you can really understand how they would have been in high spirits and pumped up while our boys were flat.

Really!! This strange affliction did not seem to worry Josh Walker too much.

If you cannot get motivated to play in a Grand Final, even if it is a VFL Grand Final, then I don't know what is going to motivate you. There was a premiership cup to play for. That is the end goal of the whole season.

 

[Whit3y]

Really!! This strange affliction did not seem to worry Josh Walker too much.

If you cannot get motivated to play in a Grand Final, even if it is a VFL Grand Final, then I don't know what is going to motivate you. There was a premiership cup to play for. That is the end goal of the whole season.

no matter what sport you play if you make a grand final you would think you would have the motivation and the desire to win it, and if you didn't then perhaps you shouldn't be playing in that sport.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Great points.
But there is the issue of his kicking.

im not overly worried about his kicking, i think if he keeps working on it, that it will come along with the rest of his game, i think its often common for a young key forward to be a little off with his kicking, you see it often. I don't think its press any panic button sort of situation

 

[Turbocat]

Bale I actually missed, I intended to put N/A next to him, as I have very little opinion on him so far, nor have I really watched any footage of him or given him much thought. Same goes fir Jansen and toohey at this point

Lang is just my estimated guess based on him playing and what I have been told from my family friend inside the club involved with list management.

Both lang and smedts to me share that very classy slick ability, also in tight/tricky situations, to me they look like players that posses outstanding lateral movement and core stability, very classy ball users that at their peaks are players you would want around the football in close quarters, the type that could break open matches

That's a lot to say about two very young footballers, but from what I have seen that's the read my crystal ball has on them for 5-7 years time, I am in particular a huge smedts fan, have been in love with him ever since watching him at underage and hearing my family friend involved with the list management go on and on about his freakish turning and lateral movement. Apparently whenever they do drills involving a quick or sharp turn, smedts takes everyone else to the cleaners at it.

Twisting , turning ..Smedts is brilliant at avoiding on field obstacles , shame we cant say the same for off-field.

I think most on here would agree that he has natural talent , probably more talent than skill. But is he just an instinctive footballer?
The trouble with all highly talented is that they have succeed due to it, often , and therefore has never been of huge importance to develop other ways of winning a contest. Like the natural advantage Lefties have , how often do we see them excessively one sideed. Ronnie Burns was a classic example.

My read of Smedts is he needs to become a smarter footballer, learn not to be overly reliant on his talents , develop skills thru hard work. Can and will he be better as he matures? Time will tell but talent alone is never enough. Too many talented players fail while hard working , less talented players succeed.

Lang? I have no opinion other than I trust the Wizards judgement.

But some of the players you have excluded , I'm not sure id totally agree. But someone has to fail. Only so many spots to fill.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Twisting , turning ..Smedts is brilliant at avoiding on field obstacles , shame we cant say the same for off-field.

I think most on here would agree that he has natural talent , probably more talent than skill. But is he just an instinctive footballer?
The trouble with all highly talented is that they have succeed due to it, often , and therefore has never been of huge importance to develop other ways of winning a contest. Like the natural advantage Lefties have , how often do we see them excessively one sideed. Ronnie Burns was a classic example.

My read of Smedts is he needs to become a smarter footballer, learn not to be overly reliant on his talents , develop skills thru hard work. Can and will he be better as he matures? Time will tell but talent alone is never enough. Too many talented players fail while hard working , less talented players succeed.

Lang? I have no opinion other than I trust the Wizards judgement.

But some of the players you have excluded , I'm not sure id totally agree. But someone has to fail. Only so many spots to fill.

can't disagree with any of what you said. i also think this was the same case for hawkins at about the same age at geelong (minus the off field trouble). Both were very successful and naturally gifted footballers coming out of the APS private school system, hawkins out of melbourne grammar, smedts out of geelong grammar. both had football life made very easy for them and hardly had to work hard, then the massive jump to AFL came

hawkins eventually fixed up his game, through hard work, and a lot of fine tuning elements of his game

can smedts do the same?

to me, it looks that smedts hasnt progressed a lot since arriving at the club, both physically and skill set. he is about 3-6kg too light at the moment for a quality midfielder/forward

i really hope they get a lot of gym work into him over the summer, and hopefully it doesnt take as long as it did with hawkins for the change to come

 

[Vdubs]

come on rabbi!
The VFL premiership means nothing in comparison to playing in the big one.
Who has won the last 3 VFL flags off the top of your head?

Listening to recent video updates on the clubs website, they speak of how quiet the pre game atmosphere was before the VFL grannie due to the manor in which the senior team exited the finals less than 48 hours earlier.
No doubt that had a major effect on some of the younger players, not having majority of the seniors around spurring them on was evident in the nonchalant way they seemingly played out the entire game.

Box Hill
Geelong
Port Melbourne.
Off the top of my head, so could be wrong there.
But Rabbi's point is on.

 

[vinum coupe]

im not overly worried about his kicking, i think if he keeps working on it, that it will come along with the rest of his game, i think its often common for a young key forward to be a little off with his kicking, you see it often. I don't think its press any panic button sort of situation

Mate.

Seriously. He is a completely f**ked kick.
Not GFL level.
Probably not EDFL level !

And I'm not even talking about his kick at goal.
He is GFL level around the ground. (at best)

But apparently he's only 21 so that's all ok

 

[The rabbi]

come on rabbi!
The VFL premiership means nothing in comparison to playing in the big one.

With all due respect Bobby, but it should mean everything to the 44 players of the two respective teams that contest the VFL Grand Final. A good % of those players know that they will never play in an AFL Grand Final. For Fecks sake, half of them are not on the AFL list. If you are playing in a Grand Final then you are playing in the big one. And seriously, all apologetics for failure aside, every time that you pull on that jumper you should be giving every thing that you have got for that jumper.

Mate, we are talking about the VFL, the most important league in the state of Victoria. We are not talking about a bunch of piss head bush kids who kick the footy around for a nice social outing with their piss head mates.

 

[The rabbi]

Mate.

Seriously. He is a completely f**ked kick.
Not GFL level.
Probably not EDFL level !

And I'm not even talking about his kick at goal.
He is GFL level around the ground. (at best)

But apparently he's only 21 so that's all ok

He is an ordinary kick. That is the obvious weakness of his game. As a defender you just cannot afford to turn the ball over. Look at the Hawks game. It is built on precision kicking.
But I am not prepared to write him off yet.
And dare I say that I have seen GFL players who could kick better than many AFL players. Wayne Tyquin springs to mind.
He is only 21, and it is not OK. But there is room for improvement.