Strapping Young Lad
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- Apr 19, 2006
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Sam says Blicavs…
Welcome Welcome to Hawthorn: Pick 18, Josh Weddle - Round 10, Rising Star!
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Personally I think he is a natural CHB, I see a lot of Peter Knights traits, speed, a good mark, able to defend when necessary, likes to take off and run forward, can kick a goal from long range. Just my 2c worth.
Don't really care where he ends up playing for HFC, I think he's going to be a good one.
99% of the time Stagnant ball movement is due to stationary forwards. Start Josh at CHF and just get him to run arounnd ahead of the ball for two hours. No-one's going to keep up with him across a whole game, and if they leave him (or give up) we end up outnumbering the opposition at the contest. He can easily cover 55m on the boot too, so is a dangerous scoring option outside the arc.
It's an element of his game we haven't really explored yet - compare him to our current hard-running HF in Moore who is a tremendous endurance runner - but Dylan isn't troubling anyone getting the ball 70m from goal.
Weddle covering the distance will drag opposition zone out of shape, opening holes for others to lead into. Could help rejuvenate/extend Breust/Gunston's careers too - they are both smart enough to understand and manipulate space in the forwardline to their advantage.
For that to happen, they'll have to have a defender on him who can keep up with his work rate. I know there are some who might be able to do that. But there won't be many.
Weddle's numbers as a back are actually pretty similar to those of Scrimshaw, Frost and Sicily.
The talk about him squibbing a contest was complete BS - he has always put his body on the line. The dropped mark was because he was distracted by the player coming in to spoil, not because he was afraid of the impact. It doesn't excuse the lapse in concentration - staying focused on the ball is critical. It is simply a misinterpretation of reason he dropped the mark - a misinterpretation that would not have been made by anyone who paid attention to his previous games.
The talk about him squibbing a contest was complete BS - he has always put his body on the line. The dropped mark was because he was distracted by the player coming in to spoil, not because he was afraid of the impact. It doesn't excuse the lapse in concentration - staying focused on the ball is critical. It is simply a misinterpretation of reason he dropped the mark - a misinterpretation that would not have been made by anyone who paid attention to his previous games.
