Shaun Hampson

[Murphkreuzmitch]

Looking for measured discussion about where hampson is at. Like most Carlton supporters I have been disappointed with Hammer this year to date, he just can't stick marks, and then when he can he cant kick the footy.

Yes,it's early and there are mitigating circumstances with his appendix removed etc. But I can't remember him having a good match against a decent backmen. In fact I can't remember a game where he demanded the respect of a decent backmen.

Please no rants. I really think it needs its own thread to be discussed as it is a continual concern for most supporters.

 

[HARKER]

Couldn't care less about his girlfriend and for what it's worth there are other footballers at the club with "hotter" girlfriends anyway.

Just mark the bloody ball and kick straight although he'll have his time in the 2's to learn to do that.
Will be a good thing for him.

 

[pinot]

I think he prefers to be first ruck and the part time forward - full time forward seems to be sapping his confidence at an alarming rate.
He is mobile and good enough to run around the ground and pinch hit as a tall forward. He is being played out of position.

 

[T2B_]

Problem is we have 3 "full time rucks, part-time forwards" and they cant all have that position.

When he's on though, Hammer is the most dangerous looking out of the 3 up forward because of his speed off the mark and arm reach. Worries any defender when that's happening as the match-up is nigh on impossible.

The other two, Knockers and my man Kreuzer, are better all-round packages in the ruck and can give our mids armchair rides at times so for mine they are our two main rucks. Both could rotate resting forward at least. Hampson will be up against it to stay in unless he improves a fair bit.

 

[Kramer1]

Not necessarily a defence of Hampson but he had one decent ball in all night. Taylor Walker had three in the first five minutes. Yeah he drops plenty...he is also expected to pluck every mark from a standing start in a pack of 3-4. Three weeks ago he looked like marking everything. Confidence now looks shot to bits.

He is clearly hesitant on the lead and not using his pace to get separation...largely I expect because he is accustomed to most balls sailing over his head.

 

[Omega Blue]

in my opinion hampsons job isnt to mark the ball or to kick goals his job is to ensure that his corresponding defender doesnt mark the ball because as soon as the ball hits the ground in the carlton forward fifty then its advantage carlton, against any team in the league.
ideally i would like to see him used as a "forward ruck" instead of marking just palm the ball down to one of our small guys.

 

[pinot]

Levi and Rowe are full time forwards and part time rucks. So effectively we have five players on the senior list that can play in each other's position. Not a bad position to be in really - but maybe a little overkill and I am guessing one or two will make way for a pure key forward if Mitchell doesnt exponentially improve this year.

 

[T2B_]

Kramer makes a good point though, I've been thinking, even if we had a superstar up forward we'd still likely burn them going inside 50 a lot of the time. Plant a Rowe or Hampson in a team that gets forward space like Essendope or Geelong and they'd get quite a few more chances IMO.

 

[Chism]

Hammer needs to go back to the reserves for some match confidence. It makes me cringe when he constantly runs under the ball and drops easy marks etc.

I don't know where he is at honestly but the one thing i do know is that he needs to improve as his form has been stagnating for the last 2 years and he seems to be going no where.

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

One thing I really enjoyed about Setanta was his ability to bring the ball down to our advantage so that one of his "Little Helpers" could sweep it up. I would love to see that from Hampson-even if he doesn't stick the mark (which, if we're to be fair, can't possibly be easy when most of our deliveries into the forward 50 leave a lot to be desired and he quite often is in the middle of a 2 on 1 contest), he is able to bring it to ground in front of him, with Eddie or Garlett to crumb it.

 

[le dominateur]

Megan won't like it but he needs to put some weight onto his hips & backside, topples over far too often.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Looking for measured discussion about where hampson is at. Like most Carlton supporters I have been disappointed with Hammer this year to date, he just can't stick marks, and then when he can he cant kick the footy.

Yes,it's early and there are mitigating circumstances with his appendix removed etc. But I can't remember him having a good match against a decent backmen. In fact I can't remember a game where he demanded the respect of a decent backmen.

Please no rants. I really think it needs its own thread to be discussed as it is a continual concern for most supporters.

I agree with the concerns about his consistency, but were you really disappointed with Hampson in Round 1?

 

[T2B_]

Megan won't like it but he needs to put some weight onto his hips & backside, topples over far too often.

Yeah it seems to me he's very broad and quite beast looking with his top half, but his bottom half... not so much. Seems to lack strength there and with a powerful upper body frame it must make the toppling over thing even easier. I'm no fitness guru though so I may be wrong, just my visual impression. Perhaps Megan can tell us more

 

[ODNBlue]

Yeah it seems to me he's very broad and quite beast looking with his top half, but his bottom half... not so much. Seems to lack strength there and with a powerful upper body frame it must make the toppling over thing even easier. I'm no fitness guru though so I may be wrong, just my visual impression. Perhaps Megan can tell us more

For a big man who appears as strong as he is he sure gets pushed around a lot...

 

[Jock]

I agree with the concerns about his consistency, but were you really disappointed with Hampson in Round 1?

He took a couple of grabs round 1 playing on Griffiths. He's a VFL player. Thats the standard they are both at currently in my view.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

He took a couple of grabs round 1 playing on Griffiths. He's a VFL player. Thats the standard they are both at currently in my view.

He actually took 8 marks, 4 of them contested. That's a Cloke game when it comes to marking. He looked ominous and he was drawing every defender into a pack to stop him in that last quarter.

You want people to see the bad, yet undersell the good on the few occasions it comes. How does that make for a decent discussion?

 

[ODNBlue]

He actually took 8 marks, 4 of them contested. That's a Cloke game when it comes to marking. He looked ominous and he was drawing every defender into a pack to stop him in that last quarter.

You want people to see the bad, yet undersell the good on the few occasions it comes. How does that make for a decent discussion?

Yep, I had him in my top 5 players in Round 1. He was clunking everything. If he'd kicked straighter on the night and we'd won, he would have been heralded as one of the best on ground, IMHO.

 

[Navy Cream]

Yep, I had him in my top 5 players in Round 1. He was clunking everything. If they all had of kicked straighter on the night and we'd won, he would have been heralded as one of the best on ground, IMHO.

Yes he had a better game Rd1.

 

[AB_Blue]

Hammer is a converted soccer player, who took footy up late. Has had many years in the system "developing" his footy skills to go along with freakish athletic attributes. Call me crazy but I would rather cas in his Rich and Collingwood form, rather than Hammer at the moment. At least Cas is a more natural footballer and will run and crash a pack, I just cant see Hammer doing that.

As far as him being no. 1 ruck, well Warnocks form and Kruz's ability certainly pushes him down the order, especially with Rowe and Cas competing for the Ruck/Forward role.

With Waite and Kruz coming back in the next month, its gonna be tough for him to get a sniff.

 

[SBYM]

From where I stand...in a perfect world with no injuries our rucks are MK/Knockers and the tall fwds will come from Waite/Rowe/Cas.

It pains me to say it - due mainly to the looooong years of work both he and the club have put into his development - but Hammer is in serious strife at the moment.

HOWEVER, he has fought back from a bad place before to make some fairly valuable contributions. No reason he can't do it again. He'd want to get a wriggle on though.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Hammer is a converted soccer player.

Really?

 

[Jock]

He actually took 8 marks, 4 of them contested. That's a Cloke game when it comes to marking. He looked ominous and he was drawing every defender into a pack to stop him in that last quarter.

You want people to see the bad, yet undersell the good on the few occasions it comes. How does that make for a decent discussion?

I acknowledged he took some grabs in round one but simply highlighted he was playing on a young skinny player that has played VFL ever since. You pointing out one game simply highlights how few and far his decent performances are. We need players to play to minimum base standard every week or they shouldn't get a game. If he keeps getting a game it says more about our side than him.

 

[Jimthegreat]

He actually took 8 marks, 4 of them contested. That's a Cloke game when it comes to marking. He looked ominous and he was drawing every defender into a pack to stop him in that last quarter.

You want people to see the bad, yet undersell the good on the few occasions it comes. How does that make for a decent discussion?

Round 1 was a fair while ago.

Everyone will do well once in a while.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

I acknowledged he took some grabs in round one but simply highlighted he was playing on a young skinny player that has played VFL ever since.

And I was just pointing out that his marking game in round 1 wasn't purely based around beating a skinny VFL player one on one. He frightened the bejesus out of the entire Richmond backline in that game.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Round 1 was a fair while ago.

Everyone will do well once in a while.

.... yes .... but I am not using it to suggest he should remain in the side, I am using it to combat people when they suggest he hasn't done anything. I keep restating this over and over in two different threads and people come in half way through and think I am being a Hampson fanboi or something. Context is oh so important in this discussion.