Delisted 23. Aaron Black (2017 - 2018)

[TEDDY24INC]

'Saving money for Fyfe next year. I was talkin to a guy that knows him and he wants to come to Geelong.'

Not revealing who said it and I'm taking it with a grain of salt for now but it's something to ponder.

I take it it was not said by some average punter but someone within or strong connections with the club that has form as a source?

 

[MaybeItsGreg]

I generally only place a vested interest in one young player at a time, and for a long time Black was that player for me, so I really hope he's able to kick start his career back into gear at the cats.

Kid looked like he'd be the second coming back in 2013, could do no wrong. Freakishly large bag of tricks and would pull a goal out of his backside from anywhere in the forward 50, crumbed his own knock downs and had strong body work.

Next year he started okay but quickly went down hill and played pretty poorly, looked like he couldn't get his arms above his head and struggled to run out games. Copped a lot of shit from North fans about becoming lazy after signing a big contract blah blah blah.
Came out end of year he had a severely subluxed shoulder he had been playing with. Had requested surgery around round 10 and been told they couldn't cover him (although we had Mason Wood sitting in the wings) so he kept playing and getting worse and doing more damage to the shoulder.

Had the shoulder fixed up and came back in 2015 with absolutely zero confidence, didn't trust his shoulder at all and shirked from contests where the shoulder might get hit. Some cockerspaniel in the coaching department also instructed him to change his kicking action to get a bit more distance, which had previously been text book perfect but soon became utter shit (same happened with Nahas but he quickly reverted). He just didn't back himself in and was afraid of the contest.
However he continued to work his arse off running patterns and leading but rarely got acknowledged by his team mates who would instead kick it over his head to Petrie/Brown. Fans would then at the end of the game chew him out for low disposals when he'd been given no chance at it at all by the mids.

2016 started really well, 2nd in the VFL goal kicking and kicking regular bags, came back a few KGs heavier through the legs and hips and could put on strong body to body work. Then unfortunately got injured in a VFL game at the most inopportune time (Wood went down injured, Petrie playing like shit, Waite out injured) and it basically stamped his papers.

At his best you have an absolute ripper, just need to make sure the confidence is there. A lot on the North board claim his attitude is a problem, though i've never been able to find proof of this, and noone ever offers up a specific example of why they say it.

For pick 92 it's a free hit and you don't have anything to lose, could thrive playing in front of Tomahawk, his skills low to the ground are sublime for a tall forward, he has the attributes of a tall with the ability to play as good down low as a small forward. Great crumber and snap at goal player.

Good hands, very good field kicking and if allowed to play his preferred role (he is NOT a KPP), if he's not kicking goals he will be contributing goal assists in decent quantity.

It's now all up to Aaron and to the Cats to use him better than North did.

best of luck.

Thank you very much for taking the time and effort to write such a thorough analysis. I wanted to be excited about Black's recruitment to Geelong, but I didn't know enough about him. So I'm very grateful for your post.

 

[Only Forwards]

Next year he started okay but quickly went down hill and played pretty poorly, looked like he couldn't get his arms above his head and struggled to run out games. Copped a lot of shit from North fans about becoming lazy after signing a big contract blah blah blah.
Came out end of year he had a severely subluxed shoulder he had been playing with. Had requested surgery around round 10 and been told they couldn't cover him (although we had Mason Wood sitting in the wings) so he kept playing and getting worse and doing more damage to the shoulder.

IMO this was huge mismanagement on our behalf, took a guy who'd been practically indispensable and shattered him.

I think Geelong have a bit of a steal, Aaron was well and truly in need of a fresh start. I believe that he has the required desire and work ethic to make it.

He is more than capable of being 2nd or 3rd forward when in form and full of confidence. Is exceptionally clean below his knees.

My one real critique is his goal kicking has always been a bit wayward. He is truly capable of producing 5 shots on goal but he's much more likely to kick 2.3 than he is to kick 4.1.

 

[Uber poster]

I generally only place a vested interest in one young player at a time, and for a long time Black was that player for me, so I really hope he's able to kick start his career back into gear at the cats.

Kid looked like he'd be the second coming back in 2013, could do no wrong. Freakishly large bag of tricks and would pull a goal out of his backside from anywhere in the forward 50, crumbed his own knock downs and had strong body work.

Next year he started okay but quickly went down hill and played pretty poorly, looked like he couldn't get his arms above his head and struggled to run out games. Copped a lot of shit from North fans about becoming lazy after signing a big contract blah blah blah.
Came out end of year he had a severely subluxed shoulder he had been playing with. Had requested surgery around round 10 and been told they couldn't cover him (although we had Mason Wood sitting in the wings) so he kept playing and getting worse and doing more damage to the shoulder.

Had the shoulder fixed up and came back in 2015 with absolutely zero confidence, didn't trust his shoulder at all and shirked from contests where the shoulder might get hit. Some cockerspaniel in the coaching department also instructed him to change his kicking action to get a bit more distance, which had previously been text book perfect but soon became utter shit (same happened with Nahas but he quickly reverted). He just didn't back himself in and was afraid of the contest.
However he continued to work his arse off running patterns and leading but rarely got acknowledged by his team mates who would instead kick it over his head to Petrie/Brown. Fans would then at the end of the game chew him out for low disposals when he'd been given no chance at it at all by the mids.

2016 started really well, 2nd in the VFL goal kicking and kicking regular bags, came back a few KGs heavier through the legs and hips and could put on strong body to body work. Then unfortunately got injured in a VFL game at the most inopportune time (Wood went down injured, Petrie playing like shit, Waite out injured) and it basically stamped his papers.

At his best you have an absolute ripper, just need to make sure the confidence is there. A lot on the North board claim his attitude is a problem, though i've never been able to find proof of this, and noone ever offers up a specific example of why they say it.

For pick 92 it's a free hit and you don't have anything to lose, could thrive playing in front of Tomahawk, his skills low to the ground are sublime for a tall forward, he has the attributes of a tall with the ability to play as good down low as a small forward. Great crumber and snap at goal player.

Good hands, very good field kicking and if allowed to play his preferred role (he is NOT a KPP), if he's not kicking goals he will be contributing goal assists in decent quantity.

It's now all up to Aaron and to the Cats to use him better than North did.

best of luck.

Very well said.

I agree with DP completely.

I'm sad to see Black go but clearly he needed a fresh start. In 2015 the strength and conditioning team also thought It'd be a good idea for him to add size to his frame so that he could compete with bigger defenders 1v1. Unfortunately, that took away his biggest asset, his agility. In truth he was poorly managed by North. It's a part of football and he was expected to play for the good of the team when in truth he should have been sitting out healing up.

I hope he can turn it around. If he can confidence wise he'll be a great pickup.

Also, dont pay any attention to his 2015 VFL stats. He was the only forward in a team that got belted every week. I expect a few crumbing goals and if your midfielders don't sit it on his head like ours do he'll get a few on the lead too.

All the best.

 

[David the Cat]

Black seems to be rated by the North boys, Maybe did better than we thought here.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Seeds]

Ok can we stop with the Fyfe crap. I don't want to hear this for a year when it has zero chance of happening.

Even if for some unknown reason he wanted to come to geelong we can't do it. There is zero chance of us putting in a godfather offer even if we had cap space as the playing group wouldn't accept it, particularly dangerfield and selwood who are on 800,000. Thus Freo would match whatever offer we gave and then we need to trade. But we have not one current or future round 1 draft pick to trade with. Thus impossible as you would need to trade a couple of gun young players to even get the picks to trade and then it wouldn't be worth it.

Let's never discuss this again. It's ridiculous. Ablett is more likely and it ain't happening either.

 

[Eudes]

Ok can we stop with the Fyfe crap. I don't want to hear this for a year when it has zero chance of happening.

Even if for some unknown reason he wanted to come to geelong we can't do it. There is zero chance of us putting in a godfather offer even if we had cap space as the playing group wouldn't accept it, particularly dangerfield and selwood who are on 800,000. Thus Freo would match whatever offer we gave and then we need to trade. But we have not one current or future round 1 draft pick to trade with. Thus impossible as you would need to trade a couple of gun young players to even get the picks to trade and then it wouldn't be worth it.

Let's never discuss this again. It's ridiculous. Ablett is more likely and it ain't happening either.

Why must you ruin a boys dream!

 

[dazbroncos]

Very well said.

I agree with DP completely.

I'm sad to see Black go but clearly he needed a fresh start. In 2015 the strength and conditioning team also thought It'd be a good idea for him to add size to his frame so that he could compete with bigger defenders 1v1. Unfortunately, that took away his biggest asset, his agility. In truth he was poorly managed by North. It's a part of football and he was expected to play for the good of the team when in truth he should have been sitting out healing up.

I hope he can turn it around. If he can confidence wise he'll be a great pickup.

Also, dont pay any attention to his 2015 VFL stats. He was the only forward in a team that got belted every week. I expect a few crumbing goals and if your midfielders don't sit it on his head like ours do he'll get a few on the lead too.

All the best.

Almost to a fault, if there is one the GFC has been renowned for, its cotton wooling its players until they are well past being cherry.

Menzel, Vardy, McCarthy, Cowan - all at least 2-3 years oof rehab and no playing - so if there are injury issues for Black - and I hope there is not - he's in the right spot to ge them set before he plays. Its just our way.

And thats not a shot at your Medical blokes either, its just the way we roll.

If he can get his ducks in a row so to speak, there appears to be plenty to work with. Honestly, much in the same way Smedts to the BLues could work out.

Mind you, NM does owe us a good one after HMac and Delaney giving us NOTHING. ... both had high hopes but damn what a void that was.....

GO Catters

 

[dazbroncos]

Ok can we stop with the Fyfe crap. I don't want to hear this for a year when it has zero chance of happening.

Even if for some unknown reason he wanted to come to geelong we can't do it. There is zero chance of us putting in a godfather offer even if we had cap space as the playing group wouldn't accept it, particularly dangerfield and selwood who are on 800,000. Thus Freo would match whatever offer we gave and then we need to trade. But we have not one current or future round 1 draft pick to trade with. Thus impossible as you would need to trade a couple of gun young players to even get the picks to trade and then it wouldn't be worth it.

Let's never discuss this again. It's ridiculous. Ablett is more likely and it ain't happening either.

repeated for just being bloody good.

GO Catters

 

[bigblackboz]

Ok can we stop with the Fyfe crap. I don't want to hear this for a year when it has zero chance of happening.

Even if for some unknown reason he wanted to come to geelong we can't do it. There is zero chance of us putting in a godfather offer even if we had cap space as the playing group wouldn't accept it, particularly dangerfield and selwood who are on 800,000. Thus Freo would match whatever offer we gave and then we need to trade. But we have not one current or future round 1 draft pick to trade with. Thus impossible as you would need to trade a couple of gun young players to even get the picks to trade and then it wouldn't be worth it.

Let's never discuss this again. It's ridiculous. Ablett is more likely and it ain't happening either.

I am a skeptic that it could be done.

The only way it would work is if Freo bottomed out and say finished bottom 2-3. That way they would get a very high compensation pick and might be tempted not to match. However, not sure that would be the case as they might want more.

Its a very difficult thing but if he is prepared to sign the contract, I suppose why not have a swing and a miss if we can.

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

Why must you ruin a boys dream!

Sometimes you must appreciate what you've got and where you are. Or you will always be searching for somethings just out of your reach.

 

[Uber poster]

Almost to a fault, if there is one the GFC has been renowned for, its cotton wooling its players until they are well past being cherry.

Menzel, Vardy, McCarthy, Cowan - all at least 2-3 years oof rehab and no playing - so if there are injury issues for Black - and I hope there is not - he's in the right spot to ge them set before he plays. Its just our way.

And thats not a shot at your Medical blokes either, its just the way we roll.

If he can get his ducks in a row so to speak, there appears to be plenty to work with. Honestly, much in the same way Smedts to the BLues could work out.

Mind you, NM does owe us a good one after HMac and Delaney giving us NOTHING. ... both had high hopes but damn what a void that was.....

GO Catters

I'm pretty sure he is 100% ready to go. He gets a bad wrap for being injury prone but he's not that bad.

OP held him back early days. The shoulder issue should have been fixed straight away. Then he picked up an ankle injury last year just as he was showing some promise again. So other than the OP he's had two impact injuries.

I was always hopeful delaney would get himself right because i thought he would be a very good defender. Foot injuries are a killer (I'm sure you know full well as it robbed matty egan of a very good career). Black however won't have the same concerns.

I look forward to watching geelong games next year to see how he goes. Hopefully there is a buy back clause in his contract

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

I appreciate all the North fans coming on and giving some great insight to Black. I remember when he came on in 2013 and he looked to be a very good player. And seems like a few issues held him back from going on from there.
Mostly from the outside it seemed the coaches lost confidence in him and he had too many similar players to compete with.

He's still young enough and his injuries don't seem to be an ongoing issue. Kersten lost a lot of respect to me. He had opportunities during the year and didn't take them. Then he wasn't in the finals side which at the time wasn't that surprising considering he hadn't impacted at afl or VFL level coming into the games. Then he sooked off to WA.
I think it's disappointing to lose Kersten I think with time he could've played a good role in our side. But Black has shown more than Kersten has so far in their careers even that was a while ago now.

There's still a lot that needs to happen for it to work out for Black. But hopefully given the chance he can be part of our forward line. If he's able to play a role marking and delivering the ball into f50 kicking even 20+ goals a season that's what we need. With Hawkins, Menzel, Motlop, MCarthy and a couple of others it can be a productive forward line.

 

[Only Forwards]

Mostly from the outside it seemed the coaches lost confidence in him and he had too many similar players to compete with.

He also lost confidence in himself.

Issues not completely one way, Aaron probably needed to dig a bit deeper in 2015 than what he did.

Being behind Waite Petrie and Brown was hard and he needed to fight. However he was floated for trade last year and their was SFA interest. This was his wake up call.

2016 he played decent enough footy but got injured just as a spot opened he could have taken.

There is definitely value in him at the puck you got him for, but it's not all roses.

Hope he does well with you lot, except against us of course.

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

He also lost confidence in himself.

Issues not completely one way, Aaron probably needed to dig a bit deeper in 2015 than what he did.

Being behind Waite Petrie and Brown was hard and he needed to fight. However he was floated for trade last year and their was SFA interest. This was his wake up call.

2016 he played decent enough footy but got injured just as a spot opened he could have taken.

There is definitely value in him at the puck you got him for, but it's not all roses.

Hope he does well with you lot, except against us of course.

No doubt you don't get a key forward with pick 91 unless there are some issues. Pre season every player is a superstar though.

 

[Cattery]

Where did you get that one from?

Let's just say the sun don't shine there very much and leave it at that.

 

[Grimoz]

Reminds me of Darling the way he moves.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

I'm trying to grow an interest in this player... Nope... Guess I can't find any room to care.

 

[Saint]

You know that Chris and Brad would have spoken about him. From the sounds of it, it's wins all round.

 

[FreakShow20]

one thing he will not be able to do with us... ask for his number 35.

 

[GFrost]

Appreciate the in-depth input from Kanga supporters.

 

[dazbroncos]

I reckon if it meant playing aFL footy again he'd be happy with #547.

Go Catters

 

[cats2rise]

My one real critique is his goal kicking has always been a bit wayward. He is truly capable of producing 5 shots on goal but he's much more likely to kick 2.3 than he is to kick 4.1.

Oh good, because kicking too straight is a problem of ours and we need someone to even it out

Thanks for the added info on him

 

[Stocks_go_Up]

Oh god I ****ing knew it - another potato that cannot kick straight and is injury prone... Make it stop for gods sake - when will the club learn?

 

[rocker_oz33]

I reckon the cats did the best they could given the time they had.
They would had to wait for the vardy and kersten deals to go though,they might of tried to keep one of them.Who knows what goes behide the scenes.

Pick 92 is a pick we were never going to use anyway,we got him for free and north paying him half he's wage.
If I remember righty he tore Hawthorne a new one a few years back.

Unsure if XRichards was gettable given he wanted to leave.