Delisted #37: Dylan Clarke - End of the road, will not be offered a list spot in 2022

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37 - [PLAYERCARD]Dylan Clarke[/PLAYERCARD].jpg

Contract Status: Not offered a contract for 2021
Last Game Played: Round 23, 2021 (omitted)
Injury Status: n/a
 
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BrunoV

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I'm curious if we only offered him one year, or if he asked for one year. I feel like we nearly always offer two years unless it's something dicey and we're not sure if they'll make the grade. We even gave Morgan 2 years and he spent most of his time at Essendon rehabbing injuries so...

Yeah I feel like maybe he asked for one year. Not sure what the thinking behind that would be except that it avoids the Langford situation. Club has to keep him happy if they want him to recontract again?



I'd say it's because his position is more uncertain than it has been for the others. I doubt that anyone would come calling for Clarke based on current form even at the end of next year. There is still a large gap between his VFL-standard football and the standard required to play AFL.

His kicking has shown no signs of improvement and despite all of his strengths he's still got that one huge weakness, and it's the worst weakness to have.

I understand why we recruited Clarke and why we have now given him an extra year but his inside work is not that good that he'll be a long term player unless he can sort his kicking out, and you can forget any meaningful outside game with that kicking. He's no Oliver or Cunnington, even at VFL level, and even they can kick they just don't do it as much because they're so damaging by hand.

There are plenty of other fish in the sea (i.e. inside mids who run beep tests in the mid-to-high 14s and higher). I'd say that he's got a year to prove himself otherwise we'll move on and that is perfectly justified as far as I'm concerned.
 

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eDPS

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I'd say it's because his position is more uncertain than it has been for the others. I doubt that anyone would come calling for Clarke based on current form even at the end of next year. There is still a large gap between his VFL-standard football and the standard required to play AFL.

His kicking has shown no signs of improvement and despite all of his strengths he's still got that one huge weakness, and it's the worst weakness to have.

I understand why we recruited Clarke and why we have now given him an extra year but his inside work is not that good that he'll be a long term player unless he can sort his kicking out, and you can forget any meaningful outside game with that kicking. He's no Oliver or Cunnington, even at VFL level, and even they can kick they just don't do it as much because they're so damaging by hand.

There are plenty of other fish in the sea (i.e. inside mids who run beep tests in the mid-to-high 14s and higher). I'd say that he's got a year to prove himself otherwise we'll move on and that is perfectly justified as far as I'm concerned.
Got rocks in your head if you dont think his kicking has improved, its still below AFL standard but its much better than last year. Just a few weeks ago he was the clear standout midfielder in the VFL as a 2nd year player and you actually think he is disposable as our only young depth inside mid? I dont see many other 19 year old inside mids playing VFL, WAFL or SANFL at a better level than he has this year.
 

BrunoV

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Got rocks in your head if you dont think his kicking has improved, its still below AFL standard but its much better than last year. Just a few weeks ago he was the clear standout midfielder in the VFL as a 2nd year player and you actually think he is disposable as our only young depth inside mid? I dont see many other 19 year old inside mids playing VFL, WAFL or SANFL at a better level than he has this year.




Agreeing that he's got a year to prove himself, I'm not the one that gave him a 1 year deal, is not the same as considering him disposable.

If his kicking has improved it's hardly noticeable and it's barely VFL standard let alone AFL standard.

There is a lot about his game that is good but you should know that if he cant sort out his kicking, so that he can have even a semblance of an outside game, it's not going to matter. It's clearly the only reason that he slid all the way down to pick 67.

How much better would his footy need to be if at the end of next year his kicking is still about the same? He'd need to be looking like a combination of Judd and Cunnington as a VFL player.

We clearly want the option of freeing up the list spot. There is not much point have depth inside midfielders you won't select because of their kicking.


Edit: I want to clarify that I'm not rooting for failure or anything like that.

It's very unusual that you can see someone so close to the finished product, see how the positives could successfully translate to AFL level but also understand that failure is almost inevitable (without change).

Contrast with Jake Long, for example. He also has a number of AFL-standard attributes but who knows what it would end up looking like if he could string enough consistent football together to get an opportunity. You want to assume that it would be as an attacking wingman but he's probably more of a defensive player.

Parish is another example to contrast. It's hard to picture the finished product but he's proficient in many parts of the game so you know that he'll have a career (though how good that career will be is debatable).

I think that with maturity Clarke will be able to translate his VFL inside game to AFL because he's got the physical ability to do it but it will always come back to his kicking. It's almost cruel because, as I've said in the past, he's both the closest of the untested crop to making it as a mid but he's also the furthest away.

We picked up Mynott last year as a rookie and I'd say that the quality of his VFL performances this year is equal to or even ahead of Clarke's last year (even kicking aside) and I thought that Clarke was good in his first year. It's not like we'd be ruining our list irreparably if we did not continue with Clarke beyond next year.
 
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Oct 22, 2008
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Ridley was recontracted for two years without playing a single game, and very few at VFL level either. I feel like the club almost automatically gives two years to 19 year old national draftees. A contract ending in 2019 is a surprising lack of confidence in the kid really, unless he's asked for it.

The last time they did anything less was Eades and Nyuon I think... for obvious reasons. I can't see those question marks with Clarke though.
Further back the narrative for Alex Browne was that the player had asked for only a year expecting that they would have a break out season and command a much higher salary.
 

Ambrosia

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There are plenty of other fish in the sea (i.e. inside mids who run beep tests in the mid-to-high 14s and higher). I'd say that he's got a year to prove himself otherwise we'll move on and that is perfectly justified as far as I'm concerned.

There aren't many players with Clarke's body size however. His kicking doesn't have to improve too much for him to be an Ed Curnow clone who plays a valuable role for Carlton.
 

Kakkle

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It's fairly common.


It's really not. Can you list any current examples? Only few I can think of, are maybe Dayne Beams, Brad Hill, & Scott Selwood.
 

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Dons4days

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Bit stiff to put up a stat line like that and not be named in the bests on the EFC website.
 
Bit stiff to put up a stat line like that and not be named in the bests on the EFC website.
No he's in there, they just didn't spell his name right. Beats me how anybody thinks there's an o or a y in Clarke though.
 
And all 3 of those aren't comparable to Clarke as the brothers were moving state.

You can add Troy Sellwood to this list - Will dig up more examples - Even three sets of brothers playing together is a decent number when there around 27 sets of brothers playing in the AFL - It's surprising how many sets of brothers have been drafted by the one club - I count 5 sets.
 

Kakkle

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You can add Troy Sellwood to this list - Will dig up more examples - Even three sets of brothers playing together is a decent number when there around 27 sets of brothers playing in the AFL - It's surprising how many sets of brothers have been drafted by the one club - I count 5 sets.



It's barely 10%, and that's if you were to actually say those brothers left to play with their brother, which is what you had bought up.
 
You can add Troy Sellwood to this list - Will dig up more examples - Even three sets of brothers playing together is a decent number when there around 27 sets of brothers playing in the AFL - It's surprising how many sets of brothers have been drafted by the one club - I count 5 sets.
Troy Selwood didnt leave to play with his brother.
 
It's barely 10%, and that's if you were to actually say those brothers left to play with their brother, which is what you had bought up.
And it's an incredibly long bow with Troy Selwood as well. He signed for the Geelong ******* VFL side for a year after he was delisted by Brisbane, by which time Joel was captain of the AFL side. Yeah, he totally wanted to play with his brother :drunk:
 
And it's an incredibly long bow with Troy Selwood as well. He signed for the Geelong ******* VFL side for a year after he was delisted by Brisbane, by which time Joel was captain of the AFL side. Yeah, he totally wanted to play with his brother :drunk:
Exactly. Troy wanted to stay at Brisbane, weird as that sounds.
 
Exactly. Troy wanted to stay at Brisbane, weird as that sounds.
He had one more year of good footy left in him IMO, his 2011 in the VFL showed that. He could have been very helpful to a few of Brisbane's younger players.
 
He had one more year of good footy left in him IMO, his 2011 in the VFL showed that. He could have been very helpful to a few of Brisbane's younger players.
He's since conceded he was cooked at AFL level.
 

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