Toast Do we underrate Ricky Henderson?

Rocket72

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That doesn't work like that, you can't sign somewhere as a DFA if you had a contract in front of you that you refused to sign. Would have been that they never officially put that contract on the table and just let him go amicably.

I'm sure you can think of a scenario where it could happen. Club to manager "we're thinking 1-year on peanuts". Manager "yea nah, just delist him thanks, we've got a better offer sorted:. Club "good luck to you".
 
I'm sure you can think of a scenario where it could happen. Club to manager "we're thinking 1-year on peanuts". Manager "yea nah, just delist him thanks, we've got a better offer sorted:. Club "good luck to you".
Pretty sure if they tabled (formally offered, etc.) a contract offer then Hendo couldn’t just knock it back & walk to another Club. If that occurred, HFC wouldv’ve needed to trade for him, as he’d still have been an Adelaide-contracted layer until the end of October.

I’m pretty sure Adelaide had to genuinely de-list him for us to then sign him as a Delisted Free Aget (DFA).

*I’m pretty sure we signed him as a DFA, not traded for him.
 

Hawk_francais

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I think I pointed this out back when he joined us and people were blaming him (amongst others) for our losses. If you look at the numbers he was putting up they were not massively different to what Hill was giving us, especially during the stretches when Hill wasn't at the absolute peak of his game, which was more often than people seem to like to admit. I think there has been a lot of rose coloured glasses applied to Hill after his departure. While I agree he was important part of the side, I just don't think he was lethal on the wing as many seem to remember him as.

Stats wise, compare some of data of Hill 2016 vs Ricky 2018

Hill : Av Disp: 17.4 Marks: 3 I50: 3.9 Clearances: 1.0 Metres Gained: 329 DE:72.1 Contested Pos: 3.5 Score involvements: 5.8
Ricky Av Disp: 20.3 Marks: 6.3 I50: 3.3 Clearances: 1.4 Metres Gained: 359 DE:75.2 Contested Pos: 5.6 Score involvements: 5.0

So Hill in his final year with us was definitely a bit more attacking in terms of inside 50s and score involvements, but I reckon Ricky played on the defensive side of wing more often than Hill did. Ricky used it a little better on paper (although I suspect delivering inside 50 more often for Hill leads to lower DE as you do need to kick to 1 on 1's sometimes which Hawthorn tries to avoid when transitioning from defence). Metres gained is similar with Ricky with the edge again, Ricky gets a bit more of it and gets more contested.

Basically on paper Ricky turned out to be a much better replacement for Hill than many gave him credit for (and those 2018 stats are not massively different to his 2017 stats when he was getting bagged every week on here, he was perhaps less attacking again in 2017, but I reckon he ran off half back more often in that year which explains the lower I50 count).

Now Hill has improved since moving to the dockers (not surprising, he was injected into our team when still quite young), and I wonder if people are often comparing modern Hill when they think Ricky is a poor shadow of what Hill was. Hill had a bit of class that perhaps doesn't come through on paper that Ricky might lack, but the gap between them was never large enough to properly explain the negative feelings many seemed to have for Henderson.

In any case I'm of the view that once you pull the Hawthorn jumper on there is a certain level of default respect you deserve to be shown, irrespective of your talent levels. This doesn't mean players should be above criticism, but some of the way our players get talked about on here after losses, you'd think they were wearing red and black, and returning from a drug sanction.
Like your post. I'll never forget Hill, and I still count his talent as a loss, but we underrate what Ricky has done in his time here, particularly his consistency and versatility. Clarko just chucks him wherever we need a cool head.
 
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Hawthorn's successful teams have ALWAYS included role players.
The re-occurring theme those players was their consistency.

For our older brethren David Polkinghorn springs to mind.
Limited skill overcome with amazing mental application.
Never BOG but always consistently reliable (and with little gap between his best and worst).

Look carefully through our great teams and you'll find them.
IMHO Hendo ticks all the boxes when it comes to the quintessential role player.
(Dare I suggest that he exceeds Smith's output when it comes to consistency)

Yep - Underrated by fans - but highly appreciated by Coaches.
 
Hawthorn's successful teams have ALWAYS included role players.
The re-occurring theme those players was their consistency.

For our older brethren David Polkinghorn springs to mind.
Limited skill overcome with amazing mental application.
Never BOG but always consistently reliable (and with little gap between his best and worst).

Look carefully through our great teams and you'll find them.
IMHO Hendo ticks all the boxes when it comes to the quintessential role player.
(Dare I suggest that he exceeds Smith's output when it comes to consistency)

Yep - Underrated by fans - but highly appreciated by Coaches.
Yep if your middle to bottom tier players can be relied upon to not * up and do their job you've got a really good foundation to build a winner on. Those guys just go out and do their job and your stars take it from there
 

Rocket72

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Pretty sure if they tabled (formally offered, etc.) a contract offer then Hendo couldn’t just knock it back & walk to another Club. If that occurred, HFC wouldv’ve needed to trade for him, as he’d still have been an Adelaide-contracted layer until the end of October.

I’m pretty sure Adelaide had to genuinely de-list him for us to then sign him as a Delisted Free Aget (DFA).

*I’m pretty sure we signed him as a DFA, not traded for him.

We did sign him as a DFA, my point was that there was a bit of maneuvering done before it got to that. Adel delisted him once they realised that (1) he wasn't going to sign what they wanted to offer, and (2) no club seemed interested in trading for him.

My main point was Adel did see value in him, not your classic delisting.
 

Jables

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As a Henderson fan, I feel like the Hill v Henderson comparison is pretty poor because Hills leg speed giving us that surge going forward a few times a game was a real weapon for us, add it to Smith as well it was an underrated part of our game. Not many players in the competition are a composed, big moment player with running ability like that, even less have multiple guys who can run with them.

Henderson is a good, consistent player though. Even if he doesn't add a match up problem to the other team like Hill did, he's probably a better player in isolation. The way Crows fans were talking about him it was as if we picked up their scapegoat, which is funny given comparisons to Hill. People just don't value what both of those guys can do.
 

Luv_our_club

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As a Henderson fan, I feel like the Hill v Henderson comparison is pretty poor because Hills leg speed giving us that surge going forward a few times a game was a real weapon for us, add it to Smith as well it was an underrated part of our game. Not many players in the competition are a composed, big moment player with running ability like that, even less have multiple guys who can run with them.

Henderson is a good, consistent player though. Even if he doesn't add a match up problem to the other team like Hill did, he's probably a better player in isolation. The way Crows fans were talking about him it was as if we picked up their scapegoat, which is funny given comparisons to Hill. People just don't value what both of those guys can do.

I find it hard to think of a player to compare to Hill, past or present. I don't think i have seen a player provide as much run as he did/does. A special player.
 
He has been a more than solid contributor since being picked up as a DFA.

So yeah, we probably do underate him a little.
 

COKEandCOLA

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It's great to see everyone finally jumping on the Ricky Henderson bandwagon, hopefully we never hear that rubbish of dropping him again.

He was a colossus today and easily our BOG!
 
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