Delisted #20: Zac Clarke - Delisted - 24/10

Remove this Banner Ad

May 27, 2017
1,044
1,711
AFL Club
Essendon
Was terrible. But willing to give him some benefit of the doubt that he was not upto it in his first afl game back given pressure on the night and maybe needs some re-adjustment time.
I can forgive him for turning his back and then missing that shot when he couldve handballed over for the easy goal... that was nerves.
but the rest. Too much. He has to earn back a place in the team through the VFL. Draper should go up the pecking order
 
Oof. That's the nicest thing you could say about that game last night I reckon. Had an absolute shocker.

I'm not going to write him off on the evidence of one game alone, because I have seen him play decent footy in his Freo days, but he'd want to be orders of magnitude better if wants to play more senior football.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

He is what he is. Makes mistakes and is not really big on body contact but structure wise we looked a lot better having McKernan playing just as a forward. It may well only take 3 or 4 weeks before it is Draper rather than Zac.
 

Vander18

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 22, 2011
5,403
8,384
AFL Club
Essendon
Feel like I need to watch the game again....wasn’t particularly watching him but didn’t think he was that bad.
Both he and TBC took a hiding from Gawn I thought.

Anyway - soon enough it’ll be Hooker in and Clarke out. Think Hooker may play forward as can’t see Woosher dropping Ambrose.
 
I reckon he’ll be out of the team next week anyway, regardless of how well he played tonight. Two in the ruck seems to be a Gawn-specific strategy. If that’s the case it explains Clarke being brought in ahead of Draper, since we tend not to give kids one off games unless we’re out of options.
 
I reckon he’ll be out of the team next week anyway, regardless of how well he played tonight. Two in the ruck seems to be a Gawn-specific strategy. If that’s the case it explains Clarke being brought in ahead of Draper, since we tend not to give kids one off games unless we’re out of options.
I hope he's not, as others have mentioned having two rucks makes us look a lot better up forward.
 
Feel like I need to watch the game again....wasn’t particularly watching him but didn’t think he was that bad.
Both he and TBC took a hiding from Gawn I thought.

Anyway - soon enough it’ll be Hooker in and Clarke out. Think Hooker may play forward as can’t see Woosher dropping Ambrose.

Not sure that is the way to go. The two genuine rucks despite the limitations of Clarke first up worked better than what we had been doing.
 

Old Stuckup

Cancelled
BeanCoiNFT Investor
Nov 7, 2017
2,477
2,416
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Chelsea, 76s, Stars
Daniher is a chance for Good Friday or ANZAC Day isn’t he? Zac might survive until then if he’s lucky.
 
He is what he is. Makes mistakes and is not really big on body contact but structure wise we looked a lot better having McKernan playing just as a forward. It may well only take 3 or 4 weeks before it is Draper rather than Zac.
I hope so because he was atrocious around the ground from what I saw.
 

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,992
AFL Club
Essendon
Was totally outclassed tonight - He only plays if EFC use one ruck.


Agreed. Fair enough not to trust Draper to run out a game on his own but if Bellchambers is also going to be out there, I really can't see why we're playing Clarke.

We'd be much better served playing Stewart. It's much more important to have a second key forward than to have a second ruckman.
 
Agreed. Fair enough not to trust Draper to run out a game on his own but if Bellchambers is also going to be out there, I really can't see why we're playing Clarke.

We'd be much better served playing Stewart. It's much more important to have a second key forward than to have a second ruckman.
Stewart is the forgotten man at times it seems, other than the two of us ramming it down people's throats.
 

Bombers36

Premiership Player
Jul 15, 2008
3,442
1,465
Keilor East
AFL Club
Essendon
I didnt think Clarke was as bad as lots of people are saying. Yes - he made some glaring errors - but lets not forget the man has not played AFL since August 2016 - nearly 3 years, so he was always going to make a couple of mistakes.
I think with Clarke in the team structurally e looked much better up forward - 3 talls in Stringer, Smack & Clarke, and 3 smalls in Tippa, Fanta & Smith
He has to stay in certainly until Daniher is back and I think you'll find this will be the case with big Zac. He'll be much better for the run as well and we need both Zac & Bellcho both on there games against Steffan Martin who is in ripping form
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Im not sure about that - throwing 20 year old Draper up against Steffan Martin from the lions not a good idea I wouldnt think...
I think it's a brilliant idea! Literally no downside and all positives
 

Fin ice Smuggler

Cancelled
Nov 13, 2010
3,565
1,479
AFL Club
Essendon
Not sure Bellchambers was much better? As frustrating as I was with the lack of awareness to pass to Fantasia I’ll reserve my judgement after he has played a few games at least.

Couple things - his lack of speed meant he stayed near goalsquare which actually gave us forward structure as smack and stringer became roaming targets.

If we kick a behind though why does he stand about 20m mark? Useless positioning. Move back to prevent opposition tall from taking exit Mark.
 
Agreed. Fair enough not to trust Draper to run out a game on his own but if Bellchambers is also going to be out there, I really can't see why we're playing Clarke.

We'd be much better served playing Stewart. It's much more important to have a second key forward than to have a second ruckman.

In today’s 6-6-6?? 8 goals were kicked in the final 6:30 mins of the game. With Stewart in the ruck we could have got thrashed out of the middle. He’s a s**t ruck.

We won a few clearances in third with Clarke in the ruck.
 
In today’s 6-6-6?? 8 goals were kicked in the final 6:30 mins of the game. With Stewart in the ruck we could have got thrashed out of the middle. He’s a s**t ruck.

We won a few clearances in third with Clarke in the ruck.
McKernan would ruck though.
 
Im not sure about that - throwing 20 year old Draper up against Steffan Martin from the lions not a good idea I wouldnt think...

Draper is the fastest and most agile of all of our three actual ruckmen, and he's arguably got more mongrel than the other two as well. Plus he's got more goal sense than Clarke. Forget the whole first game thing as Clarke just performed like it was his first game.
 
Apr 6, 2008
18,324
14,518
coburg
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Australian cricket team
I didnt think Clarke was as bad as lots of people are saying. Yes - he made some glaring errors - but lets not forget the man has not played AFL since August 2016 - nearly 3 years, so he was always going to make a couple of mistakes.
I think with Clarke in the team structurally e looked much better up forward - 3 talls in Stringer, Smack & Clarke, and 3 smalls in Tippa, Fanta & Smith
He has to stay in certainly until Daniher is back and I think you'll find this will be the case with big Zac. He'll be much better for the run as well and we need both Zac & Bellcho both on there games against Steffan Martin who is in ripping form

It was the worst display I have seen in an Essendon jumper. The only game I have seen that was worse was Hickie playing for St Kilda against us (was our BOG that day).

Everything he went near was worse for his involvement. I hope he doesn't read footy blogs, because I am sure he's a great bloke and he is capable of improvement. It could be that he's been away from this level for a long time and was super rusty, added with the baby giraffe movement of someone as skinny as him.

So I am not ready to write him off yet, but he is no where near an AFL player now. We do not need him next week. If we want two rucks, then surely Draper is a better option. However, two rucks are unsustainable and it is really saying we need another tall up forward (and Brown does not play as a tall). Hooker and Stewart are available next week.

Clarke and Draper both playing in the VFL means that they can both work on their forward craft in spurts.
 
Back