Prediction 3 players you are most excited about watching this season?

[Spazz Cat]

I Probably should of used the term raw abilities instead of talent. Gaz is my favourite sportsmen period. But we arent looking if we dont see similar raw abilities in cocky. Some of his goals (the one against freo and the one against carlton when he did his hammy) were genuinly gaz senior level but with even more pace. He has also won a number of freakish contests in his few games such as taking one handed marks whilst on his back that looked every bit gaz senior level. consistency and doing it more often and building up his stamina is the barriers that stood in his way earlier on and now injury. But his raw ability at a contest is as good as ive seen.

Ill have to listen others who saw Gaz at 18 in regards to his raw talent at that age.
But Ive gotta agree with you. Most naturally talented player ive ever seen come through.
Then a gap then Nathan Ablett.
Unfortunately there's a massive chance we'll never see what either player could really do.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

3. Cocky - please please please show us what you got

2. Freddy - sky should be the limit

1. Chris Scott - from a purely academic perspective I'd like to measure how many of his decisions lead to our fans having literal aneurysms or other related brain injuries.

 

[00VicWard001]

3. Miers. Think he could elevate his game and even spend some time in the midfield. Has real class.
2. Esava. Very raw still but has genuine potential. Our best young forward prospect since Hawkins. Easily too.
1. Cocky. Please please let this work out. Most exciting talent Ive ever seen at our club. Ever. Its been such a waste.

Other players who dont quite make my top 3. Clark (obvious reasons see Miers), stewart (underated defender - assuming injuries dont get in the way he will be atleast as good as enright), Stevens.

Perfect list. Exactly the players I'm interested in seeing play well.

 

[Vdubs]

Im referring to potential only. He clearly never got close. But he is faster, has better agility and looks to be just as strong and just as big a kick. He also has a good leap although probably not at gazs level. Kicking accuracy is a weakness but it wasnt gazzas strength either.

Over his career of nearly 250 games, he averaged 15+ disposals and over 4+ goals, and over 2+ behinds a game.
Nobody gets near that.

 

[Warhorse]

I'll avoid naming the usual suspects and young guns.

Jenkins: match winner or a new favourite whipping boy. Going to be absolutely facinating to see how he fits in out team. Will jenkins, hawkins and sav work in the same forwardline?

Guthrie: I'm hoping to see the WC final version of Guthrie. We get that version and we can beat anyone. We get the soft outside version that gets 10 touches a games, well... expect another thread with thousands of posts.

Stanley: we can't win a flag playing blicavs in the ruck and hopefully our coach has (finally) learnt his lesson. The mixture of Jenkins, sav and Stanley makes things very very interesting

 

[Vdubs]

I Probably should of used the term raw abilities instead of talent. Gaz is my favourite sportsmen period. But we arent looking if we dont see similar raw abilities in cocky. Some of his goals (the one against freo and the one against carlton when he did his hammy) were genuinly gaz senior level but with even more pace. He has also won a number of freakish contests in his few games such as taking one handed marks whilst on his back that looked every bit gaz senior level. consistency and doing it more often and building up his stamina is the barriers that stood in his way earlier on and now injury. But his raw ability at a contest is as good as ive seen.

Please just watch this again.


Pace, acceleration, marking, kicking, evasive skills, physicality- he was truly and will always be, imo, the only total package.
Cocky at present is not fit to carry his box of highlights.

 

[Seeds]

Please just watch this again.


Pace, acceleration, marking, kicking, evasive skills, physicality- he was truly and will always be, imo, the only total package.
Cocky at present is not fit to carry his box of highlights.

You arent reading what im posting.

 

[Vdubs]

You arent reading what im posting.

I did actually.
I just think the MANY highlights here, which are really just a snippet of his total contribution, actually reveal his speed, marking, kicking, and physicality are superior in every facet.
Cocky has exceptional innate ability, but I seriously have not seen one area where he has it over GAS.

 

[Live in hope]

I did actually.
I just think the MANY highlights here, which are really just a snippet of his total contribution, actually reveal his speed, marking, kicking, and physicality are superior in every facet.
Cocky has exceptional innate ability, but I seriously have not seen one area where he has it over GAS.

Doubt there has ever been an AFL player with the complete package of skills that GAS had. Sure, there are many with better agility, foot skills etc. but no one with the lot. Funny, but for all his greatness, IMO he had much more potential.
I will say that Cocky may match GAS for acceleration - prior to injury his break away speed was absolutely elite - and his strength in tackling is GAS like. (and ability to Rag doll rucks and CHBs was pretty impressive).

 

[Live in hope]

The talent in the list is the most exciting since early 2000’s - so much to look forward to. Hard to pick just three players (so nup).

In rough order -

Meirs - reminds me of Steele Sidebottom and could get to this level quickly. Love his desire to improve.
Sav - reasons already covered.
Cooper Stephens - ditto.

Krueger - has great attributes (fans will love his passing - 40-50 m stabs). Think he’s going to a need luck with injuries and a good run of games in VFL.
Clark - might need another season IMO, but when builds strength will be huge.
Jack Steven - calf is the question mark but if fit, he gets us to top 4 or 2.
Atkins - his 2020 might surprise some here. Pretty good in 2019 for first AFL year and apparently now much fitter.

Will be also fascinating to see Cocky - think the recent club article means they must be confident (they wouldn’t if he was struggling) - I’m hopeful but I’m not going to bank on him.

 

[Vdubs]

Doubt there has ever been an AFL player with the complete package of skills that GAS had. Sure, there are many with better agility, foot skills etc. but no one with the lot. Funny, but for all his greatness, IMO he had much more potential.
I will say that Cocky may match GAS for acceleration - prior to injury his break away speed was absolutely elite - and his strength in tackling is GAS like. (and ability to Rag doll rucks and CHBs was pretty impressive).

The young Ablett, 84-89, was described by teammates as being the fastest sprinter, the longest kick, the best accelerator, the highest mark, the heaviest weightlifter.. and allegedly off very sparse preparation.
I knew Bewsy pretty well in that era, and he has regularly said senior was all of those things.
We witnessed that anyway.
People forget those early years on the wing, hbf- his speed and acceleration was outrageous.
Maybe Cocky does have that sheer speed factor, but so far it is so sporadic, it's not really worth the comparisons.
His later more prolific years as a goalscorer, he was clearly much heavier, 100kg for 185 cm, and not as agile or quick.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I'll avoid naming the usual suspects and young guns.

Jenkins: match winner or a new favourite whipping boy. Going to be absolutely facinating to see how he fits in out team. Will jenkins, hawkins and sav work in the same forwardline?

Guthrie: I'm hoping to see the WC final version of Guthrie. We get that version and we can beat anyone. We get the soft outside version that gets 10 touches a games, well... expect another thread with thousands of posts.

Stanley: we can't win a flag playing blicavs in the ruck and hopefully our coach has (finally) learnt his lesson. The mixture of Jenkins, sav and Stanley makes things very very interesting

Solid take

 

[Drunkcat]

What about the game Gaz played for the vics vs W.A think it was 84 or 85 kicked 8 he was unreal in that game

 

[Spazz Cat]

The young Ablett, 84-89, was described by teammates as being the fastest sprinter, the longest kick, the best accelerator, the highest mark, the heaviest weightlifter.. and allegedly off very sparse preparation.
I knew Bewsy pretty well in that era, and he has regularly said senior was all of those things.
We witnessed that anyway.
People forget those early years on the wing, hbf- his speed and acceleration was outrageous.
Maybe Cocky does have that sheer speed factor, but so far it is so sporadic, it's not really worth the comparisons.
His later more prolific years as a goalscorer, he was clearly much heavier, 100kg for 185 cm, and not as agile or quick.

What we're saying here though is have you seen a player come through that has had a lot of the raw natural talents of Gaz?
Cocky's the only one I've seen. & repeating an earlier post Danger in the legs. He is a freak!
& unless you saw Gaz come through as a youngster have you seen anyone more naturally talented?
Another Gaz story from a Gaz book Ive got (signed by Gaz jnr).
Didn't turn up for most of the preseason. Club couldn't contact him. No family and friends knew where he was.
Shows up out of the blue the day they were doing all the tests.
Won every single test except the long distance time trial which he was winning by a mile till he had enough and walked off.

 

[Vdubs]

What we're saying here though is have you seen a player come through that has had a lot of the raw natural talents of Gaz?
Cocky's the only one I've seen. & repeating an earlier post Danger in the legs. He is a freak!
& unless you saw Gaz come through as a youngster have you seen anyone more naturally talented?
Another Gaz story from a Gaz book Ive got (signed by Gaz jnr).
Didn't turn up for most of the preseason. Club couldn't contact him. No family and friends knew where he was.
Shows up out of the blue the day they were doing all the tests.
Won every single test except the long distance time trial which he was winning by a mile till he had enough and walked off.

When I watched or heard the Diesel Williams interview- may have been Open Mike- he said Ablett was so outrageously talented that he wasn't fit to tie his bootlaces. BIG statement from possibly one of the 2 best ever mids.

may have been an SEN interview with Finey
-would love to find it and upload it.

 

[Spazz Cat]

When I watched the Diesel Willoams interview- may have been Open Mike- he said Ablett was so outrageously talented that he wasn't fit to tie his bootlaces. BIG statement from possibly one of the 2 best ever mids.

Wow

 

[Live in hope]

Wow

(I know this is a digression on the thread but ... GAS is worthwhile).

Lucky enough to see a lot of games in the 84-89 period and the highlights don’t do him justice. Pulled down a speccy or two a game and the highlights only have a fraction. Mark Jackson hated being continually used as a stepladder.
Saw one of his breakout games in 84 at the ‘G against Norf - I think he picked 3 or 4 in a quarter but the highlight was a mark where he was flat on this back - ball cleared the pack and spreadeagled he thrust out a hand and it stuck). Saw another early where he kicked 5 from the wing then switched forward for another 4.
Was brutal in body hits - other than Ray Card and Byron Pickett the hardest bumper I’ve seen - pretty much ended Wayne Johnston’s career with a massive hip and shoulder at KP.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Wish I could of really seen him in that period. Technically I did but I can't really remember it and didn't know what was really going on but remember the crowd being really happy whenever he did anything.
Was watching a video of a preseason game against Carlton at the start of 1987.
Even at that time all the commentators were in agreement that he was the best player they'd seen in a very long time.
That is crazy! Really was only the start.
And yeah the bumps! 3 players came for him at one stage. Shoulders up and 2 360's and they were all on the ground.

 

[The rabbi]

 

[CatToTheFuture]

One I hadn't thought of is Lachie Fogarty. Promising first season, followed by injury, followed by some decent performances in the twos without really taking his chances with his few opportunities in the seniors

 

[catscratchfever]

1. Cocky - could be anything, could be nothing, but I'm all in
2. Sav - more of what he dished up in 2019 with improvement
3. Jenkins - surely is capable of snagging a few per game

 

[catscratchfever]

When I watched the Diesel Willoams interview- may have been Open Mike- he said Ablett was so outrageously talented that he wasn't fit to tie his bootlaces. BIG statement from possibly one of the 2 best ever mids.

I remember reading that quote in a newspaper interview. Diesel is the best handballer I've ever seen, but I only ever saw Gazza handball about twice in his career so who knows, maybe he was better at that as well, just as he was better in every other facet of the game than anybody else I've ever seen play.

 

[FredLeDeux]

I remember reading that quote in a newspaper interview. Diesel is the best handballer I've ever seen, but I only ever saw Gazza handball about twice in his career so who knows, maybe he was better at that as well, just as he was better in every other facet of the game than anybody else I've ever seen play.

I was going to say that.
Otherwise, he only had the edge on Cockatoo in pace, acceleration, strength, leap, hitting power, kicking length, effective tackling, ball-getting ability, anticipation and probably also a couple of other things.

PS He bounced the ball two-handed, which meant he didn't run away from his chasers as much as he might have otherwise.

 

[FredLeDeux]

When I watched the Diesel Willoams interview- may have been Open Mike- he said Ablett was so outrageously talented that he wasn't fit to tie his bootlaces. BIG statement from possibly one of the 2 best ever mids.

That's an interesting quote coming from someone who has never - ever - been accused of false modesty, or of downplaying his opinion about his own place in the history of the game.

 

[FredLeDeux]

And I loved watching him play, and I don't wish him ill, but one player I am totally unexcited about watching this season is Tim Kelly.