Past #43: Aaron Hall - Shinboner #1013 retires after 58 NM games - Thanks Aaron

[tazaa]

I won’t lay the loss solely on him but he burnt the footy tonight and is a terrible kick.
It was absolute murder some of the crap he served up.
Pay him out and move him on.
Woeful trade.

 

[blackshadow]

Great at finding the pill and at the moment even better at butchering it.

Too many poor decisions and too much poor execution. It really burnt us.

 

[Pykie]

Under contact in 2021 I’m believe put that one on cam Joyce

Joyce has had an absolute mare in his last few years at the club.

Signed up money ball steak knive types in Tyson and Hall to 3 year contracts.

Signed McKay onto a 3 year extension.

etc etc

One has to wonder how much of an effect he had on missing out on Kelly, Martin and Gaff.

 

[Devil Fish]

Joyce has had an absolute mare in his last few years at the club.

Signed up money ball steak knive types in Tyson and Hall to 3 year contracts.

Signed McKay onto a 3 year extension.

etc etc
.

Yep - Joyce rewards mediocrity

 

[Groucho]

Might have to just cut our loses and free up a spot.

in the current financial environment I don’t think we’ll be doing that

 

[Psicosis]

His ball use really hurts us.

 

[Val Keating]

in the current financial environment I don’t think we’ll be doing that

Any idea what coin he’s on?

 

[LB2Snake]

He’s a frustrating player as he has a great ability to get to the right spots and win the footy...... it I can’t think of a bloke who burns his teammates so often, u-turning at every opportunity and then blazing away with the ball..
could be an absolute steal and a star for us.
just doesn’t bring his team mates into the game.

 

[Shermanator]

Any idea what coin he’s on?

He should be paying us..

 

[LuvtheKangas]

He’s a frustrating player as he has a great ability to get to the right spots and win the footy...... it I can’t think of a bloke who burns his teammates so often, u-turning at every opportunity and then blazing away with the ball..
could be an absolute steal and a star for us.
just doesn’t bring his team mates into the game.

At the risk of using an old cliché, is this perhaps an "easy fix"?

It seems that he's putting pressure on himself to make things happen, when his ball-winning would be valuable if he took the first option when disposing.

And by easy fix, I mean work on it outside the senior team for the next few weeks.

 

[Kciza]

I know a few of us were excited at getting him at the time, but the fact he couldn't get a game for a deplorable Sun's side should've been warning enough

 

[LB2Snake]

At the risk of using an old cliché, is this perhaps an "easy fix"?

It seems that he's putting pressure on himself to make things happen, when his ball-winning would be valuable if he took the first option when disposing.

And by easy fix, I mean work on it outside the senior team for the next few weeks.

You may be right LTK.....but, at least, a bit like Kyron, he is actually “winning“ the footy, nor just being fed the ball, if that makes sense. He’s such a nearly player......should’ve had 3-4 goal assists last night plus a couple of his own.

 

[benbanjo]

At the risk of using an old cliché, is this perhaps an "easy fix"?

It seems that he's putting pressure on himself to make things happen, when his ball-winning would be valuable if he took the first option when disposing.

And by easy fix, I mean work on it outside the senior team for the next few weeks.

I just don't think the has the Footy IQ required at AFL level. He certainly has all the physical attributes, he makes so many stupid mistakes, it gets less surprising each week. I thought JZ would be an "easy fix" with his kicking yet here we are ten years on and its all the same. This bloke offers far less elsewhere to get away with butchering it at every opportunity.

 

[LuvtheKangas]

I just don't think the has the Footy IQ required at AFL level. He certainly has all the physical attributes, he makes so many stupid mistakes, it gets less surprising each week. I thought JZ would be an "easy fix" with his kicking yet here we are ten years on and its all the same. This bloke offers far less elsewhere to get away with butchering it at every opportunity.

I fear you are probably right. The JZ example is so accurate, it hurts (field kicking was always a problem, and now his reliable set shot kicking has also deserted him).

 

[koshari]

a poor mans sam gibson

 

[SunnyBoner]

I know a few of us were excited at getting him at the time, but the fact he couldn't get a game for a deplorable Sun's side should've been warning enough

There's a fine line isn't there. Peter Bell couldn't get a game in a fairly crap Freo outfit.

 

[Rad Roo]

Hall is a s**t coaches nightmare but a good coaches gem. You need to mould and polish him, he is a rough diamond, you need to build his confidence. If Shaw is the right coach for us, he not only needs to not see hall as a peripheral player but make him the playmaker, with deficiencies of course.... pat least for the interim. Hall needs to lead the way as the running attacking mid who gets oppositions attention. The butchering of the ball is down to confidence and the other support as there currently isn’t any.

The midfield incumbents Ziebell, Cunnington, Dumont, Anderson are all mediocre in skill, speed and sense, therefore hall isn’t that far below them. Hall has the leg speed which is something the others don’t have. if anything the hard decision has to be made Ziebell Cunnington, Dumont is a maybe at best, Anderson Can survive another season because if we need a player with some physicality, he is decent but he is also another borrowed time, Higgins needs to go too albeit to the forward line permanently because if he is in the midfield, then all look to him just like we once did boomer and wells. This model can no longer work, we need the lot of them running as a pack, we need the atley, Simpkin, hall, Thomas, Bailey, ldu, to be all in cohort.

Currently if we have Anderson, Ziebell, Cunnington in the mid, we get slaughtered in clearances because these three are not suitable for modern day inside midfield roles. Modern day inside kids need to be zippy, quick handed, daft foot like Cotchin ss the most standout. The kids we got right now were suitable for the past decade. Cut cut cut I say, the seemingly venerated stewarts need to go first as they are keeping the team down Due to their obsolete gameplay.

 

[Kciza]

There's a fine line isn't there. Peter Bell couldn't get a game in a fairly crap Freo outfit.

Peter Bell wasn't 28

 

[Val Keating]

Nailed it Kciza. He’s almost 30 and plays like a youngster.

He’s the reverse Simpkin

 

[MrBlueandWhite]

In my opinion he looks like he is battling some mental demons out there. Obviously I don't know any details but he took time off last year for his mental health. Whenever he is in front of goal you can just see he "hopes" it will go in.

I suspect he puts a lot of pressure on himself and probably has a lot of negative thoughts on the field. I think he may prove more valuable for the development of our younger players. We can't expect him to be a match winner, but more of a icing on the cake type.

 

[Dingster]

Jack Martin would have been nice.

 

[Roo Beauty]

Never seen a player burn teammates more with the old cardinal sin, the “u-turn”. Absolute no go even at local level. Seems to me he’s either very selfish out there or is too confident in his own abilities. Either way he doesn’t use his teammates and more often that not he sprays his kicks.

It’s odd because at training and in the media he seems to be a pretty good leader especially for younger blokes like Tarryn. I was one who wanted him brought to the club but he needs a spell unfortunately.

 

[benbanjo]

Never seen a player burn teammates more with the old cardinal sin, the “u-turn”. Absolute no go even at local level. Seems to me he’s either very selfish out there or is too confident in his own abilities. Either way he doesn’t use his teammates and more often that not he sprays his kicks.

It’s odd because at training and in the media he seems to be a pretty good leader especially for younger blokes like Tarryn. I was one who wanted him brought to the club but he needs a spell unfortunately.

Please keep him away from TT and the like.

 

[The Other Dean]

He was involved in a game where the conditions were difficult. There were a lot worse. I reckon he went alright. Obviously needs to work on some things as does the whole team.

As mentioned in the Autopsy thread, I took the time last night to go back through the replay and track his disposals. (Happy to list them all, but figured it wouldn't make for the most exciting read.) Much as I expected, it wasn't nearly as damning as some posters are making out. Definitely some confirmation bias at play here. Yes, he made some mistakes, but they are being exaggerated and overblown. Statements like 'can't hit a target', 'burns teammates every single time', 'kills scoring chains', etc, are the kind of lazy hyperbole that craps up this forum.

In the interest of a slightly more nuanced take on his game.....

Start with the stats - equal highest possession getter with Jy. Identical DE% (69.6) for the both of them, too. (And in case anyone is wondering, the 69.6% figure checked out upon tracking his disposals on the replay.) Obviously, I'm not about to suggest that the quality of Hall's 16 effective disposals was as high as Jy's 16 effective disposals, but IMO the more significant disparity came in the remaining 30.4% that went awry. Within that 30.4%, Hall had some absolute shockers. Jy not so much. Aaron was indeed guilty of some regrettable instances of ball-butchering and teammate burning. Not as much as some folks are making out, but it happened. Some of his I50's sucked a fair bit, too. Had 4 clangers in total for the game, the same as Jy, Browny, and Pittard. (Goldy and Ats both had 5.)

But still, the reality is that most of his possessions on the night were indeed effective. Hence, the "exaggeration" call.

I think a few people have nailed it. Aaron seems to take on the responsibility of making things happen, and it's not always the right decision to do so. But the fact remains that he's a 'live and die by the sword' type. He's a bloke that's trying to make stuff happen in a side that currently struggles with the creative side of footy. He's also one of the few players on our list that offers genuine pace. And he's a guy that for the most part gets on his bike while others are standing around flat-footed. Prefer a bit of dare to the boring, predictable, ridiculously impotent 'kick down the line' footy we saw on Saturday night.

Said it before and I'll say it again, he should be attending more centre bounces. When he is in there, with the aid of some of Goldy's brilliant tapwork, he invariably gets his hands on it. Don't want to harp on about the whole 'out of position' thing, but if we're to play him, he needs to get more midfield minutes. Can all too often go missing on a HFF. His game last night only really got going once he was swung into the midfield.

Couple of other things....his first miss on goal was undoubtedly a cringe-worthy moment (that I'm sure did his confidence no good), but re the second miss - as anyone crazy enough to brave the replay will see - he was actually slung at the last second just as he kicked, causing the shot to stray off line and hit the post. Didn't pick it up until I went back and watched it again.

Oh yeah, he was also 3rd in score involvements for the game, too.

So in a way it becomes almost a philosophical question. You could argue that without the 16 effective disposals and the score involvements that we would have been worse off. But at the same time his errors certainly didn't help our cause. The dilemma being how much weight to afford each? Does Shawry come after the bloke who's trying to make things happen and sometimes (perhaps a little too regularly) stuffs it up, or does he come after the blokes standing around with their thumbs up their arses doing 3/5ths of **** all?

Very much doubt he'll be dropped next week off the back of that effort, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, back to the insults.....

 

[The Other Dean]

We can't expect him to be a match winner, but more of a icing on the cake type.

He's the icing on a cake that is still just a bunch of ingredients sitting in a mixing bowl.

Happy to defend him where I think it's warranted, but in light of the above, I also think it's reasonable for people to ponder his usefulness to our side, circa now.