Scorpus
Moderator
- Apr 16, 2014
- 58,084
- 150,275
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Moderator
- #526
So if Atkins is a great player at the bottom of a good list why isn't he getting games at Gold Coast? Their list is far worse than ours in 2017. Good players in great lists should easily get games at crappy clubsWhen was it evident? After 8 games in 2015? When he played 24 games in 2016? When he played all 25 games in 2017 when we made a grand final?
I wouldn't say he was gifted games. I would say he was identified as a member of a squad that would push for a flag in 2017. He was a player that had a very high ceiling, but definitely struggled with consistency. Ultimately he wasn't a top 15 player in our squad. Sloane, Crouch, Crouch,Laird, Jacobs, Walker, Jenkins, Lynch, Betts, Talia, Smith, Douglas, Lever, Brown were the core of the team.
Atkins is fantastic as a bottom end player on a good list.
No surprises here. It was a great move by the club letting him go. The type of player and his age - just didn't fit in with us in 2020.
Obviously he chased the financial security of a 5 year deal and lots of $$$ to Gold Coast, but I am sure a number of Victorian clubs would have wanted him.
You're basically saying "he played games so it's evident he was good". No. The way he played was never conducive to high pressure matches and he consistently performed poorly in them. Merely playing games is not evident of quality