Player Watch #9: Luke Davies-Uniacke [Part II] - '24 SBM - re-signed until the end of 2032 [7 year deal]

[gokangas]

Lazy today. Zero second efforts costly.

 

[krakouers]

Again, defensive running…
One minute silk, the next…

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

32, 12 clearances, a goal and two assists.

But yeah, didn’t sprint back every time to assist the defenders who are nowhere near their opponents.

 

[DuckYeah]

Looks great in patches before he has to dispose of it.

All those kicks work at training. I was thinking about it today. Obviously when we do match sim and practice, the match ups are so poor that what works in training, doesn’t in real game scenarios

 

[archereleven]

32, 12 clearances, a goal and two assists.

But yeah, didn’t sprint back every time to assist the defenders who are nowhere near their opponents.

There was 1 passage i called him out on in the gdt... started between hb and centre, didn't chase his man hard into d50, opponent got it and goaled.

He's one of the biggest reasons we were +30 in contested ball and +20 in clearance, yet, posters want to shit on him for a missed tackle or jogging after breaking out the front of a stoppage lol

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

There was 1 passage i called him out on in the gdt... started between hb and centre, didn't chase his man hard into d50, opponent got it and goaled.

He's one of the biggest reasons we were +30 in contested ball and +20 in clearance, yet, posters want to shit on him for a missed tackle or jogging after breaking out the front of a stoppage lol

Yep. Smith (fresh as **** as the sub) ran hard through the middle past a while host of players.

He had the ball, because Tom Powell shanked a five metre pass to him in the D50.

 

[giantroo]

 

[zoomba23]

Bit of pot stirring. I like it.

But you are of course correct. Surely, at this level, all bodily points of ball use would be up to scratch. It at least used to be drummed into players at far lower levels than this. Left hand, right hand, left nut, right nut, etc. etc. Genuinely irritating when someone is completely incompetent on his non-preferred

 

[RHLK]

Bloke could be an all-time great. Trying to remember a more frustrating player.

 

[rickety]

He's not on his pat there though tbf

 

[gokangas]

From Herald Sun

DISLIKES​

THE LITTLE THINGS

They are the little moments North Melbourne has blown for six seasons running.

Luke Davies-Uniacke

9

Luke Davies-uniacke

Age

26

Ht

188cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.1

3star

K

6.5

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.5

3star

T

2.2

4star

CL

2.0

4star

D

7.0

1star

K

3.0

1star

HB

4.0

3star

M

2.0

2star

T

1.0

2star

CL

2.0

4star

D

9.8

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

4.8

4star

M

1.6

2star

T

1.8

4star

CL

1.2

4star

is close to the club’s best player, but the reason he is not in the All-Australian conversation can be distilled to four poor moments in the first term against Adelaide.

The midfield bull inexplicably chose to bump Taylor Walker

13

Taylor Walker

Age

35

Ht

192cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.0

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

5.7

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

8.0

2star

K

6.4

3star

HB

1.6

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.6

5star

when he had him cold to tackle in the opening minutes, and Walker set up a goal.

On a rebound out of the backline 50 minutes later he demanded a handball running past a teammate, yet ‘LDU’ was running with the boundary to his left and forced to kick on his opposite foot, skewing an ugly turnover straight to Adelaide.

Then minutes after that, the Roos fought impressively to win the ball back in a contest only for Davies-Uniacke to handball with his right hand, instead of his left, and turn it over straight to Jordan Dawson

12

Jordan Dawson

Age

28

Ht

190cm

Wt

91kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.0

4star

K

11.4

4star

HB

5.7

4star

M

4.8

5star

T

2.8

4star

CL

0.6

3star

D

15.7

4star

K

10.9

4star

HB

4.9

3star

M

2.9

3star

T

2.0

3star

CL

0.4

3star

D

11.8

3star

K

7.8

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

5.0

5star

T

3.0

5star

CL

0.6

3star

.

Another goal came from that turnover.

Always on watch for players who use the wrong hand to handball, Gerard Healy described it as a “C-grade” effort.

Again, minutes later, Davies-Uniacke broke out of the midfield only to have his pass inside-50 smothered, then he blasted a resulting shot at goal out on the full.

That’s why Davies-Uniacke, who has all the gifts of the best players, isn’t a true A-grade midfielder.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

From Herald Sun

DISLIKES​

THE LITTLE THINGS

They are the little moments North Melbourne has blown for six seasons running.

Luke Davies-Uniacke is close to the club’s best player, but the reason he is not in the All-Australian conversation can be distilled to four poor moments in the first term against Adelaide.

The midfield bull inexplicably chose to bump Taylor Walker when he had him cold to tackle in the opening minutes, and Walker set up a goal.

On a rebound out of the backline 50 minutes later he demanded a handball running past a teammate, yet ‘LDU’ was running with the boundary to his left and forced to kick on his opposite foot, skewing an ugly turnover straight to Adelaide.

Then minutes after that, the Roos fought impressively to win the ball back in a contest only for Davies-Uniacke to handball with his right hand, instead of his left, and turn it over straight to Jordan Dawson.

Another goal came from that turnover.

Always on watch for players who use the wrong hand to handball, Gerard Healy described it as a “C-grade” effort.

Again, minutes later, Davies-Uniacke broke out of the midfield only to have his pass inside-50 smothered, then he blasted a resulting shot at goal out on the full.

That’s why Davies-Uniacke, who has all the gifts of the best players, isn’t a true A-grade midfielder.

All true.

While you’re at it, you could go through and highlight all the little mistakes Adelaide’s best players made as well….

 

[hotchilli]

All true.

While you’re at it, you could go through and highlight all the little mistakes Adelaide’s best players made as well….

Eh, things are always glossed over for the sides that are going well.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

You can throw up whatever stats you like.
By his standards, it wasn't a good game. Made some stupid, costly decisions.

 

[giantroo]

 

[gokangas]

Interesting that the knock on LDU is the headline story on the Hun website with a big pic.

 

[King Corey]

I dont mind the criticism.

He is definitely playing with more flare but has another level if he tightens things up.

The lift of his teammates is certainly making him more dynamic lately.

 

[TruRoo]

That burst out of the middle only to get smothered, recollect in space and put it out on the full was awful footy.

 

[amaz199]

Thought he was alright.

Yeah, he fluffed a few but I'll let it go because Adelaide were shit scared of him. Couldn't contain him.

 

[Midas]

Geez he won some very difficult ball today that was pretty special.

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Despite leather poisoning in the first half, I thought his second was twice as damaging.

Too many fumbles and refusing to go defensively in the first half.

Happy he decided to lift with the rest of the team in quarters three and four.

 

[Souup]

Stating the obvious here but the upcoming pre-season is going to be the biggest and most telling of his career.

Gets to decide whether he'll spend the prime of his career as a consistent elite A-grader who'll lead from the front and take this club back to finals or whether he'll coast and spend the rest of his career with all the talent in the world but not reaching his potential and retiring a 'could've been' player.

Would be a win to not hear his efforts in preseason being described as 'going in second gear'

 

[zoomba23]

Stating the obvious here but the upcoming pre-season is going to be the biggest and most telling of his career.

Gets to decide whether he'll spend the prime of his career as a consistent elite A-grader who'll lead from the front and take this club back to finals or whether he'll coast and spend the rest of his career with all the talent in the world but not reaching his potential and retiring a 'could've been' player.

Would be a win to not hear his efforts in preseason being described as 'going in second gear'

He's 26. This'll be his ninth pre-season.

I think we know where he stands on the topic

 

[Moti]

Stating the obvious here but the upcoming pre-season is going to be the biggest and most telling of his career.

Gets to decide whether he'll spend the prime of his career as a consistent elite A-grader who'll lead from the front and take this club back to finals or whether he'll coast and spend the rest of his career with all the talent in the world but not reaching his potential and retiring a 'could've been' player.

Would be a win to not hear his efforts in preseason being described as 'going in second gear'

Should be doing a lot of game scenarios based on effective ball use

 

[archereleven]

Adelaide would give their 1st borns for a midfielder like LDU to pair with Dawson and Berry.

Imagine if he played for them today...