Player Watch Ned Long

[gouki88]

Wow, Ned Long averaging 20 Disposals for the season this year , I had to check that......Oh, BS!

Ned's Disposal averages according to AFL tables:

Career - 14
Season 2025 - 17
@MCG - 13 (after 23 games)
Against Brisbane - 12 (after 4 games)

Round 21 against Brisbane (2025)
9 disposals 5 clangers - 4 effective disposals for the game.

Preliminary final against Brisbane (2025)
13 disposals 7 clangers - 6 effective disposals for the game.

Yeah, nah.....

I'm looking forward to the exponential growth!

I like how you rounded 17.8 down to 17

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

He’s not good enough. Disposal always to the opposition.

His hardness is terrific but shown today why the hawks let him go.

I don't know if he's not good enough.

I think there's enough to work with, but the responsibility is on the coaches to either:

• Develop and improve his weaknesses or...
• Maximise and utilise his strengths to our advantage where possible

If it were me? I'd be using him almost exclusively as a run with/tagger. Just reckon our midfield is beaten far too frequently going head to head against opposition midfields (who tag our best mids by the way) for us to just keep banging our heads into a wall on this

Reckon Ned would make a fantastic run with/tagger

 

[Ugene41]

A promising first full season for Ned. Obviously a lot of development still needed to improve to a consistent standard.

We've had multiple goes at developing a player in this position with Sier, Wills and now Long. Sier had the most talent and Wills the least. I think with Ned the one thing we can count on is he seems to have a good head on his shoulders and should hopefully knuckle down to improve year on year.

 

[No SPIN]

He’s not currently up to it at this level
AFL midfield senior players as well as getting the ball , tackling and being hard have to dispose of the ball to the advantage of their team and they have to make good decisions when they get it
He’s not up to it with those last two
The turnovers kill you and they did again yesterday
We’ve seen enough sample size now to call
And no covering over these cracks with tagging roles either

He was selected in the AFL under 22’s team - so you’re way off the mark.

 

[cfc19902010]

Ned often butchers the ball by foot, it's plain to see.

He has a number of positive attributes that counter this.

His attack on the ball, size, strength, endurance, & disposal by hand.

There's good potential for improvement and the club sees it. He fills a need.

If you don't like him as a player that's fine. That only needs to be registered once. There is no good reason to repetively pot a player. It's pointless and a bad reflection on the poster.

That’s all fine but that means when posters here disagree and join the pile on against someones opinions that according to your reasoning you can’t elaborate or respond because you can’t keep potting a player .. ridiculous

 

[sr36]

He had one great final, one poor. A player with so few games and his AFL traits is a keeper.

Enormous amount of development since last year. You'd expect the development to continue. We might have a long term ripper on our hands.

 

[No SPIN]

25 games played with an average of just under 20 disposals per game, plus an incredible 7 tackles per game.

Sure, he has things to work on, but clearly he had his best season by some margin.

Agree - especially when considering so many here had him in the delist column last year.

 

[WanderingDude]

He ended up 7th on the Collingwood leaderboard for AFLCA votes this year.

He broke the club tackle record this season.

His form kept Tom Mitchell out of the side.

He’s a decent chance to finish top 10 in the Copeland.

He’s currently the youngest player on our list getting regular games.

Yeah, he’s got room to improve, and there’s a decent chance he will.

I don’t understand the knocks?

Fly has addressed his disposal accuracy. He stated he is not concerned. Long has development to complete. He will grow. Our young players are improving in the VFL. Long has jumped the queue. He has played a very high percentage of possible games since recruitment.

 

[cfc19902010]

He was selected in the AFL under 22’s team - so you’re way off the mark.

You’ve already told me that
Don’t know what that’s got to do with another dreadful peformance ?
How much did the under 22 team matter when those terrible wild handballs were being flung off on Saturday ?

 

[Rorzza]

He was selected in the AFL under 22’s team - so you’re way off the mark.

You mean squad, I don't think Ned made the 2025 AFLPA 22Under 22 final team.....only Nic made the team, I might be wrong.

 

[gouki88]

Enormous amount of development since last year. You'd expect the development to continue. We might have a long term ripper on our hands.

He has gone from delisted, to end of MSD selection on the fringe of being delisted, to a lock in the best 22 and a starting midfielder. All in a couple of years. He’s made 10x the development all of our other mid prospects have in a fraction of the time

 

[No SPIN]

You’ve already told me that
Don’t know what that’s got to do with another dreadful peformance ?
How much did the under 22 team matter when those terrible wild handballs were being flung off on Saturday ?

You said he’s not up to AFL standards- I proved you wrong.

 

[cfc19902010]

You said he’s not up to AFL standards- I proved you wrong.

No he proved me right on Saturday

 

[jathanas]

That’s all fine but that means when posters here disagree and join the pile on against someones opinions that according to your reasoning you can’t elaborate or respond because you can’t keep potting a player .. ridiculous

That's the internet, isn't it?

Poster A will bag player X, Poster B will defend the player, then poster A wants to be right; to have the final word.

You be you.

PS: I ignore every word before the "but" in a sentence.

 

[gouki88]

No he proved me right on Saturday

Is De Goey up to the level? Crisp? Mihocek? All have had poor showings in the last 2 finals. You’re being silly

 

[cfc19902010]

That's the internet, isn't it?

Poster A will bag player X, Poster B will defend the player, then poster A wants to be right; to have the final word.

You be you.

PS: I ignore every word before a "but" in a sentence.

Then poster B will also try and get last word in and vilify poster A for having a differing opinion and then close them down with the old “you’ve had your say leave it now “

 

[WanderingDude]

tirade if you dont agree ..someones opinion if you agree ..nice
His disposal deficiency as an inside AFL mid has been obvious in the last 15 weeks ..IMO hes not good enough

Fly has stated it is not a concern. He has a full view of the players and backs Long. In the short time Long has been at the club the percentage of available games played is huge for a rookie. The club recently extended his contract. The club is backing Long for good reasons. I could explore that but you would ignore the comments.

 

[cfc19902010]

Is De Goey up to the level? Crisp? Mihocek? All have had poor showings in the last 2 finals. You’re being silly

Those guys mentioned have been champions of the club
Irrelevant to longs poor disposal and whether he makes it

 

[sr36]

He has gone from delisted, to end of MSD selection on the fringe of being delisted, to a lock in the best 22 and a starting midfielder. All in a couple of years. He’s made 10x the development all of our other mid prospects have in a fraction of the time

I sure as hell didn't see it coming and was surprised that we re-signed him. He had one hell of a year. I don't know what people are expecting from young players, but he played some excellent footy this year - including being the most significant player in torching Adelaide in the third quarter of a final that wsa level on the scoreboard at half time. We'd be over the moon if he had have been a high profile 22 year old recruit who came in and had his season - some just see players as finished products and dig in and can't re-assess when faced with new information. It's akin to the nuffies who actually think that Nick is still just an outside receiver without an inside game. They've pegged him early and can't see the growth. Who knows whether Long stagnates or adds the consistency, skill development and composure he needs to take his game to the next level, but that was a really promising season.

 

[yeah man]

I don't know what people are expecting from young players

They're expecting them to play like veterans. You can't win with these people. The good moments don't exist because the bad ones are irredeemable apparently.
I think we are genuinely just conversing with people who lack dimension of thought. They see a player make mistakes, and write them off. The same way I might have done as a 10 year old.

 

[WanderingDude]

This year was disappointing with young players not pushing our veterans out. Our veterans performed very well but a team without being refreshed stagnates. Long is so good in terms of capacity for cost. At the start of the year I wanted Mitchell injury free and helping 17. I suspect Mitchell is gone and Long has the potential of playing every game next year. It will be two years before we know who is right, That’s how development works. I’ll be positive about the journey. To bag Long now is to not understand player development. He has limitations but he can be an excellent contributor.

 

[Peters_Nuts]

I like how you rounded 17.8 down to 17

Also points out the two games that all but a handful of our players had poor games.

The expectations of this kid has skyrocketed. During the preseason, I thought he'd be depth at best and would only get a game due to injuries.

He's solidified a spot in our best 22 in a season without DeGoey and Mitchell. He stepped up and allowed Nick to play a more attacking role. I'd be more concerned about players like Allan, HDM and Mitchell not being able to win the spot off him.

He's going into a preseason now where a spot in our starting midfield is his to lose. Yes, he needs work on his disposal though let's back him.

 

[No SPIN]

No he proved me right on Saturday

That's why you're not a selector on the AFL under 22 panel

 

[sr36]

This year was disappointing with young players not pushing our veterans out. Our veterans performed very well but a team without being refreshed stagnates. Long is so good in terms of capacity for cost. At the start of the year I wanted Mitchell injury free and helping 17. I suspect Mitchell is gone and Long has the potential of playing every game next year. It will be two years before we know who is right, That’s how development works. I’ll be positive about the journey. To bag Long now is to not understand player development. He has limitations but he can be an excellent contributor.

It was a bit circumstantial in terms of young players pushing seniors out - the two most likely to have done that - Harrison and Reef were on the sidelines with ACLs. I thought it was actually a pretty decent year in terms of development (but I tend to be a bit less optimistic about the VFL players than most are) - Long, plus Parker and Steele look very likely. Charlie West showed a bit of wow factor. Add in Reef and Harrison and that's a decent number of young developing players who should be pushing to be regulars next year. It's enough to refresh the team in the short term. but we need to keep developing and adding players like all teams.

 

[gouki88]

I sure as hell didn't see it coming and was surprised that we re-signed him. He had one hell of a year. I don't know what people are expecting from young players, but he played some excellent footy this year - including being the most significant player in torching Adelaide in the third quarter of a final that wsa level on the scoreboard at half time. We'd be over the moon if he had have been a high profile 22 year old recruit who came in and had his season - some just see players as finished products and dig in and can't re-assess when faced with new information. It's akin to the nuffies who actually think that Nick is still just an outside receiver without an inside game. They've pegged him early and can't see the growth. Who knows whether Long stagnates or adds the consistency, skill development and composure he needs to take his game to the next level, but that was a really promising season.

I had written him off. Another to add the long and ever growing list of ones I’ve been wrong on