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Majak's footy story could be used as a case study to show the extreme swings and roundabouts possible in a footy career. From a very raw but athletic young bloke through to a promising but frustrating in-betweener (too good for VFL, maybe not quite AFL material) who had struggles with injury, running out games, reading the play and consistency. At the same time here was a bloke who was capable of moments of brilliance that could bring the crowd to their feet, perhaps it was this ability that also shone a light on the deficiencies in his game.
By the end of 2017 I had him down as a likely addition to the list of players with obvious potential that for whatever combination of reasons never quite made it. Likely to be used as a back-up option if injuries struck the seniors. Then came the move to the backline. An interesting idea, but would he get exposed positionally and could he run out games? And then as the games went on his confidence grew, running out games seemed to be less of a problem and he wasn't being exposed positionally as he was at times when playing up forward. Clearly having blokes like Tarrant and Thompson made the transition easier.
As the 2018 season went on you could clearly see in games that the opposition were very aware of what he could do. It was a bit of a weird thing to see a bloke on probably his last chance playing his first games as a defender and the opponents were having to come up with ways of dealing with him. In some ways it's a pity that Thompson wasn't a few years younger as a defensive triumvirate of Tarrant-Daw-Thompson would of been great to see develop over time.
I really hope he can get back to form and fitness but who really knows what's going to happen. What I do know is that Majak is one of the players that actually lifts a crowd, a player that when he's about to get involved in the play you can sense the crowd grow in anticipation. Players chipping the ball sideways and backwards under little pressure bores the arse off me. Majak certainly doesn't.
By the end of 2017 I had him down as a likely addition to the list of players with obvious potential that for whatever combination of reasons never quite made it. Likely to be used as a back-up option if injuries struck the seniors. Then came the move to the backline. An interesting idea, but would he get exposed positionally and could he run out games? And then as the games went on his confidence grew, running out games seemed to be less of a problem and he wasn't being exposed positionally as he was at times when playing up forward. Clearly having blokes like Tarrant and Thompson made the transition easier.
As the 2018 season went on you could clearly see in games that the opposition were very aware of what he could do. It was a bit of a weird thing to see a bloke on probably his last chance playing his first games as a defender and the opponents were having to come up with ways of dealing with him. In some ways it's a pity that Thompson wasn't a few years younger as a defensive triumvirate of Tarrant-Daw-Thompson would of been great to see develop over time.
I really hope he can get back to form and fitness but who really knows what's going to happen. What I do know is that Majak is one of the players that actually lifts a crowd, a player that when he's about to get involved in the play you can sense the crowd grow in anticipation. Players chipping the ball sideways and backwards under little pressure bores the arse off me. Majak certainly doesn't.