Past #1: Majak Daw [Part II] - 54 NM games/43 NM goals - delisted end '20 - SSP selection for MFC '21 - retired mid-'22

Groin guru

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 21, 2017
10,261
29,970
Destination Club
AFL Club
North Melbourne
I like Roughie but i think Maj edges this one.
200w (1).gif
 

shimaburnsgrieg

Premiership Player
Apr 1, 2017
4,357
10,092
AFL Club
North Melbourne
The extra piece I liked today was when he contested a series of boundary throw ins with McEvoy - Maj used his muscle to repeatedly push Big Boy out of the way - the first time I have seen him do that. He got a blast from BS last year when that Essendon ruckman outpointed him at boundary throw ins - today Maj was allover it and shows he is improving in all aspects of the game.
 

kaboom kid

From the River to the Sea, Israel will be free.
Apr 28, 2016
2,228
3,900
Destination club
AFL Club
North Melbourne
I'm in the hoping but not believing camp with Maj, but I do think he ads a dimension of fear to the opposition forwards with his tackling when the ball hits the ground, both the talls and the smalls.
That tackle today was epic. He hits exceptionally hard (but legally) when he tackles. As a player you don't forget that and it weighs on your mind for the rest of the game
 
Between him, Zurhaar and Ziebell, they will kill someone with their tackling. I'm alright with that.
Got some massive units in our team now

Intimidate the s**t out of teams

Add Garner and Hayden to our 22 and look out
 

Moti

Brownlow Medallist
Mar 4, 2001
13,830
10,648
Melbourne
AFL Club
North Melbourne
The extra piece I liked today was when he contested a series of boundary throw ins with McEvoy - Maj used his muscle to repeatedly push Big Boy out of the way - the first time I have seen him do that. He got a blast from BS last year when that Essendon ruckman outpointed him at boundary throw ins - today Maj was allover it and shows he is improving in all aspects of the game.

Agreed. Still not sure why he bothers to wrestle at all, should just jump but was more impressive in the throw ins.

Punched a bit too much around but looked to be instructed to go for the mark in the last and it looked natural.

Performing his role and today didn’t make an obvious mistake so good job.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Pykie

Cancelled
10k Posts A Star Wars Fan Pokemon is Life North Melbourne - North 2007 Player Sponsor North Melbourne - 2013 Daw, Black and Gibson Player Sponsorship
Sep 17, 2006
20,605
45,615
Lord's
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Leeds United
I don't want to get sucked into him, but his ceiling as a defender is pretty damn high.

Yes he can have a brain fade, but so can a heap of other players.

He has elite size, strength and speed for a defender and he's a great contested mark.

Remember this bloke has never played more than 4 or so games in a row at a time.

If he can settle and play a whole season at CHB, god knows what he could do.

He's looking better every game.

If he can become a solid AFL player, he still has a good 4-5 years of football in him.
 

Jindrrk

Norm Smith Medallist
Oct 20, 2016
8,105
18,620
Macau
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
*, St Dwarves, Lolmond
I don't want to get sucked into him, but his ceiling as a defender is pretty damn high.

Yes he can have a brain fade, but so can a heap of other players.

He has elite size, strength and speed for a defender and he's a great contested mark.

Remember this bloke has never played more than 4 or so games in a row at a time.

If he can settle and play a whole season at CHB, god knows what he could do.

He's looking better every game.

If he can become a solid AFL player, he still has a good 4-5 years of football in him.
He's other issue was his tank....now playing out games.

Part of that was due to lack of preseason in most seasons also.

Signs are looking promising though. He sure can punch well (just needs to be to the right spots) and take a nice mark though.
 
A very good game today.
Apart from punching the ball right across the front of the goal 30 metres out (which, I believe was just a bad fist connection), I don't believe he made an error. Luckily, we got away with it. There was a stage during the last quarter when we were 19 points up when I, actually, thought he was our last man standing with the ability to hurt the Hawks players. Then, a few others stood up.
 
Last edited:

nelroo

Premiership Player
Aug 8, 2004
4,212
8,333
AFL Club
North Melbourne
I’m sure it’s been asked before but why on earth didn’t we trial him in the backline years ago? It not as though we have had a rock solid defence keeping him out. Even if we did, he should have been learning the ropes in the VFL as a CHB.
 

Marksup

Club Legend
Sep 29, 2013
1,212
4,235
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Does Brad give him a license to roll forward when we get complete control of the footy? It looked like it today and if so that's great coaching..

There's no forward in the league that would have the balls to not go with him incase he took a mark, and his pace is beating anyone going back the other way if the ball turns over so I really like it. Didn't catch one up there today but don't be surprised if he kicks a few snags as a defender. Wouldn't that give an opposition medium-tall forward the shits.
 
Apr 24, 2013
81,024
153,170
Arden Street Hill
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
I don't want to get sucked into him, but his ceiling as a defender is pretty damn high.

Yes he can have a brain fade, but so can a heap of other players.

He has elite size, strength and speed for a defender and he's a great contested mark.

Remember this bloke has never played more than 4 or so games in a row at a time.

If he can settle and play a whole season at CHB, god knows what he could do.

He's looking better every game.

If he can become a solid AFL player, he still has a good 4-5 years of football in him.


He actually looked like a bloke that knew how to play defence for the first time.

He didn't run over the ball. He didn't drop easy marks and he generally cleared the high ball well (except for that one time he punched the thing straight in to the waiting arms of a Hawthorn player in the corridor).

However, there was bugger all defensive pressure inside Hawthorns 50 today, they had 7 T50's for the match, they were averaging 13. It won't be that easy next week against Port.
 

Pykie

Cancelled
10k Posts A Star Wars Fan Pokemon is Life North Melbourne - North 2007 Player Sponsor North Melbourne - 2013 Daw, Black and Gibson Player Sponsorship
Sep 17, 2006
20,605
45,615
Lord's
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Leeds United
He actually looked like a bloke that knew how to play defence for the first time.

He didn't run over the ball. He didn't drop easy marks and he generally cleared the high ball well (except for that one time he punched the thing straight in to the waiting arms of a Hawthorn player in the corridor).

However, there was bugger all defensive pressure inside Hawthorns 50 today, they had 7 T50's for the match, they were averaging 13. It won't be that easy next week against Port.

Yeah but today should of been a hard game for him.

No real direct match up, they have a reasonably mobile forward line, I think he will fare better against Port where they are more likely to kick the ball long to Dixon.

He's definitely improving, would be a massive win for the club if he could become a decent AFL defender, he has the athletic ability to chop out and switch off to other players that most defenders are incapable of.
 
The question now becomes can Majak back this performance up? Then, what could come into play, would be his ability to become a genuine swing man - if the match ups don't suit us. Port are a different proposition again and are coming off a surprise loss. Having said that, better Port than Sydney on the rebound next week.
 

The Butcher

All Australian
Mar 8, 2011
833
912
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Watching general play live Maj sticks out to me, not in a good way. With everyone else you can usually see their positioning and movements and make sense of them based upon where they're fitting in with nearby teammates and the overall structure. Watching Maj I usually get the impression that he isn't quite fitting in with the others. Is that just me?

It makes me wonder why, if I'm seeing it correctly, is it so? If a player isn't a coheasive part of the team's roving structures then that slack must be attempted to be taken up by others, obviously a high burden with multiple downsides. So i wonder what are my options to make sense of this.

1. Maj is selected with the expectation of being an integral part of the team structure (IPTS), he is doing that and I just can't see it.
2. Maj is selected with the expectation of being an IPTS and is failing.
3. Maj is selected without the expectation of being an IPTS.

1. This makes sense.

2. This makes sense if
a) being an IPTS is just one criteria to measure and despite failing at this Maj's overall value on field is still greater than the next in line for his spot
b) we aren't pushing for wins, want to finally settle on whether or not to keep him on and value that over giving game time to the next in line for his spot
c) other (times a bazillion)

3. This makes sense in the same way as 2(a) but without the failure.

What do you make of the above?

I'm not a gambler but at a guess I'd go with 3. Maj has aerobic and footy nous shortcomings that prevent him from being an IPTS but his impact on the contests he can be involved in outpoints that in the mind of the selection panel.
 

dus

Premiership Player
May 14, 2002
4,907
9,627
Poker Table
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Kangaroos
Watching general play live Maj sticks out to me, not in a good way. With everyone else you can usually see their positioning and movements and make sense of them based upon where they're fitting in with nearby teammates and the overall structure. Watching Maj I usually get the impression that he isn't quite fitting in with the others. Is that just me?

It makes me wonder why, if I'm seeing it correctly, is it so? If a player isn't a coheasive part of the team's roving structures then that slack must be attempted to be taken up by others, obviously a high burden with multiple downsides. So i wonder what are my options to make sense of this.

1. Maj is selected with the expectation of being an integral part of the team structure (IPTS), he is doing that and I just can't see it.
2. Maj is selected with the expectation of being an IPTS and is failing.
3. Maj is selected without the expectation of being an IPTS.

1. This makes sense.

2. This makes sense if
a) being an IPTS is just one criteria to measure and despite failing at this Maj's overall value on field is still greater than the next in line for his spot
b) we aren't pushing for wins, want to finally settle on whether or not to keep him on and value that over giving game time to the next in line for his spot
c) other (times a bazillion)

3. This makes sense in the same way as 2(a) but without the failure.

What do you make of the above?

I'm not a gambler but at a guess I'd go with 3. Maj has aerobic and footy nous shortcomings that prevent him from being an IPTS but his impact on the contests he can be involved in outpoints that in the mind of the selection panel.
Wat?
 

Moti

Brownlow Medallist
Mar 4, 2001
13,830
10,648
Melbourne
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Watching general play live Maj sticks out to me, not in a good way. With everyone else you can usually see their positioning and movements and make sense of them based upon where they're fitting in with nearby teammates and the overall structure. Watching Maj I usually get the impression that he isn't quite fitting in with the others. Is that just me?

It makes me wonder why, if I'm seeing it correctly, is it so? If a player isn't a coheasive part of the team's roving structures then that slack must be attempted to be taken up by others, obviously a high burden with multiple downsides. So i wonder what are my options to make sense of this.

1. Maj is selected with the expectation of being an integral part of the team structure (IPTS), he is doing that and I just can't see it.
2. Maj is selected with the expectation of being an IPTS and is failing.
3. Maj is selected without the expectation of being an IPTS.

1. This makes sense.

2. This makes sense if
a) being an IPTS is just one criteria to measure and despite failing at this Maj's overall value on field is still greater than the next in line for his spot
b) we aren't pushing for wins, want to finally settle on whether or not to keep him on and value that over giving game time to the next in line for his spot
c) other (times a bazillion)

3. This makes sense in the same way as 2(a) but without the failure.

What do you make of the above?

I'm not a gambler but at a guess I'd go with 3. Maj has aerobic and footy nous shortcomings that prevent him from being an IPTS but his impact on the contests he can be involved in outpoints that in the mind of the selection panel.

While he looks like he is always lost with his eyes, his positioning today was perfectly fine and he seemed to make good game decisions.

He will never replicate Tarrants games sense, but if you think that he isn’t a part of a cohesive team, then you might want to look at the best defence we have had for 20 years.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Last edited:
I think he was saying that the big man stands out because he doesn't do or go to where he expects him to. I think he is going well in his new roll. Now you have to decide what you want to think :)
 
Back