Player Watch #2 Jacob Hopper

[ShereKhan]

Said the same thing 4 weeks ago and was told i had no idea lol

We've not traded out many first round picks so there's not exactly a long list of trades to compare it to. Pick-19 for McMahon and Pick-35 for Mitch Morton. Chris Yarran for pick-19. Hampson for pick-32. Got picks 12 and 16 for Ottens. Pick-6 and Ben Holland for Nathan Brown (unlucky leg break).

Hopper is actually playing and last year averaged 26 and 6 clearances and came 3rd in B&F. He's not exactly chopped liver, albeit his early season form in 2026 is woeful.

And remember, we didn't trade pick-8 and pick-31 for Hopper. We traded a F1 and pick-31 and got back 2 x picks which netted us Steely Green and Kaleb Smith - jury is still out but not writing off either of those guys yet. And we gave a F1, not pick-8. We never would have imagined we'd finish 13th after losing an EF by 1-point and getting back a fit Dusty plus TT and Hopper. So we were 'anticipating' we'd be handing over pick-13 worst case, not pick-8. If it was pick-8 we wouldn't have done it - we rolled the dice on a future selection and lost. We rolled it on the North/Matt Whitlock trade and won.

Hopper has turned into a poor trade, but hardly anyone thought it was a poor trade when it was made, and you can only really judge decisions based on info you have at the time.....everyone can be a hindsight hero.

 

[Grechy]

We've not traded out many first round picks so there's not exactly a long list of trades to compare it to. Pick-19 for McMahon and Pick-35 for Mitch Morton. Chris Yarran for pick-19. Hampson for pick-32. Got picks 12 and 16 for Ottens. Pick-6 and Ben Holland for Nathan Brown (unlucky leg break).

Hopper is actually playing and last year averaged 26 and 6 clearances and came 3rd in B&F. He's not exactly chopped liver, albeit his early season form in 2026 is woeful.

And remember, we didn't trade pick-8 and pick-31 for Hopper. We traded a F1 and pick-31 and got back 2 x picks which netted us Steely Green and Kaleb Smith - jury is still out but not writing off either of those guys yet. And we gave a F1, not pick-8. We never would have imagined we'd finish 13th after losing an EF by 1-point and getting back a fit Dusty plus TT and Hopper. So we were 'anticipating' we'd be handing over pick-13 worst case, not pick-8. If it was pick-8 we wouldn't have done it - we rolled the dice on a future selection and lost. We rolled it on the North/Matt Whitlock trade and won.

Hopper has turned into a poor trade, but hardly anyone thought it was a poor trade when it was made, and you can only really judge decisions based on info you have at the time.....everyone can be a hindsight hero.

For all the hate he cops he still had 18 contested on the weekend and was our leading possession getter at 26.

 

[Coach_Required]

For all the hate he cops he still had 18 contested on the weekend and was our leading possession getter at 26.

 

[bc27]

He’s a black hole when he gets the footy.

 

[The Vaucluse]

For all the hate he cops he still had 18 contested on the weekend and was our leading possession getter at 26.

26 possessions at around 50% efficiency. He has NO defensive intent, hopeless when the ball leaves his area and can’t transition run.

There was a moment in the last, when a GWS player took a mark on their half forward flank, Hopper was the closest Richmond player sitting 10 meters away, he naturally thought the player was going to play on, so he just continued to jog, however, the GWS player for some reason went back on the mark to take the kick, so Hopper then decided to run to man the mark. That sums up Hopper, he hasn’t got the speed, athleticism or agility for the modern game and deep down he knows it.

I remember in the preseason sprints, he was coming last when competing with the midfielders. That was last by 5-10 meters over a 100 meters.

 

[Grrr]

For all the hate he cops he still had 18 contested on the weekend and was our leading possession getter at 26.

he got a lot of those possessions in the last Q when it was too late. It's not what he does, which is put his nose over it and take the heat, but what he doesn't do, use the ball at all well, break away and get clean possession and chase when his opponent goes forward. Do you ever remember seeing him down in the back half helping out his backs.

You might get away with one who plays like that, although as ShereKhan pointed out he is dead last in the league as an effective mid. Prestia not much better.

Yze mentions adding Campbell etc as running through there more often, but that is not going to help. Small cameo's from forwards who are doing their job where they are, thought Campbell was fantastic yesterday. Wwehave McAuliffe ready and waiting, but that would mean dropping he or Prestia.... and it will happen, when one of them gets injured.

 

[RJK Tiger]

Your first post in the Hopper thread was August 27th 2023 - 10-months after he was traded in. If you were of the strong opinion his acquisition was so 'wild' then where are your posts early in this thread?

We can all be hindsight heroes, but would have been meaningful if you were critical before Dimma left, Lynch missed nearly the entire season, Cotch, Jack, Grimes and Titch fell off a cliff and it turned to sh*te.

Ok if you are going to try and be clever, at least do a good job at it.

My first post on Hopper/Taranto trade



Later the same day, replying to our old forgotten mate R2R (who called Graham "untouchable) -wonder what ever happened to her?lmao





Read my prediction for 2025. And read the last paragraph. "The risk is too high here, purely because i think the draft contract money will give us no moves at all moving forward if things dont work out".

Read my comment about that the team we have next year will essentially be the team we have in 2025 & if things go bad and we are 3-7 after 10 rounds, thats where we are till 2025. Guess what we were after 10 rounds 3-6-1 & Dimma quit at exactly that point. I think history shines on me pretty well, hey?

I was hell vocal on the massive risk of this move, I was just more polite back then as i was still warm from the 3 flags. My attitude at the time was the club needed to pick 1 of the 2 players, who it saw fit, and not target the 2. My opinion was Taranto was the better player ( and expected him to be the more expensive), but perhaps Hopper was the better target for us as i believed he was going to be a hell of a lot cheaper - was happy for the club to take who they felt would make the best impact - but taking both was a bad move.

More from the same day, once again with a now hilariously wrong reply/attack from R2R, once again



Within a day of talking about the deal, I thought it was batshit crazy to take both.And gave solid reasons why that all came true



When the deal finally went through i had softened on it a bit, but that was only IF we finished top 4 and the pick didn't end up inside the top 10. And this was after the deal was done * i had softened as what choice did i really had? I wanted the deal to work and get us back in the top 4 too - the club had made the choice so i zagged with reality.

Worth remembering from this post that the others here all thought we had robbed GWS & i'm saying - ah nope, if anything GWS did pretty damn well consideri. As it worked out it was pick 6, & we totally ****ed ourselves. I thought, at the time, we possibly overpaid on Taranto - but Hopper might be ok if we finish top 4. As it turns out, we finished bottom 6 & it made the risky deal a ****ing nightmare.

Check your facts next time you try to play Columbo. This place would be a hell of a lot different if you actually held the club as accountable as you , at least try, to do to me. I was pretty bang on i'd say

 

[Hoos]

Ok if you are going to try and be clever, at least do a good job at it.

My first post on Hopper/Taranto trade

View attachment 2581833

Later the same day, replying to our old forgotten mate R2R (who called Graham "untouchable) -wonder what ever happened to her?lmao

View attachment 2581830



Read my prediction for 2025. And read the last paragraph. "The risk is too high here, purely because i think the draft contract money will give us no moves at all moving forward if things dont work out".

Read my comment about that the team we have next year will essentially be the team we have in 2025 & if things go bad and we are 3-7 after 10 rounds, thats where we are till 2025. Guess what we were after 10 rounds 3-6-1 & Dimma quit at exactly that point. I think history shines on me pretty well, hey?

I was hell vocal on the massive risk of this move, I was just more polite back then as i was still warm from the 3 flags. My attitude at the time was the club needed to pick 1 of the 2 players, who it saw fit, and not target the 2. My opinion was Taranto was the better player ( and expected him to be the more expensive), but perhaps Hopper was the better target for us as i believed he was going to be a hell of a lot cheaper - was happy for the club to take who they felt would make the best impact - but taking both was a bad move.

More from the same day, once again with a now hilariously wrong reply/attack from R2R, once again

View attachment 2581834

Within a day of talking about the deal, I thought it was batshit crazy to take both.And gave solid reasons why that all came true

View attachment 2581839

When the deal finally went through i had softened on it a bit, but that was only IF we finished top 4 and the pick didn't end up inside the top 10. And this was after the deal was done * i had softened as what choice did i really had? I wanted the deal to work and get us back in the top 4 too - the club had made the choice so i zagged with reality.

Worth remembering from this post that the others here all thought we had robbed GWS & i'm saying - ah nope, if anything GWS did pretty damn well consideri. As it worked out it was pick 6, & we totally ****ed ourselves. I thought, at the time, we possibly overpaid on Taranto - but Hopper might be ok if we finish top 4. As it turns out, we finished bottom 6 & it made the risky deal a ****ing nightmare.

Check your facts next time you try to play Columbo. This place would be a hell of a lot different if you actually held the club as accountable as you , at least try, to do to me. I was pretty bang on i'd say

 

[RJK Tiger]

View attachment 2581849

ha, yeah. Love or hate me, i have been very very consistent with my standards of expectation with the club. And i am not even near as negative as ppl think. These old post show that - was clearly not keen on the moves, but was willing to trust the club to see if they worked out. Even with Taranto winning 2 x BFS, the nett result has still been a "worse case scenario" in regards to where the team is at & the underlines the insanity of the risk they were taking just to give us a 5% chance of another flag

 

[Julio Dulio]

It’s happening

 

[Danog]

It’s happening

 

[Coach_Required]

It’s happening

Kind of feel sorry for the guy now ....

 

[Truetiger]

Kind of feel sorry for the guy now ....

Based on this he plays lol

 

[Wooden Robot]

He's been 'MANAGED' not axed.
Wouldn't hurt them to say dropped.

 

[beema limapep]

For all the hate he cops he still had 18 contested on the weekend and was our leading possession getter at 26.

With a kicking efficiency of 39% and 2nd most Clangers in the league.

Most of his disposals advantage team opposition. It's like playing 5 on 3 in the midfield.

 

[59Stanley]

Simply had to happen. Hopefully can get leather poisoning and improve disposal efficiency in the magoos

 

[Truetiger]

Updated thread title
lol

 

[The_Kraken]

Updated thread title
lol

Imagine how good he’ll be when he comes back. Phwoar!

 

[Crumpet_avenger]

Simply had to happen. Hopefully can get leather poisoning and improve disposal efficiency in the magoos

Managed means rested. No reserves for our million dollar man

Only leather poisoning he will get is wearing the gimp suit for ummzeee to keep his place

 

[Vassp]

Managed means rested. No reserves for our million dollar man

Only leather poisoning he will get is wearing the gimp suit for ummzeee to keep his place

is he on a million ?

 

[partycorolla]

ha, yeah. Love or hate me, i have been very very consistent with my standards of expectation with the club. And i am not even near as negative as ppl think. These old post show that - was clearly not keen on the moves, but was willing to trust the club to see if they worked out. Even with Taranto winning 2 x BFS, the nett result has still been a "worse case scenario" in regards to where the team is at & the underlines the insanity of the risk they were taking just to give us a 5% chance of another flag

Biggest issue was making both of those trades. In isolation, either one may have been alright at the time (without knowing what we know now). The actual cost of the draft picks weren't too bad for either of those deals by themselves but collectively, yep, not a great list management strategy unless you absolutely hate two consectutive drafts.

Suspect the list management team were heavily influenced by a coach trying to have one more ping and the club probably needed to be a bit more circumspect.

 

[Vassp]

Ok if you are going to try and be clever, at least do a good job at it.

My first post on Hopper/Taranto trade

View attachment 2581833

Later the same day, replying to our old forgotten mate R2R (who called Graham "untouchable) -wonder what ever happened to her?lmao

View attachment 2581830



Read my prediction for 2025. And read the last paragraph. "The risk is too high here, purely because i think the draft contract money will give us no moves at all moving forward if things dont work out".

Read my comment about that the team we have next year will essentially be the team we have in 2025 & if things go bad and we are 3-7 after 10 rounds, thats where we are till 2025. Guess what we were after 10 rounds 3-6-1 & Dimma quit at exactly that point. I think history shines on me pretty well, hey?

I was hell vocal on the massive risk of this move, I was just more polite back then as i was still warm from the 3 flags. My attitude at the time was the club needed to pick 1 of the 2 players, who it saw fit, and not target the 2. My opinion was Taranto was the better player ( and expected him to be the more expensive), but perhaps Hopper was the better target for us as i believed he was going to be a hell of a lot cheaper - was happy for the club to take who they felt would make the best impact - but taking both was a bad move.

More from the same day, once again with a now hilariously wrong reply/attack from R2R, once again

View attachment 2581834

Within a day of talking about the deal, I thought it was batshit crazy to take both.And gave solid reasons why that all came true

View attachment 2581839

When the deal finally went through i had softened on it a bit, but that was only IF we finished top 4 and the pick didn't end up inside the top 10. And this was after the deal was done * i had softened as what choice did i really had? I wanted the deal to work and get us back in the top 4 too - the club had made the choice so i zagged with reality.

Worth remembering from this post that the others here all thought we had robbed GWS & i'm saying - ah nope, if anything GWS did pretty damn well consideri. As it worked out it was pick 6, & we totally ****ed ourselves. I thought, at the time, we possibly overpaid on Taranto - but Hopper might be ok if we finish top 4. As it turns out, we finished bottom 6 & it made the risky deal a ****ing nightmare.

Check your facts next time you try to play Columbo. This place would be a hell of a lot different if you actually held the club as accountable as you , at least try, to do to me. I was pretty bang on i'd say

great post, gee we have a lot of defensive peeps in here, its like we are bagging their first born.

 

[Madtiger2006]

We’ll win now

 

[partycorolla]

Lot of posts at the start of this thread that probably sum BigFooty up... people getting way too excited, dynasty mentioned, just what we've been missing etc etc. Fleecing this and that. Makes for funny reading! Patience is a virtue!

 

[wegetpumped]

Resyed? For what all the sweat from the turnovers and poor disposel. Why can;lt for ones tell the truth and simply say omitted for f king been shit.