Toast 2. Mark LeCras (2005 - 2018)

[BradWCE]

Great to see Lecca back playing well after copping another injury at the start of the year.

Good job LeCrassic, you need to fix some of those scores at the beginning of your posts though.

Particularly this one.

AFL Round 3
13 April 2013
West Coast 83 v Melbourne 177

 

[LeCrassic]

Great to see Lecca back playing well after copping another injury at the start of the year.

Good job LeCrassic, you need to fix some of those scores at the beginning of your posts though.

Particularly this one.

Woah haha, all done now, cheers

 

[LeCrassic]

AFL Round 5
27 April 2013
West Coast 79 v Port 84

Disposals - 18
Kicks - 16
Handballs - 2
Tackles - 1
Goals - 0
Behinds - 3
DreamTeam - 77

 

[LeCrassic]

AFL Round 6
5 May 2013
West Coast 137 v Bulldogs 67

Disposals - 19
Kicks - 18
Handballs - 1
Tackles - 0
Goals - 3
Behinds - 4
DreamTeam - 106

 

[LeCrassic]

AFL Round 7
11 May 2013
West Coast 108 v Brisbane Lions 82

Disposals - 9
Kicks - 7
Handballs - 2
Tackles - 2
Goals - 3
Behinds - 0
DreamTeam - 52

Ninja Flip

 

[LeCrassic]

AFL Round 8
17 May 2013
West Coast 90 v North Melbourne 88

Disposals - 15
Kicks - 12
Handballs - 3
Tackles - 0
Goals - 1
Behinds - 4
DreamTeam - 61

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Currently tied 4th with Chris Lewis on our all time goal kicking list with 259.

Champion effort.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Looks like we're going to have to wait until next week.

 

[LeCrassic]

AFL Round 9
25 May 2013
West Coast 155 v GWS 55

Disposals - 16
Kicks - 13
Handballs - 3
Tackles - 0
Goals - 3
Behinds - 3
DreamTeam - 93

 

[Legendairy]

2013 season highlights

 

[Small Moves]

0:36 - Mmmmmmmmmm.

2:55 - To the people that wanted Scooter to be traded - perfect clearance + delivery.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Handsome-arse LeCras.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

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2013 REVIEW & 2014 PREVIEW​

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2013 was a pretty sorry year for Mark LeCras. After missing the entire 2012 campaign with a knee injury, his return was meant to help push The Eagles deep into the 2013 finals. Unfortunately, only a few quarters into the season proper, LeCras suffed a broken arm in a collision with Docker Tendai Muzungu, which went a long way towards ruining yet another season.​

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As player who relies more on touch and football IQ than athleticism and power, The Frenchman was left in a situation where he was feeling his way back into AFL football from a 12 month layoff, while nursing a broken arm, playing in a team which wasn’t living up to expectations and still coming to complete grips with balancing forward line duties and midfield relief.​

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It’s no surprise then that Lecca started cutting corners. True, in an ideal world all Eagles would have the temperament of Darren Glass and play the same whether up by 100 points or down by that much, but LeCras let his frustrations come to the fore and that spilt over into selfishness and maybe even laziness. Gone was the supreme touch and clean kicking we had come to expect, and in its place were unexpected misses, token chases and undisciplined stat-whoring.​

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Of course, that’s not to say there weren’t occasional bright spots in LeCras’ 2013 season - His 5 goal effort against Essendon is testament to that. However, the fact that this game saved Lecca’s 2013 season from being the only one other than 2005 and 2012, where he didn’t have a game with 4 goals or more, paints a truer picture.​

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So, what now for LeCras? The general feeling around the place seems to be that with an uninterrupted preseason and some overdue love from the injury Gods, LeCras should return to his damaging best. A bit like 2011 or 2010, he should be aiming to kick around 50 goals while touching the footy about 15 times a game. You would also hope that a less shithouse season and an extra year of maturity would see Mark playing like a brother in arms again.​

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There are also some personal milestones on the horizon for him. His 264 career goals places Lecca only 18 away from passing Quinten Lynch for 3rd all-time at West Coast, which he should manage to achieve sans total disaster. He’s also only 36 goals away from becoming the 3rd Eagle to kick 300 goals for the club, after legends Peter Sumich and Phil Matera.​

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More long term, LeCras actually has a good chance of catching Phil Matera’s 389 goals and he might even have his eye on becoming the first Eagle to play 200 games while kicking 400 goals. That would take a fair amount of luck and a great deal of longevity but it’s not totally out of the question.​

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Finally, there should also be a circle around July 16th on his calendar.​

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[Jimmy_the_Gent]

LeCras Gets Honorary Primary School Diploma

But things get awkward when he's unable to read his acceptance speech.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Mark LeCras: Injuries ruined LeCras' season last year. He managed 15 games and kicked 30 goals but was nowhere near his best. He looks fit in the pre-season and his kicking skills have been a feature as the Eagles try to improve their ball-movement. He looks set for a big year.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-02-09/lists-by-positions-forwards-part-two

AFL.com have written an inferior preview to mine for Mark LeCras today.

The West Coast page has however posted this awesome photo of LeCras struggling to use a gate.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

The Eagles website is reporting that LeCras kicked 4 goals in the intraclub match today, while also having a run in the midfield.

Everything we've been hearing from the club suggests that LeCras is back to his best which is excellent news, particularly after the last couple of years.

Here's LeCras at training yesterday, doing the right thing and handing it off to the long kick guy:

Thanks www.westcoasteagles.com.au for originally putting up the photo.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

LeCras Thumbs Nose at Leadership Role

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

NAB CUP ROUND 1
19th February 2014
West Coast 148 v Fremantle 64

This was one of those games where everyone looked good for West Coast and LeCras wasn't an exception. In fact, I believe the Herald Sun named him in our best, which was probably a touch generous, but goes to show that some liked his game.

The stats look good too:

Disposals - 20
Kicks - 12
Handballs - 8
Marks - 5
Tackles - 2
Goals - 2
Behinds - 2
DreamTeam - 87

Those are generally a par statistics for Mark, except may a handful less touches.

If you watched the game closely, however, maybe you thought "Wow, LeCras hasn't got his kicking boots on today" - and you were right.

The real downside for Mark yesterday was his 50% DE. LeCras and Coxy equalled 3 Fremantle hacks for 2nd worst in that area, ahead of only Mr Crap, Colin Sylvia, who managed just 20% DE.

This poor disposal spilled over into goal percentage for Mark, as he only kicked 2 goals from 7 shots, which was easily the worst on the ground. The breakdown was 2 goals, 2 behinds and 3 shots which failed to score. I remember him missing some set shots late in the game and I'm going to assume some of those shots which failed to score were quick snaps under a lot of pressure but there's clearly something to work on here.

Hopefully it's all sorted in time for the real stuff.

Overall I'm going to go ahead and give LeCras 6/10 for his game against Fremantle.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

The West has written an article on how LeCras is tracking.

Mark LeCras is reluctant to speak about being injury free on the eve of the season.

But the 2010 All-Australian is just that a month out from West Coast's 2014 season opener against the Western Bulldogs.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/21581407/injury-free-lecras-is-firing/

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Pre-season Practice Match
6th March 2014
West Coast 86 v Fremantle 67

After being rested for the second and final NAB Cup match along with several other big name Eagles, LeCras returned to the team for this practice match against Fremantle.

I made it down to the game and I must say, LeCras didn't have a huge influence on the result but he certainly did a lot right, as evidenced by being named in the best by the official Eagles site.

Indeed, Mark kicked 2 goals, one of which can be seen here, and he gave another to Kennedy on the goal line, so he could have had 3 if it pleased him.

It also seemed to me as though LeCras chased and pressured a bit better than normal and he seemed to find a decent amount of the football, particularly when he moved into the middle.

No stats are available for this game but I'll still give Mark 7.5/10 based on what I saw.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Quick update thanks to the West Australian:

Mark LeCras is definitely back with it.

It is easy to explain LeCras' slight dip in form last year on the way back from a knee reconstruction and a broken arm sustained in round one.

He had two goals by three- quarter time last night to go with 17 possessions, seven of them contested, and a couple of clearances.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

AFL Round 1
23 March 2014
West Coast 134 v Port 69

LeCras Post Game

The Good:
LeCras broke his Bulldogs streak of 5 games in a row with 3 goals by kick 5.1 and collecting 27 disposals yesterday. Most people seem to have him listed as BOG for this game, despite the stiff competition from about 5 other guys.

His stats tell a good story.

Disposals - 27
Kicks - 15
Handballs - 12
Marks - 10 (Equal 8th in AFL)
Tackles - 3
Goals - 5 (Equal 1st in AFL)
Behinds - 1
DreamTeam - 139 (6th in AFL)

And his form isn't bad either, considering he kicked 5 goals in his last AFL match of 2013, against Essendon.

The Bad:
The game went to s**t really early. West Coast opened a commanding lead and went into party mode while the Dogs looked like they wanted to catch an earlier flight East. That resulted in a lot of players going for glory rather than playing the percentages and a forward line player like LeCras naturally got in on the act....

The Ugly:
When the game was still on (we're talking some time in the first quarter), LeCras crassly shoved Easton Wood in the back well after a Kennedy mark inside 50. The kick was reversed and Kennedy was robbed of a chance to open his tally.

Fact:
LeCras had only 1 5+ goal game in both 2013 and 2011. In 2010 he had 4, going on to be named All-Australian.

Rating: 9/10

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Adam Simpson had this to say about LeCras:

"He's been red-hot all season. I thought he may have peaked too early to be honest."

"He was looking sharp a month ago…"

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

http://www.aflca.com.au/index.php?i...s]=1325&tx_ttnews[backPid]=9&cHash=4bfacfb906

LeCras has received a maximum 10 votes from the coaches in Round 1. He's tied first for the coaches award with Ablett, Ward and Joel Selwood.

 

[ioppolo]

West Coast 134 v Port 69