AFL Player #21: Dyson Heppell aka Farnsy

[Lore]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2024
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 27, Highly Evolved

 

[Vander18]

Glad to have him back personally. Think he was still our best mid at the start of this season, I know that not all agree.

One thing nobody can deny, he’s a pro. Looks in unbelievable knock from the photos posted this week.

 

[Yoda_]

Good goal but looks well short of a gallop does our Dyson


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[eth-dog]

Yeah looks like he needs the run, but that snap was a captain's goal

 

[creepyguy23]

Just a thought, hear me out.

I love Hepp. He is amazing, met the guy and he is a great bloke. But that's the thing - he is just an all round good bloke. The type of guy you can share a couple of casual beers on a Sunday (he doesn't strike me as a Friday or Saturday night guy). He is just a good bloke.

But when you are captaining a professional football team, being a good bloke doesn't usually cut it. This is especially so when you are captaining a big club like ours which garners a lot of media attention and not to mention being one of the heaviest supported sporting clubs in Australia.

We are crying out for strong leadership. Off the field, our leadership isn't special. They are a bunch of softies. This is a story for another post.

At least On the field we need a leader who is a bastard. We can't have a captain that will be friends with everyone. We need a captain that will dig into the other players and call people out on their lack of effort.

Imagine a captain that can get stuck into a certain player for not taking a shot on goal or a captain that will yell at a player for not going hard at a contest. Yes this captain may not be well-liked all round, but he will be respected. This is the sort of captain the soft**** players at our club need. This is nothing personal against Dyson, but I think the players at our club have just been mollycoddled and babied for too long and will produce better results with an absolute bastard as a captain.

There are two ways of rectifying this: Option 1 - Hepp becomes this style of captain | Option 2: We look for a new captain

That said if we were going to go with option 2, who the hell would it be?

 

[MattyB3150]

Agree but we don't have many of those types on our list. Goddard had that about him but most people didn't like it and was called a sook.

We need a Hodge type but they don't grow on trees.

 

[andleanback]

Agree but we don't have many of those types on our list. Goddard had that about him but most people didn't like it and was called a sook.

We need a Hodge type but they don't grow on trees.

McGrath will be our captain in 2 years time.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Glad the cue is in the rack. Put a line through a horrible year.

Sit down with Rutten and work out exactly the role he can and will play from 2021 onward, and prepare the body for that.

 

[BOMBERROB2000]

my personal opinion is that we should give the captaincy to McGrath..!!!

 

[Albertross]

my personal opinion is that we should give the captaincy to McGrath..!!!

Nah, not at this stage. Let him continue to develop his own game within a team that is in freefall. He doesn't need the added pressure that comes with being El Capitan in a team that mostly shows no heart.

 

[vass44]

Not sure why we even played him this year with the persistent foot injuries...He’ll be 29 in 2021 and it worries me that we’ve probably seen the best of Heppell as a player. I’d be open to having McGrath as captain in 2021 and Heppell can be vice


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[yodellinhank]

Not sure why we even played him this year with the persistent foot injuries...He’ll be 29 in 2021 and it worries me that we’ve probably seen the best of Heppell as a player. I’d be open to having McGrath as captain in 2021 and Heppell can be vice


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Maybe they wanted to know if his ankle was screwed?

 

[Mikevk123]

Sucks for Hepp. His Ankles are buggererd now imo.

Have to feel for the bloke. Has given his all for the club. Not sure if he come ever comes back to 100%.

 

[ant555]

Not sure why we even played him this year with the persistent foot injuries...He’ll be 29 in 2021 and it worries me that we’ve probably seen the best of Heppell as a player. I’d be open to having McGrath as captain in 2021 and Heppell can be vice


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Was wondering the same thing.

 

[HirdyLannister]

Our only goal a game average midfielder for 2020

 

[Lore]

Sucks for Hepp. His Ankles are buggererd now imo.

Have to feel for the bloke. Has given his all for the club. Not sure if he come ever comes back to 100%.

Huh? Why would having a screw removed mean it was buggered? Pretty minor procedure I’d have thought.

 

[Mikevk123]

Huh? Why would having a screw removed mean it was buggered? Pretty minor procedure I’d have thought.

Injuries have taken their toll on him. He was never a big bodied midfielder and we played him out of position. If he returns I want him at half back. Where he played originally.

 

[eth-dog]

He's a midfielder. He'll struggle to be the main guy but he's a good Jackson Macrae type

 

[MiguelM]

 

[The Prosecutor]

Hoping to commence pre-season in January.

* me.

 

[andleanback]

10 weeks off running again. Jesus, bloke will be coming from a long way back again.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Cooked. Think we need to find a new position for him - wouldn't want him robbing someone like Parish or a draftee of midfield minutes. I'd say half back but given his kicking has gone downhill since his early years, I don't know.

 

[Zach Package]

10 weeks puts him back running at the end of November so hopefully not too interrupted but I hope those two games were worth it.

****ing embarrassing

 

[ant555]

Too bad he actually said" need surgery on his ankle" .

 

[Lore]

Eh, so they're expecting he'll have an "uninterrupted" start to the pre-season in January. That implies that his preseason wouldn't have started until January even if his ankle was fine. The draft is in December, so that would make sense, as the 1st to 4th years usually go back earlier and then we'll run into the Christmas break because of everything running late this year.

For posterity:

Captain Dyson Heppell had surgery in Brisbane on Monday to fix an issue with a screw in the ankle he fractured in June.

Rundle said he expected the 28-year-old to have an uninterrupted start to pre-season ahead of the 2021 season.

“Dyson was unavailable for selection for last week’s game due to a complication with his ankle,” he said.

“He underwent surgery yesterday to remove a screw from the ankle that had been used to stabilise the fracture he sustained earlier in the season. This screw had backed out a little bit and was rubbing on his peroneal tendons and causing pain. He then had new screws re-inserted.

“He will be in plaster for the next two weeks before being placed into a boot. It is expected he will resume running in around 10 weeks and should be able to commence pre-season with the main group in January.”

Injury update: Rd 18

Michael Hurley has made positive progress on his injured ankle.

www.essendonfc.com.au

 

[ant555]

Eh, so they're expecting he'll have an "uninterrupted" start to the pre-season in January. That implies that his preseason wouldn't have started until January even if his ankle was fine. The draft is in December, so that would make sense, as the 1st to 4th years usually go back earlier and then we'll run into the Christmas break because of everything running late this year.

For posterity:

Injury update: Rd 18

Michael Hurley has made positive progress on his injured ankle.

www.essendonfc.com.au

If we are lucky the season may well start a fraction later so he may get a good run at it if it goes well.