AFL Player #21: Dyson Heppell aka Farnsy

[Lore]

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

 

[Godzke]

He’s been nowhere near the player he was pre saga. He’s still a solid citizen but he’d be one of our highest paid players based on his 2014 form.

how much would he be on?
actually do we keep a list of expected player salaries on BF?

 

[The Donners]

how much would he be on?
actually do we keep a list of expected player salaries on BF?

I’m not sure. Pure guess he’d be on $700k range.

 

[Bombers36]

Has to play half back flank - let the ball come to him and lets see if he can recapture some of his form I feel he's been a bit out of sorts with both injury and form for a couple of years now...

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

Play him as a marking winger that can occasionally pinch hit in centre bounces. He's still one of our best clearance players.

I like this idea if it means Cutler doesn't get a game.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Has to play half back flank - let the ball come to him and lets see if he can recapture some of his form I feel he's been a bit out of sorts with both injury and form for a couple of years now...

He missed nearly all of 2020 with injury.

In 2019 he finished 5th in the B&F despite missing five games. In the final against West Coast he had 31 touches and 11 marks and was our best.

Pretty tough to question his form.

 

[owen87]

He missed nearly all of 2020 with injury.

In 2019 he finished 5th in the B&F despite missing five games. In the final against West Coast he had 31 touches and 11 marks and was our best.

Pretty tough to question his form.

I’d question whether his body can hold up to playing that role given his struggles the last couple of years, more than whether he’s any good at it when he’s fit to play there.

 

[fairbump_playon]

I’d get him to start in the office and tag Xavier

Don’t want that guy touching it

 

[TheGrizz]

Never thought that I'd say this but I think Heppell's future role is as the seventh defender.

It gets him out of the midfield and provides some experience, leadership, etc at half back where we might otherwise be a bit light. While he doesn't provide the run of Houli we could then look at someone like Markov or Hunt to provide that run and develop some players for the future (e.g. Mc Quillan).

I have thought for the best part of 18 months that Dyson was struggling with mobility. When he came in he was an elite runner and he seems to have lost all semblance of that.

I actually think he is 3-4kg heavier than his optimal weight , and that has been done to help him transition to an inside midfielder. He looks bulkier but the agility and endurance that made people liken him to a young Pendlebury when he came in has been lost due to getting too big imo.

The extra weight might also explain the two chronic foot injuries he has had in 2 years. I am saying this from my figurative 'armchair', but if i am the fitness/coaching staff i am stripping him down 3kg over the next 12 months and seeing if we can get some running power back with the aim to turn him into a defensive winger like Menegola for Geelong.

He is a good height for it, is good in the air, has courage for days and is disciplined in where he needs to set himself up within coaching structures. If he can get his running power back (not necessarily top end speed but endurance), he is the ideal player to play as that defensive winger that chops out the defence and adds an extra number when needed.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

TheGrizz love that take.

 

[ant555]

He’s been nowhere near the player he was pre saga. He’s still a solid citizen but he’d be one of our highest paid players based on his 2014 form.

He was good in 2017.
He also average just under 27 disposals a game in 2018.

 

[The Donners]

He was good in 2017.
He also average just under 27 disposals a game in 2018.

There can be instances where average disposals a game can simply be numbers. In Heppell’s AA year he was genuinely extracting the footy from the bottom of packs and a Watson/Heppell inside midfield combo was about to dominate the AFL. Not suggesting Heppell is soft by any stretch, I’m perhaps suggesting he doesn’t have the same drive and is more in the motions post saga.

 

[Yoda_]

Why Essendon Shouldn't Consider Heppell Positional Change

David King doesn’t want to see Dyson Heppell move back to defence, imploring him to fight for his spot in the midfield in 2021.

The 28-year-old endured an injury-plagued 2020 campaign, playing just three games after a delayed pre-season and a subsequent serious ankle injury sustained at training.

I like Kingy (sometimes) but feel he doesn't quite understand the make up of our list or where it is going here.

I don't want Hep moved to half back for his skills or his run and carry, it is the leadership and marshalling of the (young) troops that is my needs for him. His ability to intercept and set up play is an added bonus for a side that is about to undertake a serious transitional period.

 

[eth-dog]

There is absolutely no need for Heppell to play defence.

There is absolutely a need to have him in the midfield where our average height without him there is around the 182 cm mark.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

There is absolutely no need for Heppell to play defence.

There is absolutely a need to have him in the midfield where our average height without him there is around the 182 cm mark.

We need the midfield time to give to players who can actually develop more than being serviceable. Secondly he can’t go on the spread, chuck him behind the ball where he can read it early enough to impact defensively, using his best attribute which is his marking.

This isn’t even about next year but beyond, if we want to win anything with him we are better off making this move now than in another two years where he’s banged up and washed up.

 

[eth-dog]

We need the midfield time to give to players who can actually develop more than being serviceable. Secondly he can’t go on the spread, chuck him behind the ball where he can read it early enough to impact defensively, using his best attribute which is his marking.

This isn’t even about next year but beyond, if we want to win anything with him we are better off making this move now than in another two years where he’s banged up and washed up.

Okay let's move one of our two legitimate marking options in the midfield when we have Ridley, Francis, Hooker, Zerk-Thatcher, Gleeson as players who can mark the ball in defence pretty well.

Just Essington things

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Okay let's move one of our two legitimate marking options in the midfield when we have Ridley, Francis, Hooker, Zerk-Thatcher, Gleeson as players who can mark the ball in defence pretty well.

Just Essington things

Which he can do for two years where our results are unimportant and then retire and our midfield still lacks that plus there’s 50 games we didn’t get into Perkins. The question is young potential star midfield recruit or rookie listed Gleeson.

 

[DapperJong]

Gleeson

Time to forget about this guy

 

[Schnitzengruben]

Okay let's move one of our two legitimate marking options in the midfield when we have Ridley, Francis, Hooker, Zerk-Thatcher, Gleeson as players who can mark the ball in defence pretty well.

Just Essington things

Ridley is the only genuine option on that list tbh. Hep to the backline is a no-brainer for mine (draft selections pending ofc).

 

[eth-dog]

Which he can do for two years where our results are unimportant and then retire and our midfield still lacks that plus there’s 50 games we didn’t get into Perkins. The question is young potential star midfield recruit or rookie listed Gleeson.

Time to forget about this guy

Ridley is the only genuine option on that list tbh. Hep to the backline is a no-brainer for mine (draft selections pending ofc).

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Heppell to defence would be monumentally stupid.

 

[DapperJong]

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Heppell to defence would be monumentally stupid.

I didn't say anything about Heppell. Gleeson is done man.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Heppell to defence would be monumentally stupid.

Last good game he played was the West Coast final after he was moved out of the midfield. Keeping him in the midfield is the stupid action and continues the same pattern of refusing to blood kids/enforce defensive standards that’s got us in the position we are in.

 

[Schnitzengruben]

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Heppell to defence would be monumentally stupid.

You could make an argument for and against, and they'd both have merit. But to dismiss the move entirely as "monumentally stupid" is a tad ironic imo.

 

[ant555]

There can be instances where average disposals a game can simply be numbers. In Heppell’s AA year he was genuinely extracting the footy from the bottom of packs and a Watson/Heppell inside midfield combo was about to dominate the AFL. Not suggesting Heppell is soft by any stretch, I’m perhaps suggesting he doesn’t have the same drive and is more in the motions post saga.

I would be suggesting that Injuries have caught up with him in the last couple of years. I stand by what I said. He was very good in 2017 and good in 2018 although not his best year compared to a few others.

 

[ant555]

You could make an argument for and against, and they'd both have merit. But to dismiss the move entirely as "monumentally stupid" is a tad ironic imo.

I will dismiss it. Too slow.

 

[Megabattimus]

Stick him on a wing and have him go inside when somebody needs a rest or when we're in deep **** and need him to dig in. Basically have him be the "in case of emergency break glass" inside mid that we kept trying to make Stringer into.