Player Watch #21: Noah Balta

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It’s not often I’ve seen Balta towelled up but he certainly received a lesson from JK last night.

Make no mistake JK is an exceptional KPF and a very smart player but the one thing I thought Balta would be able to match him 1 on 1 was athletically yet JK had metres on him with a lot of his marks.
 
Punt Road Feral said:
It’s not often I’ve seen Balta towelled up but he certainly received a lesson from JK last night.

Make no mistake JK is an exceptional KPF and a very smart player but the one thing I thought Balta would be able to match him 1 on 1 was athletically yet JK had metres on him with a lot of his marks.
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I have no doubt that Balta is quicker than Kennedy, I dare say the reason there was such a big gap between them when Kennedy was on the lead was one of 2 reasons: Leading patterns (most likely imo) and other Eagles forwards blocking for him. Balta seems to be pacey in straight lines but struggles with the elite level forwards who suck him in with dummy leads.

That is something that can be improved and playing on these types of forwards will help him learn how to deal with it. I'm not sure he'll ever be our no.1 key back, he could be he still has plenty of development in him, but the more I watch him the more I think he is better suited to playing on the 2nd best forward/being freed up as an interceptor. No doubt Astbury returning will be a big help for him.

Someone else mentioned (not sure if it was this thread or the autopsy) that he would be better off at CHB, I think I agree with that. He can be damaging when intercepting higher up the ground, where he can win it and gain meters, rather than trying to thread a 20m meter pass which he needs to work on.
 
I think the issue for Balta is he lacks aggression as in putting bodywork in the lead up and concentration as someone said. He seems to often play behind his man and when the opposition gets a clean kick, his opponent knows where will his teammate kick it and be already on the lead and by the time Noah realizes it, he's already way behind and the forward gets a clean mark and shot at goal. Another reason to this is that he'll hope his teammates defend the leading space, he should not rely on his teammates and take on his man himself. He may also over rely on your feared midfield pressure that they may bomb it to him and ignore the leading forward however if there's not enough midfield pressure or the ball user is a very composed player then the midfielder will hit Noah's man on the lead which in this case is JK.

The possible remedy to this is a combination of playing in front and tightly behind his man and keep making body contact on him so he doesn't have space to lead into if he's in front of him while maintaining concentration just in case he leads so he'll be in a position to make the last second spoil from behind as he has the pace and acceleration to go with fast KPFs on the lead, if he does play behind then he must be concentrated and stay tight on him at all times not loose like against JK, so again he needs to take more responsibility and stop relying on his teammates to block their leading space or third man up help on a gun KPF, it's all on him. If he stops his opponent from leading from sustained body work and the opponent bombs it high, he needs to be aggressive in the air and crash the pack to mark or spoil, there are times where he just doesn't crash the pack enough. A more responsible game for Noah on gun KPFs will allow your defense to get into more optimal positions to stop a dangerous leading space and extras to intercept or crumb as they don't have to worry about Noah's man as they know he's got him covered.

Also would like to see him use his penetrating kick more ala like what Hurn does for us and Fletcher did for Essendon. Gives you more options to attack down back and use the corridor more. Would like to see it in his hands more, the more he gets it overtime the mistakes will become less and less until it becomes a rarity.

one eyedtiger said:
That is something that can be improved and playing on these types of forwards will help him learn how to deal with it. I'm not sure he'll ever be our no.1 key back, he could be he still has plenty of development in him, but the more I watch him the more I think he is better suited to playing on the 2nd best forward/being freed up as an interceptor. No doubt Astbury returning will be a big help for him.
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I think he can be your number one defender as he's been pretty good at in 2020, just doesn't have enough experience to handle the more crafty KPFs solo (he's normally benefited from midfield pressure and third man up help). Maybe when he hits that 70-80 game mark he'll be a gun number one defender.
 
Does he play with contact lenses?

If not he is severely hampering his ability.

I remember reading about some guy in VFL level footy (I think), or a level like that, and people knew he could play but something wasn't quite clicking.

They then found out he was blind as a bat so someone talked him into playing with contact lenses. Absolute astronomical jump in his performances after that.

I see Balta squint sometimes so that tells me he is playing blind.
 
RobsJourney said:
Does he play with contact lenses?

If not he is severely hampering his ability.

I remember reading about some guy in VFL level footy (I think), or a level like that, and people knew he could play but something wasn't quite clicking.

They then found out he was blind as a bat so someone talked him into playing with contact lenses. Absolute astronomical jump in his performances after that.

I see Balta squint sometimes so that tells me he is playing blind.
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Pretty sure it has been reported that he has issues with his vision
He wears glasses when not playing but not sure if he does indeed have contacts when playing
 

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RobsJourney said:
Does he play with contact lenses?

If not he is severely hampering his ability.

I remember reading about some guy in VFL level footy (I think), or a level like that, and people knew he could play but something wasn't quite clicking.

They then found out he was blind as a bat so someone talked him into playing with contact lenses. Absolute astronomical jump in his performances after that.

I see Balta squint sometimes so that tells me he is playing blind.
Click to expand...

He marks the ball sometimes like someone who only sees the ball clearly when its about 5-10 meters away. Definitely has issues with vision.
 
RobsJourney said:
If he doesn't, geez, his game would go to another level with them.
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Had a read on PRE and they mentioned a few times that he has double vision so it does look like he has issues with his eyes
 
Bird Man said:
last time Balta kneed Kennedy in the head and took him out of the game.

Thats why he beat him last time haha
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This had been overlooked by many. Also, in this game just played it is a fresh Kennedy versus Balta off 12 consecutive games. Balta is going brilliantly overall given his age, and position. It is amazing he hasn’t been beaten badly more often, most key defenders are in their early years.
 
Meteoric Rise said:
This had been overlooked by many. Also, in this game just played it is a fresh Kennedy versus Balta off 12 consecutive games. Balta is going brilliantly overall given his age, and position. It is amazing he hasn’t been beaten badly more often, most key defenders are in their early years.
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Lead up forwards are also very difficult to play on when they are on song and have decent delivery
It’s not always on the player matched up on them directly if team mates aren’t blocking the space for them to lead into
Once a player has one or two step lead it’s basically impossible to catch up no matter how quick you might be
 
richoplzbreed said:
Was putrid tonight. How the hell does an ancient plodder coming back from injury constantly get 10-15m on you every time he lead. And FFS kick it long
Click to expand...

Balta is copping it after this game.

Not sure why, he is a work in progress.

He is not Alex Rance. Thats where if Rance came back, played FB releasing Balta magic

In the future he could end up playing forward yet, too much ability not to be utilised elsewhere
 
Issues with his eyesight back? So many dropped marks and the contest he injured himself should have taken that ball cleanly.

Shame for him as he is such a key part of our side though.
 
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