Traded #25: Jake Stringer - 📦 Traded to GWS for Pick #53 - 16/10

[faible]

Whilst many of our players have had interrupted pre-seasons it sounds like Stringer is as fit as he's ever been in his time here

AFL 2020: Jake Stringer Essendon, best pre-season ever, Bombers injuries

In the midst of his club’s wretched summer injury run, Essendon gun Jake Stringer says he’s never been in better shape after experiencing one of his best and smoothest pre-seasons of his AFL career.

www.foxsports.com.au

In the midst of his club’s wretched summer injury run, Essendon gun Jake Stringer says he’s never been in better shape after experiencing one of his best and smoothest pre-seasons of his AFL career.

A host of key Bombers have, at different stages over the past few months, battled a range of injuries or suffered setbacks, including Joe Daniher (groin), Cale Hooker (hip), Dylan Shiel (knee) David Zaharakis (knee), Dyson Heppell (foot), Michael Hurley (shoulder) and Orazio Fantasia (hip).

However Stringer, who battled foot, knee and hamstring issues to play 19 of a possible 23 games in 2019, has not just been a constant presence on the track, but also one of Essendon’s best trainers.

In his eighth AFL pre-season, Stringer recently ran a personal best in the 2km time trial, slashing a whopping 20 seconds off his previous top time.

Asked on SEN Breakfast how he was going physically, Stringer cheekily said: “I’m borderline flying at the minute … nah I’m going well.”

The 25-year-old said it’d been “one of the hardest pre-seasons I’ve ever done”. He hailed the influence of the Bombers’ new head of strength and conditioning Sean Murphy, who’s come across from Hawthorn and “really tested us physically and mentally”.

“Not being injured is a massive part and I don't think I've missed a session the whole pre-season, which is all you can ask for when you go into a pre-season is complete as many sessions as you can. I’d be probably in the top one or two at the club that hasn’t missed,” Stringer told SEN on Friday morning.

Asked if it’d been one of his smoothest AFL pre-seasons yet, Stringer declared: “Yeah, by far.

“Last year was pretty good, but this year’s been taken to a new level with Sean Murphy coming across. He's really pushed the boundaries with me.

“It's been a hard slog and, don't worry, I'm looking forward to playing and getting out of this pre-season phase.”

Even though Stringer is “flying”, he said seven or eight teammates are still not in full training, but the “majority of them were running”.

“Not everything's gone to plan, obviously. There's been a few blokes that are still not quite into full training, but that's part of football and part of the pre-season. You’ve just got to deal with whatever comes,” Stringer said.

He later added: “We’re in a great position to able to springboard into the season and hopefully get a few more of these top echelon blokes back.”

The first-round draft pick kicked 98.55 for the Bulldogs in 2015 and 2016 before being traded ahead of the 2018 season to the Bombers, where he’s spent recent summers training with the on-ballers.

Stringer said the plan was still for him to play a mixture of midfield and forward minutes this season, but added he’d been training primarily with the attacking group this pre-season and “honing in on my craft as a forward”.

Stringer said Essendon’s succession plan, which will see senior coach John Worsfold gradually hand the reins to assistant Ben Rutten throughout 2020, was working well. He said Worsfold was at the club everyday and engaged with the players, but Rutten took charge of all tactical discussions and meetings.

“The work that John and Ben have done together has been absolutely outstanding and literally the smoothest transition that you could possibly ever see. It's a credit to both of them how well it's actually gone,” Stringer said.

“I couldn’t be happier with where the club is at the minute.”

Stringer said there’d be a noticeable but not dramatic change to the club’s game plan this season.

“It’ll definitely be a lot more consistent,” Stringer said.

“From a whole learning (process) and even in training, you’re seeing it more and more every time we’re doing bits of match ‘sim’. I think it’ll be very noticeable when people come to watch us.”

 

[yodellinhank]

Surely you could be posting this in the Shiel thread Hank?

As I say, protected species.

 

[Beerfish]

I had people jump on me whenever I questioned his conditioning / application so from my point of view it is not weird at all. So much so that I stopped commenting TBH. I think it is weird that you think it is weird.

So people disagreeing with you = protected species. Ok.

Protected species in my mind means that you were prevented from expressing your opinion.

 

[DERO]

So people disagreeing with you = protected species. Ok.

Protected species in my mind means that you were prevented from expressing your opinion.

In the context of what I posted- It felt like he was a bit of a protected species because people would leap to his defence, make allowances etc and when clearly he was presenting in an unprofessional manner. You don't have to agree with me and i'm happy to kep calling it as I see it regardless.

 

[Foxx]

In the past decade there were only three players I could count on to give us a few goal of the year/mark of the year contenders each year and were the most likely to single handedly get us over the line on ANZAC day and other big games. Those players were Joe, Tippa and Jake.
Players with that X factor don't grow on trees and when your team delivers as little success as our club does its these sort of players that still make you want to go see the footy live.
Sad that none of the three are still at club, the excitement at the end of 2017 is all but a distant memory. Hopefully guys like Caddy can step up to replace them, because the cupboard is pretty bare.

At least we'll have a new cult hero in Kako.

 

[yodellinhank]

At least we'll have a new cult hero in Kako.

Cult hero? I had him slated for whipping boy...

 

[Foxx]

Cult hero? I had him slated for whipping boy...

We'll give him a quarter to prove himself one or the other.

 

[dank420_]

Cult hero? I had him slated for whipping boy...

Just pretend his dad played for the club

 

[Agronomus]

So we are allowed to bag him now that he is at another club? He was like a protected species on here.

Was he meant to be our "marquee" player to get the fans back on board?

 

[Call Me Cake]

Made comments in the Daily Telegraph today

 

[jmoo wan]

Made comments in the Daily Telegraph today

don’t post them, and don’t provide any links - I love the thrill of the hunt

 

[ant555]

Made comments in the Daily Telegraph today

Talk about a click bait post.

Story is a Q&A. Is in todays HS. Really nothing to see. Does not slam us. Says he would have been fine if he had to say. No malice between him and us at all.

 

[I Remember Bluey]

Talk about a click bait post.

Story is a Q&A. Is in todays HS. Really nothing to see. Does not slam us. Says he would have been fine if he had to say. No malice between him and us at all.

I did like this bit:

I was away, I was in Thailand at the time with a few mates, I was with (Essendon teammates) Nick Hind and Jayden Laverde and they were stressing more than I was because apparently the deal was off halfway through the day and then it was back on with an hour to go.

No mention of the bloke that looks after them though

​

 

[DERO]

Does anyone have access to the codesports article that has Scott’s comments?

 

[I Remember Bluey]

Does anyone have access to the codesports article that has Scott’s comments?

Not allowed to post the full article anymore mate sorry.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-2025-brad-scott-speaks-on-jake-stringer-trade-from-essendon-to-gws/news-story/6a605e8433250218e1fc8ec5fe1b1d63

Essendon coach Brad Scott has labelled the departure of goalkicker Jake Stringer as “a really good result for both parties”, putting the trade to the Giants partially down to the Bombers wanting to get younger.

Ps: BBlitz has it under Brad Scott

 

[DERO]

Not allowed to post the full article anymore mate sorry.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-2025-brad-scott-speaks-on-jake-stringer-trade-from-essendon-to-gws/news-story/6a605e8433250218e1fc8ec5fe1b1d63

Essendon coach Brad Scott has labelled the departure of goalkicker Jake Stringer as “a really good result for both parties”, putting the trade to the Giants partially down to the Bombers wanting to get younger.

Ps: BBlitz has it under Brad Scott

Yeah, I don't do Blitz. Thanks for the summary. Let's hope Scotty is right. I honestly think if he is coaching to keep his job rather than focussing on the longterm, his he might have tried harder to keep Stringer. I also don't think Scott liked Stringer very much. BrunoV whatddyareckon?

 

[jannissary]

Yeah, I don't do Blitz. Thanks for the summary. Let's hope Scotty is right. I honestly think if he is coaching to keep his job rather than focussing on the longterm, his he might have tried harder to keep Stringer. I also don't think Scott liked Stringer very much. BrunoV whatddyareckon?

wholly agree that scott likely felt underwhelmed by jake’s efforts in big games - he has a few cracking games in 2024 but ultimately never achieved the consistency we would’ve liked. playing him out of necessity vs earning a spot

 

[DERO]

wholly agree that scott likely felt underwhelmed by jake’s efforts in big games - he has a few cracking games in 2024 but ultimately never achieved the consistency we would’ve liked. playing him out of necessity vs earning a spot

I reckon Scotty was being a bit diplomatic TBH.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Ultimately it had to happen and I'd rather rip the band-aid off sooner than later.

 

[PaythePerryman]

How do you think his game will translate to the Giants style of play?
I've noticed his inside 50 tackle numbers are pretty decent and obviously 42 goals is very good.

But do you think that he will perform as a 3rd/4th target well?

 

[Beerfish]

How do you think his game will translate to the Giants style of play?
I've noticed his inside 50 tackle numbers are pretty decent and obviously 42 goals is very good.

But do you think that he will perform as a 3rd/4th target well?

He'll be bloody handy if he can get/stay fit. Could be the missing piece for you guys.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

How do you think his game will translate to the Giants style of play?
I've noticed his inside 50 tackle numbers are pretty decent and obviously 42 goals is very good.

But do you think that he will perform as a 3rd/4th target well?

I don't think the pecking order ever meant much to Jakey so I'd say he's going to be the same player.

 

[ant555]

How do you think his game will translate to the Giants style of play?
I've noticed his inside 50 tackle numbers are pretty decent and obviously 42 goals is very good.

But do you think that he will perform as a 3rd/4th target well?

His inside tackle numbers are good some weeks and horrible others.
He will kick around 35-40 goals if he stays healthy. Smart player. Not a great contested mark but has X factor when he is on song. We had to get some quick small forwards into our forward line plus Perkins is better suited to playing half forward so we went younger.
Good Jake is very good. Bad Jake does make appearances during the season.

 

[PaythePerryman]

Yeah interesting. I felt like it was worth the risk for us to take a chance on him. If he doesn't perform of contest Kingsley just won't play him....our forward line has enough dangerous players as it is.

If we can get 35-40 goals out him...or if he just drags a decent defender away from Hogan or Greene I think that's a win.

We have Collingwood up first and Riccardi suspended so I'm hoping to see Stringer up and about early on to make a statement. Let's hope he can stay fit.

 

[jannissary]

How do you think his game will translate to the Giants style of play?
I've noticed his inside 50 tackle numbers are pretty decent and obviously 42 goals is very good.

But do you think that he will perform as a 3rd/4th target well?

he should realistically be fine but you'll have to deal with the bad stringer games where he'll selfishly kick 1.5 instead of letting hogan, brown etc kick their bags.

 

[ant555]

he should realistically be fine but you'll have to deal with the bad stringer games where he'll selfishly kick 1.5 instead of letting hogan, brown etc kick their bags.

The 1.5 games where never the issue for me. Frustrating he missed goals but generally those games where more he should have kicked 3.2 and there was not many of them. The games that where an issue for me where the 9/10 disposal games where he kicked a goal and had minimal pressure which there was several.