AFL Player # 3: Darcy Parish - Won't play round 2 due to hamstring awareness - 22/3

03 - parish.jpg

Contract Status: Unrestricted free agent 2028 or 2029
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 18, doug85
 
Last edited by a moderator:
May 6, 2007
39,094
22,782
South East Suburbs
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspurs, Melbourne Vixen
Yep.
I think we've been very loose with any team planning after an initial decent flurry

Parish made such sense at the time. Pace, youth, hard running to compliment Jobe/Stanton/Hocking & upcoming Merrett.
Drafting McGrath then trading in Smith should have been the end of smaller mids.

Dees are a good comparison - After picking up Tracc, Brayshaw and Oliver, they effectively stopped spending on big mids and started going the likes of Lever, May, Jackson, etc.

Darcy at the time was the most complete and accomplished in that draft on exposed form.

Not to mention the proceeding mids taken were Jacob Hopper (tied to GWS), Matt Kennedy (tied to GWS) and then you start getting to guys no where near as accomplished as Darcy on U18 form.

Aaron Francis was regarded by many as the most talented player in his draft year so no qualms we went a Parish/Francis combo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,989
AFL Club
Essendon
Something many tend to overlook is how poor our half forward line is. The lack of marking players here doesn’t exactly lend itself to lowering the eyes and hitting up.

Upgrade Snelling, Dev &/or Ham with a Stringer or Perkins type (see Fantasia at the height of his powers in 2017) and our mids look infinitely better.

We are instead forced to kick long to either (a) a key forward who’s gone to early or (b) a small forward holding position but been forced into a key position role through poor management of (a).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


What does this have to do with missing targets by metres?

Watch how often even the bombs go to the wrong spot and how far out of position the forwards are when it's him kicking.
 
What does this have to do with missing targets by metres?

Watch how often even the bombs go to the wrong spot and how far out of position the forwards are when it's him kicking.
Agree. He either turns it over or kicks it on their heads. Very very rarely does he kick one inside 50 to advantage. In fact it is almost like an auto pilot kick that lands directly in front anywhere from 10 to 40 meters out depending where he kicks from.
 

CBombers17

Premium Platinum
Jul 7, 2014
4,611
5,303
AFL Club
Essendon
Could still go either way for Parish I reckon, so 2 years is a good amount of time for both parties.

Outside of the favouritism arguments that I can't really follow, whoever is arguing that he needs to get much better by foot is correct imo.
Posted this in here 2 years ago - his 2 years are up.
 
Jun 11, 2007
34,086
29,320
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Bayern, Milan, Boston Celtics
Darcy at the time was the most complete and accomplished in that draft on exposed form.

Not to mention the proceeding mids taken were Jacob Hopper (tied to GWS), Matt Kennedy (tied to GWS) and then you start getting to guys no where near as accomplished as Darcy on U18 form.

Aaron Francis was regarded by many as the most talented player in his draft year so no qualms we went a Parish/Francis combo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
yeah. we drafted safe.
nothing wrong with that.

Darcy is a good acquisition. I wish he'd spend most the game on the ball. but i get he has more capacity to go forward and be a threat than any other mids.
 
Jul 23, 2018
6,479
7,553
AFL Club
Essendon
Overcooked the first kick inside 50. Turnover

2nd kick inside 50 classed as a turnover. Hooker went to ground, slipped or was pushed to the ground. Frost mark

3rd kick inside 50 went to our advantage. H Jones free kick and shot on goal.

4th kick inside 50, centre clearance, mark to Hooker, shot on goal

5th kick inside 50 huge pack and not one forward went up. Only Jiath went up. Not a great kick though as Wright and Jones were too deep if they were the intended targets.

6th kick inside 50 was deep with Hooker out the back the intended target. Fell over but i dont think it was a bad option.

He's not Mark Mecuri and kicking is not his weapon. But its servicable and overall he is a positive to our midfield. Also a nice kick for goal. Just keep working on it.
 

fairbump_playon

Premiership Player
Jun 27, 2014
4,757
7,607
AFL Club
Essendon
Agree. He either turns it over or kicks it on their heads. Very very rarely does he kick one inside 50 to advantage. In fact it is almost like an auto pilot kick that lands directly in front anywhere from 10 to 40 meters out depending where he kicks from.
But WHY. Such a lovely kick for goal. Mechanics look ok.

Is it mental then - ie a lack of vision.. or lack of confidence

Surely he can go have a sports psych hypnotize him into visualizing himself steadying, seeing the field open up and then weighting a kick perfectly for a leading player.
 

CBombers17

Premium Platinum
Jul 7, 2014
4,611
5,303
AFL Club
Essendon
At this stage he's looking like a downgrade on rookie midfield selections like Hocking and Bobcat. They too wern't Mercuri by foot (or quick) but at least tidy and reliable and goal kickers.

It's an unspectacular result for a high draft pick we already knew was on the slower and smaller side.
 

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,989
AFL Club
Essendon
At this stage he's looking like a downgrade on rookie midfield selections like Hocking and Bobcat. They too wern't Mercuri by foot (or quick) but at least tidy and reliable and goal kickers.

It's an unspectacular result for a high draft pick we already knew was on the slower and smaller side.


I'm in this camp, essentially, and have been for a long time.

Is this really the best we can do? Feels like clubs frequently limit themselves out of blindness and/or stubbornness. Everyone gets attached but at the end of the day you get stuck with diminishing returns, as we have in 3 or 4 evolutions of our midfield now, because we're relying on players to do jobs which are beyond them.

I keep reading that Parish just needs to spend more time in the middle, as though giving him more precious inside 50s to waste is going to help the team. It's really just a supercoach analysis of the game. It's something like "he'll gets 30+ possessions and 100+ points and has therefore played well and I'll get to keep watching a player I like".

The same does not apply to players like pre-2017 Cotchin or Matt Crouch (and it shouldn't).

We almost certainly could have scored a first round pick at the end of 2019 (I think) when Geelong was sniffing around as it usually does with its Falcons. Re-signing him as though it was a victory was just another bad bit of list management at the end of the day.
 
Last edited:

Schnitzengruben

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 4, 2019
6,019
8,819
AFL Club
Essendon
I'm in this camp, essentially, and have been for a long time.

Is this really the best we can do? Feels like clubs frequently limit themselves out of blindness and/or stubbornness. Everyone gets attached but at the end of the day you get stuck with diminishing returns, as we have in 3 or 4 evolutions of our midfield now, because we're relying on players to do jobs which are beyond them.

I keep reading that Parish just needs to spend more time in the middle, as though giving him more precious inside 50s to waste is going to help the team. It's really just a supercoach analysis of the game. It's something like "he'll gets 30+ possessions and 100+ points and has therefore played well and I'll get to keep watching a player I like".

The same does not apply to players like pre-2017 Cotchin or Matt Crouch (and it shouldn't).

We also certainly could have scored a first round pick at the end of 2019 (I think) when Geelong was sniffing around as it usually does with its Falcons. Re-signing him as though it was a victory was just another bad bit of list management at the end of the day.
Even if we replaced Parish with Dunkley - would that really be much of an upgrade in terms of kicking ability?
 

BrunoV

Brownlow Medallist
May 5, 2009
21,620
28,989
AFL Club
Essendon
Even if we replaced Parish with Dunkley - would that really be much of an upgrade in terms of kicking ability?


It would be about the same but Dunkley makes the other mids more effective by being able to absorb physical heat a
to free them up.

I'd say it would make a huge difference.
 
Last edited:
I am a critic of his decision making as far as his kicking goes but I have no issue with where we picked him in the draft. Taking out the academy players we had no options on IMO he is still in the top 5 players taken from his pick onwards and would also be in the 10th to 15th best player range give or take a few spots.
 
Apr 26, 2007
14,518
2,259
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Aston Villa
But WHY. Such a lovely kick for goal. Mechanics look ok.

Is it mental then - ie a lack of vision.. or lack of confidence

Surely he can go have a sports psych hypnotize him into visualizing himself steadying, seeing the field open up and then weighting a kick perfectly for a leading player.
Could it be fitness?
 

Don35

Team Captain
Aug 21, 2015
509
394
AFL Club
Essendon
He’s a ripper. Plays footy the right way. Gets critiqued by idiots who clearly have never played and don’t understand the game. A one touch footballer in close. That’s his game. Excellent decision maker in close. Average kick but as another poster laid out earlier today. 6 odd inside 50 kicks that were 3/6. Compare him to under 13 dwarf league ham who gets less criticism from the genius wanna be club landers in here and it becomes laughable.
 

JayJ20

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2016
17,146
26,093
AFL Club
Essendon
For some reason the only thing that matter re his disposal are his kicks. His handball doesn’t count.
Because his kicking is the point of contention?

He has the best hands in our side, but his field kicking needs a lot of work. He won't be elite in his position unless he improves his kicking.
 

naraku

Club Legend
Sep 9, 2017
1,945
1,715
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
A.C. Milan
I like Darcy but he really is just....there. Showed signs last year but even though we're only 2 games in , I question his worth to us right now.
There's a long way to go this year but Darcy has to really step it up big time.
 

DapperJong

Cancelled
30k Posts 10k Posts SFA Good Friday Appeal Spooderman Meme Medal Pantskyle BeanCoiNFT Investor
Feb 11, 2015
42,844
82,918
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Juventus
I didn’t see him do one good thing today
 
Back