AFL Player #15: Jayden Laverde

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2025
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 7, Nuggs Bunny

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

I'm not sure I agree with this point. We are at least decent in player development and have actually had quite a few recent successes.

Ignoring guys that were drafted at the pointy end of the draft or were pretty much guaranteed to be guns wherever they went: eg Heppell, Daniher, McGrath and Hurley.

Guys that we've developed pretty well: Zerrett, Fantasia (major success from pick 56 or so), Hooker (similar to Fantasia), Bellchambers, Zaharakis, Tippa (admittedly developed on our VFL list), Gleeson, McKenna (great example of teaching the game to an Irish recruit). Guys that have left in Hibberd and Carlisle were also developmental successes.

I'm also very excited by the second year group of McGrath, Ridley, Begley, Mutch, Clarke and Draper. All have shown significant signs of being AFL capable players and I could see this going down as our best draft in recent memory. Plus Redman as a 3rd year just played a cracker game.

Its too early to call guys like Parish, Langford and Laverde failures. Parish in particular has had a slow start to the year but he put in 2 pretty good years as a young player and was dropped for what 2 games before picking up a finger injury. There is every chance he goes on to become a good to very good player. I suspect Laverde will be a failure but we don't know for sure yet.

We've certainly had our failures too but relative to the picks we've had our % of success has actually been pretty decent of late. Unfortunately we were also pretty far back in the pack and then we had the saga on top of that.

Our late draft picks aren't the problem, it's the early ones. From 2015 onwards under Woosha, we've had Parish who hasn't made improvement since his first game, Francis who has struggled for basic match fitness (yes, I know he's also had other things to deal with) and McGrath who's playing in sort of limbo at the moment between HB and midfield. Dial back a year and both our first round picks have been very stagnant in the last two years, only recently Langford has been elevated himself to the fringe of the best 22 in his fourth season.

Matt Guelfi came to the club without any time in the AFL and he's shown himself to be more developed than basically all of the aforementioned bar McGrath who he isn't that far behind. Sure that's only one case, but it shouldn't be the case when we have some of the best facilities in the league at our disposal.

Whatever we're doing, we can do it better and we used to be able to do it better.

 

[mayhem20202]

Doing his chances of a recall no harm at all


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[bjisgod9]

Was our best fwd today

 

[Zach Package]

Did he just realise he's 6'4 and incredibly athletic?

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Did he just realise he's 6'4 and incredibly athletic?

He plays like that all the time at VFL level. Just needs to be given time to adjust to AFL pace.

 

[Studly Baker]

Did he just realise he's 6'4 and incredibly athletic?

Not to mention built like a fridge

 

[Zach Package]

He plays like that all the time at VFL level. Just needs to be given time to adjust to AFL pace.

Not with that kind of physicality he doesn't. He's obviously always neat and constructive but that's the first time I've seen him barrel through people and smash packs.

Hopefully it's a penny drop moment

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Not with that kind of physicality he doesn't. He's obviously always neat and constructive but that's the first time I've seen him barrel through people and smash packs.

Hopefully it's a penny drop moment

Should have seen him down at Frankston earlier in the year, polaxed a fair few that day.

 

[Vander18]

Just has to keep waiting, building and developing.

He’s totally dominant at VFL level, one day it will click for him at AFL level. His recent stretch of games wasn’t too bad,hopefully his next stretch is better again.

 

[Yoda_]

Did he just realise he's 6'4 and incredibly athletic?

Not with that kind of physicality he doesn't. He's obviously always neat and constructive but that's the first time I've seen him barrel through people and smash packs.

Hopefully it's a penny drop moment

We've seen him do this at VFL level before. He needs to do this at AFL level

 

[boncer34]

Just has to keep waiting, building and developing.

He’s totally dominant at VFL level, one day it will click for him at AFL level. His recent stretch of games wasn’t too bad,hopefully his next stretch is better again.

In his 6 game stretch he averaged 12 touches and kicked 2 goals.

It was pretty ordinary outside his first game.

 

[Kakkle]

Not sure how many players make it after being on a list for 4 years and not cementing a best 22 spot, but will be interested to see what we do with come seasons end. I wouldn't be giving him anything more than 1 year make or break deal.

 

[Vander18]

In his 6 game stretch he averaged 12 touches and kicked 2 goals.

It was pretty ordinary outside his first game.

In his 6 game stretch he averaged 12 touches and kicked 2 goals.

It was pretty ordinary outside his first game.

I thought he was OK - there were encouraging signs. Don’t get me wrong, he needs to do more but I’m more confident now than I was before that he can have a career.

 

[lenny2013]

I wonder if his inside game could be developed to become the inside mid that we are crying out for, at 191cm and 90kg and athletic he has the body.
Just needs to add a bit of mongrel.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Not sure how many players make it after being on a list for 4 years and not cementing a best 22 spot, but will be interested to see what we do with come seasons end. I wouldn't be giving him anything more than 1 year make or break deal.

Luckily for Jayden, I think he's not quite at the bottom of the deadwood and impending retirements pile which should get him through for another year. He will be very close to the bottom next season though.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

I wonder if his inside game could be developed to become the inside mid that we are crying out for, at 191cm and 90kg and athletic he has the body.
Just needs to add a bit of mongrel.

Just needs some ******* stones, he has mongrel in spades at VFL level but he plays like an astronaut in the seniors.

 

[srobbo]

I think it really comes down to him needing to take more ownership when he plays senior footy. He’s got the tools we all know it, but he seems to fall back into the passive “I’ll wait for the game to come to me mentality”.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Not sure how many players make it after being on a list for 4 years and not cementing a best 22 spot, but will be interested to see what we do with come seasons end. I wouldn't be giving him anything more than 1 year make or break deal.

A good example would be the player I’d like Laverde to become. Tom Lynch (ADE). Had played 12 games total by the end of his fourth year and had shown half as much as Lav has.

The fitness required today takes years to build unless you’re a freak. Lav is still in the window of making it.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I think it really comes down to him needing to take more ownership when he plays senior footy. He’s got the tools we all know it, but he seems to fall back into the passive “I’ll wait for the game to come to me mentality”.

Strikes me as the kind of person who thrives after being given a leadership responsibility of some kind. At VFL level he feels he needs to make an impact and lead by example, whereas at AFL level he leaves things to others more.

 

[BrunoV]

The observations above emphasise the pointlessness of playing Laverde in the VFL, particularly as a half forward. I'm not saying the observations are unfair but there are reasons for what we are seeing that are more than Laverde not having the required intensity.

Playing as a half forward necessarily requires a player to tread water and not commit to every contest which is why I can't understand leaving players to develop in that one role. Half forwards are expected to hold a shape both defensively and also for attacking purposes. I do think that it impacts on the attitude of a player if he's always the one expected to sit off a contest. It changes a players' mindsets. I'd level the same criticism at leaving players on a wing. They're probably the most difficult positions to play in footy at the moment because I think that so much of what the half forwards and wingers are asked to do is counter-intuitive to what made them good enough to get onto a list and also counter-intuitive to the way in which those positions used to be played (which is still how players would be brought up to play those positions).

The half forwards tend to struggle the most when sides drag the extra numbers up to the ball and I think it's because the starting point for leading at the ball is taken away (which puts half forwards in no mans land a lot). It's not much of a defence for Laverde, because he needs to be able to have an impact when a game does not suit him, but the game against Melbourne is a clear example that he doesn't have a problem finding the ball in the traditional way you'd expect of a half forward. It was an open game and he was able to lead at the ball instinctively so it was no surprise that played his standard VFL game at the higher level (where he was one of our better players on the day).

A lot of different things have happened since the Melbourne game. We played some shocking footy and have also made some fairly significant structural changes which have impacted on the way we use our half forwards. We've also struggled to settle a forward combination.

I think that we are currently playing a better, more sustainable brand of footy than we were last year but there is no doubt that we are not as good going forward except when we are able to load up from half back to go through the corridor (which ends up by-passing the half forwards anyway).

The other major factor is that Laverde is probably forward 1 or 2 when he plays VFL and that's certainly not the case when he plays AFL. He can keep playing as a half forward in the VFL but if the games are being played as differently as they are I don't see how he is going to improve his positioning in the defensive and attacking transitions which is a big issue for him at the moment. This part of the game is non-existent at VFL level for reasons that I can't explain so I have serious doubts that playing half forward in the VFL is doing anything to address the weaknesses in his game as a half forward in AFL.

I think that there is also the bigger picture with Laverde anyway and it's the reality that he's a powerhouse in close and we're wasting attributes that the senior side needs around the ball. Either play him as a forward at AFL level and give him time to adapt or play him on-ball in the VFL. It's getting to the point that we're just missmanaging his development.

 

[BrunoV]

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2018-06-25/laverde-sidelined

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Does low grade hamstring strain mean the strain or Laverde's hamstring is low grade? The latter is plausible

 

[eDPS]

Oh ffs

 

[ant555]

Was going to agree with Bruno and playing Laverde at half forward. Would have thought midfield time would have been more of an advantage.
Guess not.

 

[Stopher]

* sake