Delisted #37: Dylan Clarke - End of the road, will not be offered a list spot in 2022

37 - [PLAYERCARD]Dylan Clarke[/PLAYERCARD].jpg

Contract Status: Not offered a contract for 2021
Last Game Played: Round 23, 2021 (omitted)
Injury Status: n/a
 
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I was quite interested to see his much maligned kicking action but it didn't seem too bad. Racked up 10 kicks apparently, I'm not sure what his kicking efficiency was but overall he went at 78% which despite the limitations of that particular stat isn't bad considering he spent a lot of the game within arms reach of one of the biggest blokes on the park.

The only thing that stood out was he was a bit up-and-under which meant his passes went quite slowly to the target.

I'd like to see Clarke keep his spot, but who makes way when Shiel comes back?

Zaharakis

(Actually was surprised to see Zaka had it 25 times, he did not stand out at all on the telecast)
 

calyam

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May 9, 2011
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What impressed me about his role was that, while he tagged Cripps, he wasn't obsessed with Cripps. He was still involved in the play, still found the footy and contributed positively when we had the ball. Some taggers turn the game into a 17/17 contest. That wasn't the case today with Clarke - he still contributed while forcing Cripps into one of the worst games of his career.
 

blitzer

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Aug 27, 2006
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Great game from Clarke. I like that we played him as a tagger. He's got strong endurance, good size and good ability around the stoppages. Exactly what you want from a tagger. I don't see why he couldn't develop into the next De Boer who is currently dominating all the competitions best midfielders. I thought his kicking was pretty solid too.
 

BrunoV

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May 5, 2009
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What impressed me about his role was that, while he tagged Cripps, he wasn't obsessed with Cripps. He was still involved in the play, still found the footy and contributed positively when we had the ball. Some taggers turn the game into a 17/17 contest. That wasn't the case today with Clarke - he still contributed while forcing Cripps into one of the worst games of his career.



I think this is likely to reflect the reality that Cripps was probably also carrying something.

Kicking was pretty ordinary but, in fairness to him, if I wasn't aware of his history I don't think it would have stood out as an issue (it was quite fluent and reflects improvement which really became noticeable about 1 month ago).

Nevertheless, he can only do the job that is there for him to do and it would have been a monster display to keep Cripps to 20 touches (so 11 touches plus the impact he had probably gets him BOG). It's so nice to see a player with so much aggression and willingness to engage an opponent phsycially at stoppages. Very un-Essendon in the Worsfold era.

The conditions also helped to turn the game into a VFL style slog which suits Clarke just fine. That could also be the break he needed to really fast track his development now.

It was a really, really good first up effort. It should have bought him the time he needs to prove he's worth persisting with. I was concerned with the bye coming up that he might have been squeezed for anything less than the sort of performance he put on today.
 
Thought it was pretty good

The way he plays makes it basically irrelevant, even if you’d obviously like a little more depth.

He’s smart about his limitations and plays safely within them, that’s the recipe for making it if your kicking is suss. Also fits well with the rest of the personnel we’ve got with the amount of overlap runners he can give the release handball to.
 
The way he plays makes it basically irrelevant, even if you’d obviously like a little more depth.

He’s smart about his limitations and plays safely within them, that’s the recipe for making it if your kicking is suss. Also fits well with the rest of the personnel we’ve got with the amount of overlap runners he can give the release handball to.
Redman and Saad were onto it to help him out.
 
Jul 6, 2002
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The way he plays makes it basically irrelevant, even if you’d obviously like a little more depth.

He’s smart about his limitations and plays safely within them, that’s the recipe for making it if your kicking is suss. Also fits well with the rest of the personnel we’ve got with the amount of overlap runners he can give the release handball to.

Against hawthorn at Marvel will be a great test. Turnovers there are a killer and Clarkson will look to exploit any weakness.
 
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