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

[Lore]

Contract Status: Not offered a contract for 2021
Last Game Played: Round 23, 2021 (omitted)
Injury Status: n/a

 

[eDPS]

Every team has the ability to carry one bloke who can't kick as long as their main strength over rides it and they stick to what they know....and they need to be prepared to be a whipping boy when it goes bad

Think of guys like Wil Langford, Shane tuck, Rhys Palmer, maybe even Swan or Rockliff to much less extent...

It can happen, just be ready to run past for a handball when they mark

Castagna from Richmond is a shocking kick but he has a role and does it well enough, good thing about Clarke is that he can bring forward pressure, he isnt much slower than Baguley.

 

[VelvetSledge]

Bloke has become a list clogger every time he gets a game he looks horrible sorry but delist material.

LOL he's played one game and the season HASN'T EVEN STARTED

This is record timing big fella

 

[Howard Moon]

I've been thinking about it a bit more , if you focus on what a player can do instead of what he can't, maybe you are a fair way toward getting that bloke a career. You can cater things toward his strength, Unless of course the thing he can't do actually detracts from his strengths..

The question here is, can you make it as an afl player if you can't kick?

In times past, no, kicking was a fundamental of our game, kick, mark, kick mark.

Is it still a fundamental of our game? Or has the game compartmentalized so much that your particular role means kicking isn't a fundamental?

If I take a Daniel Cross as an example, couldn't kick over a jam tin, Ben Cunnington, similar, the afire mentioned Langford, a real shank merchant.

Their stats were always heavily skewed toward a HB : K ratio, sonetimes Cross would be like 20 : 4. He forged a fine career.

What are Clarke's strengths? Strong, aerobic, extractor. Negative , kicking.

With those strengths could he not forge a career where he attends stoppages as an extractor, hurting the opposition, then moving to a defensive tag type role in general play, using his strength and endurance?

Could he be a tagger that wins his own inside ball?

 

[Old Campaigner]

I've been thinking about it a bit more , if you focus on what a player can do instead of what he can't, maybe you are a fair way toward getting that bloke a career. You can cater things toward his strength, Unless of course the thing he can't do actually detracts from his strengths..

The question here is, can you make it as an afl player if you can't kick?

In times past, no, kicking was a fundamental of our game, kick, mark, kick mark.

Is it still a fundamental of our game? Or has the game compartmentalized so much that your particular role means kicking isn't a fundamental?

If I take a Daniel Cross as an example, couldn't kick over a jam tin, Ben Cunnington, similar, the afire mentioned Langford, a real shank merchant.

Their stats were always heavily skewed toward a HB : K ratio, sonetimes Cross would be like 20 : 4. He forged a fine career.

What are Clarke's strengths? Strong, aerobic, extractor. Negative , kicking.

With those strengths could he not forge a career where he attends stoppages as an extractor, hurting the opposition, then moving to a defensive tag type role in general play, using his strength and endurance?

Could he be a tagger that wins his own inside ball?

I think that is something that the good teams have done well, rather than trying to put 22 well rounded players on the park they've allowed players with some real deficiencies to their game to focus on what they're elite at and built their role in the side around that.

 

[owen87]

I think Clarke has a lot of positives; if he was elite by hand e.g. Watson / Priddis then he'd likely have played more games.

He's got a good frame and reads the play well enough to stay involved, works defensively, and is still young.

Plenty to work with. If he ends up a ~90kg inside mid ballwinning workhorse then he'll have a role.

Biggest things with me are getting his kicking to a point where he's not a liability if he gets it in space (Watson & Priddis weren't great, but weren't liabilities) and being able to open up play more by hand. Someone like Greg Williams is actually a very good person for him to work with on this.

Pretty harsh to judge him a bust at this point, the single AFL game he played I thought he was quite passable. Didn't set the world on fire but you could see he was willing to do the defensive, team oriented things. I think with a run af games at AFL level he'd be a mid 20s / 5-8 tackles a game kind of player.

 

[JayJ20]

He's such an "if only" player. Has great qualities to add to the side. His kicking at the moment isn't AFL standard.
I'm really hoping he at least improves it to passable because that's the only thing stopping him from becoming best 22. We could use an inside mid with his size.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Time for a quiz, is he kicking...

A: a torpedo
B: a screw punt
C: a banana
D: a mongrel floater

View attachment 634379

The Butcher is hopefully snapping at goal from an acute angle.

Please, please don’t let that be an around the corner drop punt.

 

[Howard Moon]

The Butcher is hopefully snapping at goal from an acute angle.

Please, please don’t let that be an around the corner drop punt.

There's only one guy in our team who can do an around the corner drop punt, and that's irish.

Maybe Dyls is just over reaching, I mean the inside out torp is amongst the hardest kicks to perfect in the game of footy, and its his go to. Just step it back a few notches and it might be fine

 

[eth-dog]

If he had the composure on the spread as he does inside he'd be AFL standard. Bullied Frankston inside.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Gets asked every few months but has his kicking gotten any better, like even a little bit?

 

[dnbassador]

Starting to get worried about my boy seems like he’s a long way back to even getting a crack in the seniors or contract extension. Surely his kicking can’t be that bad plenty of decent midfielders in the comp with average kicks.

 

[Seb78]

Looks that way unfortunately. Bit unfair though that he hasn't been given a fair run at it at senior level. Would've been good to see what he could do with 5-6 games strung together

 

[BigEast]

Starting to get worried about my boy seems like he’s a long way back to even getting a crack in the seniors or contract extension. Surely his kicking can’t be that bad plenty of decent midfielders in the comp with average kicks.

Have a look at the Crouch brothers stats from the weekend. You don’t have to kick it a lot to have an impact.

 

[BrunoV]

Why pick a guy who can't kick? That's the real issue here. There is a lot in Clarke's game that is really good but it's not like it couldn't be replaced.

There is no point sticking with Clarke (which is not to say that we shouldn't have given him time) if we can find one who can kick and the odds are that we can.

And mentioning the Crouches really distorts the discussion, both can effectively use the ball by foot. At the moment you cant say that Clarke can.

I thought his disposal, by hand and foot, was close to being at its worst against Frankston. It was improved against North on the weekend.

Its hard to tell after only two games but it does look a bit less like he's just throwing the ball onto his boot.

Dodoro and co will give him every opportunity, they've been very generous with Long, for example.

Even if it ends up being his last 4 games, if he can consistently demonstrate effective use by foot he'll be around next year.

 

[ghostdog]

If his kicking hasn't improved, that speaks for someone who doesn't consciously listen and apply suggestions on how to improve, or someone who for some physiological reason can not. You probably look at delisting on the basis of either. How many seasons has he had a spot on the list for?

 

[Kakkle]

Starting to get worried about my boy seems like he’s a long way back to even getting a crack in the seniors or contract extension. Surely his kicking can’t be that bad plenty of decent midfielders in the comp with average kicks.

There's being a average kick, then there's being what ever you'd classify Clarke's kicking as. If he was a average kick, he'd be playing his 20th game in the seniors this Thursday.

 

[eDPS]

If his kicking hasn't improved, that speaks for someone who doesn't consciously listen and apply suggestions on how to improve, or someone who for some physiological reason can not. You probably look at delisting on the basis of either. How many seasons has he had a spot on the list for?

Extremely smart and dedicated kid so it wouldn’t be from your first point.

 

[Howard Moon]

the term 'average' implies he's about as good as most... the league average

think below average is the term we are looking for

 

[donlav99]

His set shot against the kangas (VFL) was a mongrel helicopter floater that sent a shudder down my spine. Give him time though. Jobe couldnt kick but he worked on it till it became serviceable. You can teach a man to kick, you cant teach them to find the footy.

 

[Old Campaigner]

is there any video of his kicking action? I am curious to see what it actually looks like.

 

[Howard Moon]

is there any video of his kicking action? I am curious to see what it actually looks like.

 

[eDPS]

Was tagged in the first half of the game apparently

 

[BrunoV]

View attachment 660548

That's just a kick from a stoppage.

You got anything in space?

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

His brother is a poor kick as well, although I think Dylan is worse. Personally don’t think he’ll make it.

 

[BrunoV]

His brother is a poor kick as well, although I think Dylan is worse. Personally don’t think he’ll make it.

And you know the sad part? Every other part of his game is miles ahead of his brother.

It's like Kakkle said, if he had his brothers kicking he's have played 20 games by now.