Moved Thread #1: Majak Daw -

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Maj is fast and athletic and doesn't read play that well. He has more of a chance to deliver at AFL level than VFL due to the better delivery.
 
kangaspurs said:
Outstanding post.

Obviously I want him in the team because I think his last two performance have merited his inclusion and I think he gives us a better balance, but I really can't argue with anything that you've said here.

I still feel that he is held to different standards to others, but I think that of all of the younger members of our list when compared to their senior counterparts, so it certainly isn't Majak specific. But yeah, like you say, that has nothing to do with Daw's relatively underwhelming performances in the VFL when he should be dominating.
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Cheers.

He definitely has been held to different standards. To an extent I think that's bullshit, but at the same time the bloke has the football IQ of an astrovic so I can kinda understand it. You get the feeling his post-game reviews with the line coaches go a lot longer than other players. He's always been a special case, and obviously if his potential didn't make up for his shortcomings, right now he'd probably be hanging out with Eric Wallace a lot more than he is.

But that's the past, and quite ironically right now I want him to be held to different standards, cos he is different. I want him to be different.

I want him in the team. I've gone backwards and forwards about what role I want him to play if he's in. I've kinda landed on the view that if his role is more of a Gibbo style support act, then to use racing parlance, "others preferred". I want him in the team with the self-belief and mandate to take big marks, kick big goals and land big hits. To be frank watching him play his role and guard grass and do all the other things expected on modern day players is kinda dull.

But first he needs to prove that's who he is - and more importantly who he believes he is - in the magoos.

Anyways I suspect it's kinda a pipe dream.
 
discomute said:
Maj is fast and athletic and doesn't read play that well. He has more of a chance to deliver at AFL level than VFL due to the better delivery.
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Have you seen our AFL team's better delivery lately? :eek:

Anyways, that is true, but it is also true that in the VFL he often plays on spuds and kids whom he should really be tearing to shreds, good delivery or bad. Aaron Edwards kicked a ton in the VFL (around the time he kicked a ton for West Coast). That ugly lunk who played VFL for ever and then ended up at Geelong kicked bags upon bags of goals by being big and mildly talented.

Surely it's not beyond Maj to impose himself on a second string game of footy?
 

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astrovic said:
Very much a hypothetical. Hear me out on this.

I didn't like his JLT campaign. Yes he was coming back from injury, which explains his game time being limited but doesn't explain the lack of urgency and intensity. I was unimpressed. He only got the Geelong game cos Goldy was injured, and was good. I reckon excellent is a stretch. Was impressed with how he played hurt though. Unlucky not to go down to Hobart. Puts in an average follow up in the VFL, which I found really disappointing. That's his 2017 to date in a nutshell. Feel free to quibble with the details if you want.

But the point is, all of that merely justifies why he should be "considered" for selection, but not necessarily selected. It means he is presently on the fringes of the best 22 (again) and we can argue up hill and down dale the pros and cons of him playing AFL or VFL this week or next week or whatever. It's a continuing theme and has been going on for years.

What I want to know is - does Maj really have another gear. Once upon a time he destroyed the Dogs in his 4th or 5th match - is that a fluke or is it what he is genuinely capable of on a reasonably regular basis? And what have we done to find out? I get that we've invested years into teaching him the nuances of AFL level football (for which he has shown Vickery like levels of comprehension), but now at 25 years of age and 8 years in the system, with a 3 year contract ahead of him - if he's ever going to bring his "A" game, which we've glimpsed but not seen a lot of, now is the time I would have thought.

One thing I have never liked about Maj is that his VFL performances have rarely risen above "good". Once upon a time he nearly won a VFL prelim final against Geelong off his own boot, but again that seems now about as long ago as the Dogs match. Beyond that he has been "good". "Good" is not what I look for in AFL listed players who genuinely want to playing AFL. To draw some rough comparisons, Clarke went 27 and 4 on the weekend. EVW had 31 in defence. When Cunners got dropped to the 2's, he responded with 40+ touches. When LT got dropped he kicked 7. That's what I like to see. AFL standard players treating the VFL like it is beneath them.

To my recollection, Maj has never done something similar as a VFL player. Will he go out this weekend in the magoos and have 20+ touches , 8+ marks and kick 5+? Can he? If not, why not? Giving a 25 year old a 3 year contract surely means we expect he can. And why shouldn't the club tell him that that is what it is going to take for him to get back into a royal blue and white guernsey? No more "good" at VFL level.

My hypothetical is based on, instead of having him constantly hanging around the fringes of selection year after year, with "team balance" etc keeping him in or out, that the coaching department put to him that if he wants to be seriously considered as an AFL player, he needs to stop being "good" and start being "brilliant" in the VFL. Kick the door down etc. The follow on point is that hopefully taking such a hardline approach might make something "click" inside Maj that actually sees him find and capitalise on his undoubted natural ability.

As for Atley, Thomas, Swallow and Thompson...I'm not talking about them. Maj is somewhat unique as an 8+ year player still on an AFL list, with this seasona nd 2 more years ahead of him, and still not considered best 22. IMO we should be putting to him - if he isn't already aware, that it's not team balance, or Preuss being a surprise packet, or any other set of circumstances keeping him out of the team, it's himself and himself alone that can decide the question of which team he is playing with.
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I agree wholeheartedly with your post, but out of curiosity did Mason last week have 20+ touches , 8+ marks and kick 5+? or are these the standards we only expect from Majak to force selection?
 
Horizons_00 said:
He is our future forward that will probably replace Waite next year

Needs to be getting AFL games into him this year if he's fit (at training, his knee was still strapped)
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Watching last weekend's VFL highlights it looked like he had a doona strapped to his left knee. He can't possibly be playing unhindered going by that alone.
 
Rooboy 96 said:
I agree wholeheartedly with your post, but out of curiosity did Mason last week have 20+ touches , 8+ marks and kick 5+? or are these the standards we only expect from Majak to force selection?
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Only Majak - see my follow up posts above. Different strokes for different blokes.

And after a fashion Mason kinda did...first game back from knee surgery, he plays limited game time and has 10 touches and a lazy 4 shots on goal on a windy day...not bloody bad really.
 
giantroo said:
Now for our Perth supporters to follow suit (if he plays).
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That would be good, but us North supporters are high up in the gods at one end of the ground. Might not hear us from there. We only get allocated 500 seats or something in that range, which is crap. A North friend is pretty pissed off right now. She has paid $350 this year to become a member. We only get this game all year to watch us play at Subi. She has called and emailed the club to try and get another ticket for a friend to join her, and she was told that we have too many members in WA and we're not allocated enough seating. I don't think she is going to attend now. She mumbled about it being a waste of money, and she was better off putting it forward to going to a game in Melbourne. We are losing members here, because it's a s**t deal for us. Hopefully next year, we get a better deal to watch games at the new stadium.
 
spurs said:
That would be good, but us North supporters are high up in the gods at one end of the ground. Might not hear us from there. We only get allocated 500 seats or something in that range, which is crap. A North friend is pretty pissed off right now. She has paid $350 this year to become a member. We only get this game all year to watch us play at Subi. She has called and emailed the club to try and get another ticket for a friend to join her, and she was told that we have too many members in WA and we're not allocated enough seating. I don't think she is going to attend now. She mumbled about it being a waste of money, and she was better off putting it forward to going to a game in Melbourne. We are losing members here, because it's a s**t deal for us. Hopefully next year, we get a better deal to watch games at the new stadium.
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It's always been s**t. Previously, when Greg Miller was CEO, you had to pay for a seat. ie the membership got you into the ground only.

This is a Subiaco issue, not a North issue though. Affects all non-WA team supporters.

Be curious to see whether this area expands proportionately, eg up from 500 to 750 (given Burswood will be 50% more capacity) or whether they increase it to say 2,000 - 2,500?
 
Kimbo said:
It's always been s**t. Previously, when Greg Miller was CEO, you had to pay for a seat. ie the membership got you into the ground only.

This is a Subiaco issue, not a North issue though. Affects all non-WA team supporters.

Be curious to see whether this area expands proportionately, eg up from 500 to 750 (given Burswood will be 50% more capacity) or whether they increase it to say 2,000 - 2,500?
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Agreed, it is a Subi issue, but it still doesn't distract the issue of no seats for members who pay big bucks for one game a year. The AFL needs to step in for all clubs. I remember paying $35 for my seat allocation despite being a member in the Greg Miller days too.

Considering the new stadium will have a 60k capacity, which is ridiculous (should be 75k+) from 45k at Subi, I would say around 1000 seats for us.
 
 

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Harris 10 said:
if Brown is out could Larkey be a chance?
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The suggestion that we'll be playing more than the 30 we've played so far suggests this, OR Anderson or Wagner.

While Nick wouldn't normally be considered at this stage, it may be a case of necessity as you've suggested.
 
astrovic said:
Cheers.

He definitely has been held to different standards. To an extent I think that's bullshit, but at the same time the bloke has the football IQ of an astrovic so I can kinda understand it. You get the feeling his post-game reviews with the line coaches go a lot longer than other players. He's always been a special case, and obviously if his potential didn't make up for his shortcomings, right now he'd probably be hanging out with Eric Wallace a lot more than he is.

But that's the past, and quite ironically right now I want him to be held to different standards, cos he is different. I want him to be different.

I want him in the team. I've gone backwards and forwards about what role I want him to play if he's in. I've kinda landed on the view that if his role is more of a Gibbo style support act, then to use racing parlance, "others preferred". I want him in the team with the self-belief and mandate to take big marks, kick big goals and land big hits. To be frank watching him play his role and guard grass and do all the other things expected on modern day players is kinda dull.

But first he needs to prove that's who he is - and more importantly who he believes he is - in the magoos.

Anyways I suspect it's kinda a pipe dream.
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Perhaps a simpler explanation than different standards is that he is either injured or out of form. I was walking up the main street of Werribee today in a NM hoody and a chap in Werribee gear struck up a conversation. He said he is involved on match days at Werribee and expressed puzzlement about Majak's lack of form- "he couldn't even make the distance from 40 metres out against the bulldogs" (maybe due to quad injury mentioned by Scott). When I commented about Preuss going past Majak, he commented that on current form Larkey had also gone past him.
 
the big lebowski said:
Yes, and why he wasn't in the team last week.

And it's encouraging that Brad wants him back in the senior team as soon as possible.
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I thought that was great to hear as well. We can all chill out about Maj not being selected now and being out of favour, just a niggle he hasnt been able to get past.

What is a concern is how injury prone our key forwards are. Waite, Daw, Brown, Wood are always carrying something significant or out of the team
 
astrovic said:
Have you seen our AFL team's better delivery lately? :eek:

Anyways, that is true, but it is also true that in the VFL he often plays on spuds and kids whom he should really be tearing to shreds, good delivery or bad. Aaron Edwards kicked a ton in the VFL (around the time he kicked a ton for West Coast). That ugly lunk who played VFL for ever and then ended up at Geelong kicked bags upon bags of goals by being big and mildly talented.

Surely it's not beyond Maj to impose himself on a second string game of footy?
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Yes a fair point- it is interesting Maj seems to impose himself more at AFL level. Sav Rocca did the same imo.
 
If hes been battling a quad injury then fair enough he misses this week but then the question is how longs he been battling it, watched him vs footscray and he was nowhere near his normal self. even if he doesnt do as much in afl he always performs strongly at VFL level, hope this has only just come up, we have barely any tall players as it is.
 
Does not cope with niggles very well at all does maj, practically has to be 100% or you can scratch him.

When he gets back to the VFL I don't want him playing ruck, his forward game is not developing while he is playing the majority of the game rucking.

We all know what he can do in the ruck, but he needs to develop his forward game if he is ever a chance of becoming an AFL footballer


*i feel like I've been saying this in regards to Maj for the last 5 years. He really needs to establish himself ASAP or he might have a few go past him and end up on the trade table.
 
Some highlights of Maj from the VFL game. Took some good contested marks.

 
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