Player Watch #21: Noah Balta
- Thread starter Grockadoc
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Why am I tripping balls thinking he was from WA?
That might be worse though, whole lot of Melbourne teams come with big offers!
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Won’t leave. Maric won’t let him.
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I think it’s best he go long to a contest when undecided rather than trying to pinpoint it.
Beautiful long kick but looked to try and absolutely drill it when going shorter.
Maybe when he’s feeling more assured and confident in his role he can become a bit more creative by foot but until then keep it simple
Beautiful long kick but looked to try and absolutely drill it when going shorter.
Maybe when he’s feeling more assured and confident in his role he can become a bit more creative by foot but until then keep it simple
Rance 2.0
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He’s the exact type of player that the parasites at Hawthorn try to poach. Been doing it for years, tried it with Rance too.
Need to keep this bloke, same with CCJ
Really? I don't recall him ever playing a game better than "well he wasn't crap"
No Houli plays his best footy in grand finals.
Cdog71
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I thought he was really good but Melbourne wouldn’t have too much competition for the sh.test forward line goin round.
Let’s see how he goes against Ben Brown who’s made a career outve repeat leads and flopping.
I was watching him play up the ground against the Bullflogs and I finally realised why Brown lines up the ball at goals like under 10’s and has a ridiculous run up for goal.
He is bloody awful by foot.
Let’s see how he goes against Ben Brown who’s made a career outve repeat leads and flopping.
I was watching him play up the ground against the Bullflogs and I finally realised why Brown lines up the ball at goals like under 10’s and has a ridiculous run up for goal.
He is bloody awful by foot.
DontArgue4
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He had a kick, i think it may have even been his first kick of the game...
i remember thinking where the * is he going with that, it was a 40m dart straight down the middle of the ground that hit his teammate on the tit in between two oppo defenders...
he certainly has the capability, just needs to harness it
i remember thinking where the * is he going with that, it was a 40m dart straight down the middle of the ground that hit his teammate on the tit in between two oppo defenders...
he certainly has the capability, just needs to harness it
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he has that capability.
he also tried the same in the last quarter and a melbourne player got to it first.
just gotta improve his decision making. if he does that, hes a serious player.
DontArgue4
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the decision itself in that case i dont think was necessarily bad, its probably just a matter of when its a good time to choose that as the option
he should have hit broad with a handpass earlier on
He had two players over the back all on their own but chipped it a bit short. The play was on, just a skill level. Another metre higher and it's out through the middle of the ground.
That is something you develop in footy over years in the game, the ability to choose the right type of kick at the right time. One thing I found came the longer I played was the ability to take weight off kicks and elevate them a bit to make it easier for the player you are kicking to. When I was younger I just kicked everything as hard as I could. There is no doubt Balta is an exceptional kick and given time to develop his kicking repertoire and decision making it will be a great weapon.
The kick that got intercepted in the last term, I cursed at the time as I was under tmp’s and just wanted the rock taken down the wing. But upon watching on replay Balta took the right choice for the team, he just failed to elevate the kick. He will work on that(you would hope) and guys like him with such a long shoe give the team a great advantage. They have a greater range of options by foot than others, and the oppo need to cover a greater range of possibilities and if they rush back to cover the long kick it leaves easy shorter options open. Balta will over time learn to take great advantage of this, ala Hurn, Ben Graham and others of the ilk.
One good player to compare Balta to in order to get a line on him is Charlie Ballard. Ballard was drafted the same year at pick 42, Balta was taken at pick 25. Ballard has nailed down a spot in the Suns team and they seem really happy with him from what I have read. I have watched him closely and I like him as a player, he is light bodied for now but positions himself well in marking contests and plays the key defence role really well considering he is just 3rd year and has had a difficult time trying to stand up in what has been a weak defence until this year. But there is a massive difference between what he can do and what Balta can do. Balta when he gets it right now seems to have a big presence in a contest and can do enormous damage on the rebound. Even putting someone like Ballard aside, stalwart key defenders like Davis, Talia, Astbury, etc work brilliantly in a system, but they are not capable of the things Balta can and will be able to do.
Would love to see him sent to a running coach because his running style looks really inefficient to me.
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I thought exactly the same MR. It looked like a tired kick, rather than a poor decision.
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Hes a third year player at 6'4, 100kg
Would be nice if he plays like that every week but it's a big ask
foot higher and it would have been a tigers goal, probably.
Good signs from the blasphemous balta
It's way a tough kick running that fast - hit it well almost broke the blokes fingers
He's obviously got a weapon in that boot, so he should be encouraged to develop it as much as possible - fast short passes included.
That kick was a high risk/reward play - we have been playing that way for a few years now (about the time we started to become good
), so it was definitely all right to try. It wasn't a 'last 2 minutes with a 1-point lead' situation. That's how we play - that's what we want players to do. And how often have we seen that 'one kick too many, one handpass too many'. It's the risk when you play our style - but - look at the results. Risk/reward.
Looks bad when it fails - looks great when it comes off. Have a look at the 10-min mark of the 2nd quarter - Edwards does a pass (under no pressure) 40 metres across the half-back line to Aarts. Great switch. The ball ju-u-u-ust beats the Melbourne defender trying to intercept - result - 10 secs later, Jack kicks a goal. If the ball had floated 1/10 of a second longer the Melbourne player intercepts and the Dees probably kick a goal, and Sheds gets canned 'for his 'sloppy, floating risky poorly-executed kick'. And it was - but it came off.
Balta has the ability to drill that kick. Hope he keeps going for them.
It also means, when we are going, we are exciting to watch.
That kick was a high risk/reward play - we have been playing that way for a few years now (about the time we started to become good
), so it was definitely all right to try. It wasn't a 'last 2 minutes with a 1-point lead' situation. That's how we play - that's what we want players to do. And how often have we seen that 'one kick too many, one handpass too many'. It's the risk when you play our style - but - look at the results. Risk/reward.Looks bad when it fails - looks great when it comes off. Have a look at the 10-min mark of the 2nd quarter - Edwards does a pass (under no pressure) 40 metres across the half-back line to Aarts. Great switch. The ball ju-u-u-ust beats the Melbourne defender trying to intercept - result - 10 secs later, Jack kicks a goal. If the ball had floated 1/10 of a second longer the Melbourne player intercepts and the Dees probably kick a goal, and Sheds gets canned 'for his 'sloppy, floating risky poorly-executed kick'. And it was - but it came off.
Balta has the ability to drill that kick. Hope he keeps going for them.
It also means, when we are going, we are exciting to watch.
The alternative was watching Brand take and intercept mark last night, stream out of defence at CHB and instead of looking for a man down field, or booting it 50m to CHF, over CHF in Balta's case, Brand handballed the ball to his team mate 10m in front of him, who had his back to play (my pet hate), who was then set upon and he gave the ball back to Brand who then as a last measure chipped the ball to a team mate on the half back line who was just free.He's obviously got a weapon in that boot, so he should be encouraged to develop it as much as possible - fast short passes included.
That kick was a high risk/reward play - we have been playing that way for a few years now (about the time we started to become good
Looks bad when it fails - looks great when it comes off. Have a look at the 10-min mark of the 2nd quarter - Edwards does a pass (under no pressure) 40 metres across the half-back line to Aarts. Great switch. The ball ju-u-u-ust beats the Melbourne defender trying to intercept - result - 10 secs later, Jack kicks a goal. If the ball had floated 1/10 of a second longer the Melbourne player intercepts and the Dees probably kick a goal, and Sheds gets canned 'for his 'sloppy, floating risky poorly-executed kick'. And it was - but it came off.
Balta has the ability to drill that kick. Hope he keeps going for them.
It also means, when we are going, we are exciting to watch.
That is modern football at it's worst. Thank god we don't play football like that.
Another really solid outing by the big fella. Not sure who his immediate opponent was, but he may as well have stayed in Sydney.
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played well given limited opportunity to influence the game.
And for a young kid, that can be challenging mentally, expected to be switched on when out of nowhere it's your turn to do so... and he didn't have a brain implosion doing it, so big tick in my book
And for a young kid, that can be challenging mentally, expected to be switched on when out of nowhere it's your turn to do so... and he didn't have a brain implosion doing it, so big tick in my book
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xInfected_Virus
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To be fair Norf didn't kick it to him a lot but when they did, Noah didn't lose any contests against Sideshow and the only inside 50 marks he got were pretty cheap and Noah wasn't near him. When Norf did target Sideshow, I noticed that Balta pushed him under the footy, if he can shut down Cox and other bigger bodied forwards such as GWS (Cameron) and the Lions tall forwards (Hipwood) then your defence will be impenetrable.
His potential is that high that he could definitely be an upgraded version of Rance who can beat big bodied forwards while using his booming penetrating kick to break the line and set up your trademark fast forward entry on a consistent basis. Can also provide addtional intercepting thus freeing Vlaustin and Grimes more. He can definitely fit alongside Astbury, Grimes, Broad, Egg/Houli, Baker, Short and Vlaustin (either Baker and Short can go into the midfield if possible) thus replicating or even upgrading the 2017/18 defence.
Was hoping he'd have a ping when he got the ball 80m or so out on the hff in the last qtr.
Has a huge handball on him too. Gun.
Has a huge handball on him too. Gun.
