Delisted #11: Will "Meatball" Snelling - Delisted 25/10

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Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2023 (previously delisted)
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BrunoV

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Not smart at all but why do players not want to do it ? serious question. We have very few on our list that want to do it. People keep saying "anyone can do it" but they do not do it. They do not want to be the one in and under in the trenches making the tackles , trying to smother the ball .
This is not just an AFL thing. Have seen it at all levels from senior country footy to junior footy.


Who out of Hibberd, Begley and Clarke doesn't want to do it?
 
Who out of Hibberd, Begley and Clarke doesn't want to do it?
Clarke would.
Hibberd maybe. Have not seen him do it before. His role at Williamstown was not to be the the blocker for someone else.
Forget Begley. 100% worse player than Snelling.
 
Even many limited AFL players have been stars at lower levels so It's not necessarily in their midset to play a role from the outset.

Coachability / ability to follow instructions needs to be something that is targeted in players when recruiting (it's actually not that difficult to identify this trait in a simple conversation with someone if you know what you are doing).

Take a Snelling or Townsend who have always been limited physically and you are far more likely to have someone conditioned to scrapping and doing grunt work than a Zaharakis - A reasonably skilled 6 footer who ran under 3 seconds over 20 - though i believe he was fairly ordinary as a junior as well so maybe not a good example for that - but a good Essendon 'star' example.

Then you get the odd competitive beast like Danger who makes everyone look ridiculous.

It's do the hard stuff or go home and make cappuccinos for Snelling, while the show pony stable at Essendon snag a 20XX B&F and want to play like they are GAJ for their remaining careers.

The Cats are a pretty good example. They had their better versions of the coachable type cracking in hard last night (Rohan and Dalhaus to name two). The Dalhaus tap on was gold, and Rohan is everything Townsend isn't - with the same desperation. .
Difference between Rohan and Townsend is simply pace. If Townsend could get out of his own way it would be a different story.
 

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BrunoV

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Clarke would.
Hibberd maybe. Have not seen him do it before. His role at Williamstown was not to be the the blocker for someone else.
Forget Begley. 100% worse player than Snelling.


So the coaches asked everyone at the start of the year, "put your hand up if you want to apply pressure" and only Snelling and Townsend put their hands up?
 
So the coaches asked everyone at the start of the year, "put your hand up if you want to apply pressure" and only Snelling and Townsend put their hands up?

Zaharakis did as well but he was also cackling loudly, smoking a cigar and drinking a Metaxa and coke.
 
Aug 21, 2016
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I prefer Hibberd or Clarke in the role Snelling is currently playing. Snelling funnily enough may hold his own in Clarke's current role.
Snelling is 8th in the league for tackles and rarely makes huge errors with ball in hand. He’s our best pressure player by a mile. He’s a great kick aswell, So i don’t know why he doesn’t kick it more often. 12.0 in front of the big sticks, I might add.
 

JayJ20

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Snelling is 8th in the league for tackles and rarely makes huge errors with ball in hand. He’s our best pressure player by a mile. He’s a great kick aswell, So i don’t know why he doesn’t kick it more often. 12.0 in front of the big sticks, I might add.
I'm not basing it on potential.

Snelling may be a good pressure player, but he isn't providing much else. He goes into packs and rarely comes out with it to get a clean disposal out. He can provide us a point of difference if he kicks it more, but he doesn't do that even though it's his best asset.

He is an ok player on an individual level, but I don't like his role in our side. We have others like Clarke and Hibberd who not only can do what he does, but they can also provide an aerial contest. Both aren't as good of a kick as Snelling is, but it doesn't really matter when he doesn't kick anyway.
 
Aug 21, 2016
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I'm not basing it on potential.

Snelling may be a good pressure player, but he isn't providing much else. He goes into packs and rarely comes out with it to get a clean disposal out. He can provide us a point of difference if he kicks it more, but he doesn't do that even though it's his best asset.

He is an ok player on an individual level, but I don't like his role in our side. We have others like Clarke and Hibberd who not only can do what he does, but they can also provide an aerial contest. Both aren't as good of a kick as Snelling is, but it doesn't really matter when he doesn't kick anyway.
If they thought hibberd could do what Snelling can, he’d be in that role. He’s too slow and bulky.
 
We need someone to empower him with the belief that he’s not just cannon fodder and a body we throw at the contest.

He’s an aerobic freak who is pretty good (if not pretty safe) with the ball but doesn’t seem to have the confidence to play to those strengths.

Want him gut running to the fat side to receive when we switch the ball and overlapping when we chain up by handball, not being sucked into contests for the sake of having an outnumber there, most of the time it’s to our detriment anyway.
 
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We need someone to empower him with the belief that he’s not just cannon fodder and a body we throw at the contest.

He’s an aerobic freak who is pretty good (if not pretty safe) with the ball but doesn’t seem to have the confidence to play to those strengths.

Want him gut running to the fat side to receive when we switch the ball and overlapping when we chain up by handball, not being sucked into contests for the sake of having an outnumber there, most of the time it’s to our detriment anyway.
Move him to the back flank?
 

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We need someone to empower him with the belief that he’s not just cannon fodder and a body we throw at the contest.

He’s an aerobic freak who is pretty good (if not pretty safe) with the ball but doesn’t seem to have the confidence to play to those strengths.

Want him gut running to the fat side to receive when we switch the ball and overlapping when we chain up by handball, not being sucked into contests for the sake of having an outnumber there, most of the time it’s to our detriment anyway.
I don’t think confidence is something he lacks haha! watch the hub tour part 1 that Fantasia did :)

I wasn’t sold on him early but I’ve watched him more closely lately, he’s really quite a smart player which is not something you can teach. Might not be the biggest bloke but there’s enough tough little campaigner in him to make it work.
 
So the coaches asked everyone at the start of the year, "put your hand up if you want to apply pressure" and only Snelling and Townsend put their hands up?

Maybe those who are desperate to play will play any role the coaches want. Who knows. All I know is that across all levels of footy there are blokes who will do it but there are far more that will not. Anyway we are talking bottom end players. The output of a Snelling V Clarke or Hibberd is minimal in the scheme of things. Even premiership sides have blokes at the bottom end who are interchangeable . Anyone who says Snelling over Begley is an issue is simply wrong.
Not sure why you are going on about Townsend. Most forwards are fit so he is not in the side. Exactly how I said it would happen.
 
I'm not basing it on potential.

Snelling may be a good pressure player, but he isn't providing much else. He goes into packs and rarely comes out with it to get a clean disposal out. He can provide us a point of difference if he kicks it more, but he doesn't do that even though it's his best asset.

He is an ok player on an individual level, but I don't like his role in our side. We have others like Clarke and Hibberd who not only can do what he does, but they can also provide an aerial contest. Both aren't as good of a kick as Snelling is, but it doesn't really matter when he doesn't kick anyway.
How do you know what Hibberd can do ? Based on their VFL / SNAFL records Snelling was a much better player than Hibberd. Hibberd seems to have a lot of myth about him because he is big.
Clarke is in the side anyway so it is not a Snelling V Clarke issue. One is playing defensive half forward and one is pushing up to the contest from half forward. They have both been playing half forward.
 
Snelling is 8th in the league for tackles and rarely makes huge errors with ball in hand. He’s our best pressure player by a mile. He’s a great kick aswell, So i don’t know why he doesn’t kick it more often. 12.0 in front of the big sticks, I might add.
In the forwards category.
Above average for disposals.
Elite for tackles.
Elite for effective disposals.
Elite for forward stoppages.
Elite for congested possessions.
Elite for ground ball gets.
Elite for pressure acts.
Stats are not everything of course. On top of that he is only 23 and played under 20 games.
 
Aug 21, 2016
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In the forwards category.
Above average for disposals.
Elite for tackles.
Elite for effective disposals.
Elite for forward stoppages.
Elite for congested possessions.
Elite for ground ball gets.
Elite for pressure acts.
Stats are not everything of course. On top of that he is only 23 and played under 20 games.
Yep and people still question his position in side. Bamboozling. He’d easily be top 10 in our bnf.
 
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Jun 8, 2014
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In the forwards category.
Above average for disposals.
Elite for tackles.
Elite for effective disposals.
Elite for forward stoppages.
Elite for congested possessions.
Elite for ground ball gets.
Elite for pressure acts.
Stats are not everything of course. On top of that he is only 23 and played under 20 games.
The Telstra Tracker stats also shows that he consistently covers more kilometres per game than any other player in the team.
 

BrunoV

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Maybe those who are desperate to play will play any role the coaches want. Who knows. All I know is that across all levels of footy there are blokes who will do it but there are far more that will not. Anyway we are talking bottom end players. The output of a Snelling V Clarke or Hibberd is minimal in the scheme of things. Even premiership sides have blokes at the bottom end who are interchangeable . Anyone who says Snelling over Begley is an issue is simply wrong.
Not sure why you are going on about Townsend. Most forwards are fit so he is not in the side. Exactly how I said it would happen.


These sorts of comments coaches use to justify picking players they like.

Completely unprofessional and counterproductive.

We have been having this same argument for 7 years. For 7 years every player in this role has eaten up game time only to be discarded.
 
I don’t think confidence is something he lacks haha! watch the hub tour part 1 that Fantasia did :)

I wasn’t sold on him early but I’ve watched him more closely lately, he’s really quite a smart player which is not something you can teach. Might not be the biggest bloke but there’s enough tough little campaigner in him to make it work.

It’s more like having the confidence to hit the corridor kick or releasing handball, knowing that he can outrun the guy he’s playing on 99% of the time and using it to his advantage rather than to just chase tail without the ball and knowing that he’s not just making up the numbers.

I’d like to see Clarke and Snelling switch roles. Clarke’s a bigger body at the contest and can stand up and distribute under physical heat and Snelling is more dangerous around the goals and better on the deck.
 
These sorts of comments coaches use to justify picking players they like.

Completely unprofessional and counterproductive.

We have been having this same argument for 7 years. For 7 years every player in this role has eaten up game time only to be discarded.

And for seven years it has not been our biggest issue. The issue has been we have not upgraded these players. We have drafted an Alex Morgan or an Ariel Steinburg or Josh Begley who everyone over rates or Houlahan. These are the blokes that have ****ed us coming out of the ND.
With Snelling we are talking about a rookie pick. What happens with the rookie picks only has a limited impact on how far up the ladder you go.

As for coaches being unprofessional for picking the blokes who will play a role. 2017.2019. End story. Although it helps if you draft them to start with!
There are at least 40 decisions or issues that have gone wrong before we start bemoaning the fact that a Guelfi or a Snelling got a game.
Daniher playing 10 games in two years , Laverde breaking down at least twice a year , Stewart missing 12 months , Fantasia not being able to get on the field , our best players not being in the top 15 players of their positions . Just a few bigger picture issues than the prospects of a rookie player who does not have a contract for next year.
 
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katana

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hooooo-weeeee that was a stinker from snelling. has been ok at times this year but you can't feel that he's a total waste of time essendon's 22.

delist imo.
 

cobra land

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Don't think I've seen a player more intent on handballing the ball rather than kicking it week in week out...15 possessions 12 handballs 3 kicks.
I like him, he works hard puts his head over the ball and is a team player who brings teammates into the game BUT how many times do his handballs go to a teammates shoe laces ?.
 

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