Player Watch #5: Brandon Ellis - off to GC pick 39 as compo

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Ellis is what he is. The only other player who does and can run as hard as him at the club and be the link man is Kmac. This is a vital skill that is not easily replaced.

The kids aren't capable of this yet. But if you ask him to do too much or put him under pressure he can panic, run back into traffic, choose the wrong option and/or easily stuff up. The lack of Lambert and Cotchin is really noticeable for him. Out of his depth in close to the footy.

I would not drop before a few others ie Butler Higgins but once we're fully healthy (if) he's going to be on the fringe for sure.
 

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This Is Anfield said:
I always chuckle at a forum user who calls a 150 game AFL premiership player a "soft spud"
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He’s a soft spud at the level. We’ve been over this time and time again . Even the periodic table ranks metals from soft to hard. It’s a standard in an industry and Ellis is soft in this industry.
It’s not too hard to grasp as it just needs perspective. Chuckle as much as you like bc the joke is on your ignorance on this issue. He’s soft on the AFL scale and there’s no buts about it.
 
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Barnzy said:
Ellis is what he is. The only other player who does and can run as hard as him at the club and be the link man is Kmac. This is a vital skill that is not easily replaced.

The kids aren't capable of this yet. But if you ask him to do too much or put him under pressure he can panic, run back into traffic, choose the wrong option and/or easily stuff up. The lack of Lambert and Cotchin is really noticeable for him. Out of his depth in close to the footy.

I would not drop before a few others ie Butler Higgins but once we're fully healthy (if) he's going to be on the fringe for sure.
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Yep, that's fair. I was a bit disappointed with him tonight, but he always tried. As you say, he is what he is and is better with better players around him.
 

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I think Ellis has had a pretty good season but wasn't his best tonight. He held the ball up too much tonight when he should have taken the game on. Our best footy is when we are playing chaos footy moving the ball forward at all costs, and too often he stopped and went backward or sideways or played safe when he should have surged forward.
 
Barnzy said:
Ellis is what he is. The only other player who does and can run as hard as him at the club and be the link man is Kmac. This is a vital skill that is not easily replaced.

The kids aren't capable of this yet. But if you ask him to do too much or put him under pressure he can panic, run back into traffic, choose the wrong option and/or easily stuff up. The lack of Lambert and Cotchin is really noticeable for him. Out of his depth in close to the footy.

I would not drop before a few others ie Butler Higgins but once we're fully healthy (if) he's going to be on the fringe for sure.
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Agree. He is a great run and carry player, when he has space. He seemed to be the last option type player last night. He isn't suited to that. Sit behind play and be that guy used as the way out option. You have to have clean skills under pressure and the ability to hit smart targets with little time. I don't know whether he was following team rules, just put himself continually into positions he shouldn't have been or what. But we need to get some better composure players in that role. And given we have Vlas and Stack out there, we should have been able to fill that role better.

Still and all he wasn't any where near our worst. But he is replaceable. Especially compared to our inside mids (who were?)
 
In the cold light of day, I think he's earned some credits for some sensational games earlier in the year, in which I think he had a bit more space than he had last night. He was chucked in the middle because we needed a mature bloke in there. He is a really good outside mid or a running half-back, who needs to be kept out of traffic. You could say the same of Dusty.
 
Please dont play again...
He would have been involved with 4-5 goals for the crows last night with poor efforts...
ALL when the game was still up for grabs.

He might be a ripping bloke, he may be our best endurance athlete (please don't mix endurance with speed, plenty of oppo run past him each week), he may have played some great games for the club and full credit he is a premiership player, but NONE of that helps him or the team when he is under pressure, he just can't cope. I'm not calling him soft, I'm saying he doesn't have the ability to make sound decisions at the most important times in games which is now costing us regularly on a weekly basis. I will say, his good games are only there when he is not forced to make decisions under pressure.

He cost us a lot of momentum multiple times last night and went a long way to the result...

As good as a bloke he may be, I won't be upset if he doesn't see the 1's again.
 
We all saw that woeful marking attempt that he stuffed up, grimes and Martin also stuffed up with critical marking efforts that were just as bad for experienced players and poor Garthy was taken to to the cleaners, Ellis was again pretty good with his match up breaking even with Seedsman, Ellis critics can cry all they like but an average tex and Jenkins combining with 7 goals and the crouch sisters getting it 80 times was the reason we lost the game and having Ashbury and Rance and a few key mids out pretty much left the cupboard bare in those areas.
 
Sol23 said:
Why??? Just because they play 150 games doesn’t mean there not soft.
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rubbish. if they're soft they're found out, usually in their first preseason. its a fact that some footballers are instructed to keep their feet where ever possible and their role is not to end up in heavy traffic or at the bottom of packs.
 
Mr Magic said:
I thought Ellis was good on the weekend. :thumbsu:

Kicked a goal but easily could have kicked two.

The ball and play just didn't fall his way at times which happens sometimes which affects the stats but I thought he did most things well for the opportunities he had!!
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make that 3, bolton ball hogged early in the game and mucked up an easy mark to ellis 20 out and lambert gave away a very soft free to battle when ellis slammed it thu from 35 and was recalled. ellis was important and played a real team game, basically avoiding contests but plugging up all the dangerous spots. covered more ground than burke and wills.
 
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