Player Watch #5: Caleb Daniel

[Chadwiko]

The hyperbole around this guy has gone too far.

Is he the best player on our team? Obviously not.
Is he the worst? Also no.

I would prefer him to play up the ground and get out of our back 6, but people act as if his inclusion in our team is offensive to their religion or something.

Chill.

 

[tinket]

The hyperbole around this guy has gone too far.

Is he the best player on our team? Obviously not.
Is he the worst? Also no.

I would prefer him to play up the ground and get out of our back 6, but people act as if his inclusion in our team is offensive to their religion or something.

Chill.

Good call! He's a roo and he's having a go. I'm still hoping that last year he was settling in and probably too much was asked of him. Confident that we are yet to see his best footy.

 

[Blightys Barrel]

The hyperbole around this guy has gone too far.

Is he the best player on our team? Obviously not.
Is he the worst? Also no.

I would prefer him to play up the ground and get out of our back 6, but people act as if his inclusion in our team is offensive to their religion or something.

Chill.

Fair to say that the goods did not come as advertised.

We gave up a Mercedes (#25) and traded for a Toyota Camry Family Model with an expensive 4 year service plan. The previous owners were not driving said Camry as regularly as they used to.

The strategy to have him be a key lynch pin (coach/organiser) in our defence (ala Hodge / Birchall at the Lions) has been an abject failure. Late last year there were games where he was played up forward as the coaches must have realised he is a liability down there. As we have him for 3 more years, then yes try to find any value forward of centre. To continue playing him down back is coaching incompetence.

 

[Mixed Results]

I've defended him in the past, but watching the footy over the weekend has made it clear that there is no role in the modern game for Caleb Daniel

5

Caleb Daniel

Age

29

Ht

171cm

Wt

72kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.3

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

3.5

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

19.5

4star

K

11.1

4star

HB

8.4

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

CL

1.0

3star

D

16.4

4star

K

7.2

3star

HB

9.2

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.2

2star

at half back.

It's clear that the new strategy is to move the ball as quickly as possible. Comben slamming the ball onto his boot to waywardly bomb it forward 50m now seems more advantageous based on what we've been seeing than Daniel chipping the ball forward the minimum required distance.

What concerns me is that by trialing Cooper Harvey and Robert Hansen Jr at half-back, we've completely misread the direction that the game is moving in. Neither are line breakers, but instead suit Clarkson's outdated style of precise kicking.

In McKercher, Hardeman, Blamires, Goater, and McDonald, we have the right players on our list for quick ball-movement, but we all know that Clarkson is going to kick an own goal this weekend by directing so much of our ball movement through Daniel.

With the traits Daniel has, I'm not willing to write his career off, but the experiment of having him as a defender needs to end.

 

[Makeshift Park]

We gave up a Mercedes (#25) and traded for a Toyota Camry Family Model with an expensive 4 year service plan.

Pick 25 isn't a Mercedes. Its a Nissan Tiida.

2019 - Jackson Mead (Port Adelaide)
2020 - Brayden Cook (Adelaide)
2021 - Mitch Knevitt (Geelong)
2022 - Lewis Hayes (Essendon)
2023 - Harry DeMattia (Collingwood)
2024 - Sam Marshall (Brisbane)
2025 - Adam Sweid (Fremantle)

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Pick 25 isn't a Mercedes. Its a Nissan Tiida.

2019 - Jackson Mead (Port Adelaide)
2020 - Brayden Cook (Adelaide)
2021 - Mitch Knevitt (Geelong)
2022 - Lewis Hayes (Essendon)
2023 - Harry DeMattia (Collingwood)
2024 - Sam Marshall (Brisbane)
2025 - Adam Sweid (Fremantle)

Also need to include who was selected after Pick #25 to see who else was missed.

 

[Makeshift Park]

Also need to include who was selected after Pick #25 to see who else was missed.

No we don't. The probability of drafting someone good after the first round diminishes rapidly. Pick 25 was overs for Daniel, no argument there. But if we'd gone to the draft instead it would have been closer to coin-flip odds than a dead cert.

 

[Themanbun]

No we don't. The probability of drafting someone good after the first round diminishes rapidly. Pick 25 was overs for Daniel, no argument there. But if we'd gone to the draft instead it would have been closer to coin-flip odds than a dead cert.

I think we do, otherwise it's conceding that our talent identification staff are balls. And if they're balls they shouldn't be here.

It looks like a game of probability to the naked eye but it really shouldn't be. Our staff should be backing themselves to find the next Paul Curtis, not consigning themselves to chance.

 

[Its a Process]

I've defended him in the past, but watching the footy over the weekend has made it clear that there is no role in the modern game for Caleb Daniel at half back.

It's clear that the new strategy is to move the ball as quickly as possible. Comben slamming the ball onto his boot to waywardly bomb it forward 50m now seems more advantageous based on what we've been seeing than Daniel chipping the ball forward the minimum required distance.

What concerns me is that by trialing Cooper Harvey and Robert Hansen Jr at half-back, we've completely misread the direction that the game is moving in. Neither are line breakers, but instead suit Clarkson's outdated style of precise kicking.

In McKercher, Hardeman, Blamires, Goater, and McDonald, we have the right players on our list for quick ball-movement, but we all know that Clarkson is going to kick an own goal this weekend by directing so much of our ball movement through Daniel.

With the traits Daniel has, I'm not willing to write his career off, but the experiment of having him as a defender needs to end.

I still think there is a spot for a player with his traits - cutting teams up with incisive 20m - 30m kicks on turnover is still of mega importance, it all depends on his ability to consistently hit targets.

At his best he would open up the ground beautifully with these sort of kicks, hasn't quite hit the mark with us yet.

 

[Makeshift Park]

I think we do, otherwise it's conceding that our talent identification staff are balls. And if they're balls they shouldn't be here.

Both things can be true.

Our talent identification has been unusually poor over the past decade (tho early signs suggest this has improved recently).

And the mid to late twenties in the national draft can be more of a crapshoot than people think.

Lets expand the table.

Year	Pick 25	Pick 26	Pick 27	Pick 28	Pick 29
2019	Jackson Mead	Will Gould	Miles Bergman	Josh Worrell	Finn Maginness
2020	Brayden Cook	Nik Cox	Heath Chapman	Sam Berry	Seamus Mitchell
2021	Mitch Knevitt	Josh Fahey	Blake Howes	Josh Goater	Darcy Wilmot
2022	Lewis Hayes	Brayden George	Cooper Vickery	Jakob Ryan	Coby Burgiel
2023	Harry DeMattia	Will Graham	Oscar Ryan	Lance Collard	Ashton Moir
2024	Sam Marshall	Ned Bowman	Matt Whitlock	Thomas Sims	Lachie Jaques
2025	Adam Sweid	Blake Thredgold	Louis Emmett	Avery Thomas	Sam Allen

Like I said, closer to a coinflip than a dead cert. And that's being generous.

 

[Mixed Results]

It's worth mentioning that the pick ended up at #29 after bidding.

#29-#34 would be a fairer analysis.

 

[Mixed Results]

I still think there is a spot for a player with his traits - cutting teams up with incisive 20m - 30m kicks on turnover is still of mega importance, it all depends on his ability to consistently hit targets.

At his best he would open up the ground beautifully with these sort of kicks, hasn't quite hit the mark with us yet.

I'd love to see his traits used further up the ground.

It feels like with modern defensive structures that the all of the tougher kicks are now in your half of the ground.

 

[Makeshift Park]

It's worth mentioning that the pick ended up at #29 after bidding.

#29-#34 would be a fairer analysis.

Its more of the same. One star, a few excellent players, maybe a dozen serviceable roleplayers, and more than 50% are spuds or likely spuds.

Year	Pick 29	Pick 30	Pick 31	Pick 32	Pick 33	Pick 34
2019	Finn Maginness	Sam Philp	Charlie Comben	Trent Rivers	Will Day	Jack Mahony
2020	Seamus Mitchell	Caleb Poulter	Liam McMahon	Errol Gulden	Shannon Neale	Fraser Rosman
2021	Sam Banks	Judson Clarke	Brady Hough	James Willis	Mitch Owens	Matt Roberts
2022	Coby Burgiel	Lachie Cowan	James Van Es	Jaxon Binns	Hugh Davies	Toby McMullin
2023	Ashton Moir	Archer Reid	Logan Morris	Mitch Edwards	Angus Hastie	Billy Wilson
2024	Lachie Jaques	Jobe Shanahan	Josh Dolan	James Barrat	Jack Whitlock	Charlie Nicholls
2025	Sam Allen	Thomas Matthews	Zane Peucker	Tyan Prindable	Hunter Holmes	Jack Dalton

 

[Chadwiko]

I think we do, otherwise it's conceding that our talent identification staff are balls. And if they're balls they shouldn't be here.

 

[perplexed]

Based on what? You don't know that.

Repeat sprint leaderboards are usually dominated by wingers and pressure forwards because its intrinsic to their roles.

I've just spent five and a bit minutes looking into this and what we do know is that:

1) his endurance was genuinely elite by afl standards as a junior and he ran sub 3 second 20m. Yes this was a little over a decade ago, but it provides context for...

2) at least as recently as five years ago, he was the bulldogs third fastest sprinter on gameday

3) last year he was often showing up in the gameday podium for North's "most distance ran" (eg r5, r13, r15, r16, r17) and "fastest average speed in attack" (eg r8, r10, r17, r18, r19, r21). Yes these are different metrics to repeat sprints, but they show his endurance hasn't fallen mysteriously fallen off the cliff.

I agree the public data and eye test suggests RHJ is the superior sprinter right now, and I don't reckon there is much to suggest CD has one of the highest sprint speeds on the current playing list right now, but its certainly a stretch to claim that Daniel can't perform repeat sprints.

But - here's the thing - Miers doesn't show up on Geelong's repeat sprint leaderboard either. He's often mentioned in those two same categories I mentioned before though. He's an elite endurance runner but he's not clocking 25km/h on repeat very often.

So based on that comparison, I'd suggest Caleb'd be fine rotating through HHF.

The numbers look better than what I was expecting. His current role also requires a heap of sprinting and he looks slow. I can't recall him ever running anyone down or applying much pressure at all. But I agree that forward is where he is most likely to benefit us. We should give him a chance in the role in the twos, if he can show he is a better option than Dovaston, Banch, etc, then why not?

 

[koshari]

The hyperbole around this guy has gone too far.

Is he the best player on our team? Obviously not.
Is he the worst? Also no.

I would prefer him to play up the ground and get out of our back 6, but people act as if his inclusion in our team is offensive to their religion or something.

Chill.

most peoples criticism is pretty much of the role, which is where all the frustration is bourne, so many face plant moments watching a game, and probably most of it isnt even his fault if he is being instructed to kick those loopey short kicks to players ( we are talkin Log, corr, comben, etc here ) of a pretty low skilbase,

fwiw i think he is far from a hack even if he does happen to be crab like as a defensive distributor,

 

[Themanbun]

He's best 23.

However, he's not an organizer, but is being used as such. He's also not a very selfless player to help the kids, but is being used as such.

My main issue with him is that he doesn't do the little things to release people and instead homes in on the handball receive side of things, and he doesn't show enough discernment to be playing that role.

Forward of centre, particularly the kick to get us to the launch pad, is IMO his go.

It is what it is. We gave up too much for him and that taints people's perceptions. The dogs themselves got Matt Kennedy for pick 38 who has become a vital part of their midfield.

 

[Merlin007]

He's best 23.

However, he's not an organizer, but is being used as such. He's also not a very selfless player to help the kids, but is being used as such.

My main issue with him is that he doesn't do the little things to release people and instead homes in on the handball receive side of things, and he doesn't show enough discernment to be playing that role.

Forward of centre, particularly the kick to get us to the launch pad, is IMO his go.

It is what it is. We gave up too much for him and that taints people's perceptions. The dogs themselves got Matt Kennedy for pick 38 who has become a vital part of their midfield.

Generally agree with this; the difference with Kennedy is that he was OOC and Carlton told him to find a home, whereas we approached a player under contract, and when he said yes, we were then bound to make it happen

If there's a lesson to it, approaching a contracted player will mean you pay overs

 

[Krakouer Bonar]

The hyperbole around this guy has gone too far.

Is he the best player on our team? Obviously not.
Is he the worst? Also no.

I would prefer him to play up the ground and get out of our back 6, but people act as if his inclusion in our team is offensive to their religion or something.

Chill.

The hyperbole around this guy has gone too far.

Is he the best player on our team? Obviously not.
Is he the worst? Also no.

I would prefer him to play up the ground and get out of our back 6, but people act as if his inclusion in our team is offensive to their religion or something.

Chill.

Well said.

The level of criticism and pot shots taken at this bloke didn't border on irrational, it launched over it. The bloke isnt the greatest player to lace up a boot, but he goes OK.

The bigfooty collective seem to have real issues with blokes we get from other clubs.

I look forward to a serviceable game from out little helmeted half-back this week.

 

[King Corey]

If you could immediately flip a traded in player, Daniel wouldn't have drawn an offer inside the top 50 imo.

So you're talking a trade for #25 who immediately depreciated as soon as the deal went through.

Pity you can't negatively gear a footballer.

 

[muttley45]

IF : He is selected


THEN : He should be permabanned from kick in duty.

 

[hilly]

Generally agree with this; the difference with Kennedy is that he was OOC and Carlton told him to find a home, whereas we approached a player under contract, and when he said yes, we were then bound to make it happen

If there's a lesson to it, approaching a contracted player will mean you pay overs

Dogs would have caved to get his contract off the books.

 

[hilly]

Well said.

The level of criticism and pot shots taken at this bloke didn't border on irrational, it launched over it. The bloke isnt the greatest player to lace up a boot, but he goes OK.

The bigfooty collective seem to have real issues with blokes we get from other clubs.

I look forward to a serviceable game from out little helmeted half-back this week.

Agree all great players, how we never escape the bottom three is a mystery.

 

[ferball]

Fair to say that the goods did not come as advertised.

We gave up a Mercedes (#25) and traded for a Toyota Camry Family Model with an expensive 4 year service plan. The previous owners were not driving said Camry as regularly as they used to.

Pick 25 is a Mercedes?

Some should tell Callum Urch.

 

[Event Horizon]

I've defended him in the past, but watching the footy over the weekend has made it clear that there is no role in the modern game for Caleb Daniel at half back.

It's clear that the new strategy is to move the ball as quickly as possible. Comben slamming the ball onto his boot to waywardly bomb it forward 50m now seems more advantageous based on what we've been seeing than Daniel chipping the ball forward the minimum required distance.

What concerns me is that by trialing Cooper Harvey and Robert Hansen Jr at half-back, we've completely misread the direction that the game is moving in. Neither are line breakers, but instead suit Clarkson's outdated style of precise kicking.

In McKercher, Hardeman, Blamires, Goater, and McDonald, we have the right players on our list for quick ball-movement, but we all know that Clarkson is going to kick an own goal this weekend by directing so much of our ball movement through Daniel.

With the traits Daniel has, I'm not willing to write his career off, but the experiment of having him as a defender needs to end.

No team can sustain the breakneck pace for 120 minutes. There are times to slow the game down and retain the ball with some uncontested marks in the back half. Collingwood does it very well.