Past #50: Ben Brown - Traded to Melbourne with 2020 #28 + 2021 R4 for 2020 #26 #33 + 2021 R4(Bris) - 130 gms / 287 gls - thanks Ben

Aug 16, 2009
10,268
20,885
North Caulfield
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Three times today I saw the defender on Brown read the entry better than him, leave brown alone, and go mark it uncontested without him.

Trust me it’s not just the entry, he’s horribly out of form and has been since teams worked him out last year.
He def looks really frustrated. We’ve seen he can play, he’s gotta work through it. Already stated this, but in first Q he buried his knee into defender in the hole. Great starting point. He will get better. Lackey with more miles in the legs will help block for him too.
 

ChoppyGun

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 19, 2020
5,673
10,063
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Brad Johnson and Luke Darcy two of the worst media types.

The bar is set extremely low to simply pass, and neither do imo.
 

benbanjo

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 16, 2009
9,359
10,977
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Late second rounder? I always thought Brad Johnson was stupid as s**t, but now i'm sure of it.
All the better for us though, means we don't have to pay him as much.

Hard to understand how with Tarrant, and now walker in the side he wouldn't get good practice at using his body, those 2 are 2 of the best in the league at that.
 
Sep 11, 2014
10,394
20,195
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Needs a spell. But unfortunately there are no scratch matches?

We need to make a statement. No one should he invincible at the selection table

this was a big reason why we got rid of Brad
 
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Long Live the King

Premiership Player
Feb 24, 2009
3,351
3,129
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Brown isnt robinson crusoe. Unfortunately as one of our few "elite" players criticism will come his way when the team isnt peforming. Im sure he gets it and will work his backside off to get better. Trading him would be ridiculous. The pressure would then fall on Larkey and we would be in the same position in 12 months.
 
Except that we put Walker inside 50 last week and he played well - took marks, competed hard, won his own ball - and I dont think anyone thinks of him as a gun forward.

He kicked one goal, dropped chest marks and missed sitters. He played like a backman.

It's only that our forward stocks are so poor right now that he looked good. (And yes he was one of our top five players. But that isn't actually a good thing.)
 
This isn’t just a form thing
Even if he was playing well there would still be logic to trading him to rejuvenate the list and add to the group coming through together
If he was playing well we'd be at least two or three wins more than we are and sitting in the eight and the idea of trading him to "rejuvenate the list" would be laughed at for the ludicrous bullshit it is.
 
Apr 24, 2013
81,024
153,170
Arden Street Hill
AFL Club
North Melbourne
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Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
Defenders just take him out with body before the contest. Its a clear tactic. Needs to urgently fix it or hes cooked whatever team he plays for.

It's actually an illegal distance from the contest on most occasions.

The club does nothing about it.
 
Mar 23, 2001
15,180
48,361
Forever Death riding *
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Wildcats/Pacers/Chelsea/Scorchers
Defenders just take him out with body before the contest. Its a clear tactic. Needs to urgently fix it or hes cooked whatever team he plays for.
Does he fix it Psychic?
 
Not even sure wtf you have written there, but we just about lose every game when Cunners is out...

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app

I suspect Rad Roo is a bot, not a real poster.

But anyway the flip side to that is that we only win half the games we play when he is in the side.

With Jacobs and W80 those numbers were quite a bit higher.
 
Thanks for your answer and given the way you have written I think my reckoning of you is right on the money.

I asked to show a way forward for the club if you are not doing it by accessing further first round draft picks to access elite talent.

If you dont want to go down this road (which we all know is not fullproof) what is your alternative to list regeneration over the next 3 years?

After the hyperbole and excuses your suggested way forward is ...our list is moving in the right direction...we will offload half a dozen players who are dead wood...

This approach is nothing more than the 'we will take our turn in the draft and see where that leads us' approach and this is exactly the way we have done it for the past 20 years - it doesn't work and wont be the way the club approaches this going forward.
When have we had two first round picks in the last decade? It's not just the picks. There have to be the players you want available. If they aren't the picks are useless.

Suppose we have the opportunity to trade all our picks in this draft for Caldwell and Kelly from the Giants?

Would you do it?

Massive boost of elite talent, one in an age group we could do with adding elite talent to and guaranteed talent, the other young enough fit with our crop of young draftees. Plenty of older guys who could go for those two as well. Bye bye Campbell and Jacobs and suddenly our list is significantly more productive.
 
Three times today I saw the defender on Brown read the entry better than him, leave brown alone, and go mark it uncontested without him.

Trust me it’s not just the entry, he’s horribly out of form and has been since teams worked him out last year.

Do you mean the last year that saw him be the first North player since Duck to kick 50+ Goals a year three years in a row? That saw him finish second in the Coleman for the second year in a row and score 60+ goals for the third year in a row to become the comp's highest goal kicker for those previous three years? While he kicked 10 goals in r22, becoming the first North player this century (and again first since Duck) to kick 10 goals in a game and the first player in the comp to do it for a little while?

That last year?

That was when teams worked him out?
 
Oct 4, 2006
15,839
33,688
The hood
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Comben is a skinny kid with a crook back.

You want to rebuild a spine with that?

Well let’s do the math.

Young proven players - Larkey

Proven stop gaps - in Walker, Maj

Young unproven - Comben, Xerri

If we have a top 2-3 pick then best available may well be McDonald and Thilthorpe. If you added an elite young KPF talent wont his development be stifled with Brown and Larkey playing in front of him for 4 years.

Browns value could be two 5-7th rated mids in consecutive drafts. Which when added to Melbourne’s pick this year and our first next year (predicted to be very strong) is the best top end talent injection that we would have had since the draft was invented.
 

speedy

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 5, 2001
7,248
9,028
Melbourne, VIC
AFL Club
North Melbourne
I was watching west coast play and was thinking if bbb was watching this he would be shaking his head just as I was. That’s how you move the ball and kick to your forwards.

It’s like we are playing a different sport. Our kicks forward resemble rugby union. More often than not we are kicking the ball to brown either on top of his head or over his head or when he is double teamed and expect him to halve the contest.

This kicking down the line shite has to stop. Every other team avoids the out number like the plague. We send memo’s out telling everyone that’s how we are going to play.

Even our clearance work is shite, and that is meant to be our strength. It’s either a blind kick forward or sideways or a handball to someone under more pressure. Other teams it’s one or two quick handballs and they are surging through the font of the stoppage.

There is something fundamentally wrong with our midfield and has it been for a long time. We have had solid key defenders for a while now, and always had enough talent forward to kick a winning score. Going in harder than the opposition and winning the contest isn’t enough anymore.
 
Apr 24, 2013
81,024
153,170
Arden Street Hill
AFL Club
North Melbourne
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Essendon Lawn Bowls Club
I was watching west coast play and was thinking if bbb was watching this he would be shaking his head just as I was. That’s how you move the ball and kick to your forwards.

They play football the closest to how it's meant to be played.

Simpson is outta contract at the end of 2022 and his right hand man is back at North.

Scamper has 2.5 seasons to get it right.
 

The Anvil

Club Legend
Oct 5, 2004
2,299
5,993
AFL Club
North Melbourne
There is something fundamentally wrong with our midfield and has it been for a long time. We have had solid key defenders for a while now, and always had enough talent forward to kick a winning score. Going in harder than the opposition and winning the contest isn’t enough anymore.

Which is why I hope we get 2 classy mids in the draft, our forward line will look 100x better when the quality of our inside 50 entries are improved.
 
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