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Player Watch #7: Daniel Butler

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Watched Butler go from P76 to Ferrari, or so people said. He's from our momentous 2014 Draft. Injuries crueled him early on, but I thought he was insanely lucky to get a contract extension into 2017. There were a few games in the VFL towards the end of 2016 that frankly, he showed zero interest. One year on - he was a premiership player! - amazing transformation. Rising Star nom too.

In the Castagna vs Butler competition, I've always thought Castagna had the edge. More recently Butler has dined off easier goals - of course they still have to be kicked by someone, but he has been creating fewer from fewer pressure points. Am seeing a few of his late 2016 traits re-emerge with only very limited, or probably better said as selective intensity. He's been twitchy at best this year. Was a 1.5 goals a game player in 2017, just over 1 goal game in 2018 though with a bit more midfield time, and this season not up to 1 a game yet even with two on the weekend, small sample though. Frankly, he doesn't create enough for anyone else to not be finishing off the work of others better.

Hope he finds his best form again, but if he doesn't it's OK now, because we certainly have plenty of options compared to say 2017. Has played in 4 games, three of them being losses.
 
Phar Ace said:
Watched Butler go from P76 to Ferrari, or so people said. He's from our momentous 2014 Draft. Injuries crueled him early on, but I thought he was insanely lucky to get a contract extension into 2017. There were a few games in the VFL towards the end of 2016 that frankly, he showed zero interest. One year on - he was a premiership player! - amazing transformation. Rising Star nom too.

In the Castagna vs Butler competition, I've always thought Castagna had the edge. More recently Butler has dined off easier goals - of course they still have to be kicked by someone, but he has been creating fewer from fewer pressure points. Am seeing a few of his late 2016 traits re-emerge with only very limited, or probably better said as selective intensity. He's been twitchy at best this year. Was a 1.5 goals a game player in 2017, just over 1 goal game in 2018 though with a bit more midfield time, and this season not up to 1 a game yet even with two on the weekend, small sample though. Frankly, he doesn't create enough for anyone else to not be finishing off the work of others better.

Hope he finds his best form again, but if he doesn't it's OK now, because we certainly have plenty of options compared to say 2017. Has played in 4 games, three of them being losses.
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Butler has always been the icing on the cake. With his speed he is able to break free of the traffic, but to do that he has to rely on us playing well. This can be said of most small forwards, except that most small forwards need at least another trick up their sleeve. Betts can do everything, mark, crumb and kick. Milne was the same. Even Castagna has a good strong mark and is physically strong. Rioli and Bolton have incredible skills that hurt you even though they don't get it a lot. Butler doesn't. He is an average user of the ball except when he has plenty of time.
He needs to put on about 3-5kg of muscle so he doesn't get knocked off the ball and then he might turn himself into a mid like Travis Varco, who hits at speed and doesn't get knocked off his line.
I thought he showed a bit of improvement in the VFL, and probably needed to do that for another 4 weeks. But he is a premiership player so has probably earned a bit more leverage than what he deserves on form. There was one passage of play early on where he took the contested ball and burst out of the stoppage, and it looked great. Needs another game or 2 where we play better as a team to see where he is really at.
 

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Bazzar said:
I got the feeling both Ellis and Astbury were being treated with caution and no doubt would have played if it wasa final.
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Still not over last year : Astbury + injuries + finals..

But back to Butler: stays IN on that effort last night.
 
Butler stunk. Seven disposals for the match, including one unbelievably putrid and costly turnover under no pressure that cost us a crunch time goal. He topped the tackling but two and three were Graham and Soldo, and I'm not sure that stat gave them a pass mark either. Only survives (barely - personally I'd drop him in a heartbeat) because of the injury toll.
 

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Will be the first small forward picked next week. Game high (for both sides) tackles and pressure acts, and only Rattagalue took more contested marks, and he also kicked his goal. Coachig staff would be very happy with his night, and no doubt dissapointed the other smalls didn't apply the same pressure. Its the second week in a row he's performed his role. Only injury will keep him out now.
 
Bazzar said:
Will be the first small forward picked next week. Game high (for both sides) tackles and pressure acts, and only Rattagalue took more contested marks, and he also kicked his goal. Coachig staff would be very happy with his night, and no doubt dissapointed the other smalls didn't apply the same pressure. Its the second week in a row he's performed his role. Only injury will keep him out now.
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His goal was the very definition of junk time and he handed another goal on a platter with a turnover for the ages when the game was still in the balance. As for his tackles as Ancient Tiger pointed out, that's what happens when you are second for the ball, as further evidenced by his 7 disposals (only three players out of both teams had less, again two of them being Soldo and Townsend). If the coaching staff are 'very happy' with his performances then God help us, because clearly we have a way to go yet before we hit rock bottom.
 
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Tygrys said:
His goal was the very definition of junk time and he handed another goal on a platter with a turnover for the ages when the game was still in the balance. As for his tackles as Ancient Tiger pointed out, that's what happens when you are second for the ball, as further evidenced by his 7 disposals (only three players out of both teams had less, again two of them being Soldo and Townsend). If the coaching staff are 'very happy' with his performances then God help us, because clearly we have a way to go yet before we hit rock bottom.
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Absolute crock to generalise you're second to the ball and that's why he tackles, fact is high pressure players like Butler sprint 100 meters to get to a contest to put that pressure on to lay the tackle, one of the reasons our small forward trio were feared in '17. Why do you think they have "pressure act" stats?
And the junk time goal argument is also a junk time argument. If we deleted junk time goals from the record books even the all time greats would have their records massively reduced. A goal is a goal, it's in the books.
 

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He’s a one trick pony. Can’t carry all these tackling short people anymore as the rest of the comps main competitors had us worked out by the last two months of last season. We need to start playing players with genuine skills where we can hurt them. The starting point is having more midfielders which will increase our rotations and hopefully win us the ball first. Butler can’t win an easy ball , let alone a contested one.
 
TigerImposter said:
He’s a one trick pony. Can’t carry all these tackling short people anymore as the rest of the comps main competitors had us worked out by the last two months of last season. We need to start playing players with genuine skills where we can hurt them. The starting point is having more midfielders which will increase our rotations and hopefully win us the ball first. Butler can’t win an easy ball , let alone a contested one.
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the team has been too small and light for many moons now
 
Bazzar said:
Absolute crock to generalise you're second to the ball and that's why he tackles, fact is high pressure players like Butler sprint 100 meters to get to a contest to put that pressure on to lay the tackle, one of the reasons our small forward trio were feared in '17. Why do you think they have "pressure act" stats?
And the junk time goal argument is also a junk time argument. If we deleted junk time goals from the record books even the all time greats would have their records massively reduced. A goal is a goal, it's in the books.
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It's not 2017. We aced it in the last third of the season with brilliant form coming in and during the finals. So we only remember that. During the season both he and Castagna has a lot of poor games. So our feared trio were only really feared when the whole team fired. We are not firing how for many reasons and his game was ok for pressure acts only. There are about half a dozen smalls battling for about 3 spots, Butler still has the same problem he always had, he doesn't go near a hard ball get.
 
that pass he did, and the guy on the mark, marked it, killed any minute chance we had. all our small forwards have gone missing. don't even seem to be setting up properly to rove when Lynch contests. I wonder if it is the form of the team or the fact that jack isn't there organising things or maybe a combination of both
 

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