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#7 - Nathan van Berlo

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And here I was thinking there'd be a reference to my username. You really pulled one out of the hat there Dandy! :D
 
Dandy_GO said:
vB...
vC...
I'm not looking forward to hearing about the next thing someone gives Nathan.
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But i spent so long working on these Venn Diagrams...

vD.jpg
 

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Its been a pretty quiet start to the year for vB, but he had his best game of the season this week against Freo with 23 touches. Hopefully hes building to a bit of form.

Ive also kinda realized that you dont notice van Berlo's possessions as much as some other players, he quietly sneaks up past the 20 alot of games, without seeming to stand out. Got alot to do with him being the inside midfielder, getting alot of hard handballs. Someones got to do it, its a very underrated role.
 
Southerntakeover said:
Its been a pretty quiet start to the year for vB, but he had his best game of the season this week against Freo with 23 touches. Hopefully hes building to a bit of form.

Ive also kinda realized that you dont notice van Berlo's possessions as much as some other players, he quietly sneaks up past the 20 alot of games, without seeming to stand out. Got alot to do with him being the inside midfielder, getting alot of hard handballs. Someones got to do it, its a very underrated role.
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Second post in a row from Mr. ST that I'm quoting - great point about VB, I have thought to myself after a couple of games this year that he was quiet, yet I check the stats and sure enough he's over 20 possessions. In addition to the contested possession factor, I reckon it is also partly because we have three of these blondes running around out there!
 
yeah he is a great player even though i go for tigers he is still a good player i enjoy to watch
in good form not so good on friday night but no one really played well on friday he will come back play well next week
 

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http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/sport/afl/story/0,26547,24177631-5014664,00.html
Crow who can lead the way
ZAC MILBANK | August 14, 2008 12:30am

NATHAN van Berlo - now through his actions as much as his words - is emerging as Adelaide's next captain.

The well-spoken 22-year-old, installed into the Crows' leadership group this season, has lifted his on-field game to another level in the past fortnight.

And it's this proficiency in finding the football - netting him 72 disposals against Carlton and Richmond - which has thrust van Berlo into captaincy calculations.

"He's a terrific leader in his own right," Adelaide skipper Simon Goodwin said of van Berlo.

"Whether one day that (being captain) would happen I'm not sure but VB is a terrific leader and is someone who a lot of players certainly look up to.

"He's got a great head on his shoulders, he works really hard on his game and he's added a really attacking side to his game.

"It's really important we keep developing those sort of players to keep surging forward."

While van Berlo - once one of Adelaide's best negators - has accumulated plenty of the ball in the past two weeks, the real test is maintaining it.

"The past two weeks he has (moved his game to another level) but it's yet to be seen long term," Adelaide coach Neil Craig said.

"But certainly from purely volume of possession - and that's not the be-all and end-all we all know that - he probably hasn't experienced that consistently and he's been able to do it in the past two weeks.

"I think it's important for him to experience it and I think he'll continue to grow as a midfielder.

"He's in our senior leadership group. He's a very important player for our football club and hopefully he'll be here for the next 10 years." Craig said he was to blame as much as anyone when asked why van Berlo was only starting to post such significant numbers 72 games into his AFL career.

"I wouldn't say that's Nathan's fault," Craig said.

"He's been asked to do those sort of (negative) roles but now with Rob Shirley, Bryce Campbell and Richard Douglas taking those roles over, Nathan van Berlo has gone into another phase of his development and at this stage he's doing it pretty well. Consistency is the key to it."

And if you ask the man at the helm now, Crows' fans are yet to see the best of van Berlo.

"Not at all," Goodwin said.

"He's very young and he's got a lot of improvement in him, as a leader and also as a player. So it's exciting times for Nathan van Berlo and the footy club."
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http://afc.com.au/tabid/4417/Default.aspx?newsid=69052

Van Berlo shakes the tag
By Katrina Gill 10:04 AM Fri 17 October, 2008
rd22dogsvanbrl246a.jpg

Nathan van Berlo in action against the Western Bulldogs in 2008

MIDFIELDER Nathan van Berlo's game has come full circle since he first broke into the Adelaide line up in 2005.

The hard-working West Australian, who was selected with pick 32 in the 2004 NAB AFL Draft, impressed in his debut pre-season at West Lakes and his gut-running ability soon saw him cast in the role of tagger.

Van Berlo spent the best part of three years working on his defensive craft and during that time accepted some big jobs, including a match up on Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins in the 2006 preliminary final.

But partway through 2007 van Berlo, determined not to be typecast as a one-dimensional run-with player, set to work on his ball winning ability.

This year, the budding leader well and truly broke the shackles of his negating role, averaging 21 possessions per game – eight more than in his breakout season of 2006.

Van Berlo, 22, also finished second at the club in clearances behind in-and-under onballer Scott Thompson.

"I have been trying to break that tagger mould and hopefully I'm getting to that stage now," he said.

"I mean, I don't mind what role I play, but the new role I played this season I really enjoyed and it's certainly helped me to develop other areas of my game, in particular my attacking side."

Van Berlo, despite nursing a nagging groin injury, enjoyed a purple patch between rounds 18 and 20, amassing 98 possessions in three games, including a career-high 40 against Carlton.

In round 21, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon deemed van Berlo's impact to be so influential that he issued the tagger-turned-ball magnet with a run-with player of his own.

Saints' stopper Shane Birss shadowed the young Crow for the majority of the game and restricted him to just 15 possessions.

Van Berlo, determined to use the game as a learning experience, responded the next week with 22 possessions and two goals in the must-win clash with the Western Bulldogs.

"Although I didn't handle it [the Birss tag] as well as I would've liked – and hopefully if it comes up I'll be able to handle it a lot better – I saw it as a positive in the sense that it freed up our other midfielders like Scotty Thompson, Tyson Edwards and the other guys running around out there," he said.

"It certainly makes you appreciate what those guys go through week-in and week-out."
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#7 - Nathan van Berlo

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