AFL Player # 8: Ben "Goblin" Hobbs

[VelvetSledge]

Contract Status: Out of contract 2025
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 12, Schnitzengruben

 

[MarkJohnson#1]

Awesome yet again, he’s my boy!

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Building slowly, has a crack. Needs to improve his awareness to take his game to the next level and push out other mids.

 

[Zach Package]

Didn’t think Goblin had a 55 metre bomb in him, pleasantly surprised.

We’ve now got multiple half forwards who can bash and crash and eat the groundball for breakfast. Completely changes the look of the front half

 

[blitzer]

I think Hobbs is building nicely to be honest. Expectations have kind of raced on a bit ahead of where he's at but he's still only just starting his 3rd year. Plenty of development of and improvement to come. The ongoing challenge for him is how can he be impactful when he doesn't get to spend too much time on ball at present..

 

[FlyingV]

I think Hobbs is building nicely to be honest. Expectations have kind of raced on a bit ahead of where he's at but he's still only just starting his 3rd year. Plenty of development of and improvement to come. The ongoing challenge for him is how can he be impactful when he doesn't get to spend too much time on ball at present..

Agree, he just needs a point of difference and when he bobs up for an overhead mark in the forward 50 and kicks a goal or two I think that’s something unique to him that’s different to the typical in and under mid

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Damn good kick for goal, including beyond 50.

 

[ant555]

He has been going okay for an inside midfielder being asked to play a forward pressure role that needs a bit of an outside game as well.

 

[Seb78]

We need to keep Hobbs, Caldwell, Durham and Setterfield as our core central mid group IMO.

Parish can learn to play in a pocket or something.

Swap Setters for Perkins and I agree

 

[MarkJohnson#1]

Swap Setters for Perkins and I agree

Setterfield is a better midfielder than Perkins (who is a forward IMO).

 

[bombreys]

My roughie pick for next Captain

 

[Seb78]

Setterfield is a better midfielder than Perkins (who is a forward IMO).

I love Setters, but disagree on this one. Setters is solid, but Perkins has played his better games as a mid. Whether it was a negating role (Cripps, Dawson) '23, or as a pure inside mid pre injury this year. Looks lost sometimes as a forward imo.

 

[outersanctum]

Watching the commentary around Hobbs reminds me of Parish really (not their style or play). We play a young kid outside their best position and outside their comfort zone and then wonder why it takes them a while to find their feet.

Hobbs is a natural footballer, inside midfield bull. Absolutely rate him and once he gets his chance, I suspect he will be very hard to move. Modern AFL requires you to run very deep in the midfield and also for midfielders to have 'another' role they can play.. that is what Hobbs is learning now.

The bit that makes me really confident is how much this kid cares about winning.. that 'grunt' player we have been looking for that has a little bit of a rougher edge. Not afraid to crack in and stir up trouble.. I'm sure that Hobbs is going to feature heavily if we are going to climb the ladder.