Traded Blake Acres

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dewah07 said:
It's fun to go back and read the first few pages, seems like a gun
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It's hard to work out which of our three draftees has been the most talked about! And that's not including Eli.

Definitely enjoy reading the first few pages of each of Dunstan, Billings and Acres' threads. Will be even better to look back on in years to come.
 
Armitage2Riewoldt said:
It's hard to work out which of our three draftees has been the most talked about! And that's not including Eli.

Definitely enjoy reading the first few pages of each of Dunstan, Billings and Acres' threads. Will be even better to look back on in years to come.
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Dunstan has IMO easily been the most talked about this year due to his godly 1st year play but I'm all over billings to be the best, I know it's the easy answer but that kid is somthing else, esp since he Hardley played footy on 2013 and had an interrupted preseason this year
 
dewah07 said:
Dunstan has IMO easily been the most talked about this year due to his godly 1st year play but I'm all over billings to be the best, I know it's the easy answer but that kid is somthing else, esp since he Hardley played footy on 2013 and had an interrupted preseason this year
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I'm not convinced that whoever we get this year will be better than Billings.
 

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Wright 1 said:
I think that the second year blues are inevitable. I hope to god I am wrong, and would be more than happy to be proven so. But year #2 is possibly the hardest of the formative years. I agree that Billings has plenty more to show us still.
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Yeah my comment was referring to long term. I just think Billings will grow into a terrific player.
 
Apparently, he lagged in the 2km runs.
 
Interesting, he didn't test that well at the combine and Chris25 casted queries on the veracity of his early season testing results.

To date, Acres hasn't shown signs of the pace and endurance. Obviously, I don't doubt his ball getting ability.
 
He did that combine testing after having not played for months though, after his shoulder operation, so I'm not surprised that he didn't test as well as he supposedly did earlier in that year. A bit like how Petracca apparently didn't test anywhere near as well at last season's combine as he did earlier in the year at the AIS, when he presumably wasn't carrying the hip injury that I hear he was at the combine.

Acres has elite endurance running in the immediate family, too and has the build for it, so I have little doubt that he would have good natural endurance. Whether he is 2.94sec over 20m fast is an interesting one though.

Here is what Pelchen said about him when we drafted him, so I'm guessing he was going off his earlier testing, rather than what he did at the combine, which was not very impressive:

"We were very surprised he got through. We anticipated one of the West Australian clubs would select Blake. He has had an injured shoulder this year and didn't play all the games in the championships but we think he's the prototype of the modern-day AFL footballer. Blake is 190cm, he's got both speed and endurance and so for us to have a player who can come in and play a number of positions – in a similar mould to Brendon Goddard – I think complemented our three selections nicely. Ideally, we'll have him play between half-back and half-forward, through the midfield." - Chris Pelchen
 
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I saw the Pelchen comments and I am presuming Acres got drafted on the basis of that partially.

I am concerned that he is still way behind in the 2km runs despite the supposed and quoted endurance. In the games he played, he didn't do Steven like burst from a pack either.
 

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As I said, Acres has apparently bulked up, so that may be affecting his endurance (I think I read recently how Jack Martin's running times took a hit after he too added significant weight in a relatively short time) and as for his speed, he has a different sort of speed to Steven, I think, with Jack having much shorter and sharper steps, while Blake has really long strides that I think would just eat up the turf once he gets rolling. I dare say Jack is a lot quicker over 5m and also 10m than Blake, which I think would enable him to burst from a pack much better.

We'll hopefully know more once he starts playing more though. At the moment it's a fair bit of guesswork for most if not all of us on here, especially with such a great disparity between his supposed times earlier in his draft year and his supposed combine results.
 
I think an underated skill of Blakes is his tackling. With his long arms he can wrap his arms around his opponent really easily. He also covers distance with not a lot of strides this means he can lay lots of tackles in a short space of time especially when it's congested or in the contest. I was watching the Carlton game and Blake laid 4 tackles in about a minute. I reckon it's be a big weapon when he gets into the midfield.
 
Here's what the Champion Data 2015 Prospectus has to say about Acres last year:

He ranked second at the club for pressure points per 100 min in the 3 games he played (didn't play many games so it's a small sample size). At VFL he averaged 19 disp and 4 tackles.
 
Periphery said:
Here's what the Champion Data 2015 Prospectus has to say about Acres last year:

He ranked second at the club for pressure points per 100 min in the 3 games he played (didn't play many games so it's a small sample size). At VFL he averaged 19 disp and 4 tackles.
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Pressure point? Judd style? ;)

He's learning from the best. :p
 
Also reflects a more defensive mindset or play inclination.
 
Axcellence said:
Pressure point? Judd style? ;)

He's learning from the best. :p
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Chicken Wings are delicious. :p

In case you were wondering:

Pressure Points: Weighted sum of pressure acts. Physical pressure acts are worth 3.75 points and implied pressure acts are worth 1.79 points.

Pressure act - Implied: Reducing an opponent's decision making time without physical contact - via corralling, closing space or chasing from behind

Pressure act - Physical: Applying direct physical contact to a player in the act of disposing the ball or effecting a tackle that prevents an effective disposal from the ball carrier.
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If anyone wants definitions for any of the stats in my Prospects posts in the players threads, just ask.
 
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I was hoping for a better showing in the pre-season. The numbers look decent for the last 2 games, 15 possies each at 66% and 73% DE. Just 1 tackle though and he has looked slow which is unusual (generally never really see him looked rushed which hasn't stood out in the pre-season).
My fav player on the list. Hopefully he is just warming up into the season.
 
MightySaint said:
I was hoping for a better showing in the pre-season. The numbers look decent for the last 2 games, 15 possies each at 66% and 73% DE. Just 1 tackle though and he has looked slow which is unusual (generally never really see him looked rushed which hasn't stood out in the pre-season).
My fav player on the list. Hopefully he is just warming up into the season.
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Just remember he's a young 19y.o who is only a couple of months older than mccartin. I wouldn't him having a slow game with his decision making like a pendels, mitchell mid type in the next few years, would be a nice balance
 
As Blake's new advocate I'm gonna make a review for last season. I'll break it down into two.

Firstly he clearly improved on his first season at VFL level in which he increased his average disposal from 19 to 22 but most importantly he showed an ability dominate games at VFL after showing I feel the level he will play at AFL. He was able to kick multiple goals and really use his run and size through the guts. His tackling has become a real feature of his game at AFL And VFL is his tackling which due to his strong shoulders and long arms he can easily wrap around his opponent .Id still like him to use his marking more and look forward to see it become a real feature of his game, although I'd think it'll become more prominent at AFL level.

At AFL level he again showed glimpses of what he could become(he will be one to bennifit from no sub rule) . Just watch his game against Brisbane to see his ball winning g ability10 disposals in the first quarter. Also the mark against Hawthorn. All Blake needs is time at AFL level to really get the speed of AFL because it seems as though he is often to rushed or to slow with his decision as oppose to the decision actually being wrong.

Overall it was a strong development year for Blake and I'm hopeful he is able to play 15-20 games and hope he can cement his spot in the team
 
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