- Banned
- #526
I wonder if you're that cynical in general or only when it suits some motivation you may have.
What motivation do I have here? I like the Eagles, I like plenty if not most of your players (including Darling & Waters, fwiw). I'm just not high on former first-round picks attracting premiums simply because they were former first-round picks (and in this case famous names).
You're saying that Ebert's endurance and experience are negatives because it means he has less upside? Presumably you'd be happier if he'd shown an inability to stay on the park and couldn't run out a game.
As absurd as it sounds, yes. If I was getting a 26yo with great endurance and experience, then it's a plus. In a 21yo, it usually means their scope for improvement isn't as high.
To give you an example from Collingwood, everyone was predicting greatness for Sidebottom after his first year. Yet I've always been more pessimistic because he already came into the AFL with great endurance, so I always felt it was unlikely that he could get much better. Sidebottom's a better player than Ebert obviously, but the same idea of limited upside applies. What you see is what you get.
If you want upside, it's in his kicking, although it's way better than bigfooty would have you think.
Kicking almost never improves though, particularly in midfielders. You can regain it after a slump or whatever, but it's very rare to find a mid that comes in with bad kicking and manages to transform it.
We've had a plethora of high-possession endurance athletes come through Collingwood who were always a good kick away from being very good players. Ryan Cook, Jaxson Barham etc etc If any of them could kick even at an average-to-good level, they would have been 100+ gamers. Instead, they were persevered with and de-listed eventually.
We even gave one of them to West Coast in Adkins




