Opinion Butcher

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El_Scorcho

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Neighbours more like Jerry Springer

I'll gain 200 pounds and throw my chair at TSW when Jerry introduces him if that's what it takes.
 

*PAF

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I didn't think he was great today, but he certainly wasn't bad. Only had one ugly set shot.

If 3 or 4 contested marks, 3 goals, 2 goal assists and a dozen crashed packs is considered a bad game, I think we're marking too harshly.
Yeah but some will always go the full negative.

Pittard had a great game however I read at least one post that said he had a good game BUT made one mistake.

If our other players only made one mistake each max, we would have won by 100.
 

OneGreatClub

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Yeah but some will always go the full negative.

Pittard had a great game however I read at least one post that said he had a good game BUT made one mistake.

If our other players only made one mistake each max, we would have won by 100.
The main thing that has changed with Pittard 2016 compared to Pittard 2014 and 2015 is that we don't hear the collective holding of breath at AO every times he gets the ball.
 

finbarr

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I didn't think he was great today, but he certainly wasn't bad. Only had one ugly set shot.

If 3 or 4 contested marks, 3 goals, 2 goal assists and a dozen crashed packs is considered a bad game, I think we're marking too harshly.
Fair enough. But when did "crashed pack" become a stat, particularly a positive one? Butcher "crashes packs" because he's often caught so far behind the drop of the ball he's left with no alternative other than to crash into everyone in front of him.

Nothing he did yesterday was done with any confidence. To my mind he should have been walking tall after last weeks game, but he was back to that "kicking a can around" demeanor for mine.
 

bomberclifford

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Fair enough. But when did "crashed pack" become a stat, particularly a positive one? Butcher "crashes packs" because he's often caught so far behind the drop of the ball he's left with no alternative other than to crash into everyone in front of him.

Nothing he did yesterday was done with any confidence. To my mind he should have been walking tall after last weeks game, but he was back to that "kicking a can around" demeanor for mine.
Damn. Not good to hear.
 

*PAF

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Fair enough. But when did "crashed pack" become a stat, particularly a positive one? ...
Never will get measured but it doesn't mean it isn't an important part of the game.

See ball get ball can be easily measured.
Stop a player that has the ball from moving on can be measured.
Stop a player marking and rebounding with ease or make a defender think twice when he is going for a seemingly easy intercept cannot be measured.
Stuff that keeps the ball stuck in our forward 50 is hard to measure.
 

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PepeSilvia

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Fair enough. But when did "crashed pack" become a stat, particularly a positive one? Butcher "crashes packs" because he's often caught so far behind the drop of the ball he's left with no alternative other than to crash into everyone in front of him.

Nothing he did yesterday was done with any confidence. To my mind he should have been walking tall after last weeks game, but he was back to that "kicking a can around" demeanor for mine.
Crashing packs was reasonably important yesterday considering how many crumbing goals we kicked. Certainly sometimes Butch gets caught out of position and has to resort to nullifying a contest rather than going for the mark, but just as often this is due to a poorly placed kick coming into the forward line. Either way it's better that he's putting the effort in to make the contest, rather than not bothering at all, as has occasionally been the case in the past when he's completely devoid of confidence.

He didn't lack any confidence in the first half, he'd kicked 3.0 and was doing everything that could be expected of him. Started the third quarter with a strong contested mark, but the badly sprayed set shot no doubt would've played on his mind. The rest of the quarter didn't bring a whole lot of opportunity up forward as we only had two more shots on goal, due to the drop in work-rate from the mids. But, I'll concede that he wasn't doing enough work up the ground during this time. I thought his work-rate improved in the last quarter, along with the rest of the team.

Perfect world, sprayed set-shots are a thing of the past for Butch and if they do happen he doesn't lose confidence. But we all know that he's coming from quite a long way back here, it's not going to be perfect straight away, if ever. I think he's undeniably improved his kicking at goal over the off-season, and I reckon his confidence will only continue to grow if he keeps it up.

Again, I didn't think he was great yesterday, there's absolutely room for improvement. But he wasn't too far off the mark.
 

JUSTWORK

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Fair enough. But when did "crashed pack" become a stat, particularly a positive one? Butcher "crashes packs" because he's often caught so far behind the drop of the ball he's left with no alternative other than to crash into everyone in front of him.

Nothing he did yesterday was done with any confidence. To my mind he should have been walking tall after last weeks game, but he was back to that "kicking a can around" demeanor for mine.
"Crashing packs" at least brings the ball to ground where guys like Wingard and Gray can crumb and kick quick goals.
 

finbarr

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"Crashing packs" at least brings the ball to ground where guys like Wingard and Gray can crumb and kick quick goals.

Carey used to crash packs but usually emerge with the ball in hand. Anyone can just crash a pack, it doesn't require much ability. A key forward is supposed to provide a target and kick goals. That's his job. Sure, crash a few packs, but you need to have more to your game than that. No one should ever be picked just because they "crash packs". You could pull someone out of the crowd to perform that job adequately.
 

JUSTWORK

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Carey used to crash packs but usually emerge with the ball in hand. Anyone can just crash a pack, it doesn't require much ability. A key forward is supposed to provide a target and kick goals. That's his job. Sure, crash a few packs, but you need to have more to your game than that. No one should ever be picked just because they "crash packs". You could pull someone out of the crowd to perform that job adequately.
I would go that far, if we pull 50,000 you'd be icky to find 50 people that could perform that job, and the Carey comparison is probably a tad unfair he regarded as the best CHF to play the game.

Other then that, thats probably a fair post, don't undervalue his defensive work either, that is normally very good… But yet first most he needs to take marks inside 50 and kick goals, with Westhoff doing what he does and playing a lot up the ground butch would take the pressure of Dixon and provide as a 2nd big option. Its unfortunate that butch didn't kick a few more and force his way into the side, it'll certainly be talked about but not sure it'll happen.
 

PepeSilvia

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Carey used to crash packs but usually emerge with the ball in hand. Anyone can just crash a pack, it doesn't require much ability. A key forward is supposed to provide a target and kick goals. That's his job. Sure, crash a few packs, but you need to have more to your game than that. No one should ever be picked just because they "crash packs". You could pull someone out of the crowd to perform that job adequately.
He kicked three, set up a couple more and clearly did provide a target, given that he took three or four contested marks and spilled a couple more.

I'm unsure what exactly people are looking for from Butcher? To look 'less awkward'? To kick four goals a game with no 'cheapies'?

It's already been well noted that he didn't have his best game, yet he still finished with a pretty solid return.
 

JUSTWORK

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He kicked three, set up a couple more and clearly did provide a target, given that he took three or four contested marks and spilled a couple more.

I'm unsure what exactly people are looking for from Butcher? To look 'less awkward'? To kick four goals a game with no 'cheapies'?

It's already been well noted that he didn't have his best game, yet he still finished with a pretty solid return.
Im just looking for consistent AFL performances from him, and improve on his kicking (don't expect a Jay Shultz at his best, just more consistency)

in reference to his 'cheapies' i didn't see the game, but i think (certainly at SANFL) we want to se most his holes goals come from contested marks and set shots.
 

edgie

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The one time I have had a self aware laugh when perusing the camries board and they were talking shit about us was when one of them posted "Imagine how many packs they could crash with Dixon and Butcher playing together!".

Us just thinking about that though would still crash more packs than Jenkins. The combined power of thought outweighs his appetite for the contest.
 

raman

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Robbie Gray is not what one would call a reliable goalkicker, he has missed more than just the occasional sitter, but he is still one of our very best players.
It really frustrates me that too many of our very best players are such shitty set shots sometimes.
 
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