marcuz
Norm Smith Medallist
Its all between the ears for Ricky.
Ricky Dyson (Northern Knights)
183/71 mid-age left foot, long-kicking dashing outside wingman.
Gets a lot of ball but he has the capacity to hurt the opposition more often than he currently does. A good kid who draws mixed opinion.
I expected more improvement in '03 than what he has shown but he is the type who can turn a game in 10 minutes.
Despite my ranking him at 33, I am fairly confident he will make AFL. He will have to make some changes though. Ready year 2.
*STYLE LIKE: Riccardi
*TRADEMARK:
- Swoop out wide through the wing then raking left foot kick towards goal.
*SUMMARY ASSESSMENT, RECOMMENDATION:
Dear Ricky,
I know you are a terrific kid and I think you can make AFL. However there are some mindset changes I believe you need to make. I shall have some concerns about your game and ability to have my predicted AFL career until you change your mindset.
I’m going to be very brutal here but I sincerely have your interests at heart.
You have some fine attributes as both a footballer and as a person.
A raking left foot, good pace, some smarts.
However you are a mass of contradictions.
At the moment you play too cheap and I originally had you down my list because of that.
You have a reputation as not being hard enough. I have noted examples over the years in which I’ve observed occasions that would appear to back up such a description.
I have seen you on some occasions appear to not commit to marking contests running with the flight, yet I have also seen you show admirable courage committing to other marking contests running with the flight.
I have seen you not stand your ground on some occasions yet I have also seen the reverse on many occasions.
I have seen many occasions where you look for cheap possessions and other occasions where you attack the ball well running into traffic.
I have seen occasions where you let an opponent through yet I have also seen you show courage and desperation to lunge full-tilt through traffic at the ball on the ground.
I have seen occasions where you appear to rush off a panic kick yet I have seen many more where you show good poise.
When you are inside the traffic at stop plays (eg centre bounce) you often stand under the rucks and you are sometimes very effective in such situations so it’s not as if you need to be as outside as your reputation indicates you are.
Which is the real “you”, Ricky? Which Ricky Dyson will your AFL club see from day one?
I have great admiration for your work rate when your team has the ball (or you hope / anticipate they will get it). You run hard, far and often to present an option. I have huge admiration for Spider Bradley because of how hard he works to run from play to play to play , pushing himself to create an option for his team mates. Your work rate in doing that is not far behind Spider’s.
However, Spider does it in both directions. He pushes himself and runs just as hard when the opposition has the ball. You don’t make a habit of doing that. That is often described as being a “downhill skier”. Spider plays as if he is accountable to every opposition player he can possibly try to catch or pressure. You are not even accountable to your own. However, once again you are contradictory. I have seen you almost run down Cooney during a Cooney dash. I have seen you in a long desperate chase with Tenace across the ground to the ball, in which you were just as determined as Tenace (and where you even looked a similar speed to Tenace at the time).
Which is the real “you”, Ricky? Which Ricky Dyson will your AFL club see from day one?
Moving on, you pick up too many cheap stats. Your stats are very impressive. I have seen many of your games over the last 3 years.where you have had big stats. Some of those games were terrific and I came away seeing you as definite AFL. In many of the others, though, your stats flatter you. You can have 25 possessions in a game yet fail to have an impact, fail to really hurt the opposition. I am in regular touch with a player who had excellent U18 form but missed out in last year’s draft. When we first started discussing his footy he would talk to me in stats. Here’s how our early conversations went:-
Me: “How did you go?” Answer: “Pretty good - I had 28 disposals”
Me: “Don’t talk to me in terms of total stats. What matters is how much you HURT the opposition. How many disposals genuinely advantaged your team thereby hurting the other team? How many times, even if you did not get the ball yourself, did you stop the opposition hurting your team (eg by pressuring an opponent who had the ball)? I don’t want a report focussing on total disposals. That tells me nothing. What matters is the “hurt factor”.
Since then, we always talk in terms of that “hurt factor”.
That’s what matters to AFL coaches as well. If your AFL coach, in reviewing a particular game with you, highlights some problem he would hit the roof if you tried to counterbalance his argument by pointing to your total disposals stat.
It’s about “hurt factor”, Ricky, and frankly you don’t hurt the opposition any near as much as a player with your raking left foot and other skills is capable of doing. I have seen many occasions where you have had 6 disposals in a quarter but 3 of them came within about 10 seconds and the ball at the end was virtually where it was at the start. In other words, you did not “hurt” the opposition. Sometimes, in fact, not only did those 3 possessions not hurt but the time taken gave opponents time to get more numbers at the play.
What most frustrates me in your case, mate, is that when you do hurt the opposition, you really hurt - big time. Your combination of dash and depth of kicking can turn a game in 10 minutes. I’ve seen you many times charge through midfield, sprint hard and direct, then roost a virtually 60m goal.
So, yes, you have shown you are capable of hurting the opposition. But you need to hurt them ROUTINELY, not just “on various occasions”. I’ll come back to the hurt factor later.
Moving on. Evasion. I would not describe you as routinely displaying great evasion skills. This is another area you need to focus on. At the moment I would describe you as a “Space Invader”. Although I have seen you on occasions display very good evasion through traffic, too often you simply try to run around the opponent or traffic. What this often does is force you wide and you end up having to kick across your body, sacrificing accuracy in doing so. I have been pleased to see you finally use your non-preferred right foot on occasions this year. Prior to ’03 you were decidedly one-sided. At this stage though, I would argue that you are still heavily dependent on getting onto your left foot. I can run with that but the trouble is that so do you. You too often allow yourself to get forced onto your right side because you try to run around the outside of an opponent in situations where trying to evade, eg wrong footing the opponent by sudden change of direction or pace (upwards or downwards) would be a smarter option. When you routinely rely on running the arc, the only thing an opponent needs in order to catch you is pace. But pace is only one factor. If he can cut your angles, he doesn’t need to match your good pace. All he needs is to be able to force you into a rushed or awkward kick, especially up against the boundary.
With your good kicking style you should be routinely hitting targets ... but you don’t. You do quite a lot of pin-point passes and over any distance. But you don’t do so routinely. When you don’t hit targets it is sometimes when you are under no pressure but not often. More often it is that you are kicking under pressure and are inclined to bang the ball onto your boot. The need to improve evasion skills is a hobby horse of mine, not just with you, and I always mention Robert Harvey. The ability to slip into space was a large factor in Harvey being the champion he is. You run into space, Ricky, but you don’t slip into it. At least, not nearly often enough. You have good pace, especially once you have momentum, but I’d like to see you strike a much better balance between how often you simply try to outrun an opponent and how often you try to “evade” him. The problem with routinely just trying to outrun an opponent is that, unless you are some metres ahead, you hand over too much control to your opponent. He may be able to cut off the angles or at the very least all he needs to focus on is gathering up enough speed to pressure you in the chase. When you “evade” (eg wrong foot him) you take him temporarily out of the “contest” and you dictate the direction you will continue in. You get much better chance to straighten up in your run, with less need too kick across your body or rush your kick. Also, when the opposition does its pre-game planning to counter you, you make it easy for them if you are predictable. If they know that you predominantly tend to run around the outside then you are predictable, and your own opponent and those downfield can take risks in pressuring you that they can’t take with Harvey.
Improve your evasion skills, or at least the frequency at which you exercise them, and you will have more control over the pressure you are under when you dispose. That in turn will see you having more time to size up your options and will see you hitting targets more often. And that will make a big difference to your “hurt factor”.
On a side note, you are also inclined to get nailed a bit through taking too long. It could be an awareness thing but I suspect it may be because you sometimes think in terms of only two options - run with the ball, or “stand” and look for options. I have observed occasions where you gave done this when the smarter initial action would have been to slip (not just run) “sideways” into space to buy time.
The other area where improving your evasion would help is in your traffic management. Too often when you are inside traffic you just seem to accept that you have opponents nearby and just bang the ball onto the boot. You are known as an outside player but I respect your ability to get the hard ball when you are inside traffic. A player who has the ability to exercise sharp, sudden evasion inside traffic can sometimes slip out of traffic, or buy that extra important fraction of time while still inside the traffic, to put their disposal to better use than you tend to do.
In summary, Ricky, I see you as a player who has pace, who has a raking left foot which can kick 60m goals on the run but also do pinpoint passes over any distance, who routinely pushes himself to run hard but needs to start running in both directions and to be more accountable, and who is good at getting the ball but who needs improve his hurt factor. A player who needs to lift his evasion and rely less on trying to run around the outside. A player who is capable of courage and hardball gets but has sometimes let himself and his team down by taking the soft option.
Which is the real “you”, Ricky?
I don’t want you to become an inside grunt player. I do, however, want to see you be less outside and more accountable. In other words, while I do want to see you play to your strengths, I also want to see you try to cover your current deficiencies better. Round your game out - strike a better balance, mate.
When a player first fronts up at his AFL club, his slate is clean. Your AFL reputation is forged from that day onwards. Which Ricky Dyson will your AFL club see from day one, mate?
If I want to see you play in 3 years’ time will I need to pre-book for Telstra Dome, or can I just turn up on the day to your VFL ground?
Your attributes and potential come in a terrific package, Ricky. I just want you to deliver that package to the right address .... and not just one piece at a time.
I have allowed for your injury problems early '03.
Even though you were All Australian, you still seem to me to have been too often playing below your talents. Your best is very attractive, AFL-wise. Your worst is very cheap.
I think quite highly of your AFL potential.
If I wasn’t fairly confident you could deliver, I would have ranked you much lower. If I were certain you would, you would be earlier in my rankings.
*DISPOSAL, DECISION-MAKING, SMARTS:
(see above)
- Disposals are very predominantly kicks (mix of long and short). Gets excellent depth but accuracy is a mixed bag.
- He was very one-sided ’01 and ‘02. He has been in the U18 system 3 years and I’ve lost count of how many games I’ve seen him play in that time. My notes over ‘01-‘02 include only one mention of a non-preferred right foot kick - in July ‘02. (That’s not to say he may not have done others, its just that if he did I didn’t noticed). This year there have been some occasions where he has used his non preferred right foot.
- Generally good footy smarts but has the occasional brain freeze. Reads play and ball well.
- Quick hands, feeds well.
- Links well, mops up well.
*HANDS:
- Not special but generally clean.
*OVERHEAD MARKING:
(see above)
- Quite good overhead. Generally tries for front position.
*ATHLETICISM, INTENSITY, ETHIC, CONSISTENCY:
(see above)
- Very good all-round set of athletic attributes.
- Moves well. Balanced runner. Not lightning quick but he has very good pace - tends to glide. Takes them on.
- Very agile.
- Good tackler when he is determined.
- Good evasion, even through traffic ... when he chooses to evade.
- Only slim but is stronger than his weight indicates. Should bulk up into a very nice build and sufficient strength for AFL.
*SCI (SCOPE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT):
- Normal / limited (ie. no special factors)
*AFL VERSATILITY:
- Best suited to “wing” but has the potential to play HFF. Depending on how/if he adapts his game per my above comments (eg accountability, intensity) he could be very suited, physical attribute-wise, to running HBF (or perhaps even a run-with role down the track). Is way too unaccountable and outside at the moment for such roles though. Reads the play very well as loose man in defence (although needs to be more accountable to sundry loose opponents).
*QUERY:
- Accountability
- Intensity
- “Hurt factor”
*SOME STATS:
- TAC: Averaged 23 disposals in 14 TAC games (24th in comp). 4.9 marks, 1.5 tackles, total 11 goals-12. 83% of disposals are kicks. 21% of his possessions are marks. At least 20 disposals in 11 games, at least 30 in 4. At least 8 marks in 3.
- Mid-way trend .. % change in disposals was -16%. % change in marks was 0%. % change in tackles was -13%.
- Stats summary '03 U18 Champs:
Averaged 18 disposals and 4.0 marks in 3 U18 Rep games.
Kicks vs feeds: v dominantly kicks. 43-11. (if we include '02 series, 69-15 !!)
Gets own ball?: 16/54TD were HR. only 1 hbg.
Kicks long vs short: mixed.
Kicking accuracy: 12/43 ineff/clang incl 1 clang
Handball accuracy: good
Marking: 12m (none contested).
Tackles: 14
SP clearances: 10 incl 7 cbc (from only 2 games). Despite being known as an outside player, this S.P. clearance rate per game was the best of any Div 1 team (marginaly above Bentic & Kellett).
*OTHER STUFF:
- All Aust TY.
- TAC Team Of Year TY: INT.
- 3rd club B&F '03.
- AIS
Ricky Dyson (Northern Knights)
183/71 mid-age left foot, long-kicking dashing outside wingman.
Gets a lot of ball but he has the capacity to hurt the opposition more often than he currently does. A good kid who draws mixed opinion.
I expected more improvement in '03 than what he has shown but he is the type who can turn a game in 10 minutes.
Despite my ranking him at 33, I am fairly confident he will make AFL. He will have to make some changes though. Ready year 2.
*STYLE LIKE: Riccardi
*TRADEMARK:
- Swoop out wide through the wing then raking left foot kick towards goal.
*SUMMARY ASSESSMENT, RECOMMENDATION:
Dear Ricky,
I know you are a terrific kid and I think you can make AFL. However there are some mindset changes I believe you need to make. I shall have some concerns about your game and ability to have my predicted AFL career until you change your mindset.
I’m going to be very brutal here but I sincerely have your interests at heart.
You have some fine attributes as both a footballer and as a person.
A raking left foot, good pace, some smarts.
However you are a mass of contradictions.
At the moment you play too cheap and I originally had you down my list because of that.
You have a reputation as not being hard enough. I have noted examples over the years in which I’ve observed occasions that would appear to back up such a description.
I have seen you on some occasions appear to not commit to marking contests running with the flight, yet I have also seen you show admirable courage committing to other marking contests running with the flight.
I have seen you not stand your ground on some occasions yet I have also seen the reverse on many occasions.
I have seen many occasions where you look for cheap possessions and other occasions where you attack the ball well running into traffic.
I have seen occasions where you let an opponent through yet I have also seen you show courage and desperation to lunge full-tilt through traffic at the ball on the ground.
I have seen occasions where you appear to rush off a panic kick yet I have seen many more where you show good poise.
When you are inside the traffic at stop plays (eg centre bounce) you often stand under the rucks and you are sometimes very effective in such situations so it’s not as if you need to be as outside as your reputation indicates you are.
Which is the real “you”, Ricky? Which Ricky Dyson will your AFL club see from day one?
I have great admiration for your work rate when your team has the ball (or you hope / anticipate they will get it). You run hard, far and often to present an option. I have huge admiration for Spider Bradley because of how hard he works to run from play to play to play , pushing himself to create an option for his team mates. Your work rate in doing that is not far behind Spider’s.
However, Spider does it in both directions. He pushes himself and runs just as hard when the opposition has the ball. You don’t make a habit of doing that. That is often described as being a “downhill skier”. Spider plays as if he is accountable to every opposition player he can possibly try to catch or pressure. You are not even accountable to your own. However, once again you are contradictory. I have seen you almost run down Cooney during a Cooney dash. I have seen you in a long desperate chase with Tenace across the ground to the ball, in which you were just as determined as Tenace (and where you even looked a similar speed to Tenace at the time).
Which is the real “you”, Ricky? Which Ricky Dyson will your AFL club see from day one?
Moving on, you pick up too many cheap stats. Your stats are very impressive. I have seen many of your games over the last 3 years.where you have had big stats. Some of those games were terrific and I came away seeing you as definite AFL. In many of the others, though, your stats flatter you. You can have 25 possessions in a game yet fail to have an impact, fail to really hurt the opposition. I am in regular touch with a player who had excellent U18 form but missed out in last year’s draft. When we first started discussing his footy he would talk to me in stats. Here’s how our early conversations went:-
Me: “How did you go?” Answer: “Pretty good - I had 28 disposals”
Me: “Don’t talk to me in terms of total stats. What matters is how much you HURT the opposition. How many disposals genuinely advantaged your team thereby hurting the other team? How many times, even if you did not get the ball yourself, did you stop the opposition hurting your team (eg by pressuring an opponent who had the ball)? I don’t want a report focussing on total disposals. That tells me nothing. What matters is the “hurt factor”.
Since then, we always talk in terms of that “hurt factor”.
That’s what matters to AFL coaches as well. If your AFL coach, in reviewing a particular game with you, highlights some problem he would hit the roof if you tried to counterbalance his argument by pointing to your total disposals stat.
It’s about “hurt factor”, Ricky, and frankly you don’t hurt the opposition any near as much as a player with your raking left foot and other skills is capable of doing. I have seen many occasions where you have had 6 disposals in a quarter but 3 of them came within about 10 seconds and the ball at the end was virtually where it was at the start. In other words, you did not “hurt” the opposition. Sometimes, in fact, not only did those 3 possessions not hurt but the time taken gave opponents time to get more numbers at the play.
What most frustrates me in your case, mate, is that when you do hurt the opposition, you really hurt - big time. Your combination of dash and depth of kicking can turn a game in 10 minutes. I’ve seen you many times charge through midfield, sprint hard and direct, then roost a virtually 60m goal.
So, yes, you have shown you are capable of hurting the opposition. But you need to hurt them ROUTINELY, not just “on various occasions”. I’ll come back to the hurt factor later.
Moving on. Evasion. I would not describe you as routinely displaying great evasion skills. This is another area you need to focus on. At the moment I would describe you as a “Space Invader”. Although I have seen you on occasions display very good evasion through traffic, too often you simply try to run around the opponent or traffic. What this often does is force you wide and you end up having to kick across your body, sacrificing accuracy in doing so. I have been pleased to see you finally use your non-preferred right foot on occasions this year. Prior to ’03 you were decidedly one-sided. At this stage though, I would argue that you are still heavily dependent on getting onto your left foot. I can run with that but the trouble is that so do you. You too often allow yourself to get forced onto your right side because you try to run around the outside of an opponent in situations where trying to evade, eg wrong footing the opponent by sudden change of direction or pace (upwards or downwards) would be a smarter option. When you routinely rely on running the arc, the only thing an opponent needs in order to catch you is pace. But pace is only one factor. If he can cut your angles, he doesn’t need to match your good pace. All he needs is to be able to force you into a rushed or awkward kick, especially up against the boundary.
With your good kicking style you should be routinely hitting targets ... but you don’t. You do quite a lot of pin-point passes and over any distance. But you don’t do so routinely. When you don’t hit targets it is sometimes when you are under no pressure but not often. More often it is that you are kicking under pressure and are inclined to bang the ball onto your boot. The need to improve evasion skills is a hobby horse of mine, not just with you, and I always mention Robert Harvey. The ability to slip into space was a large factor in Harvey being the champion he is. You run into space, Ricky, but you don’t slip into it. At least, not nearly often enough. You have good pace, especially once you have momentum, but I’d like to see you strike a much better balance between how often you simply try to outrun an opponent and how often you try to “evade” him. The problem with routinely just trying to outrun an opponent is that, unless you are some metres ahead, you hand over too much control to your opponent. He may be able to cut off the angles or at the very least all he needs to focus on is gathering up enough speed to pressure you in the chase. When you “evade” (eg wrong foot him) you take him temporarily out of the “contest” and you dictate the direction you will continue in. You get much better chance to straighten up in your run, with less need too kick across your body or rush your kick. Also, when the opposition does its pre-game planning to counter you, you make it easy for them if you are predictable. If they know that you predominantly tend to run around the outside then you are predictable, and your own opponent and those downfield can take risks in pressuring you that they can’t take with Harvey.
Improve your evasion skills, or at least the frequency at which you exercise them, and you will have more control over the pressure you are under when you dispose. That in turn will see you having more time to size up your options and will see you hitting targets more often. And that will make a big difference to your “hurt factor”.
On a side note, you are also inclined to get nailed a bit through taking too long. It could be an awareness thing but I suspect it may be because you sometimes think in terms of only two options - run with the ball, or “stand” and look for options. I have observed occasions where you gave done this when the smarter initial action would have been to slip (not just run) “sideways” into space to buy time.
The other area where improving your evasion would help is in your traffic management. Too often when you are inside traffic you just seem to accept that you have opponents nearby and just bang the ball onto the boot. You are known as an outside player but I respect your ability to get the hard ball when you are inside traffic. A player who has the ability to exercise sharp, sudden evasion inside traffic can sometimes slip out of traffic, or buy that extra important fraction of time while still inside the traffic, to put their disposal to better use than you tend to do.
In summary, Ricky, I see you as a player who has pace, who has a raking left foot which can kick 60m goals on the run but also do pinpoint passes over any distance, who routinely pushes himself to run hard but needs to start running in both directions and to be more accountable, and who is good at getting the ball but who needs improve his hurt factor. A player who needs to lift his evasion and rely less on trying to run around the outside. A player who is capable of courage and hardball gets but has sometimes let himself and his team down by taking the soft option.
Which is the real “you”, Ricky?
I don’t want you to become an inside grunt player. I do, however, want to see you be less outside and more accountable. In other words, while I do want to see you play to your strengths, I also want to see you try to cover your current deficiencies better. Round your game out - strike a better balance, mate.
When a player first fronts up at his AFL club, his slate is clean. Your AFL reputation is forged from that day onwards. Which Ricky Dyson will your AFL club see from day one, mate?
If I want to see you play in 3 years’ time will I need to pre-book for Telstra Dome, or can I just turn up on the day to your VFL ground?
Your attributes and potential come in a terrific package, Ricky. I just want you to deliver that package to the right address .... and not just one piece at a time.
I have allowed for your injury problems early '03.
Even though you were All Australian, you still seem to me to have been too often playing below your talents. Your best is very attractive, AFL-wise. Your worst is very cheap.
I think quite highly of your AFL potential.
If I wasn’t fairly confident you could deliver, I would have ranked you much lower. If I were certain you would, you would be earlier in my rankings.
*DISPOSAL, DECISION-MAKING, SMARTS:
(see above)
- Disposals are very predominantly kicks (mix of long and short). Gets excellent depth but accuracy is a mixed bag.
- He was very one-sided ’01 and ‘02. He has been in the U18 system 3 years and I’ve lost count of how many games I’ve seen him play in that time. My notes over ‘01-‘02 include only one mention of a non-preferred right foot kick - in July ‘02. (That’s not to say he may not have done others, its just that if he did I didn’t noticed). This year there have been some occasions where he has used his non preferred right foot.
- Generally good footy smarts but has the occasional brain freeze. Reads play and ball well.
- Quick hands, feeds well.
- Links well, mops up well.
*HANDS:
- Not special but generally clean.
*OVERHEAD MARKING:
(see above)
- Quite good overhead. Generally tries for front position.
*ATHLETICISM, INTENSITY, ETHIC, CONSISTENCY:
(see above)
- Very good all-round set of athletic attributes.
- Moves well. Balanced runner. Not lightning quick but he has very good pace - tends to glide. Takes them on.
- Very agile.
- Good tackler when he is determined.
- Good evasion, even through traffic ... when he chooses to evade.
- Only slim but is stronger than his weight indicates. Should bulk up into a very nice build and sufficient strength for AFL.
*SCI (SCOPE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT):
- Normal / limited (ie. no special factors)
*AFL VERSATILITY:
- Best suited to “wing” but has the potential to play HFF. Depending on how/if he adapts his game per my above comments (eg accountability, intensity) he could be very suited, physical attribute-wise, to running HBF (or perhaps even a run-with role down the track). Is way too unaccountable and outside at the moment for such roles though. Reads the play very well as loose man in defence (although needs to be more accountable to sundry loose opponents).
*QUERY:
- Accountability
- Intensity
- “Hurt factor”
*SOME STATS:
- TAC: Averaged 23 disposals in 14 TAC games (24th in comp). 4.9 marks, 1.5 tackles, total 11 goals-12. 83% of disposals are kicks. 21% of his possessions are marks. At least 20 disposals in 11 games, at least 30 in 4. At least 8 marks in 3.
- Mid-way trend .. % change in disposals was -16%. % change in marks was 0%. % change in tackles was -13%.
- Stats summary '03 U18 Champs:
Averaged 18 disposals and 4.0 marks in 3 U18 Rep games.
Kicks vs feeds: v dominantly kicks. 43-11. (if we include '02 series, 69-15 !!)
Gets own ball?: 16/54TD were HR. only 1 hbg.
Kicks long vs short: mixed.
Kicking accuracy: 12/43 ineff/clang incl 1 clang
Handball accuracy: good
Marking: 12m (none contested).
Tackles: 14
SP clearances: 10 incl 7 cbc (from only 2 games). Despite being known as an outside player, this S.P. clearance rate per game was the best of any Div 1 team (marginaly above Bentic & Kellett).
*OTHER STUFF:
- All Aust TY.
- TAC Team Of Year TY: INT.
- 3rd club B&F '03.
- AIS
