Cripps Bontempelli Merrett Kelly - the next big 4?

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Endless

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This is going to be the thread all year.
Merrett will snag AA if he keeps up what we've seen over the last 12 months. its hard not to notice a complete midfielder who has both an inside and outside game, plus the tackling, plus the 4 quarters of output and the running he puts in to get into space.
His only knock is he isn't a goalscorer. Which isn't surprising because he spends a lot of time getting the ball forward rather than pushing forward to receive.
Whose place does he take from the AA team?
 

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citizen-erased

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It's an irrelevant question
yep.
There are no AA incumbencies.
so im not sure how to answer.
There were 5 new faces to the 2016 team. If anybody had suggested Bont in and Fyfe out in Rd.1, they would have rounded on. Yet, have a look at the team.
Same as Rampe making it. Or Gawn over Goldy.
 

JayJ20

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Merrett won't get rated as highly as he should on bigfooty because of 2 reasons:

1. He's an Essendon player. People would trip over themselves if he played for Bulldogs

2. He is not 190cm+

Lucky that the AA selectors, coaches, umpires etc aren't waved by the delusion that is bigfooty.
 

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_Swoon

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The Bont only just scraped into the AA team
I love watching Merrett play and rate him very highly, but if(as expected) all 3 continue to improve then both Cripps and Bont will have Zac covered
Based on what metric? If it's current performance, you might have the names mixed up.

Regardless, the pretty vast differences in playing style and roles mean they'll likely never cover each other off. You could have Cripps, Bont and Merrett in the same team and they wouldn't take one thing away from each other because that's how unique each one is in retrospect to the others.

It's incredible how insecure dogs supporters are about other players being compared to the messiah. It's even more incredible that the cure for this is apparently to log into bigfooty and shitpost.
 

Endless

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Based on what metric? If it's current performance, you might have the names mixed up.

Regardless, the pretty vast differences in playing style and roles mean they'll likely never cover each other off. You could have Cripps, Bont and Merrett in the same team and they wouldn't take one thing away from each other because that's how unique each one is in retrospect to the others.

It's incredible how insecure dogs supporters are about other players being compared to the messiah. It's even more incredible that the cure for this is apparently to log into bigfooty and shitpost.
Insecure?
I barrack for the reigning premiers!
 

Bulldog Joe

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Merrett won't get rated as highly as he should on bigfooty because of 2 reasons:

1. He's an Essendon player. People would trip over themselves if he played for Bulldogs

2. He is not 190cm+

Lucky that the AA selectors, coaches, umpires etc aren't waved by the delusion that is bigfooty.
Sorry but this is not relevant. Despite winning the flag most Bulldog players are not rated as evidenced by 1 player only in the players top 50.

Merrett will get rated and playing at Essendon is not a disadvantage, although there has been some negatives due to the saga over the last 4 years.

He is clearly rated, but the tribal nature means that Carlton and (yes) Bulldog supporters tried to downgrade him, because he is really being assessed against their best players.
 

citizen-erased

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The Bont only just scraped into the AA team
I love watching Merrett play and rate him very highly, but if(as expected) all 3 continue to improve then both Cripps and Bont will have Zac covered
I don't follow this at all.
Cripps has had yet another interrupted preseason. And the Carlton midfield is not going to do him any favours by requiring less of him. Yes he's good and shown in games he has a beast mode like few in the comp. but he wasn't on merretts level last year and hasn't started this year.
All the while Zac puts one of his best games of his career in when the stars that were supposed to bring him down a peg have returned.
 

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I don't follow this at all.
Cripps has had yet another interrupted preseason. And the Carlton midfield is not going to do him any favours by requiring less of him. Yes he's good and shown in games he has a beast mode like few in the comp. but he wasn't on merretts level last year and hasn't started this year.
All the while Zac puts one of his best games of his career in when the stars that were supposed to bring him down a peg have returned.
Yep
Understand your excitement after Zac's performance and respect your opinion, just don't agree.........
Both the big fellas have higher ceilings imo and I think the Bont will be talked about in 20 or 30 years, he is that special.
As for stat-wank, well the champions of stat- wank CD have the Bont top 5 iirc
 

JayJ20

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Sorry but this is not relevant. Despite winning the flag most Bulldog players are not rated as evidenced by 1 player only in the players top 50.

Merrett will get rated and playing at Essendon is not a disadvantage, although there has been some negatives due to the saga over the last 4 years.

He is clearly rated, but the tribal nature means that Carlton and (yes) Bulldog supporters tried to downgrade him, because he is really being assessed against their best players.
I actually said that he is never going to be as highly rated as he should be on bigfooty because of those reasons.

AA selectors and the general public rate him as he should be, as evidenced by players, coaches etc rating him higher than Cripps and in the top 30 players.
 

citizen-erased

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Yep
Understand your excitement after Zac's performance and respect your opinion, just don't agree.........
Both the big fellas have higher ceilings imo and I think the Bont will be talked about in 20 or 30 years, he is that special.
As for stat-wank, well the champions of stat- wank CD have the Bont top 5 iirc
stats will tip it to Merrett. Which is why they aren't a good indicator
Merrett has more or equal of everything Bont has except scoring. Cripps beats both for contested possessions.
CD would probably have him 2nd behind Danger (hence the massive SC price this year), but stats rarely tell the story

For me, when it comes to Merrett, it's his poise combined with his work rate that put him in that top bracket.
Some players usually have one or the other, or an x-factor. To me, he's a complete midfielder. In that Diesel mould. Who i think is working with him this year as well.
 

Cadillac

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Based on what metric? If it's current performance, you might have the names mixed up.

Regardless, the pretty vast differences in playing style and roles mean they'll likely never cover each other off. You could have Cripps, Bont and Merrett in the same team and they wouldn't take one thing away from each other because that's how unique each one is in retrospect to the others.

It's incredible how insecure dogs supporters are about other players being compared to the messiah. It's even more incredible that the cure for this is apparently to log into bigfooty and shitpost.
Haha quality post. Calling out our fans for being insecure, the same day one of your own created this thread. https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/merrett-vs-macrae.1160800/#post-49304358. :$:thumbsu:
 

citizen-erased

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Please. One average showing from Cripps doesn't constitute him being rated lower than Oliver.
Watch Oliver's game from the weekend. Esp the 3rd quarter. He was doing Cripps' clearance game and Bont's impact game and making it look easy.
Kid is a star and his engine is starting to let him to do what he can do for longer.
He'll rocket to being one of the games best.
 
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