david haynes

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West Coast's unlikely spearhead
Mic Cullen
afl.com.au
9:57:27 PM Mon 12 May, 2003


David Haynes is an unlikely full-forward, but West Coast is currently fielding an unlikely forward line.

Haynes stands just 188 centimetres tall and weighs 90 kilograms, and while nobody is claiming that he’s small, he’s hardly in the mould of your classic full-forward of yesteryear.


Be that as it may, the West Coast Eagles have been the most prolific scorers in the AFL this year, with 776 points at an average of 111 points - or nearly 19 goals - per game.

Haynes said the unusual forward structure was working well because everyone was helping out and working hard.

“It’s been working good – we’ve had an even contribution there across the forward line - apart from Phil Matera, he’s kicked the goals obviously - but we’ve got blokes popping up like Ashley Sampi, and our midfielders are kicking a lot of goals, so we’re going alright,” he said.

While Haynes is yet to kick a bag himself, he’s not worried, because coach John Worsfold is satisfied.

“He’s just been happy that I’m making a contest and giving them a good option to kick to.

“He’s just told me to go down there and lead hard, and hit the contest as hard as I can and make sure that we get the ball to the front for people like Ashley Sampi and Phil, and our midfielders running through.”

The 21-year-old said West Coast’s current game plan traded height for speed, an ideal plan on today’s fast, hard surfaces.

"I think that seeing as there’s no real tall people down in the forward line we’ve got a lot of legspeed, and when the ball gets kicked out into space, I’m sure that our legspeed makes us a bit better when it’s out in the open, so it’s been good.”

i'm not overly sold on haynes but the club seems keen to back him at this stage. my biggest critism of him would be that as a full foward he doesn't kick straight but then again niether does Wilson.
 

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Jumper

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#5
I'd much rather have Haynes in the side than Wilson!

Haynes is versatile, he can lead outside the 50 and is better at ground level, He can also go into defence if needed.
Wilson can only run in straight lines so the midfielders kicks have to be 100% perfect or he'll miss it.
He also can't play outside the 50 metre arc which is a problem in modern day footy!
The balance of the side atm is perfect, lets try leave it that way.
 
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#6
Plus his second efforts once the ball hits the ground are far superior. Defensive work inside the forward line also puts Willo to shame. In fact, if he actually kicked some goals he'd be just about perfect. ;)

I'd stick with Haynes at FF for now. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 

GoEagles

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#9
Haynes would have to be one of the lightest full forwards of all time. Even though he isn't kicking the bags of goals, he's marking and leading strongly this year and providing the smaller forwards to kick the goals.

Just think - St Kilda offered us their 2nd round draft pick for him at the end of last season!
 

The Passenger

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#10
as most know I've got nothing but time for Haynes - he shows so much on the lead, and his kicking will click sooner rather later I feel.

He is improving each week and whilst I dont think he'll ever be an All-Australian player, he will be a vital member of a strong forward line in the future. He will be our Mr. Fix-it. Can play at CHF, FF or small forward. Can even go into defence when needed.
 

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Mead

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#12
Originally posted by Sera
Exactly. I'm not sure why we are #1 in the league with Haynes at FF but if its working we stick with it.
iirc we were #1 for extended periods of last year as well. I don't think the number of goals we're kicking has a huge amount to do with who we're playing at FF- it just happens that we're playing fast, free flowing football, with a ruckman and midfield which guarantee a high number of centre clearances. In those circumstances, you're always going to kick big scores.

I've no doubt Haynes is going to turn into a very good 'new-age-footballer' Full Forward, he's certainly shown enough to suggest as much- leads like a bat outta hell, has strong hands, and a booming kick. At this stage, his accuracy is suspect, and he can't physically impose himself on the competition- he's tended to go missing for extended stretches of the game.

If you look at the last three games, I don't think you can make a case for saying that Haynes had a big impact on any of our wins- we won against Freo because our midfield ripped them a new asshole across the board, we won against Melbourne because Gardiner was too strong down the stretch, McIntosh nullified Neitz, and Chick dominated the midfield, and we won against Geelong becaus our defence absorbed the pressure until we could hit back in the final term.

If there's been anything noteworthy about our forward line, its been the defensive pressure they've exerted- at times we've played Chick, Sampi, Matera and Rowan Jones as our forward pockets, half forward flankers combination, and thats a fair bit of defensive pressure. I do think Wilson should get a recall though.

Last year, he averaged 3 goals a game which are pretty handy figures for a FF. I think sometimes footy fans have a pretty short memory as to how good a player Willow is when he was on. The way I see it, at the very least, Wilson is worth a game because he has the ability to dominate contests- something Haynes isn't going to be doing any time. Atm, I reckon the way to go is to return Willow to the FF line, and let Haynes serve his apprenticeship on the HFF or HBF.
 

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#13
Haynes needs to stay no matter what. If we lose a couple of talls then maybe bring in Wilson...

Worsfold likes consistancy, he preaches it. Wilson is always hit and miss...basically our own Trent Croad.
 
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Moderator #14
Originally posted by Mead
Atm, I reckon the way to go is to return Willow to the FF line, and let Haynes serve his apprenticeship on the HFF or HBF.
That lets the Jonathon Hay and Darren Gaspars of this world run off and get easy possessions.

At the start of the season I thought Haynes was a bad move. But I now see him as a required player in that forward line at FF. His work on the lead has been great, and with Cox or Gardy resting in a pocket we have all the height we need down there.

Our forward line may not be traditional, but it sure seems to be effective.
 

Mead

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#15
Originally posted by drexel
Haynes needs to stay no matter what. If we lose a couple of talls then maybe bring in Wilson...

Worsfold likes consistancy, he preaches it. Wilson is always hit and miss...basically our own Trent Croad.
Sounds good in theory, but simply not true

Wilson, like any big assed lead/mark/kick FF, depends on delivery. If he's getting good delivery he'll kick big scores. If he isn't, he won't. And if it came to consistency, I'd prefer 6 goals one week, and 1 the next, rather than the 1 goal Haynes has managed over the last fortnight.

I'm not knocking Haynes, as I said, he'll probably be our last word at FF in a few years time, but atm the FF who would give us the best return is Wilson.
Really, the Haynes/Willow thing is representative of a greater problem. Glass or McIntosh? Gaspar or Jakovich? Humm/Banfield?

I think you have to ask yourself what you want from West Coast this year- we're currently sitting 2nd on the ladder. I get the impression we've almost surprised a lot of our own supporters at how hot we've come out of the blocks- this was supposed to be a 'finish about 5th, let the youngsters come on, and build towards a flag in the next couple of years' type of season.
Well the youngsters are coming on, but for one reason or other, we're going a bit better than a lot of people expected, despite the fact we're probably playing at about 60% capacity atm-
This game against the Pies is going to be a bit of an acid test, but if we win it, I think its about time to realise that we're looking at a top 4 spot, maybe a little better. Some tough questions have to be asked then- we probably only have this year of McIntosh left, maybe another year of Jako. Chick is fantastic atm, but you'd expect he's really only got a couple of years after this one left at peak ability.
Decisions have to be made whether we're going to make a run at a flag with our current list, or develop some more and wait a few years.
I guess the way I see it, any top 4 side is a contender, and top 2 gives you a very high chance of some Grand final action. If thats the case, we need to get our most damaging team out on the park each week. If we have even the remotest chance of a Flag or even a GF appearance this year, we need to grab onto it with both hands.
Even if we fell at the last hurdle, in terms of developing our young'uns, any sort of serious finals campaign can pay huge dividends- we certainly reaped the benefits of '91 in the following years.
It may be early days, but you look at the form so far- Brisbane are most likely going to be in the GF, and a tough team to beat at that. But who are they going to play against? Adelaide? Richmond? Port? There's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be in that mix. And if you get to that last game, well anything can. Almost by accident, no real powerhouse side has stepped forward to challenge Brisbane. At this stage, there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't take advantage of that.
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So yeah, er, what was i saying? Play Wilson :D
 
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Originally posted by Mead
It may be early days, but you look at the form so far- Brisbane are most likely going to be in the GF, and a tough team to beat at that. But who are they going to play against? Adelaide? Richmond? Port? There's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be in that mix. And if you get to that last game, well anything can. Almost by accident, no real powerhouse side has stepped forward to challenge Brisbane. At this stage, there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't take advantage of that.
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So yeah, er, what was i saying? Play Wilson :D
Agree with all those comments - but still no compelling argument to play Willo ahead of Haynes. Our small forward line seems to be working, no team has 4 quality small defenders. I think Haynes is a huge tactical advantge to us - plays as a tall but when the ball hits the floor he can easily out manouvre his oponnent ......
 

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#17
agree with most of what Mead said .... especially the "will mark if ball delivered properly" theme...

and also, about the defensive pressure, from what I've seen, don't knock, and then fail to comment on Haynes. Haynes probably applies the same amount as the Train, lets just say that IMO, they are no Fido's.

I still maintain, that there is room in our forward line for the two of them, Haynes and Willow ... all the great forwards normally have a sidekick .... as I've said before, Sumich/Heady, there was Lockett/O'Brien, Dunstall/Hudson, it's early, I can't think of more, but there are plenty.

even more importantly, playing Willow, takes the Hay and Gaspars off Haynes.

rant over

thegur
 

iceman

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#18
i agree with Mead, although Haynes will be our future option at FF, people seem to forget how quick Wilson is off the lead and how he always brings the ball to ground after a contest.

many times last season, there'd be 2 or 3 defenders lined up in front of him but with his attack on the football most of them would end up on the ground with fido picking up the crumbs and kicking a goal

i think that missing a strong marking option in the FF spot will come back to hurt us sooner rather than later, it nearly happened against geelong
 

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#19
Originally posted by thegur

I still maintain, that there is room in our forward line for the two of them, Haynes and Willow
If both Willow and Haynes play in the forward line, in that case who comes out ? Anyway I can see Mead's point and I think Woosha agrees with him about having a go now to a possible grand final, but I think he believes Haynes is the right man for the position not Wilson. I know that Willow sometimes can kick five goals in a game but what matters is how many goals the team kicks and they're doing well without him. We may not have Wilson to kick a bag of goals but we have Haynes helping others to kick goals. I think this is the reason Woosha has sticked to Haynes. Not because he's a great goal kicker yet, but because his contribution to help team mates kick goals has been fantastic.
 
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