Nah. You didn't read it right, im talking in his inherit abilities as a footballer as Judd doesn't exist in two forms but one.
Huh?
I didn't think at the time that Judd was capable of playing as a hard ball get midfielder, as he has now shown.
Are you high?
At WC, Judd was one of the premier contested ball players in the league. How do you reckon he went so well in those finals against the Swans if he couldn't win a hard ball?
Bit of a head-scratcher. Judd was a gun inside player - I think he was second only to Scott West in 2006 for contested possessions and was right up there for clearances as well. In the top 4-5 in the league.
He was defensively weak both in his positioning, running, and in his 1%ers and tackles. Not that it mattered, back then he had that extra yard of pace on every single midfielder in the game.
I'm actually a bit surprised to hear this from an Eagles supporter.
Opposition fans who only saw the flashy runs and great goals used to say Judd didn't do the hard stuff. West Coast fans, I thought, knew better and were fully aware of the shitload of inside work Judd did, the tackling and the clearances and the contested ball. He was, for example,
7th in the league for total tackles in 2006. So he was a genuine inside-outside player. It wasn't just his pace that made him a great player. That's why I say he was the most complete midfielder I've seen.
Like I said, I'm actually a bit surprised to hear an Eagles fans offer up this rather lopsided analysis of Judd i.e. 'sure he was quick but didn't do the inside work'. It's simply not acurate.
Id say it's perfectly fair to reassess Judd as the footballer 2004-2007 in light of his games from 2008-2012.
That makes no sense.
I am very comfortable with my analysis of Judd as an Eagles player. His more limited, less attacking role at the Blues is irrelevant.
Perhaps if he never lost his pace then he might have taken his game to another level as some suggest he was doing in early 2007, but he didn't get that opportunity at Carlton. He's had to become a very different player to the one he was at Westcoast and that’s the versatility.
This is just a weird thing to say.
At Carlton, he plays a less varied role than he did at West Coast. At West Coast, he was genuinely inside-outside while he is almost exclusively inside at Carlton. I don't know how, from that, you conclude that he has been more versatile at Carlton. The opposite is true.