Roast Drop Turner they said! Mahony is no good they said!

It is pretty funny because I said that I thought Turner had the temperament to play a tagging role or a lockdown defender on a smaller forward at the time he was playing forward. I do think you need the forward flanker who plays on an aggressive rebounder to be more accountable, but at the end of the day you ultimately need small forwards to create goals and kick goals and rove at the feet of packs. We can't have the scenario where as soon as the ball hits the deck the opposition take it out easily and score on the rebound and that was largely happening because our smaller forwards were never front and square of contests.

My desire to see Turner out of the forward line was more so he would find a role that had longevity, because getting players like Thomas, Scott, Simpkin, etc was going to make it difficult on players who held fringe smaller forward or midfield roles, if they were pigeonholed as just that then I think they would eventually be forced out of the side. This was more 2019/20 than this year though, I was pretty happy when last pre-season he was being tried for different roles. I felt he has been really good this year in some challenging roles.

My only real concern with Mahony was when he was playing mostly midfield time, because he was getting destroyed physically and I had flashbacks to how Adams left the game prematurely. I suggested he be used forward, I think he has the forward smarts, some of his creative work yesterday was fantastic. Simpkin played forward for a while and was eased into a more midfield role. Mahony is only 70kg and I think if you are a lightweight in the middle you need to have amazing agility and an unhanny awareness, that kind of 360 degree awareness like Boomer and what is more common with indigenous players. You can't have these kids leave the field horizontally.
 
I'll happily be the first to admit that turner has turned it around but let's not pretend he hadn't been stinking it up as a forward ever since his 2nd year. Averaging around 0.6 goals a game and less than 12 possessions. Sure he was a defensive forward and that's often a thankless task but he was basically running around like headless chook. He was a shadow of the hard hitting physical stick insect that was bowling over players left and right in his first year (probablybecause he was told to settle it down after concussing himself twice in quick succession). If he had any competition he would have been VFL'd for an extended period.

If anything those that have been critical of Kayne were frustrated because they felt he would be better suited as a defender. For years we've been getting torched when playing against teams that have a fleet of smalls. Marley would shut down 1 but the other 2 would run riot on Jmac and Wright. Blind freddie knew we needed another close checking small as more and more teams opted for this approach.

Most of the same people that are high and mighty now were the same ones throwing Kayne under a bus when ablett kicked 3 on him - which from a statistical point of view sounds bad but if you rewatched his game you'd have seen how unlucky he was and could hold his head up high. Most wrote him off as a defender saying he was slow and used the ball poorly so therefore wouldn't be suited to the role.

Tldr: great news but a few games doesn't undo a poor-average handful of seasons - so put your dicks in your pants when saying you were always right. Hopefully only up from here.
Halfway thru 2017, when he was injured, he was leading the Syd.
 

HTPunter

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Sep 27, 2014
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This roast is better aimed at the previous coaching staff.

For a number of years, there have been plenty on here advocating for him to play a more defensive role.

Even his staunchest critics acknowledge his defensive attributes. No surprise to see him flourishing when they are the bulk of the job description.

This. He's absolute dogshit as a forward. Defensive forwards still need to have a degree of ability offensively.
 
Apr 12, 2009
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1623661262490.gif
 

Kangaroos techno

Premiership Player
Feb 4, 2021
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Halfway thru 2017, when he was injured, he was leading the Syd.
He finished outside the top 10 in a year we almost won the spoon. Nothing to write home about. Clearly the coaches valued his output. But our coaches didn't have the best judgement during those years.
 
He finished outside the top 10 in a year we almost won the spoon. Nothing to write home about. Clearly the coaches valued his output. But our coaches didn't have the best judgement during those years.
He missed over a third of the year with injury. Before the injury he was leading.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Will be interesting when Lmac, bonar ect are back , what our back 6-7 are.
Atley , Turner and J.walker are probably the most under pressure.

You do more drive by's than the eight tray crips.
 

Colbys Boots

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Oct 3, 2017
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He kicked 12 goals in 2019.

I mean come on…at the feet of an in form BBB?

That says as much about BBB as Kanye. It's pretty widely acknowledged that Ben didn't tend to bring teammates into the game. If he didn't mark it, he wasn't bringing it to ground and the opposition gained possession. Sure he kicked a lot of goals but he also had more forward 50 entries directed to him than any player in the competition and by a considerable margin. So that meant a lot of intercepts and turnovers.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Monster Cody just passed recently
FWIW his book monster was a good read

Really? He can't have been that old, did someone finally get him?

Yeah, I read the book years ago, not a bad read.
 
Oct 22, 2014
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This roast is better aimed at the previous coaching staff.

For a number of years, there have been plenty on here advocating for him to play a more defensive role.

Even his staunchest critics acknowledge his defensive attributes. No surprise to see him flourishing when they are the bulk of the job description.
Not sure I've ever read the previous coaching staff label any of our players putrid, useless or pathetic but rest assured if and when they do I will step in
 
Oct 22, 2014
21,550
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AFL Club
North Melbourne
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OOB
This roast is better aimed at the previous coaching staff.

For a number of years, there have been plenty on here advocating for him to play a more defensive role.

Even his staunchest critics acknowledge his defensive attributes. No surprise to see him flourishing when they are the bulk of the job description.
This. He's absolute dogshit as a forward. Defensive forwards still need to have a degree of ability offensively.
Throw in dogshit as well
 
Mar 16, 2001
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Will be interesting when Lmac, bonar ect are back , what our back 6-7 are.
Atley , Turner and J.walker are probably the most under pressure.
Who is “ect”? or etc? LMac and Corr automatic selections when fit and ready, Bonar in the mix, I guess Atu, not sure who else. I don’t think Turner is under any pressure as he’s shown he can close check forwards and mids, plus listening to Noble‘s comments about why the coaches love him.
 
Apr 17, 2007
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Who is “ect”? or etc? LMac and Corr automatic selections when fit and ready, Bonar in the mix, I guess Atu, not sure who else. I don’t think Turner is under any pressure as he’s shown he can close check forwards and mids, plus listening to Noble‘s comments about why the coaches love him.

Well you can’t play them all
 
Hmmmmmm..............they have also put Atley's name in the side every week.

A lot of folks are myopic when it comes to the defensive stuff.

They seem to think you need 2 x key defenders and 20 x Eddie Betts's to make a quality football side.
Ha ha ha. Our defense has been putrid. Only one team scored more than us on the weekend yet we couldn’t win.

You seem to think we can only win with Carey at CHF and 21 x Atleys.
 
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