He's not soft, if that is what you are suggesting.
I didn't use that word deliberately, because I don't think it's a deficiency to not have the sort of insane bravery that some of them do. But he does seem to always be half hearted in his efforts at the ball. And I'm not really seeing his unique skill to make up for that.
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Please!! Your credibility is tarnished by that final sentence. I was sitting right above that moment when Rankine intercepted what was a lovely and totally appropriate handpass and a brilliant footballer pounced and intercepted it. That fifty was also unlucky as he did not intentionally knock the pill out of his hands and plenty of our boys have done far worse over the years.
He also did a lot of good things.
Agree, Rankine is usually very good at milking frees and 50s.
That handball was horrific let’s be honest, he had multiple better options and chose the wrong one, not a fan of sugarcoating a pretty bad clanger there
I cannot believe the carry on over a brilliant piece of footy by Rankine. Can we simply admire the catlike reflexes of the opposition player? I have seen our boys do similar things on many occasions and it was their judgement rather than a poor choice of options by the opponent which caused the turnover.
Nope because it was just a clanger when you have clear better options ahead of you and the handball was also slow and off target.. I don’t get the sugar coating of it
Spot on. Right now he is depth for injuries and plays a role in the team. He is not a key player right now. However he is only 20 years old so let’s hope he develops some instinct and competitiveness.
He’s a developing player. Learning when to zig and when to zag. When that instant decision making becomes ingrained and he becomes less hesitant, we will know where he’s at.
Slow? He won the 20m sprint at the AFL combine.
If he wasn't the same at VFL I'd agree that it's just adjusting to tempo.
Don't believe he is actually slow. However, it's a fact that you don't have to be quick as an outside runner. Two examples from our team tell you that: Steele, Lipinski. There are many more. It's all about running capacity, not speed, and we're told his capacity is very good. If he doesn't make it, it won't be because he doesn't run fast enough.
Mids in their 3rd seasons should be progressing. If he’s going to be a good player then most in that mould by their third season are becoming well established in the best 22. Look how good Freijah for the dogs has been in his first season. We kept waiting and waiting for Macrae to kick on and he never did. Mids kick on early, talls take time. I don’t think there’s any overblown expectations tbh.
