Player Watch Finlay Macrae

Remove this Banner Ad

76woodenspooners said:
To be fair ...

... coaches keep things very simple for young players, getting them to focus on very simple, singular objectives. It helps the player deal with the awe of the occasion, and it gets the player into the mode of “playing their role”.

Fair chance Macrae’s instructions would have been something along the lines of “don’t worry about tackling or kicking goals, your sole job is to ...”. When Macrae goes through his tape with his coaches this week, they’ll be focusing on how well he followed instructions, rather than how well rounded his game was.

By contrast McCreary’s task last week would clearly have been to apply pressure in the forward line - tackle count being just one measure of that. The goal he kicked was clearly an opportunistic one.

As players develop and get more games into them, their role will expand and become more well rounded.

To illustrate the point, even a player of Scott Pendlebury’s experience strives to add further layers to his game each year.
Click to expand...

these players have been training full time in their roles for months, do you think during that time they only have 1 very basic instruction to follow and that carries to their afl game? Do they learn the full role but when they debut they stripe it all back and tell them to forget about what they’ve been taught and only focus on 1 part?
 
Really excited about Macrae. I feel like the most important thing in a kids debut is confidence and composure. Macrae clearly had that and was not afraid to try the tough forward kicks spotting up targets in the forward 50. More confidence than senior players Mayne who's still too afraid to kick the ball forwards.

Macrae clearly had it so we should back him in vs Henry who lacked composure in his debut so we need to give him time to gain his confidence in the VFL
 
Ugene41 said:
Really excited about Macrae. I feel like the most important thing in a kids debut is confidence and composure. Macrae clearly had that and was not afraid to try the tough forward kicks spotting up targets in the forward 50. More confidence than senior players Mayne who's still too afraid to kick the ball forwards.

Macrae clearly had it so we should back him in vs Henry who lacked composure in his debut so we need to give him time to gain his confidence in the VFL
Click to expand...
If Checkers is out with his shoulder, I’d give Henry a recall. * it.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

OniAu said:
Feel like Henry was so harsly marked on that debut.

Year out of footy , had some good pre season games. There were senior players worse than him in that game that survived the cull
Click to expand...
Not to mention, current evidence suggests the Dogs might be a decent side.
 
OniAu said:
Feel like Henry was so harsly marked on that debut.

Year out of footy , had some good pre season games. There were senior players worse than him in that game that survived the cull
Click to expand...

I'm definitely not writing off Henry already. Quite excited about him long term. But I feel that he's someone that needs to play with confidence and if that gets destroyed at the start it's hard to come back from. Let him find his feet in VFL and gain some confidence there first.
 
OniAu said:
Feel like Henry was so harsly marked on that debut.

Year out of footy , had some good pre season games. There were senior players worse than him in that game that survived the cull
Click to expand...
He also ha a poor preseason game the week before, so it was two on the trot where he was dropping uncontested marks and was a bit sloppy by both hand and foot. Obviously not a typical characteristic of his, hence the call to give him time to find his feet against senior bodies in the VFL before coming back to the AFL (which will happen probably not too far after the half way mark)
 
Kappa said:
these players have been training full time in their roles for months, do you think during that time they only have 1 very basic instruction to follow and that carries to their afl game? Do they learn the full role but when they debut they stripe it all back and tell them to forget about what they’ve been taught and only focus on 1 part?
Click to expand...

Yep, keep it simple.
 
Kappa said:
so for the entire preseason they’re only taught 1 part of their role? Macrae was instructed to ignore tackling the entire time he’s been at Collingwood?
Click to expand...

Nah, they learn their trade ...

... and they ply their trade in the VFL where they might even do well ...

... but when it comes to playing on the MCG in front of 50,000 people, against experienced AFL minds and bodies ...

... and the pace of the game being way faster than anything they’ve experience before, it’s best to simplify things down for them.
 
76woodenspooners said:
Nah, they learn their trade ...

... and they ply their trade in the VFL where they might even do well ...

... but when it comes to playing on the MCG in front of 50,000 people, against experienced AFL minds and bodies ...

... and the pace of the game being way faster than anything they’ve experience before, it’s best to simplify things down for them.
Click to expand...

I reckon most kids are composed enough to play their main role and also chase, tackle and try kick goals... it’s how they’ve been playing literally their entire footy journey after all. Maybe I’m wrong
 
Thought through the first 3 he was still a little way off and that despite showing promise he wasn’t quite ready but they way he fought it out in the last is a credit to him. Was a great effort in the fourth quarter
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Seedsfan said:
Thought through the first 3 he was still a little way off and that despite showing promise he wasn’t quite ready but they way he fought it out in the last is a credit to him. Was a great effort in the fourth quarter
Click to expand...

I think in the last quarter we actually played him in the midfield and gave him the minutes.
 
Kappa said:
I reckon most kids are composed enough to play their main role and also chase, tackle and try kick goals... it’s how they’ve been playing literally their entire footy journey after all. Maybe I’m wrong
Click to expand...

It feels like you and 76 are debating a point that doesn't really need to be debated.
 
Scritchyscroony said:
was meh but needs to be given a good block of games.
Click to expand...

Agree to some extent but lots of positive signs to get excited about. Even started in the square on a couple of occasions so they were definitely putting him through his paces.
 
Last edited:
TradeDraft said:
And was 1 of our Better user of the Ball.

Be Exciting Player to Follow as long stays at Collingwood
Click to expand...

Kicking efficiency rated at 44% from 9 kicks Dave. Some of that was WCE's defenders, some was poor execution. No biggy given it was his debut.
 
RedmanWasHere said:
You can't just say that, because I rate some players higher than others, I've defaulted to labelling the latter names as duds. (I only call dud players duds after watching them enough.)

I've created a pecking order in my head based on adaptability and skill level.
Click to expand...

Tradedraft has autism so can struggle with the shades of grey in these discussions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top