Getting Better

[ant555]

So would you pick him again? Personally i wouldnt, a lot of things get overlooked when teams win but if Slattery had of played a game like that he be getting torched on here by now.

Thats an average comment IMO.
If Slattery played like that on debut everyone would have been pretty happy.
Slattery gets torched a lot becasue he still makes the same mistakes after 50 games that he was making in his 10th game , not that i have ever torched him.

 

[TheDon35]

I'm not sure about picking him again. You're right: if Slattery had've played Quinn's game, he'd cop it. (But you'd have to note Slattery's impressive new run, engine, enthusiasm, x-factor, the way he brought out things in his teammates....) Quinn's game was Quinn's game, Slattery's was Slattery's.

The only thing about that is Slattery has been in the system for a number of years but still can't take the game on like Quinn did, run and evade like Quinn did, Break the lines like Quinn did etc etc.

Yes has got a long way to go but fair dinkum, after 5 years of missery are we really going to jump on the back of him after an exciting first up performance?

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Quinn was terrible and has no place in the best 22, or 25 for that matter.

what a load of crap

 

[cooper6]

i love ryder forward and mcphee certainly looks more comfortable there. however, if essendon ever actually have a fully fit side, what happens? mcphee, lloyd, lucas, neagle, gumby, ryder all forwards atm. it will be interesting to see what efc do when this time comes. will mcphee or/and ryder go back to half back? will they try either gumby, lucas or neagle back? (unlikely) they may not need to put any of these players back with the development of hurley, pears and daniher?

 

[warney7]

Ok, it appears in hindsight that I was a little harsh on the bloke.

I'm not going to say that he played an outstanding game like some people but saying he was 'terrible' was far too harsh.

I have to give it to him that he took the game on, and I guess his skills should only improve and when they do, his unpredictability could be useful going forward.

 

[rines]

i love ryder forward and mcphee certainly looks more comfortable there. however, if essendon ever actually have a fully fit side, what happens? mcphee, lloyd, lucas, neagle, gumby, ryder all forwards atm. it will be interesting to see what efc do when this time comes. will mcphee or/and ryder go back to half back? will they try either gumby, lucas or neagle back? (unlikely) they may not need to put any of these players back with the development of hurley, pears and daniher?

We will never have to worry because we will never actually have a fully fit side. By the time Gumby and Neagle are ready, Lloyd and Lucas will be long gone

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Ok, it appears in hindsight that I was a little harsh on the bloke.

I'm not going to say that he played an outstanding game like some people but saying he was 'terrible' was far too harsh.

I have to give it to him that he took the game on, and I guess his skills should only improve and when they do, his unpredictability could be useful going forward.

excellent, I don't have to completely lose respect for you then!

 

[lemon chicken]

Thats an average comment IMO.
If Slattery played like that on debut everyone would have been pretty happy.
Slattery gets torched a lot becasue he still makes the same mistakes after 50 games that he was making in his 10th game , not that i have ever torched him.

Fair enough. Im a little bit concerned that a smarter coached side is gonna exploit him a bit more than what Freo did. Im reading a lot of comments about it being his 5th ever game and so on. He's an AFL player now and thats how he should be judged. When we lose the mistakes become more costly.

 

[LeeARM]

Ok, it appears in hindsight that I was a little harsh on the bloke.

I'm not going to say that he played an outstanding game like some people but saying he was 'terrible' was far too harsh.

I have to give it to him that he took the game on, and I guess his skills should only improve and when they do, his unpredictability could be useful going forward.

well i'm glad you've changed your mind and you're right, he is being over rated but that happens when people get excited but you don't want to under rate him either because for a 5th game playing the CODE, it was very impressive.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

It doesn't matter that it's his 5th ever game of football. If he costs us a goal, the umpires aren't going to take that goal off the opposition's tally, because the poor lad's Irish and doesn't know the game well.

McVeigh needs to come back in. Possibly Jetta, Houli, Lonergan and Bellchambers as well.

There needs to be players to come out of the team, and Quinn needs to be considered on his merits, not on his nationality.

 

[LeeARM]

It doesn't matter that it's his 5th ever game of football. If he costs us a goal, the umpires aren't going to take that goal off the opposition's tally, because the poor lad's Irish and doesn't know the game well.

it does matter that it was his 5th ever game because the game was seen as a learning experience and it also gives us the view that if he's that good in his 5th game, think of how good he'll be in the future.
if he screws up a few times he'll learn from that and keep improving

McVeigh needs to come back in. Possibly Jetta, Houli, Lonergan and Bellchambers as well.

There needs to be players to come out of the team, and Quinn needs to be considered on his merits, not on his nationality.

definetly, quinn needs to go back to the vfl and keep learning and improving. i wouldn't expect many more games from him this year but it was nice having him on sunday to reward him for his progress.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

it does matter that it was his 5th ever game because the game was seen as a learning experience and it also gives us the view that if he's that good in his 5th game, think of how good he'll be in the future.
if he screws up a few times he'll learn from that and keep improving

But in the seniors it is irrelevant - a goal against is a goal against.

Now that he's had a taste of seniors footy, I'd like to see him spend the rest of the year playing all over the ground at Bendigo, and getting a feel for the game, and improving his instincts.

Having said all of this, I think he has the potential to be a great player, if we manage it right.

 

[ant555]

Fair enough. Im a little bit concerned that a smarter coached side is gonna exploit him a bit more than what Freo did. Im reading a lot of comments about it being his 5th ever game and so on. He's an AFL player now and thats how he should be judged. When we lose the mistakes become more costly.

Fair enough. I have some reservations about him in the side against Carlton but i think he has to play. For his development i think it will be a good test for him to play against a side that will certainly put more pressure on.
In the end i thought his run and carry and his second efforts gave us slightly more than what he gave away in errors.

 

[ant555]

But in the seniors it is irrelevant - a goal against is a goal against.

Now that he's had a taste of seniors footy, I'd like to see him spend the rest of the year playing all over the ground at Bendigo, and getting a feel for the game, and improving his instincts.

Having said all of this, I think he has the potential to be a great player, if we manage it right.

I still think that is harsh. Lets fact it Watson gives up the odd goal from poor handballs at various stages as well.
His run out of the back half set up 3.3 from what i counted watching the replay.

 

[LeeARM]

But in the seniors it is irrelevant - a goal against is a goal against.

it's irrelevant to the score but not his progress and him getting a game was all about his progress. now he can go back to bendigo and keep working on his skills.
seeing as we comfortably won the game it's not worth worrying about.

 

[Skeeta Olly]

I still think that is harsh. Lets fact it Watson gives up the odd goal from poor handballs at various stages as well.
His run out of the back half set up 3.3 from what i counted watching the replay.

Would it be fair to say that some of that score was from selling the dummy?

 

[Ben the Gooner]

I still think that is harsh. Lets fact it Watson gives up the odd goal from poor handballs at various stages as well.
His run out of the back half set up 3.3 from what i counted watching the replay.

I'd back Watson's positive contribution over his negative contribution against every side in the competition. Quinn on the other hand played well against Fremantle, but I'm not convinced he's able to do that against better sides.

it's irrelevant to the score but not his progress and him getting a game was all about his progress. now he can go back to bendigo and keep working on his skills.
seeing as we comfortably won the game it's not worth worrying about.

I agree. I think he's coming along fantastically, and will be a good player when his footy instincts improve. However, I don't think he's in our 22 just yet. I want to see Hickmott play him as a flanker and as a midfielder for Bendigo, just to get him used to the game.

 

[efcboy]

i think many of you are overlooking that quinn earnt the respect of the senior players and coaching staff by putting in the hard yards at training and in games to earn his spot. much like skipworth.

its quite clear that blokes like jetta, neagle and houli are not doing this so do not deserve a spot. perhaps seeing this irish bloke take his chance might be the kick in the gut these guys need - knights is not going to reward half-assed efforts and is demanding more from the above mentioned. the message train and play harder with more desperation etc is clearly being signalled to these blokes and they need to listen. if they get a game whilst not doing it they will never get anywhere.

whilst we all hate chad cornes i took note of what he said on foxsports yesterday in regards to mark williams. he commented that he even got dropped to the glenelg reserves whilst in his first 2 years and williams was constantly on his case to work harder etc. he commented that at the time he didn't like it but on reflection this work ethic that williams made him do basically made him the player he is today. i see knights is attempting to do this with jetta, houli etc and back him 100%.

 

[ant555]

Going to pump up my own tyres here as well.

Ryder and McPhee forward. Worked well. Glad i have mentioned it several times this pre season

 

[LeeARM]

i think many of you are overlooking that quinn earnt the respect of the senior players and coaching staff by putting in the hard yards at training and in games to earn his spot. much like skipworth.

i do like that knights is rewarding hard work but we do need to set a standard with talent too. as you said i hope players like houli, jetta and neagle (laycock too) learn from quinn's efforts because they have a lot of potential but currently they're just getting games because of their skills.

i'm not sure if we should keep playing quinn just because he's working hard. its good to have someone who will keep trying no matter what but i'd also like to have a skilled team. hopefully jetta, houli and neagle step up and we can leave quinn to keep improving in the vfl.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Going to pump up my own tyres here as well.

Ryder and McPhee forward. Worked well. Glad i have mentioned it several times this pre season

I agree, it looked very dynamic.

Imagine Lloyd, Lucas and Ryder all in form up forward.

 

[daffo]

Ryder looked great up forward, my only issue is how are we going to fit all the talls in when fit?
Lloyd, Lucas, McPhee
Ryder, Gumby, Neagle

 

[LeeARM]

Ryder looked great up forward, my only issue is how are we going to fit all the talls in when fit?
Lloyd, Lucas, McPhee
Ryder, Gumby, Neagle

i'm not too sure. maybe players will have to compete for their spots. players will get moved around. for now it's a bit messy but by the time lloyd and lucas retire it'll be good.

 

[stay true]

I'll just make a few points...

- Zaharakis was great on debut. Was great to see he had an influence right from the first bounce. Looked very composed.
- Quinn, all things considered, had a pretty good game. I was impressed.
- Ryder up forward worked very well. I want to see more of this.
- Daniher played very well and got a stack of touches too which was good.
- Windows was great.

Having said all this, Freo were pretty terrible for 3 quarters. Only got on top of us in the 2nd.

Very happy though.

 

[yaco55]

I am confused about the responses to Quinn's game on Sunday.

People seem to be arguing that Quinn got a game to help spur on his future progress, and that he should spend the rest of the time in the VFL.

I could understand this argument if he was overawed and out of his depth - Which was hardly the case ?

Don't you normally elevate a player later in the season ( before he is ready ), rather than in ROUND 2.

I also feel that posters are indirectly criticising the Coaching Department's ability to decide if a player is ready for AFL football.