Just interested to see what others are expecting from Hartlett next year? He's coming to a stage where you'd expect to be seeing him produce a bit more if he's going to be the elite player we all hope he can be.
I'm pretty optimistic. I really like the comparison between he and David Mundy - both were high draft picks with exceptional foot skills, both battled injuries for a number of years, both battled the perception of being soft and laconic as well as the continual questions over whether they'd be more value to their team on a flank or in the middle. I really want to see Hamish to be able to play consistently in the middle as I think his capability to shrug of players and find a bit of space in congestion is absolutely invaluable - which are the things Mundy has been rightly lauded for since he really 'made it' as an 'elite' footballer a couple of years back.
Injuries have no doubt been a huge factor in reducing the impact that he has been able to have on the competition and will probably continue to be a concern in the future, but I felt as though that the general sentiment towards him this year swung from 'he's a young guy affected by injuries, give it time' to 'he really should be delivering more for what he is capable of'. Like 2012, he started the year with some very strong performances, but his ability to handle a tag came into question after being comfortably beaten by the likes of Rhys Palmer and Ryan Bastinac who not only stifled him to a single figure disposal count, but also racked up possessions at will against him in our first loss of the season. It was pretty hard to tell whether or not his poor performances in this stretch of games could be put down to his sore ribs or simply from not working hard enough.
I thought his form picked up pretty well in the back half of the season and whilst he didn't have his greatest games in both of our finals, overall he still had a positive impact in the matches on the big stage.
He's clearly capable of being an exceptional damaging footballer playing off a half back flank, but I see him as an even more valuable player playing as a clearance midfielder who can give us those deep entries into our forward line. Leadership qualities seem to be there too - just from watching the videos that the club put up it appears he is a very good communicator and his teammates rate this aspect pretty highly and he likes to dish out a bit of physicality and verbal aggression on the field. I think it's only a matter of time before he joins his mate Boak as one of the best midfielders going around in football today.
So theres a few questions I'd like to get the general sentiment on here for:
Where do you see him playing his best football?
Do you think that next year will be the year or will he tantalise us again with the odd match of brilliance?
Ridiculous to consider trading him if he doesn't have as good a year as we'd hope? (this came up a few times during our lean patches this year - IMO it would be a very silly move)
Potential future captain? (I know we have a few exceptional candidates - Trengove, Wines, Wingard, Ebert - not to mention the fact that Boak still has a heck of a lot of footy to play)
I'm pretty optimistic. I really like the comparison between he and David Mundy - both were high draft picks with exceptional foot skills, both battled injuries for a number of years, both battled the perception of being soft and laconic as well as the continual questions over whether they'd be more value to their team on a flank or in the middle. I really want to see Hamish to be able to play consistently in the middle as I think his capability to shrug of players and find a bit of space in congestion is absolutely invaluable - which are the things Mundy has been rightly lauded for since he really 'made it' as an 'elite' footballer a couple of years back.
Injuries have no doubt been a huge factor in reducing the impact that he has been able to have on the competition and will probably continue to be a concern in the future, but I felt as though that the general sentiment towards him this year swung from 'he's a young guy affected by injuries, give it time' to 'he really should be delivering more for what he is capable of'. Like 2012, he started the year with some very strong performances, but his ability to handle a tag came into question after being comfortably beaten by the likes of Rhys Palmer and Ryan Bastinac who not only stifled him to a single figure disposal count, but also racked up possessions at will against him in our first loss of the season. It was pretty hard to tell whether or not his poor performances in this stretch of games could be put down to his sore ribs or simply from not working hard enough.
I thought his form picked up pretty well in the back half of the season and whilst he didn't have his greatest games in both of our finals, overall he still had a positive impact in the matches on the big stage.
He's clearly capable of being an exceptional damaging footballer playing off a half back flank, but I see him as an even more valuable player playing as a clearance midfielder who can give us those deep entries into our forward line. Leadership qualities seem to be there too - just from watching the videos that the club put up it appears he is a very good communicator and his teammates rate this aspect pretty highly and he likes to dish out a bit of physicality and verbal aggression on the field. I think it's only a matter of time before he joins his mate Boak as one of the best midfielders going around in football today.
So theres a few questions I'd like to get the general sentiment on here for:
Where do you see him playing his best football?
Do you think that next year will be the year or will he tantalise us again with the odd match of brilliance?
Ridiculous to consider trading him if he doesn't have as good a year as we'd hope? (this came up a few times during our lean patches this year - IMO it would be a very silly move)
Potential future captain? (I know we have a few exceptional candidates - Trengove, Wines, Wingard, Ebert - not to mention the fact that Boak still has a heck of a lot of footy to play)