Traded Josh Bruce

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stfan said:
Bit tough. I have seen him to some ripper passes to fellow forwards this year.
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He's pulled off a few but if you watch closely.. And I make this comment from what I see live at the games.. He still kicks several floaters, they come off the boot horribly, and sometimes tries too much with his kicks.. But hey for every s**t field kick he does he kicks 3 goals I am more than happy
 
Sippa said:
He's pulled off a few but if you watch closely.. And I make this comment from what I see live at the games.. He still kicks several floaters, they come off the boot horribly, and sometimes tries too much with his kicks.. But hey for every s**t field kick he does he kicks 3 goals I am more than happy
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i reckon his field kicking this year has been quite good
 

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I may be the only one but I wouldn't swap bruce for cameron.

Sure bruce is a year older but cameron has played nearly twice as many games and as a pure fwd.

I actually think bruce is a better contested mark and applies more pressure if the ball hits the ground. His also bigger, stronger and has better body language.

By the end of 2017 I wont be surprised if bruce is the best Fwd in the league.
 
crasha301 said:
I may be the only one but I wouldn't swap bruce for cameron.

Sure bruce is a year older but cameron has played nearly twice as many games and as a pure fwd.

I actually think bruce is a better contested mark and applies more pressure if the ball hits the ground. His also bigger, stronger and has better body language.

By the end of 2017 I wont be surprised if bruce is the best Fwd in the league.
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IMO Bruce is a much more rounded forward than Cameron. Cameron might be more dangerous and kick more goals over his career but Bruce will apply more pressure and get more of the ball around the ground. Bruce is a way better contested mark than Cameron.

I really struggle to see an area that Bruce is weak in at the moment. His contested marking is great, he contests when the ball hits the ground, he tackles and applies pressure, he can work up the ground and he can give Longer a chop-out in the ruck.

I don't know if he'll be the best forward in the league but if he keeps up his current form he'll be one of the best, and will be an amazing partner for McCartin for the next 10 years.
 
Loving the progress.

However, I would like defenders to quiver if they stand in line of his leads. Crunch the player when flying for the ball, they're not your mates, karma is all in the head. Legal and ruthless. St Kilda win at all costs. If they wanna come off their man/double team, they need to pay the price and know it's not free pickings.

Certainly not saying Bruce is soft; he is anything but. He will have to get mean at some point (within the rules).

Over to you Hamill...
 
bsk2002 said:
Loving the progress.

However, I would like defenders to quiver if they stand in line of his leads. Crunch the player when flying for the ball, they're not you're mates, karma is all in the head. Legal and ruthless. St Kilda win at all costs. If they wanna come off their man/double team, they need to pay the price and know it's not free pickings.

Certainly not saying Bruce is soft; he is anything but. He will have to get mean at some point (within the rules).

Over to you Hamill...
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It's hard to crunch a player when you leap onto their shoulders and take mark of the year.
 
bsk2002 said:
Loving the progress.

However, I would like defenders to quiver if they stand in line of his leads. Crunch the player when flying for the ball, they're not your mates, karma is all in the head. Legal and ruthless. St Kilda win at all costs. If they wanna come off their man/double team, they need to pay the price and know it's not free pickings.

Certainly not saying Bruce is soft; he is anything but. He will have to get mean at some point (within the rules).

Over to you Hamill...
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In future I see Bruce being the Riewoldt aerobic beast and Paddy McCartin the pack splitter.
 
bsk2002 said:
Loving the progress.

However, I would like defenders to quiver if they stand in line of his leads. Crunch the player when flying for the ball, they're not your mates, karma is all in the head. Legal and ruthless. St Kilda win at all costs. If they wanna come off their man/double team, they need to pay the price and know it's not free pickings.

Certainly not saying Bruce is soft; he is anything but. He will have to get mean at some point (within the rules).

Over to you Hamill...
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This is the other exciting thing about Bruce, he's still - at least in big power forward terms - a baby. You can see he's got a big frame, and that will fill out a little more over coming pre-seasons and such. I don't want him to bulk up to the detriment of his athleticism and running, any more than Roo has. But I still think he has room to get a harder body. The attitude needed to be a wrecking ball etc when necessarily is there already, which is pleasing.
 

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CALL ME SNAKE said:
Your right.
Maybe I do need a Bruce errr I mean break.
:p
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Resisting... the urge... to put... a pic of a cross-dressing Kurt Russell from Tango and Cash!
 
crasha301 said:
I may be the only one but I wouldn't swap bruce for cameron.

Sure bruce is a year older but cameron has played nearly twice as many games and as a pure fwd.

I actually think bruce is a better contested mark and applies more pressure if the ball hits the ground. His also bigger, stronger and has better body language.

By the end of 2017 I wont be surprised if bruce is the best Fwd in the league.
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The bolded is what really excites me about Bruce ahead of all his other great attributes. He is a contested marking beast. It means he is no one trick pony and, with his tank, will quite simply be impossible for the opposition to match up on in a year or two (not far off it now when he is on).
 
I honestly thought, after Bruce's first couple of big bags of goals, that he was just going to be a bit of a flash in the pa type of forward, and by the end of this year would be being pushed out by McCartin. I've been just waiting for his form to drop, and for him to prove to be the speculative pick 48 we traded for him. How wrong I was! He just keeps going from strength to strength, and as good as he is playing now, I don't think he has even reached his potential yet, which considering he is on track for a 60 goal year, is tantalising to say the least. He's going to be a beast, is Joshy Bruce, and I think our forward line will be the best in the comp in 3-4 years. He and McCartin and Membrey I think will compliment each other perfectly, and when you add the three Jack's: Sinclair, Billings and Loine, then gee wiz wooeee watch the flip out
 
Anythings_sipposible said:
I honestly thought, after Bruce's first couple of big bags of goals, that he was just going to be a bit of a flash in the pa type of forward, and by the end of this year would be being pushed out by McCartin. I've been just waiting for his form to drop, and for him to prove to be the speculative pick 48 we traded for him. How wrong I was! He just keeps going from strength to strength, and as good as he is playing now, I don't think he has even reached his potential yet, which considering he is on track for a 60 goal year, is tantalising to say the least. He's going to be a beast, is Joshy Bruce, and I think our forward line will be the best in the comp in 3-4 years. He and McCartin and Membrey I think will compliment each other perfectly, and when you add the three Jack's: Sinclair, Billings and Loine, then gee wiz wooeee watch the flip out
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damn right!

and when you think about it, our forward line right now is actually quite good. Two of the best KPFs in the comp in roo and broo, billings, sincs, members and lonie. Not too shabby at all!
 
Anythings_sipposible said:
I honestly thought, after Bruce's first couple of big bags of goals, that he was just going to be a bit of a flash in the pa type of forward, and by the end of this year would be being pushed out by McCartin. I've been just waiting for his form to drop, and for him to prove to be the speculative pick 48 we traded for him. How wrong I was! He just keeps going from strength to strength, and as good as he is playing now, I don't think he has even reached his potential yet, which considering he is on track for a 60 goal year, is tantalising to say the least. He's going to be a beast, is Joshy Bruce, and I think our forward line will be the best in the comp in 3-4 years. He and McCartin and Membrey I think will compliment each other perfectly, and when you add the three Jack's: Sinclair, Billings and Loine, then gee wiz wooeee watch the flip out
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I wasn't as nervous about him as you but I thought he would find it much harder once teams worked out what he could do. Aaron Black looked like he would be a decent player but once he was forced to compete he completely disappeared. Bruce has ben very good and his work rate off the ball really helps even when he does have a quiet game. He was moving constantly last week just making himself look menacing.
 
gringo2011 said:
I wasn't as nervous about him as you but I thought he would find it much harder once teams worked out what he could do. Aaron Black looked like he would be a decent player but once he was forced to compete he completely disappeared. Bruce has ben very good and his work rate off the ball really helps even when he does have a quiet game. He was moving constantly last week just making himself look menacing.
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Menacing is probably the right word, he's got a bit of Fraser in that regard, not so much physically, but just in the way he seems to really really want it, and is willing to do the work to get it. I guess I was worried that he'd become a good ordinary forward, and forward is probably the only position where you can't be a gop. It's the confidence and the work rate that Bruce brings, which I didn't see at first, that seperates him from the Aaron Black's and Levi Casaboults of the world
 
I think that Bruce coming out as a real key forward option has strengthened our rebuild considerably. Even after drafting Paddy we still had a future forward line of hoping he, spencer and Lee would all come good and provide a reasonable to strong forward line setup. Now we have a certain 60 goal a year forward plus Paddy looking good in the VFL plus Lee now looking like a good backman. White unfortunatley may be a lost cause but there was always that risk.

Just look at how much the Dogs had to pay for a true key forward or the difficulty in obtaining one most clubs go through and we literally just plucked one out of GWS' reserves.
 
Bruce is really a lesson in finding players who are being mismatched to their true position. In some ways, it should have been bleedingly obvious to us, to the Giants, or anybody: "This guy was an AA junior full-forward, but has been played as a shoddy half-back... hmm, maybe we should play as a full-forward?!!?" It may be that such an idiotic rejection of a players true position/role is just a problem for a team like the GWS, that have such a glut of players in each position/role. But I still think we can learn a lesson from him, that such players can come really cheap, and be a real bargain.

It's almost a kinda "ugly duckling" situation, where we need to be aware that they could, even SHOULD, become a swan (not a Sydney player, keep with the metaphor...). But what we do at the trade table is PORTRAY them as an ugly duckling, so we get them cheap: "Here, we'll take that short 188cm half-forward off your hands for a late pick, as a favour to you...", knowing that at junior level they played as a kick-butt tall midfielder-wingman!
 
Anythings_sipposible said:
Menacing is probably the right word, he's got a bit of Fraser in that regard, not so much physically, but just in the way he seems to really really want it, and is willing to do the work to get it. I guess I was worried that he'd become a good ordinary forward, and forward is probably the only position where you can't be a gop. It's the confidence and the work rate that Bruce brings, which I didn't see at first, that seperates him from the Aaron Black's and Levi Casaboults of the world
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I met him this year and last and the vibe I got from him is one of self confidence. He isn't another FIGJAM but he has a bit of the swagger to him. I dealt with a few afl players in the 1990s and met Carey, Dunstall, Leowe, Ablett etc and they all were very self assured and some complete f wits. I think as a KPF you need to have an almost impenetrable self belief. Cloke doesn't seem to have it though- in real life he's a big softie and not what I expected at all. Stewie was probably the only one of the KPFs of that era that wasn't a dick actually.
 
gringo2011 said:
I met him this year and last and the vibe I got from him is one of self confidence. He isn't another FIGJAM but he has a bit of the swagger to him. I dealt with a few afl players in the 1990s and met Carey, Dunstall, Leowe, Ablett etc and they all were very self assured and some complete f wits. I think as a KPF you need to have an almost impenetrable self belief. Cloke doesn't seem to have it though- in real life he's a big softie and not what I expected at all. Stewie was probably the only one of the KPFs of that era that wasn't a dick actually.
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Yeah I don't mean to say that he's cocky, just that he has the necessary confidence to play the position, and the self belief to keep pushing hard
 
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