Josh Fraser

[Scodog10]

sorry for intruding....what did he say?

From memory he wasn't happy about the Collingwood chant that reverberated when Reilwoldt was asked to speak at the GF parade.

 

[Daics35Marvel]

He was a good servant to the club and in the end we got a 3rd round pick for him. For me, the biggest thing was that Josh never seemed to improve his weaknesses. From day 1, he had a bad habit of going to his knees in a contest, effectively taking himself out of the play. Should have been pretty simple to rectify but he never did.

Also, he never really bulked up like you'd expect a ruckman to. As a result he got pushed out of contests too easily. Again, a few years hard work should have rectified it but he never did.

Hope for his sake that he has a few good years up there just so he can leave the game with his head held high.

 

[sloth6]

His biggest Problem was that he was not a Ruckman and with Malthouse putting him in the Ruck as a Kid. It just Ruined his Body.

He would of been a Good CHF

Centre Half Forward's impose themselves on the contests and on matches, good in one on one situations, strong bodied and don't duck their f**king head when going for an overhead mark.

Fraser fails dismally on all points

 

[Ron]

I thought he always tried his best, and was pretty good for us when we made the GF's in 02 and 03. He always seemed to step up against Cox and did really well against him.

Then it all went downhill, he become soft, didn't chase hard enough, got outmarked by Peter Bell

After those comments he made about the GF parade i was really glad to see the back of him. Glad we got a pick for him, as it was more than he was worth.

Thanks for 200 games Josh, but i am sure glad you are not our problem anymore.

 

[Zahki]

Great servant of the club for the first 5 or 6 years of his career. I wish someone had the guts to tell him exactly where he was at, he seems completely deluded as to how well he's playing these days. The line in Side by Side about him believing he was in the top 5 rucks in the league just made me shake my head, and his decision to go to GC and keep playing was even more mindboggling, if he had any friends at the club surely they'd sit him down and tell him it was time to hang up the boots, he's doing serious damage to his legacy every game he plays like that.

Serious delusions of adequacy, don't end your career like this Josh.

 

[domus]

Bit harsh on Josh. No one from GC looked good against Essendon.

He has always cops a bad rap even though he had a lot riding on him as our only decent ruckman at the pies for a decade. He gets called pea-hearted when it not true if you watch him closely.

02/03 GF he was in his 3rd/4th year and against the man-mountains of Charman and Keating as an only ruckman (Walker doesnt count). He was probably one of best on field in 03 and had a lot more heart than others.

Spent most of 05 out with Osteous Pubis and dont think that he ever recovered properly, well at least never got the leap that he had back.

Is much maligned by the ANZAC match against Ryder even though more stats and same hitouts. Called out for being pea-hearted for not chasing Ryder in the last qrt even though it could have easily been called outplayed/out positioned if he was anyone else. Smashed Ryder in the game later that year.

Was easily pushed out of the team by a much better ruckman Jolly. The GC trade was probably the best thing for him. He

At GC has done pretty well up till this weekend. Has worked very well with Smith and racked up some good games with more hitouts than he ever had at the pies. In the Port game he got a mark in very similar situation to the Ryder incident. In the last he out ran he opponent, got to the forward 50, made space and got the mark. Pity he missed the shot.




Rant Over....

Forget possessions and influence-how about putting your head over the pill when it's your turn to go? Fraser's weak effort when running through the middle early in the game was exactly why he raised the ire of so many Pie fans. Poor form, we can handle, continual soft efforts from anyone, let alone a big man are unacceptable. It was noted by the commentators at the time-and I've seen it all too often.

 

[domus]

There are 2 sides to the argument.

Firstly when he came to the club,he tried his guts out,remember the 2002 grand final,he put us in front in the last quarter.
Josh was always a tall ruck rover not a first ruck...........2002-2003 cost us beacuse we didn't have a number one ruckman like Monkhurst or Jolly

Also some say it also didn't help with Clokey missing in the backline in 2002 and Rocca in 2003...............But our rucks were the key,josh got smashed by Brisbane's ruck division.

Fast forward to 2007-2009 Josh tried hard as number one ruck .his body
was worn out from the constant bash crashing and in the prelim against geelong he would have been the difference,but he opted out saying his knee was not good and the rest is history,Geelong made the granny and smashed Port Adelaide.

In the scheme of things josh was played out of position for years.
Malthouse made him carry our ruck stocks for years and his body has given way i reckon.Had he been played in as a second ruck like Leigh brown and a forward target,instead i reckon he would still be at the Pies
and now a premiership player with a few years still left in him.
Really this is what i reckon Josh may be bitter about,and i don't blame him.

I get tired of people claiming poor Josh was played out of position. The man himself has insisted throughout his career that he is a ruckman-nothing more or less-A RUCKMAN!

 

[Mooninite ONE]

Josh was a great player at his best for us ... unfortunately in some peoples eyes you're "soft" if you're 6'8 and don't play like Luke Ball ... too bad getting your knees r*ped for life doesn't show up on the highlight reel.

 

[Pera]

I too don't understand the argument he was played out of position. Why would we draft a 196cm+ man with minimal movement off the mark to play as a forward? Does anyone remember him playing ruck much when he was first recruited?

For the first four or five years, he did jack all as forward/2nd ruckman to Steve McKee and his career highlight to that point was kicking three goals in a quarter against Adelaide in a Preliminary Final. The man was a ruckman and nothing else.

I don't blame him for having his body shot, you have to remember his was rucking in 06/07 by himself and without that shitty 15m circle in the centre of the ground. By the time that came in, his knees were shot and his parting blow was when he did his knee in the All-Stars game.

That was his last hoorah.

 

[mwalker]

Wow dissed for having a receding hairline. . .

He was number one draft pick that year, was always asked to carry the ruck duties without any visible support. Not his fault that he was forced into a role that his body wasn't suited for.

As for who we missed out on . . . ifs and buts don't win a flag

Who said receding hairline Jonbe. Don't believe I actually used the work hair once? I have a receding hair line plenty of other players do as well and I like those people. Doesn't mean that he needed to look 85 years old as a 3rd year player.

It is a bit tongue in cheek and I know he was butchered by us....no question about that. But doesn't mean I have to like the guy and my reasons don't have to have any logic to them.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

I get tired of people claiming poor Josh was played out of position. The man himself has insisted throughout his career that he is a ruckman-nothing more or less-A RUCKMAN!

He was first AND second ruck, though.

 

[mwalker]

Josh was a great player at his best for us ... unfortunately in some peoples eyes you're "soft" if you're 6'8 and don't play like Luke Ball ... too bad getting your knees r*ped for life doesn't show up on the highlight reel.

Gimme the highlight reel of Josh's hard ball gets or even a few couragous acts? Surely over 10-12 years and 200 games you should find more than one.

If you fall on your knees at every contest then eventually you will do some damage. Pretty sure "r*ped for life" is a tad overdramatic.

 

[jonbe54]

Who said receding hairline Jonbe. Don't believe I actually used the work hair once? I have a receding hair line plenty of other players do as well and I like those people. Doesn't mean that he needed to look 85 years old as a 3rd year player.

It is a bit tongue in cheek and I know he was butchered by us....no question about that. But doesn't mean I have to like the guy and my reasons don't have to have any logic to them.

Beg pardon thought you were having a dig at his very early receeding hairline agreed as well about logic. Some people people rub me the wrong way too.

 

[rose jam]

That dig they had at Josh was ill-informed, he was bent down low and tried to evade a head hit. It's ridiculous. Media's just a freaking hit squad at the moment, half got no idea how to even compete in sport

 

[Ferga18]

That dig they had at Josh was ill-informed, he was bent down low and tried to evade a head hit. It's ridiculous. Media's just a freaking hit squad at the moment, half got no idea how to even compete in sport

Come on mate, sounds like u havent played the game either...

Bent down low??? did u see the footage and u call that bent down low... he was hardly bent...
he also raised his eyes, (so he had a look) which is soft, the idea of the game is attack the footy and have eyes for the footy. If u focus on getting the ball, you wont get hurt, so dont say he tried to avoid head contact, that is a cop out!! TAKE THE HIT!!
he was moving like snail as well, there was no attack on the ball, which is the start of the softness, and then as I said RAISING THE EYES is the BE ALL TO END ALL OF SOFTNESS!!

If you have played the game you would have known that my friend!!

Why do you think Luke Ball, Joel Selwood, Luke Hodge, Jude Bolten, Jonathon brown, Chris Judd are so respected....Because they constantly put there bodies on the line and won the contested ball week in, weekout!!
Something that Josh has never done!! maybe once or twice

 

[Rohan25]

sorry for intruding....what did he say?

He put some comment on his facebook page along the lines of "It's not hard to see why everyone hates Collingwood fans".

It may not have been exactly that, but it was something to that effect.

 

[The_cockateil]

Kid had the pressure of a number 1 pick, played as main ruck when we had literally NO other rucks, Played his heart out immensely in both 02 and 03 GFs.

Glad to see him making some coin in the twilight, the kid wasn't as bad as some like to say.

 

[Jelly Bean]

From memory he wasn't happy about the Collingwood chant that reverberated when Reilwoldt was asked to speak at the GF parade.

Nor was I - it showed no respect to the opposition and a clear lack of class when the opposition captain was about to give his address. Reiwoldt made a comment about it when he went up to speak as well.

I think his comment was something around "And we wonder why Collingwood fans are among the most hated in the country", and I agree with him 100%. He was not saying he hated the Collingwood fans, he was just saying that it was things like this that has contributed to our fans' reputation.

I can assure you if opposition supporters had have done a similar thing to Maxy or MM, we would all be up in arms about it.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Come on mate, sounds like u havent played the game either...


Why do you think Luke Ball, Joel Selwood, Luke Hodge, Jude Bolten, Jonathon brown, Chris Judd are so respected....Because they constantly put there bodies on the line and won the contested ball week in, weekout!!
Something that Josh has never done!! maybe once or twice

It is hardly a comparison with his peers, is it? You haven't named a single ruckman, and have named mostly inside midfielders whose job it is to put THEIR bodies on the line. The ruckman's role is a little different.

 

[BEEG]

Fraser smashed his body for Collingwood.
I'm more than happy to see him getting good money to play out his twilight years at GC, especially when the AFL are paying top dollar for the ex-RL hack who will never....repeat never even approach the player Fraser was.

He earned pretty good money at Collingwood aswell

 

[BEEG]

Letting him play first ruck????????
Have a close look at our ruck stocks in his time. . .
He WAS the friggin ruck

There were a couple times in recent years we were going to look at Ruckman to bring in and Fraser never wanted it to happen always wnated to be first ruck

Yes in the early years we did get him to ruck alot and he did well but we did have Mckee who was our first ruck for a while until that ruck rule change which stuffed his career

 

[Gambit78]

Josh Fraser did an excellent job for us until we found someone who could do it better. Simple as that really. Don't care what anyone says, playing over 200 games in the AFL is an achievement that should be applauded. Because that is not easy.

For me, when Ryder spanked Fraser in the ANZAC Day game a couple of years back, the whole footballing world rained down on him, then in the return game later that season, Fraser flogged him. That typifies Josh Fraser. He's always had that character about him. And you'd have to if you're going to play 200+ games.

What annoys me about this week's scrutiny is that people are raging about Josh on the back of 15 seconds of footage, to the exclusion of the rest of the game. Yeah it didn't look good, he ran over the ball and was worried about the contact coming. But he didn't give up the contest. He turned around and laid a tackle on the player. He screwed up. Granted. But he also put in a second effort. Now, I don't know how many of you actually watched the entire game. And I wouldn't recommend watching it because it was a rubbish game, but despite his 15 seconds of shame, Josh actually played reasonably well. When I was watching it, I actually thought it was one of his best ruck-work games I have seen in some time.

 

[4#Didak#4]

I think everyone is being overly harsh on Fraser. He was a solid player over 10 years for us. He was basically our only ruckman for a lot of that period. He provided a lot of leadership. Some gratitude wouldn't go astray.

Injuries did take its toll on him at his peak & reduced his output. He was always going to struggle with his size up against giants in the ruck. But people seem to forget how good he was around the ground. He regularly beat his man by getting free due to his massive tank & work ethic. He had great skills for a big man so his possessions hurt. Only Dean Cox could run a game out with Fraser.

Had we got a player like Jolly to complement Fraser 4-5 years ago, he would be thought of differently. Instead we got McKee, Bryan, Wood. We needed a ruckman that could combat the strong bullocking ruckmen. Fraser could then run them off their feet as the second ruck resting forward. Never happened and an oppurtunity was lost. Fortunately for us L Brown has come on the scene.

 

[Art Corvelay]

By the time that came in, his knees were shot and his parting blow was when he did his knee in the All-Stars game.

That was his last hoorah.

Probably my biggest complaint about Josh - his best game in 5 years wasn't even for us, it was in the All-Stars game

 

[domus]

No-one has ever claimed Fraser is a dud or isn't capable of good footy. He is soft in his attack on the ball and rarely takes a strong contested mark-a real weakness in a big man. He is good at finding space and gathering cheap possessions (which has a place in the game)but to suggest these judgements are being made on one rare moment of weakness is rubbish. I was watching footage from our drawn game with Melbourne last year only a week ago and in the final minute there was a contest in the middle of the ground which Fraser pulled out of-it was a disgrace. I replayed it about five times to convince myself that a man would do that knowing we are level with seconds to go. Pathetic.