National Draft Pick #37 - Alex Pearce

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estibador said:
You're not kidding, there was some pretty impressive stuff in that video.

That bump in the centre followed by the tackle in the forward line was brilliant. That video makes him look a much better player than the original highlights we saw.
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Agree, just the kicking action that bothers me. It's the most important skill.
 
yakka man said:
Agree, just the kicking action that bothers me. It's the most important skill.
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Slightly less important if they're going to groom him as a KPD, though he doesn't look a lockdown type like Dawson so he's still going to need skills.

The other worry is Tanner isn't a particularly great kick either, so if they're going to be our twin towers down back we're going to need a lot of good distributors around them.
 
estibador said:
Slightly less important if they're going to groom him as a KPD, though he doesn't look a lockdown type like Dawson so he's still going to need skills.

The other worry is Tanner isn't a particularly great kick either, so if they're going to be our twin towers down back we're going to need a lot of good distributors around them.
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I dont think it is too much of a concern.
I wouldnt say his kicking technique is any worse than Lukey Mac and I havent read anything that says A.Pearce is a bad kick. From what I can tell Smith is a hard worker and his skills will improve significantly as a result. I wouldnt say we suffer overly from having two key backs at the present that are not brilliant kicks.
 

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estibador said:
Slightly less important if they're going to groom him as a KPD, though he doesn't look a lockdown type like Dawson so he's still going to need skills.

The other worry is Tanner isn't a particularly great kick either, so if they're going to be our twin towers down back we're going to need a lot of good distributors around them.
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I see Pearce as more of a Johnson replacement.
 
Fred Ziffel said:
His kicking style looks similar to Luke Mcpharlin's.
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So posters say, but I fail to see it.

I know Luke Mc's kicking isn't the best, he still hits targets as he is acurate. It looks a little like Alex throws the ball onto his boot when he is in full flight. He looks like he has terrific pace and knows how to take the game on. I can't wait to see him at Peel this season.
 
jedi mind tricks said:
He has some great skills bar his kicking.
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Far less has been made about Pearce's soccer background than Grey's. In his interview today Grey mentioned that he had to change his kicking style significantly this year. From what I can gather both these boys grew up playing soccer, switching to afl late. Football and soccer require very different kicking techniques and those switching from one to the other quite often struggle at first. I don't know how long it's been since Pearce played soccer and whether it even is part of the issue but I just think it's worth taking into consideration.
 
yakka man said:


The highlights on this video are much better than the previous video. Although his kicking action looks awful.
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Yeah, that athletic ability is something that still exists against men. It's just whether you have the mentality of "yep, I can sidestep this guy I used to watch on TV." Seems hard at it as well which is something soccer converts tend to struggle with – he seemed to enjoy hitting a contest hard and his natural inclination was to put his head down when scooping up the footy.

But yeah, masssssive question marks over the kicking. It is absolutely shocking. Bad to look at it and they seem to just helicopter up high and come down really slow and without any power or much accuracy. You simply don't have the time for a gaping drop like that in the AFL.
 
Silent Alarm said:
Yeah, that athletic ability is something that still exists against men. It's just whether you have the mentality of "yep, I can sidestep this guy I used to watch on TV." Seems hard at it as well which is something soccer converts tend to struggle with – he seemed to enjoy hitting a contest hard and his natural inclination was to put his head down when scooping up the footy.

But yeah, masssssive question marks over the kicking. It is absolutely shocking. Bad to look at it and they seem to just helicopter up high and come down really slow and without any power or much accuracy. You simply don't have the time for a gaping drop like that in the AFL.
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So the answer is you get him having kick to kick with Danyle, Subes, Hill and Clancee.
 
TweeBeard said:
Considering he has only started concentrating on footy recently I expect that his kicking will vastly improve over the next two years
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And that's the upside. Both he and Grey could improve massively.

Some players have been playing when they turned 6 or 7 and have only ever played footy in winter. For very inexperienced players to make their state under 18's squad after just taking footy seriously really shows they have some exceptional sporting talent.
 
Silent Alarm said:
Yeah, that athletic ability is something that still exists against men. It's just whether you have the mentality of "yep, I can sidestep this guy I used to watch on TV." Seems hard at it as well which is something soccer converts tend to struggle with – he seemed to enjoy hitting a contest hard and his natural inclination was to put his head down when scooping up the footy.

But yeah, masssssive question marks over the kicking. It is absolutely shocking. Bad to look at it and they seem to just helicopter up high and come down really slow and without any power or much accuracy. You simply don't have the time for a gaping drop like that in the AFL.
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I must have watched different highlights. All of his kicks were on the run that I could see.His standard kicking might be different. The comparison to Lukey Mac is the high arc. A long way from shocking in my view. It will be interesting to watch at training over summer. If he has as much natural coordination as he appears to the kicking skills will probably come quickly to him anyway. Some of those marks on the lead looked terrific.
 

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The kicking needs work but the highlights display an outstanding athlete for his height. Two years of development will see a complete package imo.

Its amazing how things change. Back in my day if you were 195cm you were a tall ruckman and anyone 200+cm was either a gangly unco-ordinated beanpole a la Peter Burton from Subiaco or a lumbering human glacier like Ironmonger from east Perth.

Alex Pearce would run rings around a 190cm from 30 years ago in terms of athletic abilities.
 
yakka man said:


The highlights on this video are much better than the previous video. Although his kicking action looks awful.
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Looks ridiculously athletic and quick for someone of his size, I don't mind second rounders being used on guys like this. Has enormous upside, only pretty new to the game too so his kicking will improve plenty in time.
 
TweeBeard said:
Considering he has only started concentrating on footy recently I expect that his kicking will vastly improve over the next two years
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Yep, this is a speculative pick on a guy new to the game but with extraordinary athletic qualities. I can see some usual suspects getting a little angsty over it though.
 
riteo said:
Yep, this is a speculative pick on a guy new to the game but with extraordinary athletic qualities. I can see some usual suspects getting a little angsty over it though.
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I'll always be hesitant with the 'athlete' tag. And pretty suspicious of people who come late to the game. Living in the land of the uber optimistic isn't my thing.
 
Fred Ziffel said:
No Sirree, Glassy has never played directly on Pavlich ...ever.
Please name which main forward player he has played on in the past 4 years.
He only takes the third or fourth best .
Schofield and EMack take the best .
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No different to McPharlin, Scarlett etc. Glass is still a quality player, one of the only ones over there up the road. He's currently performing better than McP in the twilight of his career and looks like he could go on for many more years, unlike McPharlin..
 
Nickos66 said:
No different to McPharlin, Scarlett etc. Glass is still a quality player, one of the only ones over there up the road. He's currently performing better than McP in the twilight of his career and looks like he could go on for many more years, unlike McPharlin..
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This is wrong in so many ways.Luke always takes the best forward unlike Glass who takes the third best or even a small forward.Luke was all Aust 012 and on track for the same honours 013 until his injury so the comment on Glass performing better than Luke is way of the mark
Both great players but Luke would be in my 22 before Glass
 
Hmmm... That would make Dawson the guy to be peeling off and distributing out of defence, I think switch the names around and that's what's been happening. Dawson has been more often than not contending with the gorillas, especially when there's only 1 in the team.
I loathe to turn it into a comparison thread but Glass's body appears to be holding up better, he's been AA more times, AA captain in 2012 as a 30+y/o. I've always been more of a fan of Macca as he's ours and just as good but those discounting Glass in here are kidding themselves.
 
TweeBeard said:
I think you'll find that you can't actually be an AFL footballer without being an athlete as well these days.
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Nothing about Barlow says great athlete.

He just tries really hard, as we've seen with him rocking up to pre-season early.

There are plenty of natural footballers without naturally outstanding tanks or impressive speed. Freo has a couple. Late converts are just s**t unless you're Scott Pendlebury.
 
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