North "unrealized potential" teams

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Apr 24, 2013
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Matt Riggio anyone? Really thought he was going to be something. Tough, neat skills, hard runner. Went back to the WAFL and is still playing good footy to this day.

Just couldn’t find his niche at AFL level.


Wasn't really give too many games to develop.

Went back to Swan Districts and became a good player, being a member of their 2010 premiership side, winning back to back B&F's in 2015/2016, co-captaining the club in 2019, and was awarded life membership in 2017.
 
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I mentioned John Baird in the thread I started yesterday. I think he was a better footballer than his 46 games suggests.

I wonder how many blokes over the years, might have played more games had there been different people in charge. I'm not having a go at Laids here, just putting forward a theory.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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A player that has always baffled me on the unrealized talent front is Tony Furey. His light shone pretty brightly for one year in 1983. He easily broke into what turned out to be the best home and away team in the league that year. He was certainly different. His lack of pace stood out but he easily overcame that with good vision, hand and foot skills and he had great lateral movement. He seemed to step through traffic easily and was above average overhead. Although he had some injury problems, his influence and game seemed to evaporate as quickly as it came.

I used to kick the footy with Tony when we were kids, and I can reliably tell you that it was injury that ended what would have been a very good career.

He barely pulled on a football boot after his time at North was done.

He was one eyed North as a kid too. He got to live his dream.
 
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A few I’d like to mention

Xavier Tanner...similar to J Byrne, only played about 100 games. I wonder how history would’ve judged him if he played closer to 200?

Darren Harris, beautiful mark , booming kick, couldn’t stay on the park too long

Michael Murphy, considered a gun in SA, just a bit short for afl , as a KPD , from memory

Peter Spencer WA, came across with Phil Kelly, both Sandover Medallists, that should’ve been considered a great heist from WA, both North careers ruined by injury

Kevin Bryant, 6 seasons 58 games , dicked again

In later years I thought Ben Ross looked ok, but I got that one wrong


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Kimbo

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Probably because yours is a pretty fair side and sticks to the parameters you placed on the team. Plus I'm never much good at remembering a lot of those boys until their names are written down in front of me.
Well said Horrie. That's how it is for me too, unless I've got the time and inclination to research in order to jog the memory banks.

A name that does spring to mind though is Dylan Smith. Pick 6 in the 2000 Draft but never fulfilled the potential he had.
I'd like to agree with you on this one, but I suspect he actually did reach his potential. When I think of him now, I think of Corey Wagner... always half a metre or a second or two from where and when he needed to be. We were hoping he'd be Bell, but he wasn't close unfortunately, despite the 'future captain' claims in his draft year.

For me, it's Leigh Brown and, in some ways, I'm glad his time and the Pies showed this to be true. It's why I respected (and defended) Shannon Watt over Leigh Brown. Watt had a lower ceiling but busted his arse and was reliable in reaching his, admittedly limited, ceiling. Leigh 'has lovely eyes' Brown was more like Mason Wood (who will need to wait for year before he makes this side) in that his best was pretty good, but he just went missing too often. Maybe JYD's fault, but I thought Brown didn't get the most out of himself at North, save for the BBQing side of things.
 
Well said Horrie. That's how it is for me too, unless I've got the time and inclination to research in order to jog the memory banks.


I'd like to agree with you on this one, but I suspect he actually did reach his potential. When I think of him now, I think of Corey Wagner... always half a metre or a second or two from where and when he needed to be. We were hoping he'd be Bell, but he wasn't close unfortunately, despite the 'future captain' claims in his draft year.

For me, it's Leigh Brown and, in some ways, I'm glad his time and the Pies showed this to be true. It's why I respected (and defended) Shannon Watt over Leigh Brown. Watt had a lower ceiling but busted his arse and was reliable in reaching his, admittedly limited, ceiling. Leigh 'has lovely eyes' Brown was more like Mason Wood (who will need to wait for year before he makes this side) in that his best was pretty good, but he just went missing too often. Maybe JYD's fault, but I thought Brown didn't get the most out of himself at North, save for the BBQing side of things.

Potential is a very interesting concept. Players are recruited on their performances and therefore potential to go further, playing in a certain position while at under age level, which of course is what you would expect.

But maybe there are a lot of players who have actually achieved their best at under age, in that position, but when they get to senior football, they are unable to take it up another gear.

It seems to me that too often players get stereotyped to play just one area/position on the ground and if they don't improve in playing that role, they are discarded, rather than maybe tried elsewhere.

My memory is not good enough to assess whether Dylan might have adapted to AFL level, if he had been tried in a different role, such as a tagger or a small lockdown defender, but I think more needs to go into evaluating different roles for players, who for whatever reason, don't fulfill their potential.

No club can afford to waste any, but especially high, draft picks. Dylan was a pick 6 and a real waste. Maybe he should have been tried elsewhere.

I was calling for Majak to be played in defence for years before the club eventually tried him there. We all know he had the athletic traits, but he didn't have the football brain to go with it, because of his relatively late arrival to the game. Playing in defence gave him the chance to learn that, and now he is a much better player, who unfortunately will now have lost two years from the game.

Liam Jones at Carlton is another, now regarded as one of the best defenders in the competition after he was belatedly tried there in the Northern Blues (RIP Preston Football Club). The Bulldogs wasted a high draft pick on him.

We can probably put Tas in this category as well. Look at how his career has turned around since he went back (although some will say that "putting a fork in him" did the trick).
 

franjon

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A few I’d like to mention

Xavier Tanner...similar to J Byrne, only played about 100 games. I wonder how history would’ve judged him if he played closer to 200?

Darren Harris, beautiful mark , booming kick, couldn’t stay on the park too long

Michael Murphy, considered a gun in SA, just a bit short for afl , as a KPD , from memory

Peter Spencer WA, came across with Phil Kelly, both Sandover Medallists, that should’ve been considered a great heist from WA, both North careers ruined by injury

Kevin Bryant, 6 seasons 58 games , dicked again

In later years I thought Ben Ross looked ok, but I got that one wrong


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
Kevin Bryant was a good get. Could have been anything. Came over in '79 with big wraps. And had a ton of guts. Maurice Boyse. Looked great and a goal kicker but fractured his skull. Went to South Melbourne but was never really the same.
 

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SnowyontheTram

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Jack Ziebell.

I don't think he has reached near the heights he may have due to injury.

Daniel Wells.

Injury and especially poor application.

Could have been much better more often.
 
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Long Live the King

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