Opinion OK I'm just going to say it...

[Dogs_R_Us]

There may be a choice - sub-average performances for the next few weeks, or put him in for an operation that will keep him out for the rest of the season. I would rather he was there than not.

 

[bontshow]

He had Scott Thompson to contend with in the first 3 quarters

No coincidence he came to life in the last when Thompson went off with a groin issue

 

[NBates]

That was a very Barrett comment.

You're right. Although I'll admit i liked a few posts on this thread earlier today but your post is a reminder we don't need to dig up our own dirt when we've got hacks like Barrett to do it. Don't want to give ' em any ideas for stories.

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[BRWB]

Jake was ordinary pre shoulder. Not sure why it's relevant.

He wasn't leading and was looking for out the back cheapies pre shoulder.

Just have to put the season down to learning so far. Has the talent clearly. Just have to hope he can pull out of the slump.

 

[NBates]

I agree with the Essendon point. He could kick 8 or 9 against that defence if he's on. Essendon have been able to keep margins from totally blowing out because they've actually been reasonable in the contest for long periods. If a good side takes contested ball from them they'll get a monumental pasting.

I wouldn't be resting anyone - they'll all get a week off after the Freo game, let's try and get past Collingwood then deliver a couple of big scores in the last two games for confidence leading into finals. Looks like we'll have WC or North at the MCG if we win the last three, and no matter how flaky they've been recently they're finals-hardened clubs that will bring it.

Hope we can keep that druggo club to an even lower score ever at etihad in 2 weeks

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[dogwatch]

I said in the review thread that he should be given a few weeks off (not dropped) so his shoulder will be right for the finals when we'll need his brilliant best. That's assuming a rest will help it. I still stand by that.

However if murphy2bedabest is right and a rest is NOT going to help (ie he needs an operation post-season) then let's just keep him rolling along as a decoy ... and lower our expectations accordingly. Let him draw a good defender and hopefully jag a goal or two a week playing relatively bruise-free footy while other forwards and midfielders do the majority of the scoring. We also need to accept that he won't be offering a lot in defensive pressure. Running him through the midfield isn't going to help either. Much more bump and grind going on there.

So does anyone genuinely know the prognosis for the injury Stringer has? Will a 2 week or 4 week rest help?

 

[immortalmike]

Funny how a player can have a 40ish goal year at 22 in a year where he's struggled through niggles and inconsistent forward entries and partners in crime and people will bring out phrases like "form slump", "disinterested" and "ordinary".
Sometimes I think we expect too much.

 

[maddog37]

Funny how a player can have a 40ish goal year at 22 in a year where he's struggled through niggles and inconsistent forward entries and partners and people will bring out phrases like "form slump", "disinterested" and "ordinary".
Sometimes I think we expect too much.

Very true but he looks lazy at training too and needs to work harder if he ever wants to be as good as he could be.

Easy to poke s**t from a keyboard I know but I reckon Bmac said similar things.

 

[Mattdougie]

Needs a clip behind the ear and to stop reading his own media.

Injury is an excuse he has been poor most of the year.

 

[immortalmike]

Very true but he looks lazy at training too and needs to work harder if he ever wants to be as good as he could be.

Easy to poke s**t from a keyboard I know but I reckon Bmac said similar things.

I remember people saying that Bob Murphy looked lazy and like he wasn't interested earlier in his career. The truth is none of us have any ******* idea and sitting around potting the bloke from afar is not something I'd prefer to get involved in.

 

[bresker]

Disinterested = impartial. An umpire should be disinterested
Uninterested = not caring, apathetic

 

[Eastdog]

Jake hasn't been as good as last year but there have been some great moments he has had for us and is a vitally important player.

 

[ThirdLegUp]

one moment during the game that typified the night for Jake was i think in the 2nd, when caleb got the ball around the 50. instead of leading at caleb, or running at angles, because caleb was looking to give it to him but had a man in front blocking a direct pass... jake runs backward, waving his arms toward the goal line, and with every step making it more impossible for caleb to get it to him. Did he expect caleb to scissor kick it over his own head? Selfish and Dumb Football. I don't care who it is, in this case it is Jake, it is Selfish and Dumb Football. Thinking of his own glory and not his team mates predicament.

He is trying to do too much, and when he starts slow, he has to do even more to make up for that, and shoots himself in the foot by becoming Greedy Mcgreedy. Remeber, for every bit of ego he may have, a deep feeling of letting everyone down is also there. Jake wants to be the BIG SHOW, by doing the big show things, and my oh my on friday night football!!! s**t we want him to also... but... Bonti IS the big show, by doing the basic things (albeit in dancer like fluidity) and taking the zingers that make the hair stand on the back of your neck when the opportunity arises, he doesn't often force it, and is more then willing to simply handball or short kick, a very unique and marvelous cog in the machine, but still only a cog.

Jake is a very very special talent, he can be massive, but he is not above criticism. We love to see our own through rose coloured glasses no better then any other flog supporters of other clubs, jake was pretty well known for being a bit of a w***er, so having the opening to AFL that he did, was never going to shrink his ego. s**t, just watch his last year highlight reel for crying out loud, most players don't have that kind of highlight reel after an entire career, let alone one season. I'd be strutting like a rooster too, don't you worry about that.

Disinterest is not Jakes issue, if anything too much interest is his issue, too interested in taking shortcuts and kicking goals. To much interest in every minute of the clock ticking by without him doing his thing for the team, the fans love, his team mates love, the media loves, HE LOVES. He gets more panicked with every passing minute he hasn't been able to shine.

Poor players require encouragement, Good players require a firm hand. The best players require honesty, if they ever want to master their craft. Being criticised (by BF drongos mind you, but i doubt the things we say haven't been pointed out in match reviews at some point), no one is denying or dismissing all the good things, but when you do so much good, the things you do bad stick out like a loose wang through an open fly, they need to be pointed out before you walk out in public.

Stringer is not having a great year, and he has some mucky flaws in his game that need to be ironed out if he is ever going to fully unleash his potential. This is irrespective of his current physical impairment, but flaws he has shown from day one, but we let them slide because half of them paid off. Well now we are guilty of being hypocrites when less then half are paying off, and i guess we are, but it still needs to be fixed.

 

[dogwatch]

Funny how a player can have a 40ish goal year at 22 in a year where he's struggled through niggles and inconsistent forward entries and partners in crime and people will bring out phrases like "form slump", "disinterested" and "ordinary".
Sometimes I think we expect too much.

This is his goal return in 2016:
5 2 1 0 3 0 4 5 1 0 2 3 0 3 4 1 inj 1 1

While it was a bit up and down early in the year he would regularly chime in with multiples. For the first 15 games he had an average of 2.27 goals a game (or near enough 50 goals in a 22 game season) even when our forward entries were pretty ordinary. So that was pretty respectable form as you say.

Then in the game against GCS he was crunched by May (perhaps "with malice", as Bont might say) and that's when he injured his shoulder. He missed the following week and hasn't looked the same player since.

This is what I'm concerned about. Yes, there are some longer term behaviours that we'd like to see addressed (e.g. trying too much to get easy goals out the back and not applying enough defensive pressure) but they are not the immediate problem. In each of his two games since being injured he has managed 1 goal. You could say if he had kicked straight he might have had 2-3 a game but let's be honest in the last two games he has not looked like he could go rampant at any time, which is the Stringer we had been seeing earlier in the year.

That's the "form slump" I'm concerned about. To me it seems to be injury-related.

If he does play the next three games he might well start scoring multiples again because the opposition is much weaker than our last three opponents (StKilda, Geelong and North) and there will be more forward opportunities with increased i50s, but will it be worth it if he is then not sound enough to perform against the better sides in the rough and tumble of the finals?

 

[immortalmike]

This is his goal return in 2016:
5 2 1 0 3 0 4 5 1 0 2 3 0 3 4 1 inj 1 1

While it was a bit up and down early in the year he would regularly chime in with multiples. For the first 15 games he had an average of 2.27 goals a game (or near enough 50 goals in a 22 game season) even when our forward entries were pretty ordinary. So that was pretty respectable form as you say.

Then in the game against GCS he was crunched by May (perhaps "with malice", as Bont might say) and that's when he injured his shoulder. He missed the following week and hasn't looked the same player since.

This is what I'm concerned about. Yes, there are some longer term behaviours that we'd like to see addressed (e.g. trying too much to get easy goals out the back and not applying enough defensive pressure) but they are not the immediate problem. In each of his two games since being injured he has managed 1 goal. You could say if he had kicked straight he might have had 2-3 a game but let's be honest in the last two games he has not looked like he could go rampant at any time, which is the Stringer we had been seeing earlier in the year.

That's the "form slump" I'm concerned about. To me it seems to be injury-related.

If he does play the next three games he might well start scoring multiples again because the opposition is much weaker than our last three opponents (StKilda, Geelong and North) and there will be more forward opportunities with increased i50s, but will it be worth it if he is then not sound enough to perform against the better sides in the rough and tumble of the finals?

Seems? Of course it's injury related. He walks around with his arm in a virtual sling. Only thing we can do is trust the coaches and medicos that he'll be able to play through it.

 

[Wetdog]

Funny how a player can have a 40ish goal year at 22 in a year where he's struggled through niggles and inconsistent forward entries and partners in crime and people will bring out phrases like "form slump", "disinterested" and "ordinary".
Sometimes I think we expect too much.

Spot on. The expectation (rightly or wrongly) is that Stringer should be a match winning superstar because we've seen glimpses of it in the past. But he hasn't delivered on that expectation, and has had an average/solid year given the circumstances.

I wouldn't be dropping him - we need all the forward firepower we can get at the moment. There is no Redpath or Crameri. TBoyd is inconsistent and developing. Dickson is yet to hit fourth gear; CSmith might be out with concussion; and McLean is just back from injury and only has 15 matches under his belt.

If he is fit, Stringer must play.

 

[Fossie 32]

If he is fit, Stringer must play.

Well it looks like he isn't. Maybe bring in Willy and we gain Toyd as a forward

 

[Braybrook Son]

I love Jake, but imo he's not in our best 22 right now. Wouldn't mind him being dropped for a week. Toughen up people, no one should play like a rockstar if we want to win finals!

 

[jdz101]

Jake was ordinary pre shoulder. Not sure why it's relevant.

He wasn't leading and was looking for out the back cheapies pre shoulder.

Just have to put the season down to learning so far. Has the talent clearly. Just have to hope he can pull out of the slump.

He hasn't benefitted from the whole team flood gamestyle this year either.

 

[fooootylover]

He had Scott Thompson to contend with in the first 3 quarters

No coincidence he came to life in the last when Thompson went off with a groin issue

This ^^ if you watch closely, Scott Thompson was holding him and pulling him back every single time the ball was close. Thompson's a good defender (and a very annoying player that pushes the rules a bit in a contest) but he was being held every time for 0 frees. When there was a ball up in our fwd 50, Stringer always tried to run through it but was being held and blocked pretty much every single time. Needs to learn how to deal with it, and pushing into the midfield is one way. There were a couple of times when he played in the midfield and burst through with the ball - need a bit more of that from Jake consistently.

 

[LondonBulldog]

Needs to step it up.

With Red going down we need him leading up more, too often he wants the cheap one over the back.

Hopefully finals spark him up.

 

[dogwatch]

Seems? Of course it's injury related. He walks around with his arm in a virtual sling. Only thing we can do is trust the coaches and medicos that he'll be able to play through it.

It can't be that obvious.
Quite a few posters here have been stating various other factors affecting his form this year such as fatherhood, selfishness, poor attitude, laziness, injury niggles (presumably other than the shoulder), inconsistent forward entry and the full team press.

I'm mainly concerned about his form since the GCS game, which is when he did the shoulder.

 

[TMoney22]

I love Jake, but imo he's not in our best 22 right now. Wouldn't mind him being dropped for a week. Toughen up people, no one should play like a rockstar if we want to win finals!

If we didnt have so many injuries we could afford to do this but right now we can't. Unless we want Cordy playing as our KPF when Boyd rucks, that would be a disaster.

 

[Bodicifer]

He's a bit distracted at the moment. Might have stuff going on we don't know about, illness, injury, personal. Wouldn't be the first bloke and won't be the last bloke to be a bit off in his career. He'll come good at the pointy end.

 

[Unnamed1]

Way too many times it looked like he wasn't putting in any effort. If he's not gonna tackle, at least put some body pressure on. Too often he let guys just run away.
It was a very, very bad night for him. A few shots at goal in the last don't make up for 3 quarters of really bad footy.

It's obvious he's playing sore. But either he needs to have another spell, or if it's something a week or two out wont fix, just needs to pull his finger out a bit. Can't keep going like he is.

I'm with you. Playing sore doesn't mean you run harder than you've ever run before to get back into form or to stay relevant and provide pressure when you don't have it. I think he is too quick to act up on an injury, or to crack the sads. He needs to stop expecting others to do things for him and do it for himself!