Review Positives and Negatives vs Demons - Round 18

[RookiePick]

Completely agree. But I think it gets to a stage when a player fu**s up enough that it starts to be detrimental to their game. He is playing without confidence and nearly every contest he goes into I cringe as he is usually first to the ball but is often trying to subtly dive on it and immediately make it like it was dragged under him by someone else/accident lets have a ball up.
I understand that is a key part of a defenders game but he is doing more often than not and then if he does end up with the football IIRC his OOTF's are the roof since the clanger riddled Sydney game that saw him omitted.
This is without mentioning how many times he caught out of position when the ball comes in the F50 in the air. But al ot of our defenders have been getting that one wrong for a few games now so he isn't on his lonesome there.

No doubt he is down on form/confidence.

Absolutely tore it up in the WAFL when he went back. I have faith that he will come right at AFL level again. As much as anything he looks like he is trying too hard - over committing to contests, getting himself out of position trying to read too far ahead of the play. Needs to relax a bit does Tom.

 

[Jiggyman]

JK is a workhorse. He has been his whole career. The longer he goes without interruption, the better he gets. Whenever he's had interruption during the season, he takes a while to get back to full flight. He's had an interrupted year, and as he gets older, it'll just take longer to get back to top form.

My concern is that he's struggling to turn. He used to tie up even opposition mids with his lateral movement, and could turn a defender to make 5m of separation for initial or repeat leads. Now, he's only good in straight lines for one genuine lead.

He's also lost a couple gears and can't burst away from defenders like he used to. He's still able to drift into the pocket and kick a goal or two that way, or lead straight up the middle if the kick is lace-out.

I thought Ah Chee livened up our forward line against Freo, would like to see him back in that key role if Kennedy needs a rest. He was crashing packs like Josh, as well as contributing at ground level and preventing opposition exits. Freo may just be s**t, but it really woke me up to Kennedy's physical decline.

Despite all that, Josh is a champion with indispensible experience in a raw forward line; we back him in for the rest of the year, fitness permitting.