how old is gwilt?is he not having a good season?I rate him
26 I think. I heard on the telecast last night that Gwilt is playing VFL this week, so I assume he's had an injury.
Gwilt has missed the past 4 or 5 weeks with a knee injury and this weekend is his first weekend back, hence coming back through the VFL.
He was absolutely flying when he did his ACL almost two years ago (finished off 2010 with 20 or more possies in all 4 of our finals, including 24 in the prelim and 22 in each of the GF's and had had 20 or more possies in 7 of his last 8 completed games before doing his knee in 2011- and was going pretty much as well as Fisher, who went on to win our B&F that year), but then really struggled when he came back from his reco last year, but has looked much more like his old self this year.
Given that he's only 26, an age group that we don't have a lot in, we would need to get something very worthwhile in return, to be willing to trade him, particularly given his long, penetrating and accurate left foot, which is a big asset in our back half. He's be ideally suited to a big ground like Subi though, where he could do a lot of damage with that leg in open spaces.
also how is tom lee going?
He has had a very, very interrupted last 10 or so weeks.
Played both the mini games in R1 of the NAB Cup in 38 deg heat (struggled in the first one, but then was much better in the 2nd one), then we didn't play the following week and he missed the next week with a wrist injury, then came back in and was impressive in our R3 NAB Cup game, taking a bunch of marks in about 60 mins of game time (including the most inside F50 for either team for the match) and had 4 shots for goal in very windy conditions (for 4 behinds!), but then didn't get much game time or do much in our next match, apparently and then didn't play a game for the following two weeks.
He then played one VFL game and was OK and was rushed into the senior team for our R3 game (off the equivalent of 2 games in the previous 6 weeks) and was then dropped for the following game and didn't play anywhere that weekend and was then brought back in for the ANZAC Day game on the Thursday, against Sydney, in conditions that are about the exact opposite to what he is suited to at this point in time (very small ground, very wet and slippery surface and ball) and now he is missing this weekend with a reported achillies injury.
So it's fair to say that he's had very little chance to find his feet in the team, or to get any momentum or confidence going at any level and he has unsurprisingly been pretty patchy, really showing something at times, but also making mistakes, or else not getting much of it, at other times.
He's shown that he is likely to be good over the long term, as he is a good height (194-195cm) is very athletic and quick for his height and has good hands, footy smarts and very good skills, but Watters said the other night that he is physically still another year or two off being where he needs to be as far as his strength and power goes, as he is still relatively light and he will also need to continue to build his endurance.
So while I'm confident that he will be able to play some good footy for us this year if he gets a good consistent run of games and finds his form of last year, he will most likely be in a much better position to make a strong impact in a couple of years time, as is the case with many/most "talls" at 22yo.