Player Watch Steele Sidebottom

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Boris the Contradiction said:
Let's be honest. Steele is currently playing at a much higher level then he ever has previously. Just because he's always been a good footballer, doesn't mean he can't have a break out season. He is currently having one.

Prior to this season, Steele has always been a very good, solid, classy player.

However, despite being reasonably consistent from game to game, he was extremely inconsistent within games. Almost every week he would have these uber productive periods where he would get the ball a lot in very short periods, then go completely cold and do crap all for even longer periods. Despite solid numbers, he also lacked significant impact even when playing well, other than when we played him deep forward, where we almost never seemed to play him, despite it so obviously being his natural role.

I personally thought the trade suggestions were warranted - not for bloody Lever, but warranted. That said, Steele's popularity in the dressing room would've made it a very risky play by the club. He was an aesthetically pleasing player with a very good external reputation, which exceeded the actual value he brought to the team. He was therefore a prime trade candidate because we would likely have gotten disproportionately good value for him.

What we are seeing this year is a completely different player. He is still having the uber productive periods where he gets a lot of the ball, but he is punctuating them with solid, sustained contributions for the remainder of the game. He has also significantly improved his clearance work to an elite level and the result is that he is genuinely dominating games in the same way that the universally accepted 'superstars' like Dangerfield, Fyfe and Martin do, or like Swanny did. Pendlebury for example, despite his greatness, has never dominated games like that. We are simply seeing top echelon, elite, champion performances from this guy.

Hopefully he can keep this going and it becomes the new norm, because with his skill set we could have a proper monster on our hands.
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agree... and to throw a potential spanner in the works, he is still doing it this season. In the Adelaide game, he regularly won possession or provided nice link up play, to then turn the ball over, or create a difficult situation for his teammate. Watch closely and his good work is often followed by risky or poor disposal... which is then masked by a moment of brilliance that has the commentators salivating. & like Rocket said, his left foot is actually better than his right in general play.

If you're seeing red reading this, the stats dont lie. He's actually equal 2nd in the league for clangers, despite ranking equal 26th for possessions.

I still love the guy, but there is def room for improvement...
 
Robroy22 said:
He's an elite midfielder that's just been unfortunate to have always had other (bigger) elite mids in front of him in the pecking order. Swan, Ball, Beams, Pendles. Those last few games last season when Pendles was out really gave SS a chance to be that "main man midfielder" and he took the chance and ran with it.
So its not that he's never had the physical strength to play the role before, its that the role was never his to play before now.
He's an elite reader of play, a great crumber and his vision allows him to feed others just as well as Pendles can. He's obviously been told to use his right foot a lot more this year too, because he's dumped his dinky little left foot passes in favour of longer precision kicks.
Always been a gun, now he's just our number one gun.
Go Steele.
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I would say he has put on a little more size and at 27 is probably approaching peak strength / maturity in his body that he would not ‘always’ have had. Agree in respect to others being in front of him in the pecking order
 
The Plowking said:
2017:
Should offer him as part of a trade for Lynch.

2018: Gun. Don't trade.

(am I doing this BF thing right?)
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It will only take a few clangers and a team loss for that view to return.
 

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So my BF footy friends, after 4 rounds we have him:

- elite inside midfielder
- All Australian
- Brownlow medalist

Never change Big Footy, never change :thumbsu:
 
Kirby said:
So my BF footy friends, after 4 rounds we have him:

- elite inside midfielder
- All Australian
- Brownlow medalist

Never change Big Footy, never change :thumbsu:
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You forgot future captain Kirby :D
 
Abba Lonie said:
It's only four rounds in but if the season stopped now he may very well be all of these things.
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I'm not knocking his form so far. He's playing great footy but there's 19 rounds to go. :thumbsu:
 
Boris the Contradiction said:
Hopefully he can keep this going and it becomes the new norm, because with his skill set we could have a proper monster on our hands.
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Absolutely. And my hope for Stephenson is that he is a younger version of the Sidey we are seeing this year, with the added bonus of explosive speed. That's just my dream - i know it's still early days, and the kid is gonna go through a learning curve with some ups as well as downs, but imagine in the near future having a faster version of Steele running around everywhere, impacting contest after contest, kicking em from both sides... salivating.
 
Maggie5 said:
Grundy and Sidey will steal votes from each other however if they continue with this form either would be worthy.
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Just not sure rucks get the rewards they once did in the Brownlow.
 

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Steele and Swan on next on the Footy Show
 
Great games Steele

:)
 
Always been my favourite just love how he goes about it week in week out.

Would have to be a lock for 300 games the way he plays.
 
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