The AFLs 'icing on the cake' players

[WillieNillie]

Watching Jake Lever run around this year misreading the play and butchering the hell out of it anytime he gets near it made me wonder, which Eagles players impact would fall off dramatically if they played at any other club.

I think for West Coast Eagles that player would be Luke Shuey. I think outside of the Eagles he is just a average midfielder. At West Coast, he has hard a arm chair ride from the ruck department for all but 1 of his seasons and its made a difference.

Two players id nominate elsewhere are

Stefan Martin - At Brisbane he is able to run around and pick up a lot of pointless crap stats by trying to help the defense as a outlet. The fact of the matter is his ruck work is terrible and his decision making poor too. If he went elsewhere his lack of rucking ability would hinder the team too much because his defensive help wouldnt be needed as much as it is in Brisbane

Tom Lynch (Adelaide) - He is a success of the game plan I feel. I cant see any other team being capable of taking him on and then having him lead up as much as he does aside from my own team (cos we got 2 geniune stay at home FF already).

Anyone got some nominations besides those?

 

[DrEvil_]

Buddy Franklin. Can't even win a flag outside Hawthorn

 

[WillieNillie]

You have to be the dumbest eagles supporter I’ve met. I’m other teams shuey would be a grade and probably all Australian but in ours he has been the only midfielder that gets attention from the opposition for a number of years. Hardly had silver service last year and he was still easily our teams best midfielder. If he was at a team like Geelong where he could run free I have no doubt he’d average at least 25 touches and 2 goals.

None of our midfielders have ever got attention or tagged in a true sense. None of them are at that level.

Shuey isnt good over head, he isnt able to outmuscle a opponent of the ball to get it one on one. If you go through Shueys 20+ possessions a game and go through them all, he gets a good 10 of them due to being in a good position after we win a clearance/hitout situation. He is very smart at getting to the right spots in the ruck rover role. Around the ground though he is very average. Cant mark, isnt a great tackler, isnt a strong body.

His biggest strength is his ability around the ruck contests and he is in a great position because we have had the best ruck division in the competition over the last 10 years to showcase that

He would still make a 200 game career elsewhere but id say his level elsewhere would be at a Richard Douglas/Bernie Vince type career rather then the much better one he is having

 

[ldamico]

S. Motlop

 

[gym4life]

None of our midfielders have ever got attention or tagged in a true sense. None of them are at that level.

Shuey isnt good over head, he isnt able to outmuscle a opponent of the ball to get it one on one. If you go through Shueys 20+ possessions a game and go through them all, he gets a good 10 of them due to being in a good position after we win a clearance/hitout situation. He is very smart at getting to the right spots in the ruck rover role. Around the ground though he is very average. Cant mark, isnt a great tackler, isnt a strong body.

His biggest strength is his ability around the ruck contests and he is in a great position because we have had the best ruck division in the competition over the last 10 years to showcase that

He would still make a 200 game career elsewhere but id say his level elsewhere would be at a Richard Douglas/Bernie Vince type career rather then the much better one he is having

Shuey definitely gets tagged and has for 3-4 years, maybe not a hard tag week in week out but he is consistently held off stoppages as h is the most dynamic and dangerous mid in our team. He is not good over head you are right but you don’t need to be good over head to be an elite mid, he is a strong body as his cp and clearance numbers prove and he is also a fantastic tackler so not sure who you are even watching.

His biggest strengths are his elite acceleration, kicking off both feet and that he can win a hard ball get and clearance. Those attributes do not equal an average mid in any team in the league.

The part of his game that he doesn’t do is get cheap touches around the ground which is why he is not considered elite as he is not a stat padder like others. You will never see him getting a cheap sideways kick or a 1-2 handball.

 

[Starburns_]

Tom Rockliff has gone from a stat-padding crab in a bad team to basically a passenger at Port.

 

[HairyO]

S. Motlop

Perfect example.

A few years back for us was Mark Williams. He just slotted in to our forward line perfectly, but went nowhere at Essendon.

Trying to think of which Swans player went to Gold Coast. Malceski? Made to look far better than he was by a very well run Swans backline.

 

[Beutbrute]

Des Headland would be a good example

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Perfect example.

A few years back for us was Mark Williams. He just slotted in to our forward line perfectly, but went nowhere at Essendon.

Trying to think of which Swans player went to Gold Coast. Malceski? Made to look far better than he was by a very well run Swans backline.

Was great in 2008 for sure, but slotted 60 + in 2 years you were s**t as well

 

[RUNVS]

The answer is Cyril Rioli as I think he would be pretty useless in a team that is 15th to 18th but in a team that is top 6 he is very valuable.

 

[HairyO]

The answer is Cyril Rioli as I think he would be pretty useless in a team that is 15th to 18th but in a team that is top 6 he is very valuable.

We were a 15th to 18th team last year.

How about Hannebery, Parker and Jack. Always up and about against lesser teams, nowhere to be seen in big games.

 

[Scotland]

Wonders which Eagles players would suck in a poor team, comes up with Luke Shuey. Whaaaaat? Shuey is the only mid in our side with genuine pace and can kick 60 on both feet. That's gold in any team. Would dominate at Geelong being 4th or 5th banana.

The players that would all off outside our system are our star key defenders (in fact everyone's). They wouldn't become duds but they'd need a period of adjustment. We saw in Rd 1 (admittedly against arguably the best player this century) that Barrass isn't used to playing one out inside forward 50. It's much, much easier playing as a defender with a structure that slows ball movement right down and forces long high kicks inside 50 giving key defenders a chance to zone off and/or run and jump at the ball.

 

[KermitJagger]

The answer is Cyril Rioli as I think he would be pretty useless in a team that is 15th to 18th but in a team that is top 6 he is very valuable.

Very poor comment, Cyril is very much a pressure and chase player first which is exactly what a 15th - 18th team needs.

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

We were a 15th to 18th team last year.

How about Hannebery, Parker and Jack. Always up and about against lesser teams, nowhere to be seen in big games.

And Rioli when he played was dreadful. Perfect illustration.

 

[HairyO]

And Rioli when he played was dreadful. Perfect illustration.

Apart from the Norm Smith thing.

I think you are lost. The Bay is found further down the list of forum sections.

 

[WWSD]

And Rioli when he played was dreadful. Perfect illustration.

He’s had zero impact and Hawthorn are still winning.

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

Apart from the Norm Smith thing.

I think you are lost. The Bay is found further down the list of forum sections.

He won a Norm Smith last year? WTF?

You said you were 15th-18th last year, and Rioli had a shocker.

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

He’s had zero impact and Hawthorn are still winning.

Thought he had a really good game against Melbourne yesterday.

 

[Benji85]

You have to be the dumbest eagles supporter I’ve met. I’m other teams shuey would be a grade and probably all Australian but in ours he has been the only midfielder that gets attention from the opposition for a number of years. Hardly had silver service last year and he was still easily our teams best midfielder. If he was at a team like Geelong where he could run free I have no doubt he’d average at least 25 touches and 2 goals.

Don't even bother man, has 9 posts total and an obvious oppo troll

 

[BF Tiger]

Apart from the Norm Smith thing.

I think you are lost. The Bay is found further down the list of forum sections.

I see you're in another Hawthorn/Geelong s**t fight.

 

[halalsnackpack]

Ballantyne

 

[Scatter]

Tends to be the outside wing players I think.
Ours is probably Darcy Tucker. In losses he tends to only get 8-12 possessions (eg round 1 v Port) and gets dropped.
He can look very good in wins (eg JLT game against the Eagles).
Don't think it is necessarily his fault, but probably has to work on getting his own ball when we are losing the contested battle.

 

[owen87]

Most outside players will fall in to this category; anyone who can't win their own ball is going to rely on other teammates to feed it to them.

Small crumbing forwards and outside runners look brilliant in a strong team but useless in a poor one.

Inside ball-winners are almost the inverse; largely unnoticed in strong teams because they're not flashy, but they're the ones that do the grunt work to allow your Josh Green's of the world to get the ball in their hands.

 

[Jukesy85]

Ablett Jr

I’d say a player from my own club but we haven’t had the cake for 15 years so the icing has nowhere to go

 

[HairyO]

He won a Norm Smith last year? WTF?

You said you were 15th-18th last year, and Rioli had a shocker.

Ah. So you are injury trolling. Okay.

Anyway. You know the way to The Bay.