The Darling Question

[MIKE85]

Bump campaigners.
2 weeks and 10 goals later and some of these impatient posters are grabbing for the egg sponge.
Midfield supply has also gone up coincidentally. Funny that.

100%, that's exactly what needed to happen. Get some more inside 50s, and better entries to the forwards' advantage, and look what happens. As said all along, he's a confidence player, and dropping him would've had the opposite effect to what some thought. Well deserved results for Jack last night for a few weeks of improved effort

 

[HurleyHepsHird]

100%, that's exactly what needed to happen. Get some more inside 50s, and better entries to the forwards' advantage, and look what happens. As said all along, he's a confidence player, and dropping him would've had the opposite effect to what some thought. Well deserved results for Jack last night for a few weeks of improved effort

Plus, why waste him in the WAFL.

We know that if he is on, he can tear a game to pieces. Rather roll the dice at AFL level and let him be a match winner, than have him get 25, 5 tackles, 15 marks and kick 8 in the WAFL.

He'd just monster a game and we'd all be like, what a waste. That could easily have been a 3 plus goal effort in a winning AFL side.

 

[wc_eagles_since86]

More than happy to be wrong in this instance, and a campaigner to boot.

 

[Jako Darling]

 

[Turboman1994]

Made me eat crow the last couple of weeks. I don’t mind if he doesn’t have a good game just needs to have a red hot crack at it.

For a guy of his strength and physical prowess he needs to throw his weight around and boss it. Much improved over the last two games

 

[Total_Juddshanks]

At the end of the day Darling is a second tier key forward who is capable of kicking 40-50 goals a year whilst not being the primary target, largely due to his really impressive one on one contest marking skills- when it comes off and he gloves them he has really impressive games like the one on the weekend, but he lacks the height reach and raw pace to be lethal on the lead, and I reckon his huge upper body makes him less able to cover big km- if his defender beats him in the one on ones people say he's not getting to enough contests, but if he wins the one on ones he will take 4 or 5 contested marks in front of goal and do a fair impression of J Brown or Carey.

Which is totally fine, if he kicks one or two goals a game and has a big bag every month, he's still going to get about 55 goals a year. Thats good for any forward but phenomenal for a secondary marking target who gets less opportunities than Kennedy.

It wouldn't surprise me if after Kennedy hangs up his boots Darling continues to play this sort of secondary role whilst Allen or Waterman step up to be the primary target. He is very very good at it.

 

[Wild Kelly]

For about 2/3rds of last night's game Jack was starting in the goal square with Kennedy about 25m in front of him.

 

[MIKE85]

Yeah noticed that too. In the pre season game against Geelong he played a lot of the game as the forward starting in the square, and he stayed deep, and kicked 5 or 6 that game too (pre seaosn only, so means little) but it seemed like that was a deliberate stratergy to keep him on out deep forward and let him do his thing. Maybe it's something that's being saved for the back end of the season??

 

[jatz14]

Yeah noticed that too. In the pre season game against Geelong he played a lot of the game as the forward starting in the square, and he stayed deep, and kicked 5 or 6 that game too (pre seaosn only, so means little) but it seemed like that was a deliberate stratergy to keep him on out deep forward and let him do his thing. Maybe it's something that's being saved for the back end of the season??

Kennedy is by far the better lead up forward, Darling is a very good contested mark for his size, it makes sense therefore to start Kennedy in front to have clear leading lanes, with Darling in the goal square making his opponent as nervous as shit.

 

[bl4ke]

Darling polled the same number of Brownlow votes as Coniglio last season whilst playing 3 less games... take from that what you will

 

[Coasters7]

Darling polled the same number of Brownlow votes as Coniglio last season whilst playing 3 less games... take from that what you will

Darling for Coniglio confirmed

 

[Wild Kelly]

Darling for Coniglio confirmed

+ Patton as steak knives.....

 

[flamingEMBERS]

It wouldn't surprise me if after Kennedy hangs up his boots Darling continues to play this sort of secondary role whilst Allen or Waterman step up to be the primary target. He is very very good at it.

It would completely surprise me and is a ridiculous statement. I’d be bitterly disappointed if he didn’t stand up.

 

[DirtySandman]

Which one you, was the guy in front of me at Optus sunday, that turned around after I said to my mate, it was good to see Jack taking a nice mark (maybe his first of the night) and said "I think its the first contested mark he has taken all year" ?

 

[ThePuma #9]

Seriously how does Jack Darling become the whipping boy of our side?.

Someone bring Masten back in, quick!

I get it, we all expect the great man to be more of a presence in games and sometimes he has a down one. I too can get frustrated when he is whinging to umps or flopping around a bit but he does cop a lot of attention too and like all forwards seems to have quite a few frees missed by the umps. We have also seen what his best can look like after his dominant first half last year.

However keep in mind Jack has always been second in line behind J.K. For many years there, even with Darling in the team we were criticized for being to reliant upon Kennedy.

Yet he has amassed a pretty impressive body of work in his 8 and a 1/2 years at the club.

344 goals (5th on all time list and will easily finish career in second or third at the least)

at a percentage of 64.29 percent which is bloody good in the modern era. Particularly for a Centre Half Forward.

Has played 183 games, playing over 20 games in seven of the eight years to date. Barring injury should easily make it to 250 games considering he's only 27 (this june) he has maybe 4-6 years left? I honestly think he will get to 300 along with Gaff.

All this from a pick 26

He has far exceeded the talent and accolades of

Sam Day (3) 2010
Jonothan Patton (1) 2011
Joe Daniher (10) 2012
Tom Boyd (1) 2013
Cam McCarthy (14) 2013
Michael Apeness (17) 2013
Paddy McCartin (1) 2014
Peter Wright (8) 2014
Darcy Moore (9) 2014 was drafted a a KPF
Josh Schache (2) 2015
Sam Weideman (9) 2015
Charlie Curnow (12) 2015
Eric Hipwood (14) 2015
Ryan Burton (19) 2015 was drafted as a forward

Now there are some very good players on the list with bright futures (Daniher, Moore, Curnow etc)

There are some players whose careers have been crushed by injuries ( Patton, McCartin and now Daniher)

but there are also some flat out duds on that list and there are many more i could have listed. Some are also young and will develop into good players EVENTUALLY but that factor makes our Jack all the more special as he was up and going from day one, kicking 24 in his rookie year and going on to kick 54 without Kennedy the following year.

He's not perfect but he's a shitload better than most of that shit above, has a high percentage kicking for goals for his position, has been as reliable as a player can be over his career to date AND has played second fiddle to J.K for all but one year.

So to all those who have called for him to be dropped in the past and say he's not up to it and all this other dribble i humbly suggest you remove your heads from your arses and be thankful we have Jack and not the rest of the crud above.

HAIL TO THE KING BABY.