The team

[Ben the Gooner]

Hooker did spend time in the ruck, but was the third option behind Ryder and Lucas.

 

[Billy Bob65]

Its his draft pick number that warranted him promotion to the seniors more than anything else. Im not knocking him, but he is still raw. Yet getting games into them is the best thing for them. Ditto for Atkinson. Give him an extended run and see if he is up to it or not. By getting selected now in the seniors at the end of the year, its impossible to judge him. Hopefully he'll get a few games towards the end of the year so we can make a judgement.

C'mon say what you really want to say!

"we can make a judgement"

LOL

The word you want is "I". I, Centurion, have not seen enough of Atkinson at AFL level, and seeing I, Centurion, also make all the list decisions for the club, the club is doing me a disservice by not playing him so I can say whether he is any good or not.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Billy Bob, you've come on here this afternoon, and slagged off two of the most respected posters on this board, and haven't even had the guts to put your own opinion up for criticism.

Poor form.

 

[Billy Bob65]

Hooker did NOT play in the ruck against Adelaide and this is evidenced by the fact that he did NOT have a single hit-out.

Please go and watch the game again.

Without going back and trolling through the records, based on your "evidence", you could make an argument that Trent Ormond-Allen never rucked a single game in his life...even though people saw it happen.


Hooker DID play in the ruck against Adelaide. They tried Lucas but were struggling at the clearances so Hooker went in there and Lucas replaced Hooker on Tippett. Where Tippett did kick a few goals on Lucas.

But hey I was only 20m away from the action (Tippett on Lucas)...so I should probably get my eyes checked, because I'm obviously wrong.

 

[Billy Bob65]

Billy Bob, you've come on here this afternoon, and slagged off two of the most respected posters on this board, and haven't even had the guts to put your own opinion up for criticism.

Poor form.

Pazza is allegedly respected on these forums. Which doesn't say much for the word "respected" around these parts.


There is always reasons why players aren't playing or at worst have been overlooked in 50/50 decisions. The attitude that "we need to make a judgement" is self-centred. The club sees everybody's form at Bendigo and can make decisions from that. Plenty of clubs delist players without them ever playing a game, we've done that too. We shouldn't have to play people, just because posters on here don't know whether he should stay or go - at this stage of the year, most clubs already know who a few of their delistees will be.


Look I was a regular Bendigo watcher from 2005-8, haven't been to many games this season so I won't comment on Atkinson's form this season.

I saw him his first (and only) season at Bendigo before being rookie listed. I thought he was a good, solid VFL player but didn't see anything there that would be lead me to believe that he'd be an AFL player. There were other regular Bendigo watchers, a poster over on Blitz known as jackie mihocek, who disagreed with me at the time and thought he could go OK. When I saw we'd picked him up I thought it was another "Bendigo pity pick" like Tim O'Keefe was under Sheeds - no idea what he was thinking he struggled every time I saw him. I digress.

He did improve last season, I still didn't think he'd done enough for a senior spot, but I can see why he got one. He couldn't be re-rookied as he was already 23, and we were very weak depth wise for back pocket, Slattery then ? unless we were pulling Welsh or McVeigh back there. So I wasn't surprised when they announced at the Crichton he'd been given a 1 year contract.

I actually thought he'd get some game time with Slattery being used occasionally to tag in the midfield, even had him in my Wizards of Windy Hill team at season's start.

I thought he was in trouble as soon as we were trying Houli & Quinn in the role he was used in at the end of last year. I believed they'd made a decision on him when we preferred to push McVeigh back there when Henry was injured than play him when he was fit.

From what I'm told, he's not 100% gone like Nash, but he's close to it, which can't be unexpected when he was a mature age recruit - they typically either play regular football or get delisted if they're not. He's 24 this year, not getting a regular game and out of contract.

That all being said, I don't have any issue with his selection tonight. If there is one thing he is, it is quick, we've got no Lovett & Licha, Jetta wasn't brought in so we needed pace into the side.

Hope he gives us something tonight, he'll certainly be giving it 100% and possibly give us a spark, which we've been missing of late.