Walker. Now delivering.

[Team Mo']

I swear i posted at some point last year that i thought he would be good for 3-4 a game as a full time forward.

damnit... where are you post...

You posted this in March 2011.

Anyway... Bit off topic there. I dont think walker will ever become what people expect of such high picks. I think he can contribute 3 a game though and he could be a great foil for Henderson. He could suit the lead up forward role quite well IMO.

 

[Team Mo']

Walker has from possibly the worst kick/set shot for goal at the club to the best in the space of one pre-season. Just proves that with the right mental preparation and practice you can improve anything if you put your mind to it.

I am loving Walker right now. He is just what we needed. A lead up forward capable of the spectacular but not reliant on it. There aren't many forwards in the game like him. Can run like the wind, jump on shoulders and this year get the ball in dangerous positions and punish the opposition. Hope he stays a blue for life.

Is an AA gig out of the question?

 

[95blues]

You posted this in March 2011.

Hey there we go! thanks for that!

Sounds better saying i said it last year though

 

[95blues]

Nice pick-up 95b

I can't though help agreeing with another poster's suggestion that the midfield will ultimately be his go.

I may have said it here one, twice...O.K. 10 times, that the work Walker is doing up the ground right now is as valuable as what he is producing with his forward work.

No one can keep up with him.

I would agree that midfield is ultimately his best destination too, however now that the sub rule is in play im not so sure.

Will he be as damaging with burst minutes on the ball/rotating off the bench (coz he will blow himself up) as he would be with 95% game time in the forward line? And if he gets rested as a forward having already run 3k time trials every 10 mins while on the ball, will he be able to be as dynamic as we would expect while resting forward?

I do like the idea of Walker and Robbo swapping as onballers/halfforwards though. I really believe Robbo also has the potential to be a solid 2 goal per game forward/midfielder (bookmark that one!).

 

[Claypigeon]

I would agree that midfield is ultimately his best destination too, however now that the sub rule is in play im not so sure.

Will he be as damaging with burst minutes on the ball/rotating off the bench (coz he will blow himself up) as he would be with 95% game time in the forward line? And if he gets rested as a forward having already run 3k time trials every 10 mins while on the ball, will he be able to be as dynamic as we would expect while resting forward?

I do like the idea of Walker and Robbo swapping as onballers/halfforwards though. I really believe Robbo also has the potential to be a solid 2 goal per game forward/midfielder (bookmark that one!).

Walker is one of, if not the, fittest player at the club. ..

 

[95blues]

Walker is one of, if not the, fittest player at the club. ..

I'm aware of that. His fitness levels have nothing to do with the question i asked though.

 

[Big Sim]

If all of his work is considered, then not out of the question.
Did anyone notice the work he did on a wing in the third, where he slapped a ball for it to bounce into his possession whilst breaking a pack?

You just wonder how important it was for his shoulder coming good.
His confidence right now is off the scale.

Yeah spot on. Skill and strength, plus fitness all combining. Lovely to watch.

He works his butt off and does some excellent shepherding and blocking. That shepherd in the square of Scotland's long goal vs Pies was fantastic. He gritted his teeth and planted himself and could not be moved.

Does a lot of team stuff. Did a lovely needle thread pass to square up Jeffy inside 50 in that game too. Jeffy muffed it (another poster...will have to start calling him the "post whisperer" for his uncanny knack) and I reckon AW1 would have nailed it from where he had passed it but did the team thing. Very sunselfish footballer.

 

[mediumsizered]

Is an AA gig out of the question?

With 5 H & A games & potentially at least 2 finals to go, he is well on the way to having a 60+ goal season. If he doesn't win AA honours for that, then the whole selection process is a farce.

 

[Dramoth]

With 5 H & A games & potentially at least 2 finals to go, he is well on the way to having a 60+ goal season. If he doesn't win AA honours for that, then the whole selection process is a farce.

We already know the AA selection process is a farce...

We know that if the filth dont get 5-6 players in this years AA list, Eddie Everywhere will be on the phone to Fat Andrew bitching about it and they will release a revised list shortly after.

I dont think that Eddie Everywhere is going to be all that happy again at this years Charlie awards tbh... none of his boys are in with a show I think

 

[Blue Dawn]

He was disgruntled because he was brought to the club as a winger/HFF and got slammed into defence because we were short of talls... much the same as Hoops was put in defence. It was a case of papering over the cracks in the wall. The cracks were still there, but werent perceived as important enough to fix straight away because we had FEV... Pagan's dream player... the big bustling FF who would run into 'Pagans Paddock' and he didnt want any of those annoying medium forwards getting in his way.

Pagan ended up moving all our good forwards (Houlihan, Walker, Whitnell and Waite) out of Pagans paddock to make room for Fev and we ended up with a bunch of small forwards in there. And a very predictible and unbalanced forward line.

When Ratts came in, he moved Hoops to the forward line and left Walker at the back while Bower, Russell and Jamison were still finishing off their development. I can definitely see why 1AW would have been more than a little upset with being stuck in defence when he was really a forward (and he could see Hoops improving the forward line no end).

So it all came to a head last year. He wanted to play in the midfield/forward line where he could do the most good so he approached Ratts before the end of the season. And he did a good job in the final and while he wanted to stay at Carlton, he was looking at chances to play in his preferred position.

Thankfully for us, Port Adelaide are a bunch of deadset muppets and someone will be asked to explain why they couldnt put a deal together for Walks that would have got him over there in the trade period last year.

....and the Crows targeted Tambling instead. We were forced to give them Sauce for 'unders' but there's now no doubt we were more than compensated by their lack of effort to secure 1AW.