Taj Schofield

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Ford Fairlane said:
I remember speaking to Phil Walsh after a game where Sam Gray looked the goods. I think RussellEbertHandball was there too. We said how good he looked and Phil said Yes he did, but how many players under 178cm make it in the AFL?

Before we could answer he added And don't say Greg Williams.

We admitted defeat.
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That was at a club 1870 event in Port's changerooms at AO in March 2014 think before our the first home game there and pastmyprimus was there.

I did think of someone on the drive home and mentioned who I thought of when you wrote about it on here back then, but Im stuffed if I can remember who it was.

Think it was Gary Wilson but I just checked and he is 178cm.
 
Ford Fairlane said:
I remember speaking to Phil Walsh after a game where Sam Gray looked the goods. I think RussellEbertHandball was there too. We said how good he looked and Phil said Yes he did, but how many players under 178cm make it in the AFL?

Before we could answer he added And don't say Greg Williams.

We admitted defeat.
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John Platten. Jason Akermanis. Were you guys having a bay day? Leigh Matthews the player of the 20th century didn't get a mention because I am sure he was EXACTLY 178cm.

What timeframe are you talking in? So Butters is gonna make it but Taj won't because of the arbitrary 178cm rule? What did Walsh mean by make it? Can we measure every player listed at 178cm to 180cm to check they made the 178 Phil Walsh rule? No doubt it is harder for shorter athletes in many sports including AFL. There are those who make it because of other attributes or sometimes sheer bloody determination.

I don't doubt you guys in that it happened but it sounds like maybe its a great story but not a great AFL lesson.
 
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Tony Liberatore?
Eddie Betts?
Caleb Daniel?
Stephen Milne?
Cyril Rioli?
Paul Puopolo?
 

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tribey said:
Please tell me you said “Tony Liberatore”.

Like bowling a half-tracker to Simon O’Donnell.
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Yeah I think at the time he was trying to make a point to us not to get our hopes up, not looking to make us a millionaire 😉
 
Powerage said:
John Platten. Jason Akermanis. Were you guys having a bay day? Leigh Matthews the player of the 20th century didn't get a mention because I am sure he was EXACTLY 178cm.

What timeframe are you talking in? So Butters is gonna make it but Taj won't because of the arbitrary 178cm rule? What did Walsh mean by make it? Can we measure every player listed at 178cm to 180cm to check they made the 178 Phil Walsh rule? No doubt it is harder for shorter athletes in many sports including AFL. There are those who make it because of other attributes or sometimes sheer bloody determination.

I don't doubt you guys in that it happened but it sounds like maybe its a great story but not a great AFL lesson.
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I think generally smaller midfielders (sub-180cm), unless they have exceedingly good point of difference qualities (think Neale) dont generally make it at AFL level. You can't really compare players from the past when being a shorter player wasn't such a limiting factor, and when compared to taller counterparts weren't exploited anywhere near as much. With Sam Gray for example, your taking the taller/big bodied midfielder with a similar skillset every day of the week.
sobrave said:
Tony Liberatore?
Eddie Betts?
Caleb Daniel?
Stephen Milne?
Cyril Rioli?
Paul Puopolo?
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Only Libba was a pure midfielder from this group. Also in a different era.
 
I believe any player can make it if they are willing to work exceptionally hard and most importantly the coach believes in them.

My mate made it to the Footscray seconds, said he didn’t have the dedication to make it to the elite level. Can’t remember his example now but said he was an average skilled player there, but worked all day and night ended up 300 games?
 
Revan11 said:
I think generally smaller midfielders (sub-180cm), unless they have exceedingly good point of difference qualities (think Neale) dont generally make it at AFL level. You can't really compare players from the past when being a shorter player wasn't such a limiting factor, and when compared to taller counterparts weren't exploited anywhere near as much. With Sam Gray for example, your taking the taller/big bodied midfielder with a similar skillset every day of the week.

Only Libba was a pure midfielder from this group. Also in a different era.
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When you are responding to a post that poses the question 'how many players under 178cm make it in the AFL?' what the * else you gonna do but respond with players that have made it from the past. Especially when taking into account, as I have, that the question was asked quite a few years ago.

Please also define what 'making it' is for an AFL player. The career of an average AFL footballer is 3 years. By that definition, Sam Gray made it. And if you say he didn't, by your definition, it wasn't because he was too short. Its because there were too many deficiencies in his game or, as you will put it, he didn't have point of difference qualities. Regardless I think he is a poor example anyway. To a degree he was used in a way that highlighted his deficiencies which was not his fault.

Lucky for Andrew McGrath he is listed as 180cm although if he was measured in the morning he will only be 179cm by evening. Thank god Jack Viney and Zac Merrett didn't hear about your theory when being drafted.

Maybe Viney and Merrett have very short necks, but very long arms, which would be my preferred physical configuration if I wanted to be a midfielder but has not mentioned in any of these posts that I have seen. Long legs too. Or are you going to bob up and claim that as another 'point of difference quality' like you can do with any quality that pops up making a player unique? Its a cop out.

PS Cyril Rioli's midfield time was limited largely by injury.
 
What I'm looking for from Schofield is for him to stand out and take over games - i.e. impose himself on their results. I think he did that yesterday. His run, carry, decision making and kicking were all integral to our ability to score. He demanded he be used by running so hard repeatedly to receive and create.

The one thing about Taj, is his reliability with ball in hand. Clean ball handler, good decision maker, good user of the football.

Now to make it at AFL level, he needs to have that swagger and confidence to want the ball in his hands and work hard enough to make sure he is in the right places to get it. Butters does it. Caleb Daniel does it. Neale does it. I see this quality more in Taj's game than with Mead tbh. Mead seems to drift through games.
 
Powerage said:
John Platten. Jason Akermanis. Were you guys having a bay day? Leigh Matthews the player of the 20th century didn't get a mention because I am sure he was EXACTLY 178cm.

What timeframe are you talking in? So Butters is gonna make it but Taj won't because of the arbitrary 178cm rule? What did Walsh mean by make it? Can we measure every player listed at 178cm to 180cm to check they made the 178 Phil Walsh rule? No doubt it is harder for shorter athletes in many sports including AFL. There are those who make it because of other attributes or sometimes sheer bloody determination.

I don't doubt you guys in that it happened but it sounds like maybe its a great story but not a great AFL lesson.
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Been thinking about this today and I reckon Phil was talking about the last 10-15 years at the time as it was 2014 and he had been an assistant coach at AFL level since 1999, when he joined Choco. Before that he had been Geelong's fitness guy and runner for 3 or 4 seasons.

Greg Williams retired a year before Phil joined us and I reckon he was using Williams as the star player exception that proves the rule example.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Been thinking about this today and I reckon Phil was talking about the last 10-15 years at the time as it was 2014 and he had been an assistant coach at AFL level since 1999, when he joined Choco. Before that he had been Geelong's fitness guy and runner for 3 or 4 seasons.

Greg Williams retired a year before Phil joined us and I reckon he was using Williams as the star player exception that proves the rule example.
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The average height of AFL players by the time of that question versus the 80’s is quite a bit. Go back to the 70’s/80’s and at 6’1 (if I’d had talent) I’d have been KPP height. Another 30/40 years further back and could have tried for ruck. Now I’m a medium height for a mid at best, probably on the short side.
 

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