Player Watch Welcome to Hawthorn, Denver Grainger-Barras

[Strapping Young Lad]

 

[The_Axeman]

He will absorb a baptism of fire like no other player we have seen for many moons, big call, very early call but he will be a superstar for this club

I'll back your early call.

 

[arupist]

Will make for a very interesting selection call with a fully fit Sicily, DGB, Frost, Hardwick, Hartigan, Greaves, Scrimshaw, Day and Impey. What does our best back line look like? I would expect 7 of those, at least, to be selected in the 22. The four youngest are on an upward trajectory and should be given a solid run at it. Is Hartigan an automatic selection?

Look forward to this season unfolding.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Play him as a third tall down back in the back 50 arc, zoning a bit and learning his craft the Hawthorn way.

HB: Impey - Frost - Scrimmers
FB: Hardwick - Hardigan - Hyphen

Yeah he should be a hybrid of Stratton and Sicily on terms of their role. Or essentially play Stratton's role but have a licence to be more aggressive and take the game on.

Imagine eventually having a combination of Frost, Day, DGB, Sicily, Greaves, Scrimshaw and Impey playing back there, all with the ability to take the game on and be aggressive with our ball movement (running and kicking). Add Downie with his pace and rocket boot too.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

He will absorb a baptism of fire like no other player we have seen for many moons, big call, very early call but he will be a superstar for this club

You just get that feeling about him after watching his highlights in the WAFL and at training, don't you?

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Will make for a very interesting selection call with a fully fit Sicily, DGB, Frost, Hardwick, Hartigan, Greaves, Scrimshaw, Day and Impey. What does our best back line look like? I would expect 7 of those, at least, to be selected in the 22. The four youngest are on an upward trajectory and should be given a solid run at it. Is Hartigan an automatic selection?

Look forward to this season unfolding.

Hartigan surely is for mine and will go to the primary key forward. It will be interesting for teams with two big forwards whether they include Hartley, drop McEvoy down back, or hope that Frost can do a job.

 

[kirbatron]

You just get that feeling about him after watching his highlights in the WAFL and at training, don't you?

 

[Ned Ryerson]

The more and more I hear/read I get more and more eager for this kid’s debut more than any other Hawks debut for maybe the past decade.

 

[tommyk72]

What are his foot skills like?

 

[Judd2Sewell]

What are his foot skills like?

Good

 

[MrPremiership]

What are his foot skills like?

I think most of our defence are reasonable kicks now.......since Stratton and Frawley are gone.

 

[threesixpio]

Will make for a very interesting selection call with a fully fit Sicily, DGB, Frost, Hardwick, Hartigan, Greaves, Scrimshaw, Day and Impey. What does our best back line look like? I would expect 7 of those, at least, to be selected in the 22. The four youngest are on an upward trajectory and should be given a solid run at it. Is Hartigan an automatic selection?

Look forward to this season unfolding.

Totally agree arupist. And if all of the above are kicking butt who plays forward ?


https://external-preview.redd.it/AZ..._medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&utm_term=link

 

[The Chad and I]

Will make for a very interesting selection call with a fully fit Sicily, DGB, Frost, Hardwick, Hartigan, Greaves, Scrimshaw, Day and Impey. What does our best back line look like? I would expect 7 of those, at least, to be selected in the 22. The four youngest are on an upward trajectory and should be given a solid run at it. Is Hartigan an automatic selection?

Look forward to this season unfolding.

Sicily will go forward if DGB can establish himself quickly.

 

[toomanysquibs]

Sicily will go forward if DGB can establish himself quickly.

DGB also likely to move forward at times. Athletically he’s a weapon given those mitts.

So pumped we got him, was a standout pickup for mine given the onballers coming through the draft next year.

Didn’t think we had a chance to call his name, man I hope he develops to the fullest of his potential. He’ll be scary good if he does.

 

[arupist]

Sicily will go forward if DGB can establish himself quickly.

Quite possibly, but that also has a downstream effect on the makeup of the forward line (which obviously needs addressing). A lot will depend on the development of Jeka, Kozzie. Impey could move forward. Will Day stay back?

A lot of potential everywhere.

We are getting to the stage where a good trade/draft this year will see a few favourites fall by the wayside.

Who says missing finals and rebuilding is not interesting?

 

[Slysh]

Sicily will go forward if DGB can establish himself quickly.

Please no

 

[threesixpio]

Please no

Yeah I prefer Sicily back too but if he did go forward it could be indicative of list strength in the back end. So strangely I hope it happens ...if that makes

IE - Two Sicilys !!!

 

[KermitJagger]

Please no

 

[Slysh]

Yeah I prefer Sicily back too but if he did go forward it could be indicative of list strength in the back end. So strangely I hope it happens ...if that makes

IE - Two Sicilys !!!

Yeah i do get the logic i just feel like some people have watched a different Sicily to me, no idea what i am missing.

Sicily is a top 5 or so defender in the game, would have at least 22 AA's if it was not for injury. He is a leader down back and one of the best interceptors/rebounders in the game.

He has never been anything more than an average forward over an extended time.

Give me two Sicilys down back anyday!

 

[threesixpio]

Yeah i do get the logic i just feel like some people have watched a different Sicily to me, no idea what i am missing.

Sicily is a top 5 or so defender in the game, would have at least 22 AA's if it was not for injury. He is a leader down back and one of the best interceptors/rebounders in the game.

He has never been anything more than an average forward over an extended time.

Give me two Sicilys down back anyday!

What if we had nine though?


Ok getting silly

 

[MowShow]

Yeah i do get the logic i just feel like some people have watched a different Sicily to me, no idea what i am missing.

Sicily is a top 5 or so defender in the game, would have at least 22 AA's if it was not for injury. He is a leader down back and one of the best interceptors/rebounders in the game.

What you are missing is that nobody is saying Sicily should be moved forward because he's not good down back. Nobody is even saying he's better forward.

Continuing to state how good Sicily is as a defender doesn't change anything that people are saying. We know he's good down back.

A player's most valuable position to the current iteration of their team is not always their best position individually.

I'm not sure if this is the case with Sicily, but if we were to reach a point where our backline can function fantastically without him, then it is most definitely worth trying him forward given our struggles down that end of the ground recently. If he can add something forward that outweighs what we lose by replacing him with the next best in our backline then that is a win. IF.

I also think you are underrating his efforts to date as a forward - he essentially hasn't played there seriously since he was around 22 years old. In my opinion, in the last two seasons any time he has been swung forward midway through a game/late in the game he has offered something we didn't previously have down there so I think it is plausible. Unlikely but plausible.

Though I do agree he should/will remain in the backline for the near future.

 

[cryptor]

Yeah I prefer Sicily back too but if he did go forward it could be indicative of list strength in the back end. So strangely I hope it happens ...if that makes

IE - Two Sicilys !!!

I reckon we're really developing some genuine swingmen on the list. Plenty of guys that could on any day find their best position is at either end, or somewhere in between if we get real creative.

We should probably stop thinking in terms of "he plays this end unless he's having a bad day or someone is injured". While it gives us flexibility in the event of these things happening it still makes us predictable.

During 2011-2015 the ability for us to have multiple players who could play an elite role in other positions created unpredictability that would have made preparing for match ups an absolute nightmare for our opposition each week. Practically impossible to cover all the cases in-depth. Did they need to tag Mitchell in the middle or was he going to be slicing them up off half back? Which third of the ground would Hodge be in that week? How much time in the middle would Breust, Poppy and Cyril spend? Was Roughy going to be rucking, roving or kicking 5 goals? Buddy leading up from the square or just playing decoy? What mythical form would Burgoyne shape shift into and dominate as that week?

Now you look at our last few years and you know exactly where everyone is going to line up every week. Even when there was the odd change it wasn't drastic enough that any team couldn't easily adapt to it. Even guys who used to be part of that unpredictability were no longer to the same degree.

 

[threesixpio]

It’s definitely the Roughie to CHB of the present

 

[threesixpio]

I am normally the one arguing what BJK#5 argues.

what I will say is that he can almost kick them from the other side of the ground anyway - maybe it’s all moot

he he

 

[Slysh]

What you are missing is that nobody is saying Sicily should be moved forward because he's not good down back. Nobody is even saying he's better forward.

Continuing to state how good Sicily is as a defender doesn't change anything that people are saying. We know he's good down back.

A player's most valuable position to the current iteration of their team is not always their best position individually.

I'm not sure if this is the case with Sicily, but if we were to reach a point where our backline can function fantastically without him, then it is most definitely worth trying him forward given our struggles down that end of the ground recently. If he can add something forward that outweighs what we lose by replacing him with the next best in our backline then that is a win. IF.

I also think you are underrating his efforts to date as a forward - he essentially hasn't played there seriously since he was around 22 years old. In my opinion, in the last two seasons any time he has been swung forward midway through a game/late in the game he has offered something we didn't previously have down there so I think it is plausible. Unlikely but plausible.

Though I do agree he should/will remain in the backline for the near future.

Well I did address his efforts as a forward as well. He was a full time forward without reaching anywhere near the same success he has had since moving back. Yea he was younger but he was swung back half way through 2017 and instantly looked a much better player.

Yes he has not had a large string of games forward since but every time he has gone forward it hasn’t worked overly well. He has started a couple games forward as well when we were desperate for a target before (I assume) Clarko decided to move him back.

I just strongly disagree with the logic. We have some decent defenders that can play a similar role but none even close to the level he plays at. He can play forward a bit but not even close to the level he is at when playing as a defender. Yet a fairly large group of people seem convinced he should move forward long term.

 

[HAWKSBESTEVA]

Yeah i do get the logic i just feel like some people have watched a different Sicily to me, no idea what i am missing.

Sicily is a top 5 or so defender in the game, would have at least 22 AA's if it was not for injury. He is a leader down back and one of the best interceptors/rebounders in the game.

He has never been anything more than an average forward over an extended time.

Give me two Sicilys down back anyday!

He kicked 30 goals in 2016 when he was pretty inexperienced. If he went fwd now he would kick 40-50