What's wrong with Ryan O'Keefe?

[legend166]

After his slow second half of last year (due to injury), I was hoping that O'Keefe would return to somewhere near his best this year and slot in alongside Jude as a senior member of the midfield. And after round 1 it looked like that would happen, after he picked up 31 disposals against Melbourne, then another 27 against Essendon the week after.

This is what he did in the last three weeks:

Vs West Coast - 16 disposals
Vs Geelong - 15 disposals
Vs Carlton - 13 disposals

He's basically been invisible. Has he picked up another injury? He turned 30 this year. Is he just one of those players whose age seems to hit them very rapidly?

If he's injured or no longer has the tank to play in the midfield, we should put him back up forward.

 

[bleeding red and white]

After his slow second half of last year (due to injury), I was hoping that O'Keefe would return to somewhere near his best this year and slot in alongside Jude as a senior member of the midfield. And after round 1 it looked like that would happen, after he picked up 31 disposals against Melbourne, then another 27 against Essendon the week after.

This is what he did in the last three weeks:

Vs West Coast - 16 disposals
Vs Geelong - 15 disposals
Vs Carlton - 13 disposals

He's basically been invisible. Has he picked up another injury? He turned 30 this year. Is he just one of those players whose age seems to hit them very rapidly?

If he's injured or no longer has the tank to play in the midfield, we should put him back up forward.

He had a simliar start to 2010, pretty much best on ground for the crows game at aami then basically went missing for the rest of the season. Who knows weather it's injury or not, at his age he may be struggling for consistency. He's more damaging as a forward flanker rather than a midfielder though.

 

[NT.Thunder]

Sorry for the intrusion; however the last game against the Blues was due to his role.

ROK started in the middle and had a great 1st qtr, but whne KJack went down with his ankle injury Rok went to a run with role on Juddy which sacrificed his own game.

IMO Rok went pretty well in holding Judd bak for half the game and when they decided to move ROK of Judd in the last 10 minutes to find a goal or 2 Judd went berserk.

IMO if Jack had of been able to continue his run with role on Juddy ROK would've ended up with another 25+ disposal game and considering conditions, pretty good.

 

[Hooley McBoob]

Shouldn't this thread be titled 'The Ryan O'Keefe Question'?

 

[Dunks]

The answer is simple. I picked him up in Round 3 for my SC team trading out Josh Kennedy. The good news is that since that trade Kennedy has been much better but O'Keefe not so good.

In all seriousness I am not sure what his role is within the side. Is he a roaming flanker or a mid fielder? He doesn't seem to be going forward as much anymore and I can;t remember the last time he took a contested mark inside 50 and goaled.

 

[Skystyler]

Sorry for the intrusion; however the last game against the Blues was due to his role.

ROK started in the middle and had a great 1st qtr, but whne KJack went down with his ankle injury Rok went to a run with role on Juddy which sacrificed his own game.

IMO Rok went pretty well in holding Judd bak for half the game and when they decided to move ROK of Judd in the last 10 minutes to find a goal or 2 Judd went berserk.

IMO if Jack had of been able to continue his run with role on Juddy ROK would've ended up with another 25+ disposal game and considering conditions, pretty good.

Thunder, I suspect you watched him closely cause he's in your SC or DT team, but I think you'll find Horse moved him off Judd because Judd was killing him.
This is no dig at ROK. Judd in that mood would have killed any tagger in the game. He continued to kill Goodes, Kennedy...I think Horse tried just about everybody.

I agree whole-heartedly with the rest of your observations.

 

[MF]

His body is shot from years of being awesome.

 

[nicky]

Thunder, I suspect you watched him closely cause he's in your SC or DT team, but I think you'll find Horse moved him off Judd because Judd was killing him.
This is no dig at ROK. Judd in that mood would have killed any tagger in the game. He continued to kill Goodes, Kennedy...I think Horse tried just about everybody.

I agree whole-heartedly with the rest of your observations.

You couldn't be blamed for not knowing if judd was playing in most of the first half.

and malceskifan

 

[db swannie]

I don't think he'll ever be as dominant as he was during the salad days. Maybe he's too old to be running around in the midfield, who knows? I'm not sure there's much to be gleaned from the last two games though. The ground was a bog both times (well, underwater last week) and stats from games such as these IMO don't really count for much. With Jack out for a while more defensive grunt work is going to fall to ROK...The next few weeks might be more telling than the last few...

 

[TheMase]

Might be worth trying him off half back, especially with Mal still out.

 

[Coptic Soldier]

His body is shot from years of being awesome.

haha spot on!

It's been very frustrating for all of us. I think Longy needs to wack him up front where he played his best footy a few years ago to get him back in form - seems like a no brainer to me.

 

[TheMase]

haha spot on!

It's been very frustrating for all of us. I think Longy needs to wack him up front where he played his best footy a few years ago to get him back in form - seems like a no brainer to me.

Earlier in his career he was a great contested mark. However, prior to his move to the midfield, (to me) it seemed that this part of his game had fallen substantially. Perhaps players worked out how to deal with him.

Just my observations during his latter time as a forward.

 

[legend166]

I'm going to take credit for his game today

 

[giantsully]

Comfortably BOG for mine, and certainly his best game of the year (to date!).

 

[Neverwas]

What's wrong with Ryan O'Keefe?

Nothing!

 

[Swans120]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/116212/default.aspx

Was just looking for a good place to put this, ROK coming equal 3rd in the Coaches' Award.

 

[Dangas]

Great year so far!

 

[TheGoatBaron]

Ryan O'Keefe is having a great year, he's currently in All-Australian form at the moment.