Opinion Who are our best ball users?

[Azul]

Sheehan - was never taught how to kick a ross faulkner as a kid.

 

[HARKER]

Sheehan - was never taught how to kick a ross faulkner as a kid.

He learned how to become a very good left foot kick in 16 weeks last year and he's improving very quickly on his right.

Given the rate of improvement in this guy, who knows where he'll be in another 12 months time.

 

[SpaceCow]

Judd kicking to a lead as he bursts away from a player is still one of the best.

 

[Old navy]

Yazz and Gibbs are rated the best kicks internally. Can't recall which coach I heard saying this. He did say that he couldn't split the two of them but everytime that number 13 gets it, something good usually happens.

One to keep an eye on DVR. Got to see the Jets live a few times. The boy has an RPG for a left leg. Has the potential to be one best kicks in the comp. Can't wait to see how the club develope him in 2015.

 

[thebluelagoon]

Yarren
menzel
murphy

these are the guys that we want to have the ball in hand.
Yarren
might not be elite at kicking or decision making but his ability to carry the ball is. like a triple threat player in basketball, this buys time and space for Yarren to create great options to pass it by breaking the defensive line. By being so dangerous with ball in hand, the opposition have to defend the pass and the kick. Kane lucas possessed some of the outside carry that yarren has (and greater endurance) but lacked the kicking skills and decision making ability to complete the task. Yarren is good at all three, making him a gun.

Menzel
sublime skills. His ability to take possession and handball in the blink of an eye. He can kick a goal from anywhere, he can pull a kick to find a target and generally sees the game quicker than the rest.

Murphy
is quick, agile and good endurance but his greatest asset is his ability to read the angle and spot the best option and hit that target. probably the bloke we would prefer to be making that inside 50 entry...

 

[HARKER]

One to keep an eye on DVR. Got to see the Jets live a few times. The boy has an RPG for a left leg. Has the potential to be one best kicks in the comp. Can't wait to see how the club develope him in 2015.

His kicking didn't go unnoticed last year nor has it through this pre-season, to date.
It looks terrific leaving his foot as it does with Watson when he's allowed to fire away the missile.
It's not just for the accuracy of their kicks but for the speed and penetration. The ball gets from A to B very quickly.

The four that have really impressed me on my limited viewing have been Gibbs, (of course) Menzel, (His pin-pointing passes to running players has been of the highest standard) Thomas, (Guy hardly misses a target whether via conventional kicks or around his body. The speed of execution is the highlight) and Sheehan, (probably because it just still seems surreal that someone that's been in the system for less than a year can do what he's doing)

 

[GoBlues!]

In terms of kicking and execution, you can't go past Warnock......has murdered a few in his time.

 

[Tony Lynn 15]

I reckon for consistency it is Gibbs first and daylight second. Great technique and really good under pressure. We have plenty of others but Gibbs is by far the best.

 

[Old navy]

His kicking didn't go unnoticed last year nor has it through this pre-season, to date.
It looks terrific leaving his foot as it does with Watson when he's allowed to fire away the missile.
It's not just for the accuracy of their kicks but for the speed and penetration. The ball gets from A to B very quickly.)

People talked up Wigg from SA as having the best kick in the 2014 draft. His good ,very nice technical ,very efficient always picks the right options. But he does not get the same kind of penetration on his kicking as DVR
nor does it travel on the flat bullet like trajectory.
DVR kicking just looks so much more damaging and his kicking on the run is a real weapon.

 

[Old navy]

I think Thomas will be weapon for us. His kicking looked so much better late last season and will be better again this year. At his best Thomas was as good a kick as any. Has some real versatility with his kicking skill set.

 

[Blue By Blood]

Gibbs usually would be our most reliable field kick but even he gets a bit lazy at times.

Menzel is the best at weighting his kicks to dictate where the other forwards should lead to when he passes into the forward 50. If only he received the same service!

Docherty will continue to improve his kicking under pressure with more senior exposure.

Thomas may be included in this list once he is kicking with good penetration again.

Murphy just seems to have dropped a notch with his kicking in the past couple of years most likely due to injury niggles and being tagged more.

Hoping DVR and Boekhorst can execute well under pressure and in the AFL environment as they are both beautiful kicks in lower competitions. They may take time but I expect them to be up there as 2 of our better ball users.

 

[reg_lower91]

Gibbs is the standout because of his decision making and execution. Other players on our team are elite in one of those areas, but generally not both!

This exactly. If you focus purely on kicking I would say he and Hendo are the only two I rate as excellent in both decision making and execution:

Gibbs - excellent DM, excellent ex.
Hendo - excellent DM, excellent ex.
Thomas - excellent DM, very good ex.
Murphy - excellent DM, very good ex.
Judd - excellent DM, very good ex.
Walker - very good DM, very good ex.
Yarran - very good DM, very good ex.
Simpson - very good DM, very good ex.
So on......

 

[DaVillaBlues]

Am i the only one who thinks Nick Graham has the potential to be the best user by hand (handball) .. Certainly has got the right instincts for it, could do with more game time and confidence.

Intrigued by what Cripps brings to the table. Haven't watched the 2nds as much as I liked. I think its essential that we have players that are also well drilled in the handball facet of the game (Diesel is one of my all time favourite players for that reason)

It might be a churlish thing to say, but giving off handballs isn't as easy as it looks these days, especially with the face pace of the game, players really need to have astute peripheral vision in order to give off the pill by hand (and not turn it over to an opponent)

 

[ShanDog]

Am i the only one who thinks Nick Graham has the potential to be the best user by hand (handball) .. Certainly has got the right instincts for it, could do with more game time and confidence.

Intrigued by what Cripps brings to the table. Haven't watched the 2nds as much as I liked. I think its essential that we have players that are also well drilled in the handball facet of the game (Diesel is one of my all time favourite players for that reason)

From the little I have seen of both these two guys, they certainly have the vision to be elite users of the ball. Cripps is one of those guys who looks like he is thinking two seconds quicker than what the rest of his team is, smashing out handballs etc to advantageous space etc, just like Judd does. If you aren't in the right spot, he will literally put the ball there and make you run onto it.

Graham is very similar - I think he thinks about how he uses the ball, which might sound silly to say, but I think a lot of players act almost on 75% instinct and 25% thought process when it's in tight. The drills and training turn that instinctive reaction to stuff that looks like scripted stuff. Graham seems to me like he thinks about it more than he acts on instinct, and sometimes that leaves him short of time to dispose of it and can miss targets when there is a load of pressure suddenly on. BUT, that's just an occasional thing. I reckon with confidence and experience, he could also turn into one of those guys who just has the ball on a string and moves his teammates around like a puppemaster.

 

[Old navy]

Cripps over head handball in the 4thQ against the bombers was absolute class. Just shows how good his game sense is ,has that ability to create play with deft hand balls.

 

[andrew_]

Yarran for me is the best kick at the club, narrowly in front of Watson (pinpoint accuracy from 50+ metres) and Gibbs

 

[therubbernub]

I am interested to see who is left in our core playing group that are considered sub par in their disposal

So far the consensus is that we have 15 elite to very good users
1 Menzel
2 Murphy
3 Gibbs
4 Judd
5 Watson
6 Yarran
7 Henderson
8 Thomas
9 Tuohy
10 Sheehan
11 Everitt
12 Docherty
13 Simpson
14 Walker
15 Graham

We then have 7 rookies- I have taken them out as they are largely unknown disposal or not at this stage in contention for the core playing group

We then have our 9 new non rookie draftees. Until these players have been observed playing in the Navy Blue , it is hard to judge them. They have been left to one side pending assessment

A further two players, have not had senior game time and so it is unfair to judge Holman Giles

That leaves the following players that are in contention for core 22 that have not been nominated. How do we rate them?

1 Buckley- Is he considered a bad disposer of the ball?
2 Kreuzer- I have never considered that he was below average
3 Cripps- Elite by hand. Kicking?
4 Warnock- Not great. Like many Ruckmen
5 Armfield- Not great. But is he stlll core 22? Is his speed when disposing the reason?
6 bell- Not great. But is it improving?
7 Rowe- ??
8 Curnow- Disposal is his achilles heel
9 Jamison- Not great but is it as bad as it once was?
10 Casboult- no doubt goal kicking is an issue. His field kicking?
11 White- ??
12 Carazzo- Early on was sub par. IMO has been unfairly criticized in recent times as it has improved
13 Ellard-???

 

[HBF]

Yaz and Gibbs for me, with perhaps Yaz just in front. Both have beautiful technique and generally hit their targets on a regular basis. I have Yaz in front as he's better on his left than Gibbsy.