Player Watch #12 Angus Sheldrick

[tombomb]

The only thing holding Gus back is Gus and his injuries.

He came off of the 2023 season from the nasty ankle injury, then had a niggling groin issue during last preseason

He then fractured his finger in the VFL practice match, a concussion against GWS, then the knee injury.

Hopefully he's gotten all of the back luck out of the way, and powers forward in 2025.

I agree somewhat, except he was healthy for the last 3 months of the season and still they refused to give him a chance.

How the squad was managed in the second half of last year is going to piss me off forever I think. What a wasted an opportunity.

 

[Adnico26Parker]

I agree somewhat, except he was healthy for the last 3 months of the season and still they refused to give him a chance.

How the squad was managed in the second half of last year is going to piss me off forever I think. What a wasted an opportunity.

I totally agree re. management.

Coming back from the knee, at a minimum, I think he could have played against Brisbane, and should have been picked for the Bulldogs game. The week after that was the Port disaster...

 

[tombomb]

I totally agree re. management.

Coming back from the knee, at a minimum, I think he could have played against Brisbane, and should have been picked for the Bulldogs game. The week after that was the Port disaster...

I guess my point, other than the frustrations of how we failed to capitalise on the incredible position we found ourselves in mid year, is that Cox would have been in the room when all those decisions were being made.

Sheldrick was healthy for most of the second half of the year, and they didn't even want to make him an emergency.

I think it's been blatantly obvious for multiple years, not just last year, that we have a massive weakness at winning the ball in the centre/contest. The coaches always talk about it, but they just don't seem to rate players who can win their own ball. They look at Sheldrick and see the things he can't do, and ignore that he is a ball winner.

'Oh, his kicking is a bit scratchy. He is a bit slow. He doesn't run defensively hard enough'. blah blah.

Idgaf. He can win his own ball. He doesn't get pushed over. And he doesn't handball the ball straight up in the air under pressure, like a few of our 'stars' did on GF day.

Long story short, I am not convinced that they will pick Sheldrick like we all hope. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[caesar88]

I guess my point, other than the frustrations of how we failed to capitalise on the incredible position we found ourselves in mid year, is that Cox would have been in the room when all those decisions were being made.

Sheldrick was healthy for most of the second half of the year, and they didn't even want to make him an emergency.

I think it's been blatantly obvious for multiple years, not just last year, that we have a massive weakness at winning the ball in the centre/contest. The coaches always talk about it, but they just don't seem to rate players who can win their own ball. They look at Sheldrick and see the things he can't do, and ignore that he is a ball winner.

'Oh, his kicking is a bit scratchy. He is a bit slow. He doesn't run defensively hard enough'. blah blah.

Idgaf. He can win his own ball. He doesn't get pushed over. And he doesn't handball the ball straight up in the air under pressure, like a few of our 'stars' did on GF day.

Long story short, I am not convinced that they will pick Sheldrick like we all hope. I'll believe it when I see it.

But anyone can win their own ball when playing as the primary ball-winner in their reserves midfield. So him getting 25-30 touches most weeks isn't enough of a case. They probably want to see what he can do with those 25-30 touches, and I think this is where he hits something of a brick wall.

The shame is that in 2023, playing more of that midfield/half forward role, Sheldrick actually showed what he could do with only 20 or so touches in a different capacity. So there is a blueprint for how Sheldrick can fit into our 23 (in the same sort of role that Adams was playing last year). He just needs to remind the coaches of it over the summer. Hopefully he does so in the match sims.

 

[SGBeach]

I agree somewhat, except he was healthy for the last 3 months of the season and still they refused to give him a chance.

How the squad was managed in the second half of last year is going to piss me off forever I think. What a wasted an opportunity.

We constantly hear from players that a good pre-season sets them up for the year.
Sheldrick, as was pointed out, has had very disrupted pre-seasons and seasons.. This more than likely resulted in a fitness level that wasn't up to to AFL levels, especially for someone trying to break into a midfield which included 3 x all australians.
Im not sure why people keep trying to blame coaches etc

Wouldn't be surprised, with a decent run of fitness, we see a fair bit of Gus this year

 

[tombomb]

We constantly hear from players that a good pre-season sets them up for the year.
Sheldrick, as was pointed out, has had very disrupted pre-seasons and seasons.. This more than likely resulted in a fitness level that wasn't up to to AFL levels, especially for someone trying to break into a midfield which included 3 x all australians.
Im not sure why people keep trying to blame coaches etc

Wouldn't be surprised, with a decent run of fitness, we see a fair bit of Gus this year

I'd consider switching teams if Sheldrick was fit and he didn't play a lot next year.

Essendon would look appealing if we are that dumb.

 

[The King!]

Geez people need to pump the breaks on expectations. l hope he makes it, but he is not in the side yet and there is a world where he doesn’t make it.

I think my main point is don’t put him up to some impossible level , because next will be people cracking it if he doesn’t meet it.