Player Watch #12: Jy Simpkin - 2025 Sole Captain. Deserved winner of The Polly Farmer Medal for the Indigenous All Stars with 30 disposals (18 contested)

[DuckYeah]

I'll post this in the appropriate thread but this is in reply to what you said in LDUs thread.He had five turnovers on the weekend.

The first was a kick to Darling about 30 seconds into the game. Simple mark and Darling dropped it or was spoiled. We won the ball back and got another i50.

Second one was the shank kick we all saw that he should have just had a shot with BUT if Larkey had ran at the ball instead of backing backwards while facing it he would have marked it in front of goal. The ball went to exactly where Larkey was standing before he started backing away from the point of contest. The ball went up the other end and English had a shot on goal for a behind.

IMO that turnover is on Larkey.

Both of those kicks went straight to their targets but in one case the target dropped the mark the other case the target ran away from the ball!

Third turnover (5.00 left in the first quarter) he runs back with the flight and intercepts the mark, kicks long down the line. Larkey misreads the flight or loses the contest the ball comes off his hand and the Dogs clean up while North players all run toward our goal leaving the Dogs free to waltz away down the field. Goal.

This kick went straight and no one offered him anything short. At one point LDU did then instead of demanding the ball changed his mind and ran back toward the contest. Kick was straight and the target had first hands on it. Still ended up a goal to them but that was a breakdown at the marking contest imo.

Fourth turnover - Five minutes into the second quarter Simpkin gets the ball in their goal square kicks to Daniel and takes off down the field. Gets the ball on HB and hits Zurhaar, keeps running and gets the ball back on 50. Poor kick in between Darling and JK is marked by Lobb. He had Larkey on the lead, running toward him this time but didn't kick to him. Given the last two turnovers maybe that's understandable.

This is the only error, ie where his kick doesn't hit the appropriate spot or the player he had kicked the ball to.

Dogs put the ball OOF on the wing two kicks later, ball goes back i50 (LDU long to contest) and Larkey gets a Joe the Goose out the back. (On the very next play Jy is F&C at a long kick to the forward line, crumbs the ball, gives it off, gets tackled to the ground bounces up gets the ball back and goals.)

Fifth turnover. CB, ball spills toward far wing. Jy first there and picks the ball up under extreme pressure. No one near him F&C for a quick give so he kicks long inside 50 to space (his only real option with a player hanging off him.) Lobb first there, can't pick it up because of RHJs efforts, dogs player gets it and JK tackles them immediately. Stoppage inside 50.

Dogs fail to get the ball past the wing multiple times, eventual JK wins htb and we get a goal from Bailey Scott.

So of Jy's five turnovers the score to oppo is 1.1. Neither of those scores are really his fault as one of them comes from Larkey running away from the ball (tho he should probably have taken responsibility and had a shot there instead of trying to hit up the FF ... but bringing your FF into the game in the first two minutes is also good team play from the captain,) and the other from a long kick down the line where our crumbers completely failed to do anything effectively after Larkey effectively drops the mark. Only one is a poor kick and that doesn't cost us..

He also missed a shot on goal at the halfway point of the third quarter from deep in the pocket as he was tackled to the ground. Didn't really have an option to give the ball off tho. Certainly wasn't an easy miss.

There you are DY.

That's his turnovers for the game. Three of them were good kicks, one was long to space in the 50,m the dogs player had it for a second and we eventually goaled after controlling the play for a few minutes.

I got that from the AFL app highlight section.

justroyal you might want to read all that too.

Dont blame Larkey. He probably thought jy would kick that goal and was moving to protect the line. That miskick in the first 5 minutes of the game set the tone. It went down the other end and naughton scored a goal.

How bout the pass to help win the game in the last quarter and he dribbled it along the ground?

Or the hand pass in the last that completely missed the target?

Im over people cherry picking stats and skipping over how much it actually hurts the team. He’s the captain. He needs to lead by example. Not asking for perfection, im asking for him to be better, but ive been asking that for 5 years

 

[Horizons_00]

Needs to be more selfless. Take pressure off himself not to have to do everything as a captain

 

[ferball]

Dont blame Larkey. He probably thought jy would kick that goal and was moving to protect the line. That miskick in the first 5 minutes of the game set the tone. It went down the other end and naughton scored a goal.

No it didn't. I just bloody watched it while waiting for the plumber to show up.

It went down the other end and English missed a goal.

And it is on Larkey. He did the thing he always does which is move away from the kicker. Its stupid when you're getting a 25m short low pass in front of goal. If Larkey had taken two steps forward and held his ground he'd be having a shot on goal from directly in front.

If you want to say Jy made the wrong decision in passing and should have had a shot then I'd probably agree but it was a perfect pass to any normal forward not a shank kick.

How bout the pass to help win the game in the last quarter and he dribbled it along the ground?

Or the hand pass in the last that completely missed the target?

Im over people cherry picking stats and skipping over how much it actually hurts the team. He’s the captain. He needs to lead by example. Not asking for perfection, im asking for him to be better, but ive been asking that for 5 years

All I did was watch the turnovers that you said meant JY cost us more scores than he was involved in. That's clearly not true. I didn't cherry pick stats I watched what happened and made my own assessment of each bit of play.

If I watch a replay carefully later (which I probably will do for votes) I'll look out for those things you mentioned.

 

[Arthur Cloke]

What's going on with Jy's kicking?

Bottom line is, he wouldn't get a game at Hawthorn, GWS or Bris with his poor disposal.

 

[King Corey]

Think you're over exonerating Jy a wee bit there Herr Ferbs. And I'm firmly in the Jy camp.

 

[justroyal]

I'll post this in the appropriate thread but this is in reply to what you said in LDUs thread.He had five turnovers on the weekend.

The first was a kick to Darling about 30 seconds into the game. Simple mark and Darling dropped it or was spoiled. We won the ball back and got another i50.

Second one was the shank kick we all saw that he should have just had a shot with BUT if Larkey had ran at the ball instead of backing backwards while facing it he would have marked it in front of goal. The ball went to exactly where Larkey was standing before he started backing away from the point of contest. The ball went up the other end and English had a shot on goal for a behind.

IMO that turnover is on Larkey.

Both of those kicks went straight to their targets but in one case the target dropped the mark the other case the target ran away from the ball!

Third turnover (5.00 left in the first quarter) he runs back with the flight and intercepts the mark, kicks long down the line. Larkey misreads the flight or loses the contest the ball comes off his hand and the Dogs clean up while North players all run toward our goal leaving the Dogs free to waltz away down the field. Goal.

This kick went straight and no one offered him anything short. At one point LDU did then instead of demanding the ball changed his mind and ran back toward the contest. Kick was straight and the target had first hands on it. Still ended up a goal to them but that was a breakdown at the marking contest imo.

Fourth turnover - Five minutes into the second quarter Simpkin gets the ball in their goal square kicks to Daniel and takes off down the field. Gets the ball on HB and hits Zurhaar, keeps running and gets the ball back on 50. Poor kick in between Darling and JK is marked by Lobb. He had Larkey on the lead, running toward him this time but didn't kick to him. Given the last two turnovers maybe that's understandable.

This is the only error, ie where his kick doesn't hit the appropriate spot or the player he had kicked the ball to.

Dogs put the ball OOF on the wing two kicks later, ball goes back i50 (LDU long to contest) and Larkey gets a Joe the Goose out the back. (On the very next play Jy is F&C at a long kick to the forward line, crumbs the ball, gives it off, gets tackled to the ground bounces up gets the ball back and goals.)

Fifth turnover. CB, ball spills toward far wing. Jy first there and picks the ball up under extreme pressure. No one near him F&C for a quick give so he kicks long inside 50 to space (his only real option with a player hanging off him.) Lobb first there, can't pick it up because of RHJs efforts, dogs player gets it and JK tackles them immediately. Stoppage inside 50.

Dogs fail to get the ball past the wing multiple times, eventual JK wins htb and we get a goal from Bailey Scott.

So of Jy's five turnovers the score to oppo is 1.1. Neither of those scores are really his fault as one of them comes from Larkey running away from the ball (tho he should probably have taken responsibility and had a shot there instead of trying to hit up the FF ... but bringing your FF into the game in the first two minutes is also good team play from the captain,) and the other from a long kick down the line where our crumbers completely failed to do anything effectively after Larkey effectively drops the mark. Only one is a poor kick and that doesn't cost us..

He also missed a shot on goal at the halfway point of the third quarter from deep in the pocket as he was tackled to the ground. Didn't really have an option to give the ball off tho. Certainly wasn't an easy miss.

There you are DY.

That's his turnovers for the game. Three of them were good kicks, one was long to space in the 50,m the dogs player had it for a second and we eventually goaled after controlling the play for a few minutes.

I got that from the AFL app highlight section.

justroyal you might want to read all that too.

Go for goal.

Even better, he could have 2.1.
Instead of that frantic 10 minutes of play following that miss that put us straight on our back foot and lead to whole field chaos and scramble.

My point is the same. Captains need to set the tone here. Did you see how ugly the next ten minutes actually was until was it Larkey steered the ship?

Don’t get me wrong. I liked in 100 x more standing 1-2 meters from the goal posts, at least some evasiveness of his can be used where we need it

 

[ferball]

Go for goal.

Even better, he could have 2.1.

Yeah fair enough. I agree with that. First game as sole captain tho so hopefully that shows him he needs to take responsibility and set a tone next time he is that situation.

 

[justroyal]

Yeah fair enough. I agree with that. First game as sole captain tho so hopefully that shows him he needs to take responsibility and set a tone next time he is that situation.

You know what. Your level headedness has made me rethink.

If we’re too inept to absorb a little pressure and can’t re-set our structure and go straight into frantic mode. It says more about where the whole team is at.

I said I wanted to see minimum 4 games like the all star game to offer a pass mark for him this year. So far he has 3 more to notch off.

 

[ferball]

Think you're over exonerating Jy a wee bit there Herr Ferbs. And I'm firmly in the Jy camp.

No I'm not. That's what happened with those five turnovers.

One was a situation where he should have kicked the goal but still hit a perfect pass to a FF who ran away from it. I thought he shanked it till I rewatched the play as well. It was only "bad" cos he should have had the shot himself. Tho if were Darling instead of Larkey then Darling would have marked it because he attacks the ball.

One was a poor kick inside 50 (after he just ran flat out from the oppo GS and had two other kicks on the way.) We defended that situation well got the ball back inside 50 and scored a goal. Nothing else came of it.

The others were kicks that went to where they should have. I didn't expect that when I started doing this little exercise either.

 

[ferball]

You know what. Your level headedness has made me rethink.

Cheers. Honestly I thought I'd see worse than what I did looking at that. Haven't watched his entire game yet tho.

If we’re too inept to absorb a little pressure and can’t re-set our structure and go straight into frantic mode. It says more about where the whole team is at.

I said I wanted to see minimum 4 games like the all star game to offer a pass mark for him this year. So far he has 3 more to notch off.

I agree.

There was alot to like about that game tho, really. We played much better football overall than we have in the past few seasons and if we'd kicked as straight as the Dogs ... lol it probably would have been a draw.

If we keep improving on that across the season we will win more games than we have for years.

 

[Arthur Cloke]

Cheers. Honestly I thought I'd see worse than what I did looking at that. Haven't watched his entire game yet tho.


I agree.

There was alot to like about that game tho, really. We played much better football overall than we have in the past few seasons and if we'd kicked as straight as the Dogs ... lol it probably would have been a draw.

If we keep improving on that across the season we will win more games than we have for years.

We need to start winning games. End of story. Period. This is a professional sporting competition, not a local junior league where participation & improving a little bit each year suffice.

 

[ferball]

We need to start winning games. End of story. Period. This is a professional sporting competition, not a local junior league where participation & improving a little bit each year suffice.

I agree.

But for the first time in ages winning any game seems a reasonable chance.

And Jy Simpkin would get a game in any team in the comp.

 

[DuckYeah]

No it didn't. I just bloody watched it while waiting for the plumber to show up.

It went down the other end and English missed a goal.

And it is on Larkey. He did the thing he always does which is move away from the kicker. Its stupid when you're getting a 25m short low pass in front of goal. If Larkey had taken two steps forward and held his ground he'd be having a shot on goal from directly in front.

If you want to say Jy made the wrong decision in passing and should have had a shot then I'd probably agree but it was a perfect pass to any normal forward not a shank kick.



All I did was watch the turnovers that you said meant JY cost us more scores than he was involved in. That's clearly not true. I didn't cherry pick stats I watched what happened and made my own assessment of each bit of play.

If I watch a replay carefully later (which I probably will do for votes) I'll look out for those things you mentioned.

30 disposals at 60%? Is that ok?

He worked hard, he won good ball, he evaded tackles.

Im happy to watch it again but it stands out. It jumps off the screen and slaps you in the face. The veins pop out of ya head, come out of your nck because he undoes all his hard work.

This is a team based opinion. The turnovers and poor disposals that put players under pressure, kill us because everyone is moving in offence. Then everyone nit picks and pulls apart the game plan saying we cant defend.. NO SHIT we cant defend, everyone is in offensive positions and then click your fingers everyone is now chasing arse.

Jy needs to get better because that sort of disposal from your captain, especially when he’s selfish and missing shots on goal instead of passing is doing the team absolutely no favours mentally or on the scoreboard

 

[Themanbun]

I think the issue is that his turnovers are usually scrubber type kicks when he's in space which are a bit deflating and they definitely catch the eye.

Watching his possession highlights on the AFL app there are some 'turnovers' that were just decent kicks to a contest but also some scrubbers not recorded as turnovers in the stats.

The vast majority of his disposals were effective though and were better than the blind dump kicks dished up by Powell and Phillips all night.

I want him at the coalface giving hands to LDU tbh.

 

[7577969923]

I've watched the game again, and Jye was actually very good. Yes, some kicks were frustrating, but as Ferbs has pointed out when forwards drop chest marks or move away from the pass, that is not his fault.

When we were coming back into the game in the second quarter Jye's work rate was a very big part of that.

I think Jye is at the point where he suffers a bit on here from posters that look for every mistake and overlook a lot of what he does well. LMac is another in that category who actually had a pretty good game and did lots of gutsy stuff.

 

[Heaps of fun]

He massively overrates his own kicking ability, which is extremely limited. He needs to learn to play within his ability or he'll forever remain a B grader.

 

[Merlin007]

I've watched the game again, and Jye was actually very good. Yes, some kicks were frustrating, but as Ferbs has pointed out when forwards drop chest marks or move away from the pass, that is not his fault.

When we were coming back into the game in the second quarter Jye's work rate was a very big part of that.

I think Jye is at the point where he suffers a bit on here from posters that look for every mistake and overlook a lot of what he does well. LMac is another in that category who actually had a pretty good game and did lots of gutsy stuff.

whipping boys have gotta get whipped

 

[Spud11]

Dont blame Larkey. He probably thought jy would kick that goal and was moving to protect the line. That miskick in the first 5 minutes of the game set the tone. It went down the other end and naughton scored a goal.

How bout the pass to help win the game in the last quarter and he dribbled it along the ground?

Or the hand pass in the last that completely missed the target?

Im over people cherry picking stats and skipping over how much it actually hurts the team. He’s the captain. He needs to lead by example. Not asking for perfection, im asking for him to be better, but ive been asking that for 5 years

Legit.
I think he does so much awesome stuff. But we NEED a captain’s goal, not a captain’s clunker. He needs to lift the team when he gets the chance.
We know he can be clutch. Need to see more of it.

 

[Zondor]

What's going on with Jy's kicking?

Bottom line is, he wouldn't get a game at Hawthorn, GWS or Bris with his poor disposal.

Nothing is wrong with Jy’s kicking. Full forwards don’t know how to lead to him which I saw with my own eyes. And fatigue at times means he kicks poorly but apart from that he is a gun kick.

 

[scottywiper]

He missed targets. The most annoying to me was when he broke from middle late in game and had a forward leading straight at him and dropped it in front of him so it became a half volley. It was a simple kick for an AFL player. Just sit it up at a height where forward can take it easily.

 

[Zondor]

He missed targets. The most annoying to me was when he broke from middle late in game and had a forward leading straight at him and dropped it in front of him so it became a half volley.

Sorry mate not Jy’s fault. I saw it with my own eyes and I blame the player leading at the ball.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

I’m not watching the replay but felt on the night he had a pretty good game, despite a couple of moments - what I want to especially comment on is his reaction when he kicked the goal to the cheer squad end in the second quarter. I’ve seen some posts about players not being pumped enough - the captain was pumped enough for everyone. It means so much to him and he wears his heart on his sleeve out there and I love it.

 

[Possession]

I’m not watching the replay but felt on the night he had a pretty good game, despite a couple of moments - what I want to especially comment on is his reaction when he kicked the goal to the cheer squad end in the second quarter. I’ve seen some posts about players not being pumped enough - the captain was pumped enough for everyone. It means so much to him and he wears his heart on his sleeve out there and I love it.

Yes, it was sick.

 

[Better Loosen Up]

You know what. Your level headedness has made me rethink.

If we’re too inept to absorb a little pressure and can’t re-set our structure and go straight into frantic mode. It says more about where the whole team is at.

I said I wanted to see minimum 4 games like the all star game to offer a pass mark for him this year. So far he has 3 more to notch off.

Why only 4 games? He's our Captain and meant to be setting the standard. Very odd.

 

[justroyal]

Why only 4 games? He's our Captain and meant to be setting the standard. Very odd.

I figured it was 3 more than last year. Make no mistake. It’s purely reflective of my own personal thoughts and expectations on him. That should say enough.