Player Watch #2 Jacob Hopper

[jthanos]

Give it a rest mate.

When we have 3 young mids next year, Hopper & Taranto's value will be GOLD !!

 

[The_Kraken]

Give it a rest mate.

If the mods don’t have a problem, I’ll post as I please.

 

[Tigerbob]

Jimmy Bartel went to town on him and rightly so with some damning vision. Bloke is meant to be a leader and performs like that?

Quite simply he now has no excuse to put in the best pre season of his life which should start now. Hes had enough breaks from footy. Get his body right with Pilates and yoga and work on his conditioning with a lot of low impact exercise like bike riding and swimming. Get Uber fit then come back for our pre season ready to go.

He’s on last chance saloon.

 

[captain cotch 9]

His new nickname should be Pump.
He just puts people under pressure

 

[JackNah_8]

Hope Hopper plays better next year and shows some leadership. Don't know why we offered him a long term deal

 

[Vassp]

That side step and baulk showed what he is capable of. Just haven't seen it this year for whatever reason. Big pre season coming up.

That's the first clear sign I've seen of something resembling a good player worthy of his wage.

 

[tiger_tough]

That's the first clear sign I've seen of something resembling a good player worthy of his wage.

He did it a bit earlier this year and last year. Really struggled when he came back though.

 

[blaisee]

Jimmy Bartel went to town on him and rightly so with some damning vision. Bloke is meant to be a leader and performs like that?

Quite simply he now has no excuse to put in the best pre season of his life which should start now. Hes had enough breaks from footy. Get his body right with Pilates and yoga and work on his conditioning with a lot of low impact exercise like bike riding and swimming. Get Uber fit then come back for our pre season ready to go.

He’s on last chance saloon.

last chance lol

We are stuck with him mate, he is on the worst contract in the AFL, when compared to output

We will have to give a first round draft pick to trade him

He is going nowhere till 2029

Yze must show the balls to play him in the VFL next year while we blood our newly drafted midfield.

 

[blaisee]

That's the first clear sign I've seen of something resembling a good player worthy of his wage.

Please , this bloke is completely finished and washed up and a big reason why we are last, he cannot run, a liability

 

[Danog]

Jimmy Bartel went to town on him and rightly so with some damning vision. Bloke is meant to be a leader and performs like that?

Quite simply he now has no excuse to put in the best pre season of his life which should start now. Hes had enough breaks from footy. Get his body right with Pilates and yoga and work on his conditioning with a lot of low impact exercise like bike riding and swimming. Get Uber fit then come back for our pre season ready to go.

He’s on last chance saloon.

Wonder if Ryan and Kosi would benefit from Pilates too. They'd have the weakest core muscles in the comp, I reckon

 

[Meteoric Rise]

Wonder if Ryan and Kosi would benefit from Pilates too. They'd have the weakest core muscles in the comp, I reckon

Ryan it is pretty easy to see he doesn't have the frame for it at this point.

Koschitzke is the more surprising one. Has a good tank and appears well built, but something in his mixture of core strength, intent, technique, reaction time and balance is deficient for this level of football, certainly to play as a key forward.

 

[blaisee]

Ryan it is pretty easy to see he doesn't have the frame for it at this point.

Koschitzke is the more surprising one. Has a good tank and appears well built, but something in his mixture of core strength, intent, technique, reaction time and balance is deficient for this level of football, certainly to play as a key forward.

Kosi is a genuine dud

 

[Meteoric Rise]

Kosi is a genuine dud

I prefer to think of him as a player who isn't quite up to this level but is at least trying to do all the right things, and can be of some use while he is there. There is another poster on here who seems confident his deal expires after 2025. It would be good if he improved enough to get another deal but I am not sure that seems likely. Lynch, Lefau, Gray, Fawcett, Bauer & no doubt there will be another one or two in the draft this year. That looks the immediate future of our key forward stocks to me. Koschitzke should be more a back-up ruck-forward.

 

[blaisee]

I prefer to think of him as a player who isn't quite up to this level but is at least trying to do all the right things, and can be of some use while he is there. There is another poster on here who seems confident his deal expires after 2025. It would be good if he improved enough to get another deal but I am not sure that seems likely. Lynch, Lefau, Gray, Fawcett, Bauer & no doubt there will be another one or two in the draft this year. That looks the immediate future of our key forward stocks to me. Koschitzke should be more a back-up ruck-forward.

If he stays on the richmond list, it means we are bottom 4 material

 

[Dragonss]

Hope Hopper plays better next year and shows some leadership. Don't know why we offered him a long term deal

But to be fair from the vision there were 2 or 3 players walking including the captain in that passage of play.

 

[Vassp]

Please , this bloke is completely finished and washed up and a big reason why we are last, he cannot run, a liability

I agree with you on what i have seen, but if i see something good i will say it, I've bagged this guys performance from the get go.

 

[energyquant]

Taranto and Hopper give us the luxury of drafting and playing the very best midfield talent we can. Our future star mids can start their career on the wing or off half back and let the mature players do the heavy work inside. Two seasons of development in the AFL will be gold by the time we hit 2026 and they start to believe they belong.

 

[Vassp]

Taranto and Hopper give us the luxury of drafting and playing the very best midfield talent we can. Our future star mids can start their career on the wing or off half back and let the mature players do the heavy work inside. Two seasons of development in the AFL will be gold by the time we hit 2026 and they start to believe they belong.

you made a reasonable point but....
You're forgetting we had the worst season in history, please don't mention those two as our rock-solid foundation we can build upon. We need play making with speed, they're the opposite of that.

THE GAME HAS MOVED ON GUYS.

 

[Waca Jr]

But to be fair from the vision there were 2 or 3 players walking including the captain in that passage of play.

Fails to mention we got ****ed with no lube again by the umps though. Honestly don't blame him. **** off Bartel

 

[Third Ring]

Fails to mention we got *ed with no lube again by the umps though. Honestly don't blame him. * off Bartel

Exactly….I looked at the play again - the bit Bartel conveniently didn’t include in his video.

Miller was tracking the ball and made a beeline for Hopper’s guts with his head. Even the Commentators (who rarely comment on bad decision) went on about it for the next minute, while the crowd booed.
Montagna “he turned his head in at the last minute and got awarded a free kick”
King “that’s the one I hate being rewarded as he put his head in there by choice, it wasn’t a natural flow” “this is an action in our game that we need to look at, when you purposefully put your head there in the way of the oncoming player just to draw the freekick, we need to look at it in the off-season”.
Jack R “yep it’s a dangerous one because the player is trying to protect the ball with their head and back of their neck”.

F me if after 23 rounds of this crap one of our players get pissed about it - I know I was.

Should he have chased - yes, was he rightly pissed off - absolutely!!

 

[Waca Jr]

Exactly….I looked at the play again - the bit Bartel conveniently didn’t include in his video.

Miller was tracking the ball and made a beeline for Hopper’s guts with his head. Even the Commentators (who rarely comment on bad decision) went on about it for the next minute, while the crowd booed.
Montagna “he turned his head in at the last minute and got awarded a free kick”
King “that’s the one I hate being rewarded as he put his head in there by choice, it wasn’t a natural flow” “this is an action in our game that we need to look at, when you purposefully put your head there in the way of the oncoming player just to draw the freekick, we need to look at it in the off-season”.
Jack R “yep it’s a dangerous one because the player is trying to protect the ball with their head and back of their neck”.

F me if after 23 rounds of this crap one of our players get pissed about it - I know I was.

Should he have chased - yes, was he rightly pissed off - absolutely!!

Umpiring Saturday was as bad as round 8 v Freo. Hopper argued for a lot longer than Bartel claims too and rightfully so

 

[TigerImposter]

Jimmy Bartel went to town on him and rightly so with some damning vision. Bloke is meant to be a leader and performs like that?

Quite simply he now has no excuse to put in the best pre season of his life which should start now. Hes had enough breaks from footy. Get his body right with Pilates and yoga and work on his conditioning with a lot of low impact exercise like bike riding and swimming. Get Uber fit then come back for our pre season ready to go.

He’s on last chance saloon.

He doesn't give a shit as he has 5 years left.

 

[energyquant]

you made a reasonable point but....
You're forgetting we had the worst season in history, please don't mention those two as our rock-solid foundation we can build upon. We need play making with speed, they're the opposite of that.

THE GAME HAS MOVED ON GUYS.

I agree, we need more speed in the middle. Let's draft for skill and speed. My hope is that the bigger bodies of Taranto, Hopper and Ross can shield the young A-grade talent from being battered in their first few years. Let them play outside while our slower (bigger) players are on the inside. That's the theory....

 

[Vassp]

I agree, we need more speed in the middle. Let's draft for skill and speed. My hope is that the bigger bodies of Taranto, Hopper and Ross can shield the young A-grade talent from being battered in their first few years. Let them play outside while our slower (bigger) players are on the inside. That's the theory....

the point is we need players who can extract the ball out of the middle, decide where and when to give it, that is a skill in itself, giving it to others to do the job is ok, but its last generation thinking. WE are in a new era, this wont cut it at the highest level.

 

[energyquant]

the point is we need players who can extract the ball out of the middle, decide where and when to give it, that is a skill in itself, giving it to others to do the job is ok, but its last generation thinking. WE are in a new era, this wont cut it at the highest level.

I agree. We need to get ahead of the game. Let's do some next next generation thinking. I suggest we only recruit players who are at least 6'6'', can run 100m in under 10 seconds and 30km over a game, have 270 degree vision, can kick the ball 80m and can wrestle a rhino to the ground.