News 2014-2015 off-season news thread

[houdinihuddo]

Bumpswithagrin, I certainly didn't consider you sounded annoyed or anything. As for The Big X ... GFY Good For You???

caseman 2 wrote "Would love to see the Stangas try and get ex B&F winner Tommy Schnieder back in the fold!" Once talented players give up on their AFL dream they can earn very good money [$1,000 to $2,000 a game] playing in local leagues. Also some players are offered career opportunities and of course there is far less time commitment to training. Finally stand alone clubs have a far higher salary cap to include ex AFL players on their lists and attract players seeking to play in the senior team. The depth and strength of Hawthorn's list has made it more difficult for the BHH to attract and retain players in recent years.

 

[Rudi Gilham]

Some VFL recruiting news. Matt Northe is the latest Box Hill loss. While we've lost mostly fringe players, BH will feel the losses of Cheney, Lowden, Wanganeen, Ross, Kelly & Hallahan. Pretty quiet, to date, on the recruiting front.

http://www.foxsportspulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-118-0-0-0&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=32692819

 

[dermott]

The former Hawthorn listed guys have of course been replaced by Howe, Miles, Pittonet, Hardisty, Miller-Lewis and Langford. Even allowing for injuries Box Hill will still field a strong team with the depth not playing for Hawthorn.

 

[arupist]

Some VFL recruiting news. Matt Northe is the latest Box Hill loss. While we've lost mostly fringe players, BH will feel the losses of Cheney, Lowden, Wanganeen, Ross, Kelly & Hallahan. Pretty quiet, to date, on the recruiting front.

http://www.foxsportspulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-118-0-0-0&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=32692819

Interesting there is only one player in the OUTs listed who went to an AFL club. Would be nice if the VFL was considered a better hunting ground for mature aged rookies.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

I might get shot down here but is it possible that the way the VFL GF played out this year has been a catalyst for some of the departures? It must have been a frustrating experience for the Box Hill players not to have the rotations in the last quarter and have Cyril sitting on the bench.

 

[Bonscott1980]

I might get shot down here but is it possible that the way the VFL GF played out this year has been a catalyst for some of the departures? It must have been a frustrating experience for the Box Hill players not to have the rotations in the last quarter and have Cyril sitting on the bench.

I think so,you play all year to get that game

 

[stemline]

In: Cadeyn Williams (Richmond), Matthew Burt (Eastern Ranges), Xavier Dimasi (Assumption College), Chris Jones (Eastern Ranges), Billy Murphy ( Northern Knights), Sam Switkowski (Northern Knights), Matthew Traynor ( Eastern Ranges)

 

[Ordovician]

What happened to Xav Murphy, anyone know why he is not playing this year?

As HH said he deferred starting work as a ambo paramedic to concentrate full time on the VFL to have one last shot at getting picked up as a rookie. Sadly he missed out so it is time for him to move on with his life and cut back his commitment to footy.

He must have come into very serious consideration after his 2013 GF efforts. However, if you are that size there is an awful amount of competition from other very good small players e.g. Andrews.

I suppose he suffered from unfortunate timing. If he was a few years older he may have been picked up by the expansion clubs like Isles was, but now those clubs are forced to cut back on their lists rather than go out and recruit anything that moves, so the opportunities are now far more limited.

Personally, I really loved his endeavour and downright cheek so I will really miss seeing him running around for BH. He always gave 110%.

 

[walhawk]

I might get shot down here but is it possible that the way the VFL GF played out this year has been a catalyst for some of the departures? It must have been a frustrating experience for the Box Hill players not to have the rotations in the last quarter and have Cyril sitting on the bench.

No. They would would be disappointed but would know that they not get close without the Hawthorn guys.

 

[houdinihuddo]

Spot on walhawk. The alignment has been great for both clubs. The lack of rotations in the last quarter of the GF still hits a roar nerve for me but the reality is it was more or at least equally about the injuries to Andrews and Iles than Rioli's restricted game time. Furthermore if you review the game you may well conclude we would not have been talking about rotations if the likes of Grimley, O'Brien and Schoenmakers played better games.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Spot on walhawk. The alignment has been great for both clubs. The lack of rotations in the last quarter of the GF still hits a roar nerve for me but the reality is it was more or at least equally about the injuries to Andrews and Iles than Rioli's restricted game time. Furthermore if you review the game you may well conclude we would not have been talking about rotations if the likes of Grimley, O'Brien and Schoenmakers played better games.

Wouldn't be lumping O'Brien in what those other two....Given he is only 20 with one pre-season under his belt, while they are both 24 with 6 pre-seasons!

 

[houdinihuddo]

You are correct for picking me up P35. My intention was to make the point that too much emphasis has been placed on the lack of rotations due to Cyril Rioli sitting out the last quarter, not to be negative about the players I named. In any game there always dozens of things you could argue impacted on whether a team won or lost a game and that was certainly the case in the GF. It was my mistake to name three players so I would like to defend their performances as follows:
Sam Grimley was probably too focused on enhancing his chances to receive an offer from another club and got ahead of himself. If he was a diver you could say he made the mistake of trying to do a triple somersault jump from the 10 metre board before he had perfected a single somersault from the 5 metre board. He tried too hard and lost his focus and way.
Tim O'Brien was underdone after injuring his hamstring in R20. His injury was originally reported to be season ending and from what I observed at training I was surprised by his selection but not surprised by the way he struggled to influence the game.
Ryan Schoenmakers was totally spent after playing from R1 in his first year back after missing a season with an ACL injury. It is a great effort for a KPP to play a full season following an ACL injury.

 

[Ordovician]

You are correct for picking me up P35. My intention was to make the point that too much emphasis has been placed on the lack of rotations due to Cyril Rioli sitting out the last quarter, not to be negative about the players I named. In any game there always dozens of things you could argue impacted on whether a team won or lost a game and that was certainly the case in the GF. It was my mistake to name three players so I would like to defend their performances as follows:
Sam Grimley was probably too focused on enhancing his chances to receive an offer from another club and got ahead of himself. If he was a diver you could say he made the mistake of trying to do a triple somersault jump from the 10 metre board before he had perfected a single somersault from the 5 metre board. He tried too hard and lost his focus and way.
Tim O'Brien was underdone after injuring his hamstring in R20. His injury was originally reported to be season ending and from what I observed at training I was surprised by his selection but not surprised by the way he struggled to influence the game.
Ryan Schoenmakers was totally spent after playing from R1 in his first year back after missing a season with an ACL injury. It is a great effort for a KPP to play a full season following an ACL injury.

TOB should not have played as he was unfit and McEvoy the younger should have been retained in the side.

Also playing another ruckman if they had one would have been helpful as we got completely smashed when the second string, makeshift rucks were on.

I was really impressed by McEvoy the younger one solitary final, do you think that he'll get much of a go in the BH seniors this year?

 

[houdinihuddo]

Dave Mirra, Nick Evans, Sam Collins, Julian Soccio, Aidan Franetic and recruit Xavier Dimasi played in the HFC intra club practice match yesterday morning. I was impressed with Dimasi's solid game in the back line, Soccio looked good on the wing and Franetic did some good work in the forward line. As previously posted I'm looking forward to watching the development of the 2014 BHH first year players McEvoy, Gibson, Walker, Soccio, Fisher, Franetic & Evans.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Dave Mirra, Nick Evans, Sam Collins, Julian Soccio, Aidan Franetic and recruit Xavier Dimasi played in the HFC intra club practice match yesterday morning. I was impressed with Dimasi's solid game in the back line, Soccio looked good on the wing and Franetic did some good work in the forward line. As previously posted I'm looking forward to watching the development of the 2014 BHH first year players McEvoy, Gibson, Walker, Soccio, Fisher, Franetic & Evans.

Dave Mirra's often talked about as a potential rookie spot/late round draft pick, but his lack of size has been his downfall. How did he go against a forward line of elite AFL players?

 

[houdinihuddo]

Dave was good despite at times being matched up against the likes of McEvoy. As always he was clean with his ball handling, read the play well and didn't look out of place.

 

[randall boner]

good solid player is Dave Mirra

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

good solid player is Dave Mirra

Yep, very reliable.

 

[daniel23]

Dave was good despite at times being matched up against the likes of McEvoy. As always he was clean with his ball handling, read the play well and didn't look out of place.

any chance of making a mention of who played well for the hfc listed players if you saw it ? seems like this intra club did not exist very little news on it

 

[Agent Smith]

any chance of making a mention of who played well for the hfc listed players if you saw it ? seems like this intra club did not exist very little news on it

Yet the Collingwood praccy is making headlines everywhere. Might as well award Dane Swan the Charlie now.

 

[houdinihuddo]

To respect the 'closed session' I'll keep it brief. For me the old brigade Lewy, Suckers, Mitch, Gibbo, Hodgey, Lake, Gunner, Simpkin and Stratts stood out and Whitey looked very good in the second half. The new boys to show promise were JO'R who was good inside and outside, Frawley who read the play well and starved his opponents, Sicily [yet to debut] good hands, kicking and reading, Hardisty in and under and Howe clean, balanced and composed sweeping across half back. The only time I clapped was a spontaneous response to a Hardisty hands and knees extraction from two opponents followed by an amazing hand ball out and over the congestion which hit a running team mate just ahead of the pack goal side. Another highlight was Gunner's marking.

I'm really looking forward to watching the progress of Hardisty and Howe at the BHH.

 

[caseman2]

Dave Mirra, Nick Evans, Sam Collins, Julian Soccio, Aidan Franetic and recruit Xavier Dimasi played in the HFC intra club practice match yesterday morning. I was impressed with Dimasi's solid game in the back line, Soccio looked good on the wing and Franetic did some good work in the forward line. As previously posted I'm looking forward to watching the development of the 2014 BHH first year players McEvoy, Gibson, Walker, Soccio, Fisher, Franetic & Evans.

Always great to read your updates HH.
Just curious to hear how Ryan Exxon and Mitch O'Donnell are travelling this pre-season. With a few loses such as Wood and Andrews I would expect to see them get more time in the seniors.

 

[houdinihuddo]

Thanks Caseman. Ryan and Mitch both had injury problems last year and I would like to see them get more games in the seniors this season. I haven't been to training since December so I don't know how they are traveling.

 

[daniel23]

thanks for that

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

any chance of making a mention of who played well for the hfc listed players if you saw it ? seems like this intra club did not exist very little news on it

Seems like Hawthorn like to keep their intra-clubs under wraps or at least low key. Meanwhile the other clubs seem to promote theirs quite a bit. Always amazes me how Hawthorn can keep stuff in house if they need/want to, they run a tight ship!