Competitions 2014 Foxtel Cup - Box Hill Hawks v West Perth, 6 May 2014, 8.30pm @ Etihad Stadium

[Roger Rogerson]

Cold hard reality of where a few of our boys are at.

Grimley unfit and badly lacking touch. Couldnt even time his connection with the ball by foot which hurt us with them taking uncontested marks. Shithouse performance.

Heatherly ran under the ball all night. A mile off.

Brand aint a defender. Another who runs under the ball. Dont really trust his ball use either.

Ross doesnt win enough of it and cant break tackles. So much clinton young about him in a contest. Uses it ok and is handy at both ends but give me more possessions and ill shut up.

Sicily was brilliant in a patch. Very fortunate to not even have an opponent touch him for a couple of jumps at the ball. That wont happen up the food chain. In general play not strong enough yet but a talent.

Lowden developing but needs to be taught to handball more than 1m.

Box Hill badly missed Boxer Langers and Cheney and Cegs.

Had a weak side in and it showed by how badly we played.

Webster tries hard but cant get the pill. Doesnt have any tricks for mine.

Sir Alex what a kid. Our next Crawf. Hard and competitive. Has enough time with the ball and just goes and goes and goes.

Thought Dallas looked promising both forward and back. Looks a prospect.

 

[lyger]

Umpires were ordinary.

Sicily without doubt the most exciting prospect out there tonight, Woodward tries hard and played well tonight but will need to add some polish to his game if he is ever going to make the transition to AFL.

Do you think he is a chance to play AFL this year?

 

[LuvMyHawks]

Sicily will be an exciting player in our seniors, would love to see him play a couple a games in the AFl this year. He is young, a good prospect for us, IMO..

 

[Rudi Gilham]

Loved Sicily and Woodward's games. Ben Ross is good by foot.

I just can't get enthused by Luke Lowden. I'll probably get shot down here, but his skills let him down too often. He gets many hit-outs but doesn't direct them the way Ceglar does. I would have liked to have seen a few more marks from him also.

 

[Main Man]

Do you think he is a chance to play AFL this year?[/QUOTE

Sicily, maybe but I think he needs to develop his midfield game more before we see him getting regular senior football, he has all the tools however.

I know that Clarkson rates him highly but wants him to add more strings than just being an effective forward line player, hence they had him up on a wing a few weeks back.

 

[Easy Slips Catch]

Terrible game of footy. Well done to them for being able to shut it down so well.

Liked snippets of Willsmore's game. Good size, moves well just needs a body and a tank. Nice base to work from.

Lowden showed exactly why he was playing tonight and not on Saturday. Waste of time hitting the ball if we do not gain an advantage from it.

That was our third stringers out there tonight. Plus it was a group that was only flung together so hard to expect any cohesion.

 

[Rioli magic]

Cold hard reality of where a few of our boys are at.

Grimley unfit and badly lacking touch. Couldnt even time his connection with the ball by foot which hurt us with them taking uncontested marks. Shithouse performance.

Heatherly ran under the ball all night. A mile off.

Brand aint a defender. Another who runs under the ball. Dont really trust his ball use either.

Ross doesnt win enough of it and cant break tackles. So much clinton young about him in a contest. Uses it ok and is handy at both ends but give me more possessions and ill shut up.

Sicily was brilliant in a patch. Very fortunate to not even have an opponent touch him for a couple of jumps at the ball. That wont happen up the food chain. In general play not strong enough yet but a talent.

Lowden developing but needs to be taught to handball more than 1m.

Box Hill badly missed Boxer Langers and Cheney and Cegs.

Had a weak side in and it showed by how badly we played.

Webster tries hard but cant get the pill. Doesnt have any tricks for mine.

Sir Alex what a kid. Our next Crawf. Hard and competitive. Has enough time with the ball and just goes and goes and goes.

Thought Dallas looked promising both forward and back. Looks a prospect.

Is this based on tonight's game or have you watched a few matches?

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Think the burley ball played a bigger role in the loss
Was so many floater kicks early on

 

[PenAndPaper]

Anyone know if a replay will be on fox? I missed it and couldn't didn't record it

 

[Roy boys]

Woodward is a great ball getter and really good tackler, but his skills look average but that could be rustiness with coming back from his injuries.

Sicily has that rare silk, everything was 1 touch and he just made the game look so simple, 18 months away from having a body that's even close to being ready for the top level though.

Webster has something, totally shut out the player who was bog to half time so clearly has a team first attitude.

Lowden can play but his touch with his taps is terrible, not much the mids can do if you tap it to where they aren't. His follow up play is pretty decent though.

Willsmore and Brand showed something that suggests they could be something so long a they work hard enough for it.

Grimley is shot and something amazing would have to happen for Heatherly to make the grade.

 

[Roy boys]

Anyone know if a replay will be on fox? I missed it and couldn't didn't record it

You would assume, couldn't tell you when though.

 

[SSSSSS]

Welp there's 100k down the drain.

 

[hawker39]

Geez that was a poor standard game.

However, I am prepared to jump to the following conclusions.
Any player who has one year experience is exempted from my cull list - Heatherley, Willsmore, Tatapu
Players who did enough to look again - Woodward (he was probably the scrappiest of any player), Sicily and no one else
Players who will be culled or traded (if anyone is dumb enough), Grimley - no intensity and Lowden - almost no intensity

 

[markr]

I agree with plenty that has already been said. Woodward was fantastic. particularly in the second half. He just willed himself at the ball again and again. Definitely needs to work on his skills though. Hopefully just still finding touch after missing so much footy. He would also be much better with more quality around them. In the first half he was winning the ball in tight but then there was no one to give it to.

Sicily is clearly a talent. Very skinny and lacking fitness though. Needs the long apprenticeship that Bruest had.

Lowden dominated the taps but as many have said, they didn't go to our mids. And he didn't do anything around the ground. I still liked his game and would have no problem giving him another year. Yes he's been on the list a long time, but I still think there is plenty there. I'd love to see how he'd go tapping it to the Hawthorn midfield.

In general it was noticeable how much bigger West Perth where physically. And with the game largely played inside that was a deciding factor.

 

[Main Man]

I cannot believe how bad Grimely was, from what I saw of him at AFL level last year and in the VFL Grand Final then I thought we had something to work with but last night he looked way off it, looked unfit and his kicking was local football league standard, he has the tool but not sure he has the mental capacity to play at the elite level.

 

[halfback dasher]

Not sure why people are naming names... I thought it was a poor performance by all and I inc the coaching box in that as well. We have been up for a while now so for me I felt a poor performance was just around the corner.
We now have a well earned break with a chance to regroup and drive fwd for our tilt at back to backs.

 

[hawker92]

which current AFL player does Sicily play like?

 

[savagelunchbox]

which current AFL player does Sicily play like?

James Sicily from Hawthorn.

 

[hawker92]

James Sicily from Hawthorn.

which AFL player plays most like Sicily?

 

[halfback dasher]

Moves like a young Rob Murphy imo.

 

[hawker92]

Moves like a young Rob Murphy imo.

Cheers HBD.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

which current AFL player does Sicily play like?

From some online materials. Mix of names from small running mids, to marking medium forwards and Nat Fyfe.

Plays like Nat Fyfe. The epitome of the new-age midfielder, James Sicily is super-versatile, and has played predominately as a utility for the Western Jets in the TAC Cup, whilst also being utilized as a link-up player through the wings and displayed an insatiable appetite to match it with the best in the National Championships, playing through the guts. Sicily is an incredible talent, he is a strong mark, a reliable kick, has a fantastic work-rate, runs hard, creates, has plenty of courage and loves to kick a goal. Sicily is very smooth, and naturally plays any position handed to him, well. Although he may start his AFL career as a half forward type, Sicily has uncanny goal sense and reads the play superbly. He can play in a pocket as a third tall marking target or in a ball-winning high half forward roaming role, or simply play straight through the middle, or on the wings where his run, carry and speed are always creatively used. Sicily adds a bit of x-factor, he’s got some flair and capable of damaging the opposition very quickly if allowed too much space. Contested marking is one of Sicily’s specialties; he has sticky hands, and a strong upper body means he clunks marks even when he looks as though he’s out-positioned. What makes Sicily so enticing, is his evasiveness. He quite often plays quicker than he is due to his sharp football brain, and he knows how to spread, where to run and puts the ball into dangerous areas for a teammate to lead onto.

Plays like Jason Winderlich. Sicily is an intriguing prospect in this year’s draft. He has been the catalyst behind his young Western Jets team’s rise up the TAC Cup ladder and has flown under the radar but he is now starting to get the attention he deserves. Perhaps his performances in the Under 18s Championships where he averaged just 14 possessions left him behind a glut of others in the eyes of recruiters but his work for the Jets since then has been super. Sicily is a medium sized midfielder who can go forward and be very threatening. You could argue that Sicily is the Jets best forward and his 20 goal haul for the season backs up this claim. He can take a very good mark, especially for his size, and he out-marks most midfielders who follow him down into the forward line. When he rests forward he is often the main target for the Jets and as a lead up option he is very competent, taking the ball out in front and using his body well to ensure the opponents can’t get a fist in. His real strength is his overhead marking. Sicily has a very good leap and strong hands so he can outmark most people when the ball comes in long and high. Even on a wet and miserable day at Wangaratta against the Murray Bushrangers, Sicily was consistently taking marks both out in front and above his head in extremely difficult conditions. When playing in the midfield he provides the drive and class that helps to propel the ball into attack. While he doesn’t win a heap of his own ball, with inside ball winning duties mainly assigned to the bullocking Jake Greiser, he gets a lot of ball through the midfield and is a valuable link up player with the ball coming out of defence. Sicily’s disposal is not exceptional but it is not poor. He doesn’t possess a penetrating 60 metre kick like Luke McDonald, but he hits most of his targets and doesn’t burn the ball. He gets a lot of possessions on the burst and has a tendency to try to kick it at top speed resulting in some of his longer kicks going a bit higher and loopier but this can easily be fixed. Sicily is a very smart footballer and he makes decisions almost instantly. When he gets the ball he seems to know what he is going to do with it straight away which helps him focus on hitting targets or getting out of the congestion with a quick burst of speed. He rarely fumbles the ball, even in slippery conditions, and knows exactly how much time he has when he gets hold of the ball. Even when being tackled he doesn’t panic and knows he still has time to dispose of the ball. Sicily is likely to settle as a high half forward at AFL level but he has the potential to move into a variety of positions. He could easily develop into a running wingman, outside midfielder or even play the quarterback role off the half back flank. He has a number of attributes, like his initial burst of speed and his marking, which will help him adapt to a number of positions and be a true utility. Sicily was selected by the GWS Giants in the BFGN Rising Stars Phantom Draft because he can play anywhere on the ground and he provides a lot of versatility and x-factor. He is the type of player who will look even better when he is on a good team and doesn’t have to do a lot of the work by himself so in the next few years Sicily will get even better.

Plays like Stewart Crameri. James Sicily has been a standout this season for the Western Jets. Picked in the Vic Metro squad, he showcased his ability to take a clean contested mark up forward and then push onto a wing where he proved he has the ability to run hard both ways on the open spaces. Sicily wins a lot of uncontested ball due to those hard running capabilties. Sicily is dangerous forward of centre where he has the ability to kick mutiple goals at critical stages. Sicily’s marking is elite due to his talented clean hands and body positioning, able to take marks uncontested on a lead or in a contested one on one situtation.

Plays like Nat Fyfe. A genuine medium forward who has the ability to graft into a midfielder, James Sicily is a terrific reader of player and has an insatiable appetite for the ball. The highlight of Sicily’s game is his marking ability – both overhead and out in front, and can consider himself a legitimate contested marker. In play, Sicily is evasive and often can turn opponents inside out to kick an exciting goal, or deliver a pin-point lace-out pass to a leading teammate. Always reliable from a set shot, Sicily mixes a rare combination of height and athleticism, akin to Nat Fyfe – making him a super difficult player to match up on. Sicily’s class would inject a new dimension into the Carlton forward line, and with time Sicily will make the transition into a very handy and deft midfielder.

 

[hawker92]

Cheers CLA. So why chase Fyfe in free agency when we have someone like him already?

 

[halfback dasher]

I'll cop it for this but Sicily is a far smoother mover than Fyfe ......Fyfe is very upright and clunky in his action , this kids not..... he's very fluent in his movements.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Not sold on our development of ruckmen TBO. in general apart from some servicable blokes like Max Bailey and Bob Campbell we haven't managed to produce an elite ruckmen since...don scott?

Grimey in general is very fustraiting, he does things that ruckmen just aint supposed to do, Reminds me of Keplar Bradley, odd skill set but lacking anything which will help him do his job, Remarkably mobile, Not great overhead and misreads the ball.

I guess dad was pretty happy and spent a cartrip this morning with him asking me about my opinion of box hill belting west perth into oblivion