Retired #21: Dyson Heppell - Goodnight, sweet prince. What a legend! 🤙 - 24/8

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21 - heppell.jpg
Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2024
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 27, Highly Evolved
 
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Knew it when we drafted him- he is elite, no two ways about it. There are 3-4 clubs that overlooked him that are going to be hoping their player turns out half as good as Heppell. Was always the 2nd best player in the draft.
 

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Bomber gave him some good praise on 360 tonight, well as much bomber would give. Basically said he is a special player because he is very coachable in the sense that he will be told something once and he can do it immediately and he just capped it off saying he will be a very very good player.
 
vast said:
Bomber gave him some good praise on 360 tonight, well as much bomber would give. Basically said he is a special player because he is very coachable in the sense that he will be told something once and he can do it immediately and he just capped it off saying he will be a very very good player.
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Well, I'd pick Dyson over Jack Watts any day. :p
 
We gonna pay....

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/star-value-rising-fast-for-heppell-20130408-2hh9t.html

Having watched Dyson Heppell emerge on the cusp of stardom in the midfield, Essendon almost certainly will now need to find room in its salary cap to reward him with a pay increase
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Yeah pretty much. Nice to see that the club/players are open to the idea of longer term contracts now. We went a bit gun shy after Mercuri for a decade; And now with Hurley, Goddard, Ryder and (hopefully) Heppell we are tying up some nice players.
 
vast said:
Bomber gave him some good praise on 360 tonight, well as much bomber would give. Basically said he is a special player because he is very coachable in the sense that he will be told something once and he can do it immediately and he just capped it off saying he will be a very very good player.
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And not only that but, most importantly, he then retains and repeats those skills/instructions as a matter of course - Eade said Pendlebury had the same knack and was easily the most coachable player at Collingwood.
 
Now im going to be negative of some of the things in his game on ANZAC day. He was still solid probably a genuine average game for him IMO.

Anyway i watched the game live on TV and saw some of his mistakes and then watched the replay to really criticize him or whether i was being harsh.

Anyway we all jump on the backs of Stanton, Melky, Myers (mainly because all were high draft picks and maybe started slowly) Heppell is another high pick but guys like him Hurley, Carlisle, Jobe seem to be players we cant criticize on this forum they seem foreign territory in that regard.

From the game (Anzac day)
1ST Qtr
(19.10) fumbled ball took his eyes off it with oppo players coming front on, IIRC collingwood ended up winning this contest/clearance due to this
(13.50) Had to go vs Cloke and kill contest. Did neither and IIRC the player he was on ended up getting the pill goal side of him.
(40 secs to go) Heppells effort? leaves something to be desired
2nd Qtr
(11.25) Easily beaten by H.Shaw, too easy
(10.14) vs Fasolo to laconic/easy. Fasolo is a right footer needed to cover that side not let him in board and push him to his left
(8.30) Heppell at stoppage in pies forward 50. Not pplaying on anyone and his man at the contest is Sidebottom in this case, resulted in a shot at goal
(2.40) Let pendles go in contest too easily
(2.20) No contest or chase on Seedsman, didnt go towards the footy waited for it.
3rd Qtr
(11.20) Kick smothered, resulted in Pendles goal
(10.48) Whos he manning up at the contest?? in the magpies F50 and he has no one, Elliot gets the clearance couldve been a result on the scoreboard due to poor manning up and coverage by him in our D50
(6.27) - Bottom left screen WATCH HEPPELL. Now this is the one that really got to me because the game was on and he does this or the lack of doing anything. Heppell needed to body (D.Thomas) deep in our defensive 50, this ball should always be Dempseys ball and then moved on in a transition play or shut down for a while. He either had to body up get in the way slightly or go with him close to goal and kill the contest over the boundary. This is the one that really got to me.

I am yet to watch the replay of the last.

Now im probably going to get hammered by this post because im going into what it seems foreign territory having a slight crack/criticism of the new golden child, the one we cant say anything about that is bad. I like @BTG do feel its unfair most of the time that some cope immediate criticism for a mistake and others like the untouchables are not allowed any.

His game left a little to be desired for me in regards to some of his defensive efforts especially so close to collingwoods goal.

Feel free to watch the replays and see if im out of my way with any of the above will happily take another look and consider
 

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Keystone agony said:
too laconic/easy
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This sums up my (minor) gripes with Heppell. I'm not one to demand that everyone have the ability for some Matthew Boyd style shovelling, but for mine Heppell has a habit of easing off in quite a few aspects of his game, especially when he doesn't have the ball. I may be being unfair, or it might be a lack of endurance or something to do with his running style that makes it look like a casual jog, but he just doesn't seem to push himself like others in the midfield do.
 
kelvin_sheedy said:
A few negative comments I've read on this board.

He's been brilliant and is way ahead of where i thought he would be
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So he doesn't have areas to work on then? Because he is ahead of where you thought he would be?

Most of this board is a circle jerk about how awesome we are as a club, its actually refreshing from time to time to see criticism of players even when they are playing well and exceeding expectations. Even the best players have weaknesses.
 
We all look for different things in a player. My biggest beef with Heppell is his defensive running. But he plays best when he cleanly handles ground balls and gets inside the packs to use his soft hands. I ham happy when these two aspects of his game are working well.
 
fodzilla said:
This sums up my (minor) gripes with Heppell. I'm not one to demand that everyone have the ability for some Matthew Boyd style shovelling, but for mine Heppell has a habit of easing off in quite a few aspects of his game, especially when he doesn't have the ball. I may be being unfair, or it might be a lack of endurance or something to do with his running style that makes it look like a casual jog, but he just doesn't seem to push himself like others in the midfield do.
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That is the way he moves. He could be going flat out & still look like he isn't trying. People used to say the same thing about David Rhys-Jones, until he said "That IS my 'flat out'"!!

With the added endurance that age & another 1-2 pre-seasons will bring, he will be top 10 in the comp, and if he doesn't go top 5 in the Brownlow by 2015, I will be astonished.
 
NAB777 said:
To add: I hope they don't put too much bulk on him.
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Yep agree i wouldnt want him adding anything more than another 3kg to his size. I remember reading something before about Pendles being 88kg around his 3rd and 4th years and then jumped to 91 and has stayed like that for his last 3-4 years now. Heppell still probably has a little bit of puppy fat still to lose ie: get toned more.

NAB777 said:
That is the way he moves. He could be going flat out & still look like he isn't trying. People used to say the same thing about David Rhys-Jones, until he said "That IS my 'flat out'"!!

With the added endurance that age & another 1-2 pre-seasons will bring, he will be top 10 in the comp, and if he doesn't go top 5 in the Brownlow by 2015, I will be astonished.
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Im happy for Heppell to laconic if he is still doing what the coaches want with his defensive running however when that isnt the case and that happened plenty of times in the game from my constructive criticism above.
 
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Retired #21: Dyson Heppell - Goodnight, sweet prince. What a legend! 🤙 - 24/8

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