Player Watch #22 Jacob Hopper

[beema limapep]

Feel sorry for him. Was sold a vision by Dumma then shitted on.

Feel sorry for him when he is earning 8 x the average FT wage to play 14/23 weekends a year?

 

[A Tiger 4 lyf]

Please seek a trade, claim false advertising as the reason why

Thanks


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[tigersnag]

He won't be traded as a suitor would need to pony up a 5 year contract.
Geelong might do 2 years but even dad's army would baulk at 5 years unless we paid 2 years of it. In which case we'd probably be better off keeping him.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Just frontload the shit out of his contract while we've got spare millions in our cap, and see where it goes for him from there.

 

[Wooden Robot]

But if he was still a GWS player they would have won preliminary and grand finals
Doin' just fine without him.

 

[tiger_tough]

He's clearly battling injury.

 

[Jammo1111]

He's clearly battling injury.

It ain't an injury. He gets his hands on the ball. He has no idea when he has it.

 

[wegetpumped]

Prior getting him every second post was we should go after Hopper this and that. Now every second post f get him out his poo he is useless, mind you same posters that wanted him in the first place!
I never wanted him especially what we paid and watching him yesterday as I have defended him I was wtf were they thinking? He was putrid.

 

[Sir_Loin]

Dunno what everyone is have a whinge about. Doing his best to cement the #1 pick. Should poll well in the b&f.

 

[DeseRigs]

His body is absolutely cooked at the moment and his performances have reflected that. A fit Hopper doesn't fall to his knees in a contest, yet he's doing this every time. He wouldn't be playing if not for the fact we have about 7 fit players on our AFL list. Limping to the end of the season much like most of our team.

 

[db26]

His body is absolutely cooked at the moment and his performances have reflected that. A fit Hopper doesn't fall to his knees in a contest, yet he's doing this every time. He wouldn't be playing if not for the fact we have about 7 fit players on our AFL list. Limping to the end of the season much like most of our team.

He had the same issues at gws his last 2 seasons and has been a disaster for us to many excuses for this bloke. I would trade him. He can't even do the basics right.

 

[tugga]

He had the same issues at gws his last 2 seasons and has been a disaster for us to many excuses for this bloke. I would trade him. He can't even do the basics right.

Trade him for what?
No club is taking on his five-year contract.

 

[Morro]

Will surprise many next year if he can get a clear run at it. is literally our best contested possession player. Surely this bad luck of injuries ends and we see the best of him.

Noticed TT start forward this week, that should be the plan from now one.

 

[baazzaa]

The reason to pay a decent chunk of a contract elsewhere is because there's a high probability he won't be in our best 22 in 2028/29 but the MC are going to feel compelled to play him because of his salary. We must have the cap space to do that easily. How about Rioli + Hopper with lots of money towards his contract for Lukosius + picks.

Also I imagine injury-prone players like JH probably want to get away from Louie 'The Butcher' Meehan.

 

[Vassp]

Feel sorry for him when he is earning 8 x the average FT wage to play 14/23 weekends a year?

People don't understand how much these guys are making, for subpar performance.
I don't mind the wage, just perform to something resembling the level, at least perform half the games, not 1 good game in 15. that's no where near good enough.

 

[captain blood 17]

I can't defend this guy anymore. Time to seek a trade on him.

 

[Meteoric Rise]

I can't defend this guy anymore. Time to seek a trade on him.

Lol, in a team that struggles to win hard balls you want to get rid of our most prolific by miles hard ball get winner because you "can't defend this guy anymore."

Don't take up list management.

 

[TheOptimum18]

At his very best, Hopper is our best contest and clearance mid on the list. Whether he ever gets back to that will remain to be seen.

There are 2 factors that make me still defend him, one factor he controls, one factor that he can't.

First of all, he needs to get his body right. That is on him, If he can't do it this off season, then I wouldn't bother with the second factor, it would be Hopper making a choice of not trying to get the best out of himself, and I don't want that kind of player at the club. ATM, a lot of the issues with him going to ground (in my opinion) is his distrust of his own body in fear of getting injured again.

Assuming he does everything he can to get his body right, the second factor is team selection, which he can't control. I'm sorry, but just a look at the weekend's midfield, and we had TT, Hops, Prestia, Graham and Ross. Graham may be in the team occasionally to tag an opponent, sure, but he isn't really a Finn Maginness-type hard tagger, so if he sees a free ball, he will still try to win it. That makes 5 midfielders who are all slow, ball-first, one-paced, and generally poor kicks (apart from Ross, although I still wouldn't class Ross as an elite kick). I don't think you can name another club in the league that plays 5 similar-typed midfielders who all pretty much want to do the same job. Take 2 of them out, and only have 2 of the remaining 3 at any given centre bounce. Ross can clearly rotate off the wing if needed, and TT can play of a HF line as the midfielder that comes up to stoppages. Give some of these midfielders (and in this case Hopper) the space to actually do what they excel at, instead of crowding them out with too many similar-typed players.

 

[tigersnag]

I wonder if he could drop some weight and become a shut down/lock down player. Would only work on players without a lot of speed.

 

[Tackle Bag]

At his very best, Hopper is our best contest and clearance mid on the list. Whether he ever gets back to that will remain to be seen.

There are 2 factors that make me still defend him, one factor he controls, one factor that he can't.

First of all, he needs to get his body right. That is on him, If he can't do it this off season, then I wouldn't bother with the second factor, it would be Hopper making a choice of not trying to get the best out of himself, and I don't want that kind of player at the club. ATM, a lot of the issues with him going to ground (in my opinion) is his distrust of his own body in fear of getting injured again.

Assuming he does everything he can to get his body right, the second factor is team selection, which he can't control. I'm sorry, but just a look at the weekend's midfield, and we had TT, Hops, Prestia, Graham and Ross. Graham may be in the team occasionally to tag an opponent, sure, but he isn't really a Finn Maginness-type hard tagger, so if he sees a free ball, he will still try to win it. That makes 5 midfielders who are all slow, ball-first, one-paced, and generally poor kicks (apart from Ross, although I still wouldn't class Ross as an elite kick). I don't think you can name another club in the league that plays 5 similar-typed midfielders who all pretty much want to do the same job. Take 2 of them out, and only have 2 of the remaining 3 at any given centre bounce. Ross can clearly rotate off the wing if needed, and TT can play of a HF line as the midfielder that comes up to stoppages. Give some of these midfielders (and in this case Hopper) the space to actually do what they excel at, instead of crowding them out with too many similar-typed players.

Spot on re selection. We are way to one dimensional.

Prestia should have been told thanks but your time is up, Graham is out the door. Our midfield balance could have been improved with those two changes alone with potential spots for new talent from this draft opened up.

We’ve committed to Hopper and Taranto long term. We need to build the midfield around them, and that unfortunately means no room for Prestia.

 

[Tygrys]

Will surprise many next year if he can get a clear run at it. is literally our best contested possession player. Surely this bad luck of injuries ends and we see the best of him.

Noticed TT start forward this week, that should be the plan from now one.

His fan club were saying exactly the same thing about him this time last year. The only surprise will probably be whether the same excuses will be used or whether a new more creative batch will be invented for him when he doesn't deliver. Can hardly wait to see which it will be.

 

[RichmondEshays]

would trade him for josh ward

 

[Wooden Robot]

Lol, in a team that struggles to win hard balls you want to get rid of our most prolific by miles hard ball get winner because you "can't defend this guy anymore."

Don't take up list management.

It’s great watching him win the odd hard contested ball only to butcher it and give it straight back to someone from the opposition who uses the ball cleanly.

Seen better skills at Auskick.

Trade has been nothing but a flop- doubly so for what we gave up!

 

[Morro]

His fan club were saying exactly the same thing about him this time last year. The only surprise will probably be whether the same excuses will be used or whether a new more creative batch will be invented for him when he doesn't deliver. Can hardly wait to see which it will be.

If that excites you, you need to get out more

Given our ability to keep players on the park, it does seem a massive IF, but he has shown at his bets, he is an elite inside mid, but I reckon you know that.

 

[baazzaa]

We’ve committed to Hopper and Taranto long term. We need to build the midfield around them, and that unfortunately means no room for Prestia.

Graham and Prestia are much more balanced mids than JH, JH is the main culprit in making us slow and bad on transition, but he also has been terrible on the inside over the last two years so we're getting beaten at all phases in the midfield thanks to him.

Realistically Ross, TT and Prestia are all better clearance players than JH on current form. So if you try to fix the balance by taking them away from the centre, we're going to become uncompetitive there again. Prestia going into the midfield was one major reason we came back against the Hawks.

Honestly if he wasn't 2 years into a 7 year deal would he even be playing next week? With MRJ and Baker to come in? McAuliffe is one good pre-season from probably overtaking JH, and we're going to have a half-dozen top picks in a draft stacked full of midfielders. We don't need complements to JH, we need a much better replacement.