- Aug 17, 2018
- 1,200
- 3,173
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
In week 1 he played well, attacked the high ball aggressively and hit targets by foot, save a couple late in the game as he fatigued.Very easy to bag the bloke when you are looking at it in 2D. In 3D the distance may be such that he had no hope of getting their to contest in a marking situation, so better to get there to be able to maybe stand on the mark or pressure the Hawthorn player if he elected to play on, which he did.
Also, if you observe the African players running, they do so with a loping action, which may appear casual in nature, but in fact belies their true speed across the ground.
These 2nd week efforts didn't look great, particularly in the first example when he could have identified that Weddle was a player likely to break and burst and use his speed. He could have closed earlier. I think he got lost at times and the constant turnovers in your team can make it difficult to defend. It's hard to know when to back yourself in and attack because of a lack of structure and predictability in your defensive structure. Harder for some younger players to know when to attack, when to defend and you can lose confidence when you make a mistake. Your senior defensive leaders wouldn't be my pick in the league to try and develop under either. They are poor users by foot and aren't great decision-makers. How often did you see Geelong bring the ball to ground and know they had a man back from the stoppage to hit by hand, create space from the contest and then clear the area under a little less pressure. Good, well-established defensive teams like Geelong and Collingwood have that set up. North often does not.
He is actually very quick, despite being an effortless mover over the turf. Refer his draft combine times over 20m.
His movement this week was hampered after colliding with Ginnivan. He got a jab after that.
He is intelligent and team-oriented and has athleticism to work with but needs time and patience.