Player Watch #28 Josh Gibcus Re-Signed 2026

[Rioli2Rioli]

Wow just Wow

Kid is a 1st year player yet some expect him to be the next Rance or Grimes as a 18 year old

There were 10 senior players i would be having a run at before this kid but being in defence the mistakes cost more
some of the easiest marks getting dropped and the total inability to stop Neal were the reasons we even kept them in the game

 

[Coach_Required]

Wow just Wow

Kid is a 1st year player yet some expect him to be the next Rance or Grimes as a 18 year old

There were 10 senior players i would be having a run at before this kid but being in defence the mistakes cost more
some of the easiest marks getting dropped and the total inability to stop Neal were the reasons we even kept them in the game

Funny thing is some of our supporters have short term memories, Rance in his first few seasons with us people had him down for delisting and useless.
These guys are 1st year players, time for some to take a chill pill.

 

[Rayzorwire]

Feels like deja vu of the Ralphsmith thread.

Gibcus had covered over 14km by halfway through the last quarter (from memory only Kmac and Short were ~200m ahead of him), tired kids make mistakes. He's getting games because he's already an absolutely elite runner for any size player, let alone a first year KPD, what he is doing is dead set freakish.

At the same time he was still pulling off some beautiful pieces of play in that last quarter. The contest he won on the wing then kicked I50 and would have hit the leading forward on the chest if he hadn't slipped over was sublime.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion and there's some merit to suggestions we would have been better off setting up smaller without him (or with the skipper out there instead for that matter), but there's zero merit to assertions that he's being gifted games before he's ready, or that he's not tracking like a budding star.

 

[Rocco sifreddi]

Kid is gonna be a star , if anything it taught him what finals pressure is all about, great learning curve.

 

[Cdog71]

If Grimes had have been ready they would have played him there’s no two ways about it.
I think Gibcus is a champ and he’ll have a long off season with some of the moments from last night but he won’t ever want a game like that again.
The only real alternative I can see was you play Soldo and put Miller back, hopefully Miller can see himself playing more like Nank in traffic and works on that, too many dud handballs.
Great athlete though.

 

[Mr Magic]

Kid is gonna be a star , if anything it taught him what finals pressure is all about, great learning curve.

I am not blaming Gibcus, he should have been on Hipwood from the start and then he was robbed by the umpire later anyway

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

He actually didnt need to play as we had balta move back to cover grimes. He was brought in too hastly. His vfl wasnt great too. Has no confidence as a result and not surprised he performed so badly tonight.

Spot on . Should have brought in Mansell to play on smalls and allowed Broad to play his normal floating role . Instead they loaded up with talls one being gibcus who has looked at sea plenty of times when the heat has been on . Whilst Charlie was simply to slippery for broad.

 

[TigerTime88]

Good experiance for him to cap off a great first season. Going to be a very good player.

 

[tigerfan1961]

Spot on . Should have brought in Mansell to play on smalls and allowed Broad to play his normal floating role . Instead they loaded up with talls one being gibcus who has looked at sea plenty of times when the heat has been on . Whilst Charlie was simply to slippery for broad.

Wrong!!!! The whole structure was upset when their ruck got injured, as McDud and Spudiher had to play ruck. Meant we had one tall defender too many, but how could they possibly forecast that?
Some of the posters on here sledging a young 19 year old key defender, in his first season and playing his first final, are a disgrace. Yes, I was as frustrated as others at some of the errors but slipping over on a dewy surface sometimes happens. Gibcus has shown more than enough this season to show what a good player he’s going to be. He didn’t cost us the game, there were plenty of others that made mistakes or fell over at the wrong moment.
Imo, our fumbling in general, especially around the middle of the ground cost us dearly

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

Wrong!!!! The whole structure was upset when their ruck got injured, as McDud and Spudiher had to play ruck. Meant we had one tall defender too many, but how could they possibly forecast that?
Some of the posters on here sledging a young 19 year old key defender, in his first season and playing his first final, are a disgrace. Yes, I was as frustrated as others at some of the errors but slipping over on a dewy surface sometimes happens. Gibcus has shown more than enough this season to show what a good player he’s going to be. He didn’t cost us the game, there were plenty of others that made mistakes or fell over at the wrong moment.
Imo, our fumbling in general, especially around the middle of the ground cost us dearly

Being 19 years of age has **** all to do with my post . The structure of the back line was screwed when Grimes who is able to play on smalls got injured and they replaced him with gibcus who can’t .
Do you think broad looked comfortable on Cameron ?
People are also able to have an opinion and it’s fact Gibcus had some terrible moments last night which cost dearly .
He was bought back , from being dropped, when his form was meh and he was clearly out of his depth last night .

 

[Grrr]

So many harsh judges. Made mistakes but who didn't. Will be a star so play him, like Sonsie, you roll the dice.

 

[Dr Tigris]

Gibcus did some amazing things last night. Some sooo good and some sooo bad.

Not clean at times, but lovely at others.

He'll learn and come back.

By the end our younger players were making mistakes, and that cost us the game.

But the fact that they were making mistakes taking the game on, and had put themselves in the position to do that is awesome.

Gibcus will be a star. he's had an amazing first year in the AFL.

 

[Profop]

Being 19 years of age has * all to do with my post . The structure of the back line was screwed when Grimes who is able to play on smalls got injured and they replaced him with gibcus who can’t .
Do you think broad looked comfortable on Cameron ?
People are also able to have an opinion and it’s fact Gibcus had some terrible moments last night which cost dearly .
He was bought back , from being dropped, when his form was meh and he was clearly out of his depth last night .

It's not Gibcus' fault that Broad couldn't handle Cameron. We clearly went into the game with Broad being that match-up, you could maybe pin it on the match committee and you definitely can on Broad but in no way was Cameron's performance Gibcus' fault

 

[tiger_tough]

Feels like deja vu of the Ralphsmith thread.

Gibcus had covered over 14km by halfway through the last quarter (from memory only Kmac and Short were ~200m ahead of him), tired kids make mistakes. He's getting games because he's already an absolutely elite runner for any size player, let alone a first year KPD, what he is doing is dead set freakish.

At the same time he was still pulling off some beautiful pieces of play in that last quarter. The contest he won on the wing then kicked I50 and would have hit the leading forward on the chest if he hadn't slipped over was sublime.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion and there's some merit to suggestions we would have been better off setting up smaller without him (or with the skipper out there instead for that matter), but there's zero merit to assertions that he's being gifted games before he's ready, or that he's not tracking like a budding star.

Ryan Garthwaite regularly ran 14+ Kms a game. Doesn't mean anything when you're not impacting positively. He ****ed up nearly every time he was involved last night. Slipping over, turnovers, not spoiling the ball over the line, fumbling multiple marks (didn't even take one).

I don't blame him, I blame the selection panel because he's been horrible for 3 months and was still getting gifted games.

 

[Wooden Robot]

Wrong!!!! The whole structure was upset when their ruck got injured, as McDud and Spudiher had to play ruck. Meant we had one tall defender too many, but how could they possibly forecast that?
Some of the posters on here sledging a young 19 year old key defender, in his first season and playing his first final, are a disgrace. Yes, I was as frustrated as others at some of the errors but slipping over on a dewy surface sometimes happens. Gibcus has shown more than enough this season to show what a good player he’s going to be. He didn’t cost us the game, there were plenty of others that made mistakes or fell over at the wrong moment.
Imo, our fumbling in general, especially around the middle of the ground cost us dearly

As a tall - and especially as a first-year player - can make plenty of allowances for Gibcus. He'll learn from it and should be solid going forward.
On the other hand, Balta was plain ordinary last night and how he has escaped attention astounds me.

 

[tropicaltiger]

Spot on . Should have brought in Mansell to play on smalls and allowed Broad to play his normal floating role . Instead they loaded up with talls one being gibcus who has looked at sea plenty of times when the heat has been on . Whilst Charlie was simply to slippery for broad.

cameron would have spanked mansell and then the crystall ball readers would have said WTF didn't gibcus play instead. youngsters gibcus, cumbers, sonsie, miller all made blunders....we need to take the good with the bad with these kids....gibbo needs some advice on boot selection too.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

cameron would have spanked mansell and then the crystall ball readers would have said WTF didn't gibcus play instead. youngsters gibcus, cumbers, sonsie, miller all made blunders....we need to take the good with the bad with these kids....gibbo needs some advice on boot selection too.

Mansell would have belted Cameron before that happened .

 

[Vassp]

Wow just Wow

Kid is a 1st year player yet some expect him to be the next Rance or Grimes as a 18 year old

There were 10 senior players i would be having a run at before this kid but being in defence the mistakes cost more
some of the easiest marks getting dropped and the total inability to stop Neal were the reasons we even kept them in the game

agree 150%, thank you for putting it in perspective, absolutely. He did more good than bad.

Edwards hardly made an impact except for a great tackle.
Neal destroyed us, can't let a player win the ball so easily. it was just bad coaching. I would've put vlaus on him from the start or picket.

 

[Muddiemoose]

It's not Gibcus' fault that Broad couldn't handle Cameron. We clearly went into the game with Broad being that match-up, you could maybe pin it on the match committee and you definitely can on Broad but in no way was Cameron's performance Gibcus' fault

Thought Rioli was a good match up for him last time we played after grimes went down

But also noticed that Rioli seemed a little bit lame after the first qtr and didn’t have the same impact
Makes me wonder if he was planed to be the back up match up but couldn’t due to some kind of injury during the game

But agree re Gibcus
Had some amazing moments but also some howlers but will be better for the experience and didn’t see anything that made me think his selection was a mistake

 

[DM#4]

It's not Gibcus' fault that Broad couldn't handle Cameron. We clearly went into the game with Broad being that match-up, you could maybe pin it on the match committee and you definitely can on Broad but in no way was Cameron's performance Gibcus' fault

Broad hurled his guts up numerous times on the field just before the 3rd quarter started so not sure exactly what was going on there and if he was crook before the game.

 

[Rayzorwire]

Ryan Garthwaite regularly ran 14+ Kms a game. Doesn't mean anything when you're not impacting positively. He *ed up nearly every time he was involved last night. Slipping over, turnovers, not spoiling the ball over the line, fumbling multiple marks (didn't even take one).

I don't blame him, I blame the selection panel because he's been horrible for 3 months and was still getting gifted games.

Garthwaite wasn't in his first season, he'd had years to learn to cope with the running demands.

I was referring to the posts saying Gibcus can't play, won't make it, is way overrated etc. - that's not the point you're making, I gather, in terms of his overall worth.

I agree he had some horrible moments in the game, but there were plenty of things he did well too.

Thought Rioli was a good match up for him last time we played after grimes went down

But also noticed that Rioli seemed a little bit lame after the first qtr and didn’t have the same impact
Makes me wonder if he was planed to be the back up match up but couldn’t due to some kind of injury during the game

Rioli got a knock in the first quarter and Shai was down for minutes with a poke in the eye, don't know if either were right for the rest of the game.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

He'll be a good player but shouldn't have been picked in that position in a final. I called for him to be dropped for that final.
He basically gave 3 goals away.

 

[Marcel Proust]

He'll be a good player but shouldn't have been picked in that position in a final. I called for him to be dropped for that final.
He basically gave 3 goals away.

I'm not sure if he should have played in the final either. Ditto sonsie.

However going forward I'd be ok with starting Gibcus ahead of Tarrant if there is one spot up for grabs.

Who knows how much forward time he is expected to get next season. If at all

 

[Kapital city TIGER]

Reckon they figured, not a chance to get to the last dance, took the opportunity to get finals xp into 2 really promising youngsters who might have had it in them to rise, but...didn't. Am ok with it given the umpsticles we faced. More spewing about 25 other things.

 

[Drunken Wookie]

Reckon they figured, not a chance to get to the last dance, took the opportunity to get finals xp into 2 really promising youngsters who might have had it in them to rise, but...didn't. Am ok with it given the umpsticles we faced. More spewing about 25 other things.

I agree, I loved seeing Hardwick put his nuts on the chopping block with those selections. Finals experience is pure gold for development. Next year when they see finals they'll own it and it'll be largely because Dimma backed them in 2022.