Player Watch #29: Will Phillips [Part II] - Extends to End of 2025

[shinboner magic]

Don't mind if he comes in to tag but not on Cripps who's too big. That leaves Walsh but I don't think he has the running power.

Bedford from gws tagged him a couple weeks ago - he’s smaller than Will

 

[Junk yard]

you don't tag an opponents 2nd best mid?

why? do their possessions not count?

I must be an idiot, along with our coaching staff.

 

[CharlieMortdecai]

I must be an idiot, along with our coaching staff.

Dunno about an idiot but you're ****ing tedious.

 

[Marstermind]

I'd have played him last week and I would play him this week.

High draft pick who spent 3.5 years in the limbo of injuries/illness/lack of form/lack of opportunity finally finds a role in the team and performs it really well, but at the first opportunity is dropped again. So much for playing the kids and backing them in. Will would have every right to feel a bit miffed.

 

[Sillygit]

I must be an idiot, along with our coaching staff.

you suggested that if we played will we would have won, so yea probably, pretty idiotic thing to say

 

[perplexed]

Tagging sometimes works, but mostly it doesn't anymore. Finn McGuiness is a much better tagger than Will, but rarely gets a game because playing him messes up Hawthorn's structure. We are building a powerful midfield where a tagger shouldn't often be needed.

And whilst I think Will has been okay as a tagger, I don't think he is well suited to the role. He is too polite, doesn't have great endurance or strength, and it is too easy to break his tag by taking him to the goal square. The number of gun players he could be effective on for a whole game is fairly limited. I think we would be better off teaching a campaigner like Ford how to do it.

 

[Junk yard]

I'd have played him last week and I would play him this week.

High draft pick who spent 3.5 years in the limbo of injuries/illness/lack of form/lack of opportunity finally finds a role in the team and performs it really well, but at the first opportunity is dropped again. So much for playing the kids and backing them in. Will would have every right to feel a bit miffed.

Did you watch his VFL performance? We don't owe him anything, certainly not relative to his draft number.

 

[Marstermind]

Did you watch his VFL performance? We don't owe him anything, certainly not relative to his draft number.

No. If it was no good I wouldn't be surprised. I watched his AFL performances and his past month was the best block of footy he's played in his (bound to be short) career at North Melbourne.

 

[tazaa]

And it's been abandoned, fair to say the coaching staff don't believe it was successful or sustainable.

Mate, the one week we abandon it we get touched up by 79 points.
Following two weeks where Longmuir sent Young to Gulden and Ross Lyon sent Windhager to Warner.


It was abandoned because match committee couldn't find a spot for Phillips and made room for Dylan Stephens instead.
Fisher couldn't even get a game.

It was a mulligan.

 

[Chewy Chewman]

I get why the coaches left him out of the side. But we are not at that stage where we can go head to head with the opposition midfields just yet.

The most important thing for this team right now is to be competitive. Playing Phillips as that defensive midfielder makes us such a better team and will help the likes of LDU and Zurhaar want to sign.

 

[King Corey]

The argument wasn't that you can't or shouldn't tag lower tier mids - it was that your tagger should ideally be able to tag any of the opposing mids.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

The argument wasn't that you can't or shouldn't tag lower tier mids - it was that your tagger should ideally be able to tag any of the opposing mids.

He’s significant limitations as both a tagging and non tagging midfielder.

 

[swaeney]

The argument wasn't that you can't or shouldn't tag lower tier mids - it was that your tagger should ideally be able to tag any of the opposing mids.

Exactly. And any of the oppo mids that he has tagged this year he’s nullified them to where they haven’t really had an influence on the game whilst he was on them.

This garbage where he couldn’t keep up with Walsh or Gulden - he smoked Nick Daicos the AFL golden boy. Following week he blanketed Clayton Oliver - nobody can honestly sit there and say that he would’ve offered less than Shiels 5 disposals on the weekend.

 

[Junk yard]

Exactly. And any of the oppo mids that he has tagged this year he’s nullified them to where they haven’t really had an influence on the game whilst he was on them.

This garbage where he couldn’t keep up with Walsh or Gulden - he smoked Nick Daicos the AFL golden boy. Following week he blanketed Clayton Oliver - nobody can honestly sit there and say that he would’ve offered less than Shiels 5 disposals on the weekend.

Don't know about you but most people don't get paid for half a job.

 

[perplexed]

Exactly. And any of the oppo mids that he has tagged this year he’s nullified them to where they haven’t really had an influence on the game whilst he was on them.

This garbage where he couldn’t keep up with Walsh or Gulden - he smoked Nick Daicos the AFL golden boy. Following week he blanketed Clayton Oliver - nobody can honestly sit there and say that he would’ve offered less than Shiels 5 disposals on the weekend.

Phillips smoked Daicos? Daicos's second half won Collingwood the game - he got 7 coaches votes and was close to BOG. Will did a great job in the first half when everything was going our way. But after half time the tag was broken simply by sending Daicos forward. Then, when Nic moved back into the middle, Will was too gassed and had to be subbed off. Collingwood exposed Will's limitations as a tagger - he can only play midfield and can't run out games.

 

[Gumble Frankieton]

Who da fook is Danny Jacobs? It's up to Will, dropped for the weekend and he responds with 22 and some average efforts. His fitness is nowhere near the standard required.

Strangely no one remembers the 2009 Barry Priest medal winner

2009 Barry Priest Medal Winner is Danny Jacobs - Western Region Football League - GameDay

2009 Barry Priest Medal Winner is Danny Jacobs - Western Region Football League - GameDay, fixtures, results, ladders, statistics, news and events for the Western Region Football League, on GameDay, the Home of Grassroots Sport

websites.mygameday.app

 

[Sillygit]

The ebbs and flows of this thread are truly hilarious. I want Will to get an extension becuase I want him at the club, but my gosh the potential for further mental gymnastics is a close second.

Though, more likely will be a sudden silence once more, much like when Will was in the team.

 

[swaeney]

Phillips smoked Daicos? Daicos's second half won Collingwood the game - he got 7 coaches votes and was close to BOG. Will did a great job in the first half when everything was going our way. But after half time the tag was broken simply by sending Daicos forward. Then, when Nic moved back into the middle, Will was too gassed and had to be subbed off. Collingwood exposed Will's limitations as a tagger - he can only play midfield and can't run out games.

Phillips played directly on Daicos for a half, while he played on him. As I said in my above post.

Shiels played on him in the second half…. Look what happened. Yes Will was too gassed and had to be subbed off, I’m not sure if there are many players in the league that could run with Nick Daicos for a whole game?

 

[perplexed]

Strangely no one remembers the 2009 Barry Priest medal winner

2009 Barry Priest Medal Winner is Danny Jacobs - Western Region Football League - GameDay

2009 Barry Priest Medal Winner is Danny Jacobs - Western Region Football League - GameDay, fixtures, results, ladders, statistics, news and events for the Western Region Football League, on GameDay, the Home of Grassroots Sport

websites.mygameday.app

Danny was also part of the notorious Veale deal. Where Hawthorn, Essendon and WB conspired to prevent Jade Rawlings getting to North.

 

[Junk yard]

Phillips played directly on Daicos for a half, while he played on him. As I said in my above post.

Shiels played on him in the second half…. Look what happened. Yes Will was too gassed and had to be subbed off, I’m not sure if there are many players in the league that could run with Nick Daicos for a whole game?

There'd be heaps. It's the one prerequisite for being a tagger, that and being able to play in the defensive half. Will can't do either.

 

[Blightys Barrel]

 

[Junk yard]

I'm not that old!! Reckon in a few months time I won't need my therapist anymore...

 

[Spud11]

I'd have played him last week and I would play him this week.

High draft pick who spent 3.5 years in the limbo of injuries/illness/lack of form/lack of opportunity finally finds a role in the team and performs it really well, but at the first opportunity is dropped again. So much for playing the kids and backing them in. Will would have every right to feel a bit miffed.

People forget this.

 

[Sillygit]

People forget this.

people intentionally misrepresent and dismiss this

 

[Junk yard]

people intentionally misrepresent and dismiss this

He missed a season. That's no excuse for the rubbish he's put up in the VFL this year. He's played 9 games for two coaches votes, our project forward Finbar has managed 10, Lazz 21 and Watkins 34. He's been putrid and his effort is not there.