Player Watch #30: Charlie Comben - defender or forward? CC T5 in the AFL for avg.intercept marks p/game - re-signed until end of 2027

[rooboytom_90]

I ****ing love Comben. I loved him today as a CHF (& last year) and I loved him as a CHB. We need another one. He is willing to get hurt for the team consistently. We looked so much better up fwd once he was able to halve contests - especially with how bad our kicking and decision making is going I50..... and it brought the rest of the fwd line into the game way more.

 

[Sphynx]

He’s 5 x the player behind the ball. Some players just are.

In every game he’s played forward he hasn’t taken a massive amount of marks for various reasons. He just does t clunk them like he does back.

He’s a guy that loves a run and jump at the ball, he likes to sit off the pack and come in from behind.

You can’t do this as a forward as you have a direct opponent bodying you, blocking you or spoiling you.

He could absolutely be one of the best key backs in the comp. He won’t be better than a B grade forward.

Mitchell and the Hawks box must have pissed themselves when he was no longer in the back line.

Absolute madness from Clarko.

 

[Harris 10]

He’s 5 x the player behind the ball. Some players just are.

In every game he’s played forward he hasn’t taken a massive amount of marks for various reasons. He just does t clunk them like he does back.

He’s a guy that loves a run and jump at the ball, he likes to sit off the pack and come in from behind.

You can’t do this as a forward as you have a direct opponent bodying you, blocking you or spoiling you.

He could absolutely be one of the best key backs in the comp. He won’t be better than a B grade forward.

Mitchell and the Hawks box must have pissed themselves when he was no longer in the back line.

Absolute madness from Clarko.

He looks great behind the ball and I agree he could become one of the best KPD in the game.

But the game was over after 20 minutes of diabolical football, so was happy to have a look at him forward.

 

[Uncle_Leo]

Did anyone notice during the 2nd quarter after another hawks goal he got the defenders all together and gave them an alright spray.

In his 12th game. McDonald and Corr just stood there with their heads down.

Says so much about where we are at and what our “leaders” offer up.

Charlie has more leadership in his pinkie than Corr and McDonald combined

 

[Only Forwards]

Did anyone notice during the 2nd quarter after another hawks goal he got the defenders all together and gave them an alright spray.

In his 12th game. McDonald and Corr just stood there with their heads down.

Says so much about where we are at and what our “leaders” offer up.

Charlie has more leadership in his pinkie than Corr and McDonald combined

Yep.

He’s a leader.

Into the leadership group next year.

 

[Harris 10]

Did anyone notice during the 2nd quarter after another hawks goal he got the defenders all together and gave them an alright spray.

In his 12th game. McDonald and Corr just stood there with their heads down.

Says so much about where we are at and what our “leaders” offer up.

Charlie has more leadership in his pinkie than Corr and McDonald combined

I did see it, he went nuts. McDonald and Corr didn’t know what hit them.

There was also another time Comben went off at Corr. He let Chol go who took an uncontested mark 20 metres clear. Comben lost his shite at him.

 

[Elite Master]

You just know that McDonald & Corr hate Comben because Comben is an alpha who has the guts to dish out cold hard facts.

 

[Supreme_Chancellor]

You just know that McDonald & Corr hate Comben because Comben is an alpha who has the guts to dish out cold hard facts.

And cos he's actually a talented footballer, and younger and better looking.

 

[perplexed]

He’s 5 x the player behind the ball. Some players just are.

In every game he’s played forward he hasn’t taken a massive amount of marks for various reasons. He just does t clunk them like he does back.

He’s a guy that loves a run and jump at the ball, he likes to sit off the pack and come in from behind.

You can’t do this as a forward as you have a direct opponent bodying you, blocking you or spoiling you.

He could absolutely be one of the best key backs in the comp. He won’t be better than a B grade forward.

Mitchell and the Hawks box must have pissed themselves when he was no longer in the back line.

Absolute madness from Clarko.

I agree that he looks better as a defender, however our forward line was a mess until he went forward and freed up Larkey. Ideally we'd have one of him at both ends. And whilst he was looking good in defense we were leaking goals at an alarming rate. We performed significantly better on the scoreboard after he went forward.

 

[Bubba Moses]

Why is it that we throw him forward when he was going well in defence but Sheezel, who isn’t a defender, is kept in the backline and seen as way too necessary to be played forward?

Good question! For some reason we are so stubborn as if we didn't want to give the media the satisfaction of saying "I told you so".

 

[Only Forwards]

We performed significantly better on the scoreboard after he went forward.

Nope

5.5 in the first half

5.3 in the second.

 

[perplexed]

Nope

5.5 in the first half

5.3 in the second.

Err. That is only half the scoreboard.

 

[amaz199]

He had every right to be upset.

His jumper was being pulled, none of his teammates were doing anything whilst he had to jostle and no one seemed to be playing their role.

It was just a cluster ****. I feel for the poor lad but our midfield didn't help.

 

[harper2bastinac]

keep him up forward, yes he’s played well back but larkeys a better player with him up there

 

[Sphynx]

I agree that he looks better as a defender, however our forward line was a mess until he went forward and freed up Larkey. Ideally we'd have one of him at both ends. And whilst he was looking good in defense we were leaking goals at an alarming rate. We performed significantly better on the scoreboard after he went forward.

His performances down back and not moving the needle are an example of the game plan and structures being absolutely ****ed.

Uncontested ball movement, broken zones and literally 10-20 meter pockets of space for opposition forwards - It wouldn't matter if the key backs were Dench, Silvagni and Scarlett.

I'm not exaggerating when Im saying Comben has been one of the best defenders in the game statistically in the last 3 weeks.

If his name was Sam Taylor, it would have made no difference.

Now, if you just remove the one guy who is dominating aerially, putting up massive intercept numbers, barely losing a one-on-one contest, all of these scenarios now become 50-50's or better for the opposition.

I'm sorry, I've seen plenty of Comben as a CHF, he is not fit to lace the boots of Comben the defender after only 3-4 games there.

He's an athletic CHF, sure, but he's not a particularly strong mark ahead of the ball when sat on by a defender, he's not a big goal kicker and it will require him to roll through the ruck.

When you play forward and are hitting up the lead all day, you have are much more susceptible to injury with defenders running over the back of you all game also.

If we play him forward, he will move clubs on $1m a season to a club who identifies the bonafide star defender sitting there for the taking.


Comben was one of the very few massive positives of this season and they risked completely destroying his confidence in a few minutes yesterday.

 

[Its a Process]

His performances down back and not moving the needle are an example of the game plan and structures being absolutely ****ed.

I'm not exaggerating when Im saying Comben has been one of the best defenders in the game statistically in the last 3 weeks.

If his name was Sam Taylor, it would have made no difference.

Now, if you just remove the one guy who is dominating aerially, putting up massive intercept numbers, barely losing a one-on-one contest, all of these scenarios now become 50-50's or better for the opposition.

I'm sorry, I've seen plenty of Comben as a CHF, he is not fit to lace the boots of Comben the defender after only 3-4 games there.

If we play him forward, he will move clubs on $1m a season to a club who identifies the bonafide star defender sitting there for the taking.

I agree - His move to CHB is one of the rare wins we have had this year and he should play the entire back of the year behind the footy.

 

[Flawed Genius]

His performances down back and not moving the needle are an example of the game plan and structures being absolutely ****ed.

I'm not exaggerating when Im saying Comben has been one of the best defenders in the game statistically in the last 3 weeks.

If his name was Sam Taylor, it would have made no difference.

Now, if you just remove the one guy who is dominating aerially, putting up massive intercept numbers, barely losing a one-on-one contest, all of these scenarios now become 50-50's or better for the opposition.

I'm sorry, I've seen plenty of Comben as a CHF, he is not fit to lace the boots of Comben the defender after only 3-4 games there.

If we play him forward, he will move clubs on $1m a season to a club who identifies the bonafide star defender sitting there for the taking.

While I don't disagree with you, surely there was an iota of thinking from the coaches box of 'gee Tyler Sellers is giving nothing, let's at least try and win the game by having an aggressive KPF up there to partner with Larkey instead of Sellers leading to the same spots'.

May as well try and win it 110-105 than losing it 120-65. Obviously we still sucked because we're bad, but I at least can justify it by saying it's the coaching staff pulling whatever lever they had

 

[Sphynx]

While I don't disagree with you, surely there was an iota of thinking from the coaches box of 'gee Tyler Sellers is giving nothing, let's at least try and win the game by having an aggressive KPF up there to partner with Larkey instead of Sellers leading to the same spots'.

May as well try and win it 110-105 than losing it 120-65. Obviously we still sucked because we're bad, but I at least can justify it by saying it's the coaching staff pulling whatever lever they had

It should have been move Biggie Nugyon as a tall option forward, the guy losing every contest or trailing in his opponent by 20m.

Not the guy putting up better numbers than Harris Andrews and Sam Taylor who lead the ground for intercept marks in the first half.

I'd have moved Corr sooner than I would have Comben.


Noble made some bad gameday moves, but I'm not sure I've seen a worse in game move than I did yesterday regarding Comben.



Another option might have to be fast tracking Goad and playing 2 rucks. Goad is nowhere near ready, but he might be able to chop out Xerri so X can play 50% of the game forward.

 

[DesertRoo]

Did anyone notice during the 2nd quarter after another hawks goal he got the defenders all together and gave them an alright spray.

In his 12th game. McDonald and Corr just stood there with their heads down.

Says so much about where we are at and what our “leaders” offer up.

Charlie has more leadership in his pinkie than Corr and McDonald combined

Maybe he was moved forward, because he was about to break some of the stalwarts rather than adding anything extra up forward.
Give him the keys to defence and let him start picking who he wants to play with.

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Fair enough if you don't think Charlie made a difference up forward. We needed to kick goals, not defend as we were well behind and didn't look like scoring.

We need to find someone else besides Larkey, in aint CCJ, it aint Sellers, Finbar is a mile off and that's ok fyi.

I look forward to the recruiting team picking up a midfielder with the first pick in the ND.

The funny thing is, our recruiting and general drafting strategy has been so poor that for all the criminal lack of KPF support for our forwards and kids, we do indeed probably need to draft a mid capable of standing up when the pressure is on.

Jesus wept…

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Did anyone notice during the 2nd quarter after another hawks goal he got the defenders all together and gave them an alright spray.

In his 12th game. McDonald and Corr just stood there with their heads down.

Says so much about where we are at and what our “leaders” offer up.

Charlie has more leadership in his pinkie than Corr and McDonald combined

Love that from Comben and Sheeze.

The thing that prevents me from going all in on Larkey for captain is that I’m not seeing this, and I’m not seeing him win enough 50/50s to be able to walk any walk behind any talk.

 

[perplexed]

His performances down back and not moving the needle are an example of the game plan and structures being absolutely ****ed.

Uncontested ball movement, broken zones and literally 10-20 meter pockets of space for opposition forwards - It wouldn't matter if the key backs were Dench, Silvagni and Scarlett.

I'm not exaggerating when Im saying Comben has been one of the best defenders in the game statistically in the last 3 weeks.

If his name was Sam Taylor, it would have made no difference.

Now, if you just remove the one guy who is dominating aerially, putting up massive intercept numbers, barely losing a one-on-one contest, all of these scenarios now become 50-50's or better for the opposition.

I'm sorry, I've seen plenty of Comben as a CHF, he is not fit to lace the boots of Comben the defender after only 3-4 games there.

He's an athletic CHF, sure, but he's not a particularly strong mark ahead of the ball when sat on by a defender, he's not a big goal kicker and it will require him to roll through the ruck.

When you play forward and are hitting up the lead all day, you have are much more susceptible to injury with defenders running over the back of you all game also.

If we play him forward, he will move clubs on $1m a season to a club who identifies the bonafide star defender sitting there for the taking.


Comben was one of the very few massive positives of this season and they risked completely destroying his confidence in a few minutes yesterday.

Yeah, I agree with all of that. Unfortunately Sellers was giving us nothing, so I understand why Charlie was moved forward. However, I have no idea why he was put it the ruck. That was just idiotic. I'm hoping we bring Greenwood back next week for his flexibility and physical presence.

 

[Passmore]

Yep.

He’s a leader.

Into the leadership group next year.

I know we've been through this, but FFS stop this player vote.

Jesus Christ, the players voted McKay in last year!!!!

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[Heaps of fun]

It should have been move Biggie Nugyon as a tall option forward, the guy losing every contest or trailing in his opponent by 20m.

Not the guy putting up better numbers than Harris Andrews and Sam Taylor who lead the ground for intercept marks in the first half.

I'd have moved Corr sooner than I would have Comben.


Noble made some bad gameday moves, but I'm not sure I've seen a worse in game move than I did yesterday regarding Comben.



Another option might have to be fast tracking Goad and playing 2 rucks. Goad is nowhere near ready, but he might be able to chop out Xerri so X can play 50% of the game forward.

Goad isn't ready to play 10% of a match in the ruck. He is so far off being an AFL player right now.

 

[justroyal]

Love that from Comben and Sheeze.

The thing that prevents me from going all in on Larkey for captain is that I’m not seeing this, and I’m not seeing him win enough 50/50s to be able to walk any walk behind any talk.

‘Oh, the balls kicked above my head? Better not even make a genuine attempt out of this one and work on my fake push in the back’