Player Watch #38: Tristan Xerri - signed thru '29 - 2024 All Australian squad member - runner up '24 SBM

[ChairmanZia]

well, xerri greenwood combo is back on the menu soon it seems.

 

[CBSlogger]

Massive improver this year, credit to him.

Let's hope he stays fit cause watching Goad today, and he's a great prospect, barring a catastrophe he ain't debuting this side of 2026.

Free would be next in line and he'll get murdered in the 1s.

 

[tazaa]

Hes more important now than before with CCJ going down.
We somehow have to make it work.

For all the talent in our midfield, we are getting absolutely torched in there.
GWS, Freo and Cartlon - their midfielders look like prime Greg Williams out there. Something f***ing stinks.

 

[Devington]

Hes more important now than before with CCJ going down.
We somehow have to make it work.

For all the talent in our midfield, we are getting absolutely torched in there.
GWS, Freo and Cartlon - their midfielders look like prime Greg Williams out there. Something f***ing stinks.

He's not great at tapping to a real advantage, very different type of ruck to goldy.

 

[amaz199]

He is not a good tap ruck but what he does offer is a level-playing field in terms of physicality and is quite athletic.

Those two things are more important than being able to tap well. The game has changed. Our midfield is good enough to shark opposition rucks. If they can only function from X's taps, I'd be horrified.

 

[Devington]

He is not a good tap ruck but what he does offer is a level-playing field in terms of physicality and is quite athletic.

Those two things are more important than being able to tap well. The game has changed. Our midfield is good enough to shark opposition rucks. If they can only function from X's taps, I'd be horrified.

Is it time to be horrified then?

 

[tazaa]

He's not great at tapping to a real advantage, very different type of ruck to goldy.

De Konning was using him as a step ladder at time. X is only 200cm so when his goal is to try and take the ball out of the ruck, this is easily countered by the opposition ruckman jumping on him and winning the tap. And away they go.
Its so ****ing frustrating not to mention he doesn't take it cleanly out of the ruck enough to maximise this tactic.

**** this is frustrating shit

 

[Heaps of fun]

De Konning was using him as a step ladder at time. X is only 200cm so when his goal is to try and take the ball out of the ruck, this is easily countered by the opposition ruckman jumping on him and winning the tap. And away they go.
Its so ******* frustrating not to mention he doesn't take it cleanly out of the ruck enough to maximise this tactic.

* this is frustrating s**t

I think you're overblowing this. X is averaging 8.5 clearances a game, 3rd in the competition. He's grabbing the ball at will and getting it out an insane amount. He made De Koning look like a shit truck yesterday. It was Hewetts, Kennedy and Cripps bullying our small midfield that hurt.

 

[tazaa]

I think you're overblowing this. X is averaging 8.5 clearances a game, 3rd in the competition. He's grabbing the ball at will and getting it out an insane amount. He made De Koning look like a s**t truck yesterday. It was Hewetts, Kennedy and Cripps bullying our small midfield that hurt.

Mate if the best way to win a clearance is to grab the footy and belt it forward then we might as well contact Avondale Heights and ask them to release Ziebell back to us and tell Richmond to release him from their coaching staff so he can play in our midfield again.

But hes not even doing that. His metres gained was 24.

And no way did he beat De Konning. The hit out to advantage stats heavily favoured Carlton. But yes, everything else was fairly even.

Whatever is happening in the middle is a worry as all 3 games have been over at 3QT and there has been some insane dominance by the opposition. Our mids are to blame but I wouldn't say they are getting silver service either.

I get sucked into the Goldi comparisons and I need to pull back my expectations. We have no one else. I get that. I am just not on the "hes flying" train.

 

[7577969923]

Mate if the best way to win a clearance is to grab the footy and belt it forward then we might as well contact Avondale Heights and ask them to release Ziebell back to us and tell Richmond to release him from their coaching staff so he can play in our midfield again.

But hes not even doing that. His metres gained was 24.

And no way did he beat De Konning. The hit out to advantage stats heavily favoured Carlton. But yes, everything else was fairly even.

Whatever is happening in the middle is a worry as all 3 games have been over at 3QT and there has been some insane dominance by the opposition. Our mids are to blame but I wouldn't say they are getting silver service either.

I get sucked into the Goldi comparisons and I need to pull back my expectations. We have no one else. I get that. I am just on the hes flying train.

I don't really think he's flying, but he's definitely improved and playing better than I thought capable.
Until this season I really didn't see anything there at all and would have been happy to let him go. He provides a physical presence and is doing better around the ground.

 

[Ischenko]

X has improved so much over 3 games he’s now being underrated on here lol.

 

[Mcarcherey]

I don't really think he's flying, but he's definitely improved and playing better than I thought capable.
Until this season I really didn't see anything there at all and would have been happy to let him go. He provides a physical presence and is doing better around the ground.

Yep.

He's pulling off fend offs and creating time for our mids to spread. Once he's more accustomed to the pace of the game and cleans up disposal in traffic our improvement will be significant.

On Pixel 6 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Errol Street]

overrated player hardly had any impact on the game vs De Koning who was integral to them clearing out of the centre.

 

[Shack18]

Mate if the best way to win a clearance is to grab the footy and belt it forward then we might as well contact Avondale Heights and ask them to release Ziebell back to us and tell Richmond to release him from their coaching staff so he can play in our midfield again.

But hes not even doing that. His metres gained was 24.

And no way did he beat De Konning. The hit out to advantage stats heavily favoured Carlton. But yes, everything else was fairly even.

Whatever is happening in the middle is a worry as all 3 games have been over at 3QT and there has been some insane dominance by the opposition. Our mids are to blame but I wouldn't say they are getting silver service either.

I get sucked into the Goldi comparisons and I need to pull back my expectations. We have no one else. I get that. I am just not on the "hes flying" train.

Xerri has been our best player to date, tracking very will. The mids have been pretty ordinary but my god they are young and inexperienced

 

[Devington]

Xerri has been our best player to date, tracking very will. The mids have been pretty ordinary but my god they are young and inexperienced

Xerri's been very good, but he's also part of what's different/dysfunctional about the midfield group. There's very little silver service to the mids and the stats show that. He's the =3rd highest ranked player for clearances but hitout win and hitouts won to advantage stats have him 12th or lower for major rucks. Instructions seem to be that if there isn't a captain obvious option to hit it to, then just hit it straight down and have a scrimmage. Also his direct opponents can still burn him badly at times, either jumping over him and getting a clean advantage, avoiding his physicality, or running off of him after the stoppage and influencing that way. IMO he will improve with the latter issues, it's mostly experience dealing with AFL standard rucks vs the 80% VFL battlers he's used to, the former issue though is a general midfield one I think. Should also improve over time as the youth get used to playing together, but right now while the statlines aren't that awful i'd argue there's a difference in clearence quality (especially from the bounce).

There would be stats to represent this, but they're all the super secret herb and spices shit that they hide from joe public.

It's one of the reasons that while I think he's doing great, I'm not really too fussed if some people see issues with him and stoppages. There are issues and we can't just ignore them.

 

[Devil Fish]

Big X has improved this season. That’s all we can ask for. Sure, he’s got a long way to go, but my goodness, we have 5-6 other issues far more concerning than X’s form/future.

If Big X can just hold his own in the ruck for the next year or 2, I’d take that.

 

[shinboner spiggs]

At least Xerri brings presence to make oppo players feel uncomfortable. Which team wouldn’t want to play us, with the amount of 1 way running, low tackling mids we have going through there. Him and George stick out starkly.

 

[franjon]

Mate if the best way to win a clearance is to grab the footy and belt it forward then we might as well contact Avondale Heights and ask them to release Ziebell back to us and tell Richmond to release him from their coaching staff so he can play in our midfield again.

But hes not even doing that. His metres gained was 24.

And no way did he beat De Konning. The hit out to advantage stats heavily favoured Carlton. But yes, everything else was fairly even.

Whatever is happening in the middle is a worry as all 3 games have been over at 3QT and there has been some insane dominance by the opposition. Our mids are to blame but I wouldn't say they are getting silver service either.

I get sucked into the Goldi comparisons and I need to pull back my expectations. We have no one else. I get that. I am just not on the "hes flying" train.

In Xerri's defence, and I'm not defending his ruck work even though he's a very young ruckman in his first year as the number one, but the midfield is a bit all over the place, there doesn't appear to be a lot of system other than Davies-Uniacke who is being sat on often by more than one, and Wardlaw crashing in. He is going to need some experience and they're going to have to help him out a bit by being a bit more organized and a bit more on the front foot.

 

[roos_fanatic08]

Currently leading the comp for centre clearances with 16. Isaac Heeney

5

Isaac Heeney

Age

28

Ht

185cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.2

5star

K

10.4

4star

HB

7.7

5star

M

4.9

5star

T

4.1

5star

CL

2.2

4star

D

14.3

3star

K

8.8

4star

HB

5.5

3star

M

4.8

4star

T

2.5

3star

CL

0.8

3star

D

10.4

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.4

4star

CL

0.8

3star

next best with 14.

Also sitting 3rd for total clearances.

Also sitting 3rd in the comp for tackles. The next best rucks are 18th & 19th.

Big X obviously needs to work on his ruck craft and his effectiveness around the ground, but man he is an absolute workhorse around the coal face.

I’d hazard a guess that after 2 rounds he is probably sitting 2nd in the BnF behind Sheez.

 

[Mordecai]

Currently leading the comp for centre clearances with 16. Isaac Heeney next best with 14.

Also sitting 3rd for total clearances.

Also sitting 3rd in the comp for tackles. The next best rucks are 18th & 19th.

Big X obviously needs to work on his ruck craft and his effectiveness around the ground, but man he is an absolute workhorse around the coal face.

I’d hazard a guess that after 2 rounds he is probably sitting 2nd in the BnF behind Sheez.

Was literally coming here to write the same thing after seeing his 21st in the league for contested possession, our highest.

Third in the league for tackles.

 

[Bubba Moses]

His contested possession and clearance numbers are probably inflated from trying to grab the ball out of the ruck so much. I'm not completely sold that this strategy is helping us.

Aggression and tackling though - tick, couldn't be happier.

No doubt he's improved this year which is all we can ask for.

 

[Mcarcherey]

has polled coaches votes in 2 of the 3 games, better than everyone else in the team....

 

[Better Loosen Up]

If X goes down, we are completely shot! He's become so vital to our team and I'm genuinely pleased he's currently one of our best players this season so far.

 

[Flawed Genius]

The best performed player on our list.

 

[Gasometer]

The best performed player on our list.

Yep

Don’t need to talk about the Ruck for the near future

Moving on…