Player Watch #7: Ben Lennon

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TheProwler said:
Hate to say it but on this early a call he is Conca mk2
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:eek:
Wow!
What an indictment on Our #6 pick Conca that we are now using his name to define possible other draft busts!

Pretty much true but - :(
 
At the end of 2013 we needed to replace Jackson.
Cripps(13) was a proven inside mid and the perfect replacement, as was Dunstan(18) and Crouch (23).
We picked Lennon(12) a half forward that 'could' become a midfielder.
He's now 190cm so he's competing with Deledio, Grigg and McIntosh in the midfield as tall outside mids, Batchelor and Grimes in defence as 3rd tall. He'd be a perfect 3rd tall forward like Gunston at the Hawks.....but we don't play that way :(
 

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Bojangles17 said:
Watched closely in vfl and was most underwhelming , barely distinguished from the top up players.
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I have only managed to see a game and a half of VFL this season (Cats and Pies), and didn't even spot him. Not sure if he was out?

Last season at VFL level he was pretty good, being used to sweep half back. Kinda playing the role Martin does sometimes - hovering behind contests for the outlet handball, distribute, run to get the handball receive, distribute, repeat. Like with Martin, we were doing silly things to get the ball in his hands, but his kicking was very good,and probably worth the silliness.

Tend to agree with the general sentiment that his intensity and / or fitness needs to step up before his a good AFL player, but you could say that about 30 blokes on the list, some weeks.
 
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Sometimes I think our expectations of new players is just way over the top. Players go from dominating TAC to being the New scrawny kid on the block. From confident they can do well to Oh my God I could get torn apart!!!

By these men who are upto 10 plus years older & more battle hardened than I am. That's gotta play on your mind to some extent. Don't care who you are. I know you get your Dusty's & Ollie Wines but they are the exceptions not the rule....
 
I've seen enough glimpses of his talent at training and VFL games to say that he should become a good player for us. He's been shuffled around positions and trying to nail a half forward postition at AFL level would be one of the tougher positions I would have thought? My only question would be if he has enough mongrel in him. One of the training sessions I went to in the pre-season, Chocco was clearly trying to instill that in him along with a few other young blokes with some really copetetive one-on-one stuff after the others had gone in.
 
johnno77 said:
I've seen enough glimpses of his talent at training and VFL games to say that he should become a good player for us. He's been shuffled around positions and trying to nail a half forward postition at AFL level would be one of the tougher positions I would have thought? My only question would be if he has enough mongrel in him. One of the training sessions I went to in the pre-season, Chocco was clearly trying to instill that in him along with a few other young blokes with some really copetetive one-on-one stuff after the others had gone in.
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How did he go with it ? I mean was he working hard or shirking it ??
 

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tigs2010 said:
Vlastuin is the same. I would have always thought it was easier to improve fitness than skills etc but we don't seem to be able to do it. Vlastuin doesn't have the pre-season excuse either from what I can gather.
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Skills and decision making all have a relationship to match fitness. If the athlete has "skill" however you measure that, executing that skill under fatigue is a learned/trained behaviour. One of the direct benefits of preseason (outside a fitness base to build match fitness on) is the ability to load up training intensity / fatigue while directly training skills, it's very hard to do that during a season outside of game time at elite level intensity. The more you ask the athlete to adapt from their base (call this drafted state) the longer it takes to make noticeable gains.

Vlastuin is a classic example here of people expecting to much from him to early because we've asked him to adapt more from his base. Drafted as a solid skilled in and under midfielder. He possessed all the "skills" and fitness to play at a junior level of intensity. It's enough asking him to adapt to AFL intensity alone in the short term, instead we also throw him across half back and ask him to improve his outside game and defensive game. So his "match fitness" isn't just the ability to run up and back as many times as the next guy it's very much related to the role he has to play and he doesn't have the learned muscle conditioning of someone whose played that role longer. Until he has that base he will continue to look unskilled under fatigue.

Alex Rance in the early years had the same issue. "poor decision making, crap kicking skills, poor man on man technique". It took him good time to adapt from tall / stand and punch the ball away defender (his junior base) to intercept marking, body on body , hard outside running rebounder.
 
Stigmata said:
Conca will make it but not as sure about Lennon would have preferred Cripps
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Hindsight or at the time? Cripps was most likely considered a late teens early twenty pick. From what I can gather we and a few other clubs felt the elite talent ran out with Freeman, Salem and Lennon. Cripps would be useful right now though.
 
NZ_Tiger said:
Hindsight or at the time? Cripps was most likely considered a late teens early twenty pick. From what I can gather we and a few other clubs felt the elite talent ran out with Freeman, Salem and Lennon. Cripps would be useful right now though.
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Definitely hindsight!

Apparently Malthouse really wanted Cripps because he's related to mainwaring

He is pretty good
 
TJTIGER said:
How did he go with it ? I mean was he working hard or shirking it ??
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He didn't shirk the contest but I guess it's a bit easier for some to crack in when there's a coach screaming at you to put your head over it and in the knowledge that your teammate doesn't want to genuinely hurt you. Others would be more concerned about bravery when both spectators and their teammates were watching and your opponent was out for blood. I would play with some blokes who would be full of voice and bravado at training who who become invisible on game day. Others would be the opposite.

Not sure which camp this young bloke sits in but I reckon the club would have a fair idea by now.
 
Lennon has lots of skills and a good size. Poor fitness and needs to get intensity. Sounds like a decent junior finding the transition to AFL difficult - as almost all do. I reckon his talents are exactly what we need. But he needs another year or two to show whether he can be fit and tough enough for AFL. If he is going nowhere on the field but is advancing physically and learning to be a pro, then OK. I have no idea on that, but I expect him to start to come into firsts consideration in 2016/17. Nature of the beast.
 
Lennon will be a gun.

Struts around like he owns the place because he knows he's better than most. Silky skills, great hands and a footy brain.
Put on a lot of weight/muscle in the back half of 2014 which slowed him down a bit but is now ready to build again.
I think the Goddard comparison is a good one, just hope he's not a cry baby like BJ.
 
Roachy8 said:
:eek:
Wow!
What an indictment on Our #6 pick Conca that we are now using his name to define possible other draft busts!

Pretty much true but - :(
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Conca is still okay but pick six in a draft depleted by the AFL expansion teams would probably see him late teens or early twenties otherwise.

Lennon, well he is just not looking comfortable in the VFL let alone AFL. I would be happy for him to be as good as Conca.
 
Company line - "yada yada, something about fitness, blah, blah, something about developing his defensive game, ya, ya, only young, time to develop the "richmond way".
We'll just keep naming Newman and Pettard ahead of him.


Sent from my iPad using righteous man power.
 
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