Ben Lennon still keen to stay at Richmond

[Nostradumbass]

Merge this with the oppo thread. Nothing to do with us anymore

 

[Phar Ace]

Riewoldt

Yeah, he was just out of the Top 10, not sure why but I keep thinking of him as a Pick8 for some reason, maybe his number - Vickery was 8. Rance and Reiwoldt are good gets outside the Top10 - would nearly put Edwards there too, nearly!

 

[Ned_Flanders]

The following is from a Mock draft by Quigley

"Ben Lennon

26 Essendon

Personally I think this is still too high for Lennon but I am getting him off the board so that I don’t have him hanging over the future picks with everyone saying – we would have certainly taken Lennon if he was there. Lennon would be a good pick up for Essendon playing as a HFF who could deliver it in nicely to their tall forwards. Thanks to Twomey he certainly has name recognition and there would be quite a bit of positive buzz if they picked him up.

Ben Lennon
DOB 5/7/95 Ht 189 Wt 80

Lennon has been a Twomey love child this year, putting out several articles telling us how great Lennon is and how he is a virtual certainty for the top 10, play anywhere on the ground, explosive, elite kick yadda yadda yadda. Well personally I do not see it. He looks like the typical second tier Metro kid who finishes the year well and then is talked up out of all proportion. A lot of people on BF have jumped onboard the Lennon love train and it is possible that I am wrong but if he is taken in the top 10 I am going to be shocked. This is not a case where I rate his tools a bit differently to others, I just do not see him having those tools to start with.

Let’s start with probably the big issue. Of the flanker/midfield groups he would sit firmly at or very close to bottom for athleticism and very real questions have to be asked about whether he has the athletic ability to play at AFL level most especially in his preferred HFF role. Let’s start physically. 189cm is pretty good for a midfielder but it is getting to be pretty average for a flanker and combine that with short arms and small hands and we are not off to a fantastic start in supposedly his strength area. Another thing which gets talked up is his explosiveness. Well he was bottom 20% (this includes rucks remember) over the first 5m of the 20m sprint and his back half was nothing out of the ordinary leaving him with a time in the 3.20 range. So pace and explosiveness are actually a weakness and not a strength. I will say that his repeat sprints were better but that only put him up into the average category.

I have seen show a good lateral movement to evade tacklers but I have also seen him get nailed by tacklers that I thought he should have been able to step around and so I was interested to see what he scored in the agility test. He tested in the bottom 5%. The only players who scored worse than him on the agility test were a few rucks and many rucks actually scored significantly better than he did. I will say that I was surprised with the result. I had a big range in my mind where he could go but bottom 5% was well below where I thought he would end up. Beep in the mid 13s was nothing to write home about and a bottom 25% in the 3km was disappointing. A lot of the highlights for Lennon are him taking nice marks so jumping was expected to be decent at the very least. Well he was bottom 10% in the standing vertical and below 50% in each of the running jumps.

If I am honest I will concede that these results surprised me a lot. I did not expect him to be a stand out athlete but I did think he was probably going to be above average. He obviously plays better than he tests but these sort of athletic deficiencies are often found out at AFL level when playing against guys who are just as smart as you are as a footballer and are much superior athletes. So even before we start to look at his game there are big question marks.

Okay onto his game and I hear a lot of talk about how great a kick Lennon is. Pin point passes over 50m to hit guys in stride on the chest. Well I have to say that I have missed those ones. I do think that Lennon is a good kick but I am not seeing him as being elite and it is probably a fair way from that. He does have good penetration and can hoof it 55m. His usual approach is to go with long or 3/4 kicks which are most often to contests. He does not tend to look to use short to intermediate targets as much as he should and will probably be instructed to lower his eyes more at AFL level. I do not rate his decision making or vision as being anything more than average for his position. He tends to take obvious targets which is not bad but I do not see him setting up play like Billings who played a similar role at the Champs. Around goals he could also be better and will miss goals you would like to see him get. He waves the ball a little in his set shot approach but nothing too bad. As with his field kicking he has good range and might actually be better further from goal where the pressure is on him a bit less.

Okay I have been very harsh on him up to this stage. What does he do well? Well his marking gets a lot of praise and I would tend to agree with that. I think his hands are good (but not great) and he uses his body excellently in marking contests. He is strong through the core and maintains focus and balance really well in body on body situations. He judges the ball in the air pretty well and marks most ball that come his way. With the ball on the ground he has really clean hands for a flanker and this gives him a bit more time to work with than others. He can swoop and collect at pace and make opportunities.

Lennon does have some class about him and good things do often happen when he is involved in the play. This is a little hard to explain but I think he has good football IQ about some things (reading the play, body work, positioning around goal) but I probably couldn't say that about everything (decision making, leading and passing lanes). In most games there will be a wow moment or two which really make you notice him - a spin move out of a pack, a swooping pick up and go etc.

Teams have wanted to see him more as a midfielder this year (you can probably hide athletic deficiencies a little more there) and credit too him that he stood up and put up some good numbers there in the TAC. He did not play a heap of games but averaged 25 disposals a game over the year and 28 disposals over the last 4 or 5 games when playing a lot of midfield time. He played as a half forward at the Champs and only managed 12.6 disposals per game which I did not think was a particularly good return. I particularly followed him in the SA game where he matched up on Scharenberg quite a bit and Scharenberg gave him an absolute bath. The difference in ability was very evident in that game and cemented for me that he was not in that class and definitely not a top 10 pick for me.

If I was looking at him I would be trying to develop him into a Sidebottom type midfielder who can go forward. Sidebottom is also not the most athletic player in the world and has a similar good but not great kick. Sidebottom's decision making are probably better than Lennon's but you would hope that would come. Lennon's clean hands also allow some prospect that he will develop a decent inside game as he gets more time on ball. I have been pretty harsh on Lennon but I have to stress that I actually don't mind him as a prospect. I just think talk of him being a top 10er should be way off base."


I think that sums up the situation with Ben very well. Bust. Dolly Parton like

you are embarrassing yourself now

a guy didnt pan out, so what?

we chose him, not the other way round. in fact he tried to leave us twice, and we fought to keep him

you are celebrating a kid having his career over before thirty. most likely he will never come close to earning as much as he has in any sphere of his life till he dies, and you're doing a victory lap

kid may have been a knob, but most gen y kids are. guy failed to meet expectations, most afl recruits fail. you were right he wasnt up to it, but dont dance on his grave, have some class. Give prodigy his due, his taken his whack with class and dignity. you haven't taken your win with anywhere near as much class

 

[Phar Ace]

Early signs with Graham are not too shabby. (However, I do have my fingers crossed that he doesn't get a an inflated head from being pumped up by all and sundry for his first 5 games.).

Yeah, very early days to put him up with Rolled Gold gets like Cripps, Jones, Merrett and others Like Ward, Jack Steven, Shuey, Hannerbery, Sloane, Fyfe, Parker, Grundy. Getting such quality outside of Top 10 seems to be getting rarer to be fair.

 

[THE_GUN]

you are embarrassing yourself now

a guy didnt pan out, so what?

we chose him, not the other way round. in fact he tried to leave us twice, and we fought to keep him

you are celebrating a kid having his career over before thirty. most likely he will never come close to earning as much as he has in any sphere of his life till he dies, and you're doing a victory lap

kid may have been a knob, but most gen y kids are. guy failed to meet expectations, most afl recruits fail. you were right he wasnt up to it, but dont dance on his grave, have some class. Give prodigy his due, his taken his whack with class and dignity. you haven't taken your win with anywhere near as much class

Has nothing to do with win/loss

He was / is a knob and thought his shat dont stink, Self entitled tool that got what he deserves and that is a short career and no club touching him BECAUSE of how he has demonstrated his character over the period he has been at Richmond.

Wait until his next media interview where he will say if he had his time again he would do things differently and is a changed man.

Dont regret what i have posted or thought of this bloke since day 1 - Hasnt got the tools, self entitled , Slow , No agility and Up himself big time

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Has nothing to do with win/loss

He was / is a knob and thought his shat dont stink, Self entitled tool that got what he deserves and that is a short career and no club touching him BECAUSE of how he has demonstrated his character over the period he has been at Richmond.

Wait until his next media interview where he will say if he had his time again he would do things differently and is a changed man.

Dont regret what i have posted or thought of this bloke since day 1 - Hasnt got the tools, self entitled , Slow , No agility and Up himself big time

How many times have you met with him?