WSYD Israel Folau

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Re: Israel Folau v Lions Reserves May 14

Izzy has said he is keen to play more up forward, and hopefully Sheedy will give him a lot more time up there - over time his confidence in front of goal will improve, and he will be a real presence up forward for us.

Hopefully Bluey is paying attention and starts to give Karmichael some time in the middle and up forward - I certainly think he will improve a lot more with his hands on the ball then punching it away from forward all the time.
 

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From how I understand it one of the reasons Folau was "pinched" from the NRL was to encourage Folau fans to support WSYD. The fickle NSW potential fans wont want to follow a useless Folau unless he becomes a champion. "Don't let the door hit you on arse on the way out Israel."
The whole exercise is a shocking waste of money that would have been better spent on some of the financially struggling teams. Brisbane and Sydney can barely support themselves after how many years. When are the AFL going to learn that QLD and NSW don't want AFL. Give up.
 
Re: Israel Folau v Lions Reserves May 14

legend166 said:
Of course he's a forward. This idea of playing league converts in the back line is really odd.
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Not really considering in their game they are always behind the ball and travelling in the same direction when they are attacking. If it's coming at them they are supposed to stop it and get it going the other way again.
The leading, doubling back, and turning on a dime that the best forwards in our game practice would be completely alien to them.
 
Looks pretty good in that clip. His kicking needs work, naturally, and his marking was OK but he was worked off a couple that an experienced forward of his size would have taken, but for a guy playing his 4th game, to be putting a performance like that in against an AFL reserves side is a pretty good effort.

And the reason they're played in the backline is to give them a concrete, clearly attainable goal (stop your opponent from getting the ball and kicking goals), while getting a feel for how the ball gets from one end to the other, how the opposition moves it, and watching and learning from more experienced direct opponents. I seriously doubt GC consider Hunt a long term FB. He'll end up a forward or a gritty inside mid (a 20 touch, 5 clearance, 5 tackle mid who can tag a bit would be nice).

Also, Hunt only played half a season of VFL last year, so his development is not as far ahead of Folau as people seem to think. He'd be able to perform just as well as that at ressies level, and more consistently.
 
He looks like a natural up forward - he is a very good mark, his kicking has improved, and he seemed to position himself well. looks like a man among boys amongst that team though!
 

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Saw him at the G a few weeks ago during the Tiges match with some of his team mates in one of the boxes. He looked like a bloody gorilla next some of the GWS junior burgers!

I hope he goes well. With his size and his marking (based on limited the limited vision I've seen) I feel as long as his kicking continues to improve then he could be a genuine forward option in the future.
 
Wasn't a bad comparison by Sos either to do with Jim Stynes vs. Folau and making the note that Jimmy didn't become a Brownlow Medalist overnight and it took him time to adjust to the game. Obviously different time, different sports, but it's a legitimate thing to say I think.
 
TheBrownDog said:
I was at that game. What the video doesn't show is how often his man ran off him while he stood there absolutely buggered. Building an AFL tank is priority number one.
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He's got a year with another pre-season to do it, you'd think he would get some fitness, already done a great job of slimming down.
 
TheBrownDog said:
I was at that game. What the video doesn't show is how often his man ran off him while he stood there absolutely buggered. Building an AFL tank is priority number one.
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I thought that would be assumed. People can't judge him on his stamina, not yet. It will take a lot of hard work before he reaches where he needs to be in that area. What's more important is him showing a bit of nous, and for somebody of his experience, he showed a fair bit.
 
The starting position for the Hunt/Folau cheersquad is the assumption that they will develop into good AFL players. They largely ignore contrary evidence or downplay it by assuming that any weaknesses will be fully overcome with more experience. Demonstration of even the most basic skills are seized upon as evidence supporting their starting assumption.

A good example is the Israel Folau video on this thread, where the Hunt/Folau cheersquad marvel over Folau demonstrating basic skills that you would expect from a junior player.

On the other hand, the footy realists acknowledge the extreme difficulty for a rugby player to learn AFL from scratch at a relatively late age and therefore reserve judgement until a skill level commensurate with AFL standard is demonstrated (or, in the case of Hunt, clearly not demonstrated).

Only time will tell, but it's funny how some people are so easily impressed.
 
84GF said:
The starting position for the Hunt/Folau cheersquad is the assumption that they will develop into good AFL players. They largely ignore contrary evidence or downplay it by assuming that any weaknesses will be fully overcome with more experience. Demonstration of even the most basic skills are seized upon as evidence supporting their starting assumption.

A good example is the Israel Folau video on this thread, where the Hunt/Folau cheersquad marvel over Folau demonstrating basic skills that you would expect from a junior player.

On the other hand, the footy realists acknowledge the extreme difficulty for a rugby player to learn AFL from scratch at a relatively late age and therefore reserve judgement until a skill level commensurate with AFL standard is demonstrated (or, in the case of Hunt, clearly not demonstrated).

Only time will tell, but it's funny how some people are so easily impressed.
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Neither of the two may make it but by God its got the thugby types running in circles and has gained millions of dollars of free PR for Australian Football in the new territories.The more important announcenment is that Knox Grammar in Sydney is introducing Aussie Rules to its students. This well respected private schooll has been a bastion of Rugby for over 80 years and for our code to get a look in is a great step forward.

Knox introduces football

By Jordan Laing 10:14 AM Wed 18 May, 2011



Knox has introduced Australian football after 90 years of being a predominantly rugby union school

AUSTRALIAN football is continuing to make huge inroads in Sydney with Knox Grammar becoming only the second private school to introduce Australian football as a sport.

It is a significant step forward for the development of the code in the private school system, particularly since Knox, located on Sydney’s North Shore, has been a strong rugby union school for almost 90 years.

Now, kids have the opportunity to play Australian football as a sport on weekends and the school has even installed some new goal posts to make the game accessible to all students.

Australian football is growing at a rapid rate in Sydney and New South Wales with participation rates up 110% to 125,000 in the last five years.

On top of this, a record 18 NSW/ACT players were listed by AFL clubs in 2010 and this number could rise in the coming years courtesy of the newly established Sydney Swans and Greater Western Sydney academies.

Sydney Swans Academy coach Paul Roos attended Knox on Tuesday to officially launch the school’s new goal posts at their Gillespie Fields.

"[Knox introducing Australian football] is really the next step [for the development of AFL in Sydney], there’s no question," Roos said.

"It’s fantastic from Knox to introduce it and hopefully a lot of the other schools follow up with it.

"I think the Academy will also make a huge difference and you can see the excitement from the Academy boys and I’m sure that inspires other boys to play football.

“I think the Academy will be a really big part of it because it really is putting the game in the elite level.

"Now we’re able to offer something that is 22 weeks and feeding into your NSW/ACT Rams, your Under-16s and Under-18s, so there’s a lot better continuity along with the AFL’s support to get kids involved."

Knox has entered two AFL teams into the Greater Sydney Juniors, with this number likely to rise in the coming years as demand for the game grows.

Headmaster of Knox, John Weeks, said the school’s decision to end a 90-year tradition of being a predominantly rugby union school was an easy decision to make.

"We see it as a logical move for us at Knox because we’re in a community which is really, really strong on AFL and the boys at our school, probably hundreds of them, are playing AFL on Sundays in local competitions," Mr Weeks said.

"We’ve done a fair bit of due diligence on AFL's introduction and we felt, yes, now is the time and … we felt we really needed to get into the full competition."

Knox has a proud rugby union history and has had a number of stars come through their system including Peter Fitzsimons, Nathan Charles and Ben Alexander.

If the interest in AFL continues to grow as it currently is, it may only be a matter of time until the first Knox student is running around in the red and white.
Exclusive to
 
Folau has two goals at full forward early in the second quarter against Queanbeyan - will be interesting to see how the rest of the match goes for him.
 

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WSYD Israel Folau

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