Kepler Bradley

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T

Takahashi Tank

Debutant
Aug 23, 2009
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AFL Club
Collingwood
IMO Collingwood do need to recruit a FORWARD who can pinch hit ruck. Not vice-versa.

Bradley is 26, 199 cm. With 211, Clarke, Griffin on their list and with Clark possibly arriving from Brisbane and with talk of Pav staying closer to goal would Freo be too concerned to lose him? Say a straight player swap?

Just a thought.

ps...and if not him who else could we feasibly get in this mold with a mind on our salary cap?
 

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Wouldn't be emphatically against it.

IF we felt we needed to plug that hole externally (which I don't think we do) then he would be a reasonable option for the IMMEDIATE TERM. I don't think we need to sell the farm to solve the position in the medium to longer term, as we have options developing on the list, but potentially just as a stop-gap until they are right (i.e. 1-2 yrs max).
 
mdc said:
Don't like the odds of Freo wanting to trade him, but would definitely be a good get.
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i remember rating him when he began at essendon. seemed like a kid who had the right brain for footy, but his body was a long way off.

seems to have developed into a handy player and would not be disappointed to see him land in our squad.
 
I'd think Freo would be looking to offload him, with Mitch Clarke likely to go to Freo that's their fwd/ruck player, Kepler wouldn't get much of a run. I'm not really interested in him, I think he does some pretty stupid stuff on the field
 
He's no more of a spud than Leroy was when he came to us (or when he played for us, really).

I'd support the idea. I'm not sure what we do for that backup ruck/forward role otherwise. I don't like the idea of playing Jolly and Wood in the same side, really.
 
Vinnie Vegas said:
He's no more of a spud than Leroy was when he came to us (or when he played for us, really).

I'd support the idea. I'm not sure what we do for that backup ruck/forward role otherwise. I don't like the idea of playing Jolly and Wood in the same side, really.
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Agree 100%.

More talented than Leroy and has played some good footy at Freo, Is also a goalkicker and more competent ruck than the Anvil, probably does not have his mongrel but not a soft player either.

Not the worst idea IMO.
 
Takahashi Tank said:
IMO Collingwood do need to recruit a FORWARD who can pinch hit ruck. Not vice-versa.

Bradley is 26, 199 cm. With 211, Clarke, Griffin on their list and with Clark possibly arriving from Brisbane and with talk of Pav staying closer to goal would Freo be too concerned to lose him? Say a straight player swap?

Just a thought.

ps...and if not him who else could we feasibly get in this mold with a mind on our salary cap?
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I would rather get Callum Sinclair or Wade Skipper from the VFL.
 

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I'd rather Setanta o'helpme for the Leroy role. At least he has a bit of grunt in him.

If a dog took a dump on another dogs dump, Bradley would be the bottom dump. He's rubbish.
 
I'm not sure if Freo have space for Kep this year if we get Clark - under Harvey he'd be trade bait but under Ross, I wouldn't have a clue what his plans for him are.

He's probably a more handy forward than some might think. Through the his first 8 games of the season, he had 4 three or four goal games. (Ironically, he only kicked 2 goals less than Clark this year and played 2 less games)
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pg-fremantle-dockers--kepler-bradley

Personally I'd be devastated to see our favourite cult hero leave the club, but I think most of our supporters would understand his opportunities here would be limited.
 
2 years ago I'd have laughed at the suggestion, and cried had we gotten him in. But he's certainly improved a fair bit in those two years. I wouldn't mind getting him in now, actually. Does fit as a Leroy replacement (not that any man or beast could ever truly replace Leigh Brown...)
 
What's with the insistence on filling the 'Leigh Brown role'? For the better part of 2011, the Leigh Brown role should've been a VFL exclusive. 5 possessions and 7 hitouts a game was hardly pivotal to our success each week. People make his role out to be far more critical than it actually was, we certainly don't need to go rushing out to find another half arsed back up ruckman/hack forward. And don't say we need his physicality either, his idea of physicality was catching a bloke with the ball dead in the water and then proceeding to either tackle him high or ride him into the turf, more often than not giving away a free kick.

If we go and recruit someone to fill the 'Leigh Brown role', Cameron Wood won't be at the club in 2012 and who could blame him. He has earnt the right to play senior football now, give him the chance to split the duties with Jolly next year or even lessen Jolly's load and allow him to spend more time forward.

I'm just not sure why everyone thinks we need a like for like replacement? Leigh Brown offered a fair bit in 2010, but our games against Geelong and their two specialist ruckmen this year showed us what path we need to take going forward. The Leigh Brown band aid job didn't cut the mustard.
 
Jesus Baulks said:
What's with the insistence on filling the 'Leigh Brown role'? For the better part of 2011, the Leigh Brown role should've been a VFL exclusive. 5 possessions and 7 hitouts a game was hardly pivotal to our success each week. People make his role out to be far more critical than it actually was, we certainly don't need to go rushing out to find another half arsed back up ruckman/hack forward. And don't say we need his physicality either, his idea of physicality was catching a bloke with the ball dead in the water and then proceeding to either tackle him high or ride him into the turf, more often than not giving away a free kick.

If we go and recruit someone to fill the 'Leigh Brown role', Cameron Wood won't be at the club in 2012 and who could blame him. He has earnt the right to play senior football now, give him the chance to split the duties with Jolly next year or even lessen Jolly's load and allow him to spend more time forward.

I'm just not sure why everyone thinks we need a like for like replacement? Leigh Brown offered a fair bit in 2010, but our games against Geelong and their two specialist ruckmen this year showed us what path we need to take going forward. The Leigh Brown band aid job didn't cut the mustard.
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Also known as the 'Chris Bryan role'.
 
2 Further points.

1. Jolly should be used in one of 2 ways in the next few years...

a) Playing full forward and allowing Wood to become a man and more to the point...the man.

(For this scenario we do not need Bradley unless we got a long term injury to Dawes or Cloke in which he could offer some value)

b) Jolly is used like C.Keating and plays a few games that count at the end.

(For this scenario Wood does need someone to pinch hit in the ruck and it shouldn't be Dawes or Cloke or N.Brown or Tarrant and hence a Bradley type would be needed)

In summary...unless Keefe or Witts take this role a forward who can ruck (ala a Bradley) would help us in both scenarios.

Wouldn't a McCarthy for Bradley be nice ? :)
 
Wouldn;t be surprised if Wood and Jolly played in the same team with Jolly being subbed at three quarter time for a mid/ HFF and Wood to ruck the last.
 
I am a big fan of playing someone in the leigh brown role. Playing 2 ruckman who are not agile in the forward line makes us a worse off team. Brown may not have been the most skillful footballer but he worked hard and contributed to our pressure on the opposition ball carrier. For mine I would prefer not to play Dawes or N. Brown in this role so therefore the spot has to be filled. Any afl standard player that could pinch hit in the ruck and play forward would be a worthy inclusion.
 
Hi Guys. Hope you don't mind my input.

This talk of having utility big men who can act as mobile ruckmen reminds me a bit of the Australian cricket team searching for an allrounder. Andrew Flintoff torched Australia in the '05 Ashes and all of a sudden we needed one too. Symonds did pretty well, Watson struggled (although has now reinvented himself), Andrew MacDonald really wasn't good enough, and now we aren't really bothering. And while we were trying to get our own 'Flintoff' we were compromising the development and performances off other players who were part of the batting and bowling reshuffle or were left out of the side for good.

I think it could end up a similar kind of story for the 'Leigh Brown' role player. These types aren't made. They just happen. Having an allrounder in cricket who simply isn't good enough as a batsman or bowler is like playing with only 10 men. Having a bits and pieces type in footy woud have a similar effect IMO. These things just shouldn't be forced.

Having said that, I'd have a look at the state leagues. We found Pedersen at Box Hill and have played him mostly in defence, but he has gone forward and kicked some pretty critical goals for us and neutralised the ruck contest when a pinch hitter was needed.
 
Kepler Bradley would be much better than Setanta, I could not watch that giant oaf running around screaming and clapping everytime he kicks the ball. Like people have said, we all scoffed at Leroy, if we can Bradley cheap then by all means, I would not be opposed to it.
 

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