Toast Mathew Stokes

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MC Extra Dollop

MC Extra Dollop

Brownlow Medallist
Veteran 10k Posts
Aug 17, 2006
23,681
22,264
AFL Club
Geelong
With plenty of young talent coming through at the moment, it's natural for us supporters to try to find spots for them in our best 22 by pushing aside some of our more experienced lesser lights. In the 2013 pre-season the main targets have been Josh Hunt, Joel Corey, Mathew Stokes and (to a lesser extent) James Podsiadly. Three of those players were on the park over the Easter weekend, they all did themselves proud and showed that they're not ready to be nudged out the door just yet. If the reports of Joel Corey putting his hand up to get some touch in the twos is accurate, it's a commendable display of pragmatism from one of our most decorated players. Pods was sensational for us yesterday, a great performance from a guy who will undoubtedly play second fiddle to Hawkins for as long as he remains at the Cattery. He showed that he will continue to command a quality tall defender at all times and that either he or Hawkins will probably kick a bag if you don't have two good key defenders to line up against them.

But I want to single out Stokes. This isn't an 'I told you so' thread, because I was one of those who felt that if he didn't significantly improve his output from 2012, he was going to find it hard to get a game. I think it was a fair enough assessment. He's an easy guy to displace when you're trying to work out a best 22. Even his segment on CatsTV has been pretty mediocre so far, comapred to the charismatic Shannon Byrnes. But yesterday he showed that he didn't get those two premiership medals by accident; he was sensational. He's always had that ability to go into the midfield for a spurt here and there, but now he's looking like more and more a high half forward or a midfielder than a forward pocket. Yeah, he got a lot of disposals, but he also won his own ball and set up the play on countless occasions. He really gave us something yesterday and I don't know if we would have won without him. I wonder how his role will change with the return of Corey, Kelly and Johnson, but it was a fantastic game by a player who had a lot of pressure on him to step up.

Take a bow, Stokesy. If you keep playing like that, it's going to take something special to dislodge you from the senior side.
 
With a salary cap and draft you will never assemble a team of 22 stars.

But if you get 22 good footballers on the park each playing their role, you'll win a lot of games.

Nice Stokesy.
 

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We all know Stokes can play but it's whether he can do it every week not just every 3 or 4 games.

Let's wait and see how he goes against North and then Carlton before we start giving him credit.
 
He was the only player who's name I swore yesterday.
But gee he was bloody good overall.

Deserves immediate credit for that performance.
 
Soon as Stokesy was put in the midfield I thought "look out" cause the guy is as tough as nuts, he'll relish the opportunity to play on guys near his size and he'll smash it!
Turned out to be about right!
 
soon as he plays an average game, he'll back on the "he's gotta go be dropped" list :D

Has to play in these kind of matches though, tough and always brings it in these big games imo.
 
MC Extra Dollop said:
But I want to single out Stokes. This isn't an 'I told you so' thread, because I was one of those who felt that if he didn't significantly improve his output from 2012, he was going to find it hard to get a game. I think it was a fair enough assessment. He's an easy guy to displace when you're trying to work out a best 22. Even his segment on CatsTV has been pretty mediocre so far, comapred to the charismatic Shannon Byrnes. But yesterday he showed that he didn't get those two premiership medals by accident; he was sensational. He's always had that ability to go into the midfield for a spurt here and there, but now he's looking like more and more a high half forward or a midfielder than a forward pocket. Yeah, he got a lot of disposals, but he also won his own ball and set up the play on countless occasions. He really gave us something yesterday and I don't know if we would have won without him. I wonder how his role will change with the return of Corey, Kelly and Johnson, but it was a fantastic game by a player who had a lot of pressure on him to step up.

Take a bow, Stokesy. If you keep playing like that, it's going to take something special to dislodge you from the senior side.
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One thing I haven't seen mentioned about his game yesterday that his was, apart from Sellwood and the backline, one of the very few 4-quarters games. His performance was crucial in keeping us in the game.
 
SJ said:
With a salary cap and draft you will never assemble a team of 22 stars.

But if you get 22 good footballers on the park each playing their role, you'll win a lot of games.

Nice Stokesy.
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Great post! :thumbsu: Not to be melodramatic but at some level blokes like this are more important than your superstars.
 
cynical said:
We all know Stokes can play but it's whether he can do it every week not just every 3 or 4 games.

Let's wait and see how he goes against North and then Carlton before we start giving him credit.
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he has been solid for us the last few years. I have never understood why he's so underrated on this board. I am glad that this thread exists after his game yesterday though.
 

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Should play in the midfield more often after yesterday. Sure, he needs to deliver on a consistent basis, but the run and carry he generated through the corridor was very impressive. Great four-quarter that played an important role in winning us the match, and his work rate and effort around the ball was much better than it has been in the past.

I haven't always been the biggest fan of Stokesy, but his output thus far in 2013 has been a significant improvement on his 2012 efforts. Keep that up in the first half of this season and he may very well have turned the corner. :thumbsu:
 
I have to admit there has been times in the past when I wanted the catters to trade him but then he pulls one out like he did Monday and all is forgiven... he matured and doesn't panic when he has the ball. vital for 2013.
 
About time they brought him further up the ground, absolutely wasted his talents in the fwd pocket, he's one of the toughest small men in the game and he'll now rack up possessions in the midfield. :footy:
 
For a bloke with no amazing physical attributes and no particularly special skills he does pretty well. Realistically he'll never be better than a 15-25 player on the list but he's a lot better than your average player at that level across the league. We shouldn't underestimate the impact of having a bunch of solid, unspectacular players like Stokes, Byrnes and J Hunt has had for us since the start of our dominance. The worth of the good, ordinary player is often undersold. Really stood up today too.
 
Footy Smarts said:
For a bloke with no amazing physical attributes and no particularly special skills he does pretty well. Realistically he'll never be better than a 15-25 player on the list but he's a lot better than your average player at that level across the league. We shouldn't underestimate the impact of having a bunch of solid, unspectacular players like Stokes, Byrnes and J Hunt has had for us since the start of our dominance. The worth of the good, ordinary player is often undersold. Really stood up today too.
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He's just racked up 29 possessions against a vengeful hostile Hawthorn midfield (flag Favs) and you're trying to sell him as ordinary with limited ability and skills???
He's had to stand big defenders in tight space all his career especially when Hawkins wasn't travelling so well and was ill-equiped to mark over guys 12-15cms taller.
That's why he's a tough guy, he's had to do it tough in the past, not that 29 possessions in the mid is any easy feat against high quality opposition either.
I think you'll eat those words.:cool:
 
Was very good, there is no doubt on that.

However, as a team we need to address our shortfall in the clearances which was an overarching theme of last year. A lot of that is probably due to the ruck division, but am not sure if we can carry all of Stokes, Murdoch, Caddy, Motlop, Varcoe and Hunt through the midfield at the expense of another genuine inside mid or maybe even two.

Its a question of team balance at the moment. Nobody deserves to be dropped, but there needs to be a change to get better value from clearances.
 
Hard as a cat's head!... No wonder Mooney loves him!

Stokes is not the most naturally gifted small forward, but through necessity has filled a roll for the club over recent years. I'd love to see him as a genuine cog in midfield rotations with Johnno and Chappy spending more time forward. If Stokes' body holds up, consistent performance will come. Right now it's his spot to lose.
 
Not much more I can add to the above except to say it's good to see some length back in his kicking again this year,it got to the stage last season he couldn't kick over a jam tin and I thought he may have had the dreaded osteo pubis, but looked good in his one and a bit practice matches and again Monday.
Not every one rates him as a player,I do and would probably best describe him over the period as one of our ruby's in the bag full of diamonds.
 
you pick one said:
Not much more I can add to the above except to say it's good to see some length back in his kicking again this year,it got to the stage last season he couldn't kick over a jam tin and I thought he may have had the dreaded osteo pubis, but looked good in his one and a bit practice matches and again Monday.
Not every one rates him as a player,I do and would probably best describe him over the period as one of our ruby's in the bag full of diamonds.
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Stokes has always stood up when the pressure was on him. The question is can he maintain it when the pressure is off. That's the area that has let him down.

Great game though.
 
krisholio14 said:
If certain supporters could stop blaming him for the 2008 GF, they might actually see he's been a key component of our greatest era.
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Would have thought most should have forgiven him after his effort in the contest with Maxwell to get it to Bartel who gave to Duncan to kick the sealer from 50 in the 2011 grand final
 

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