Opinion Matt De Boer - What to do?

[freoextra]

Can see DeBoer re-establishing himself in the midfield. Very good hands, strong over the ball and his natural position, I don't think anyone wants him to be in the way of Crozier and Duffy in the forward line. Comforting to know that if Crowley went down for a period of time that you have the DeBoer and Mzungu options but prefer Mzungu in other positions like all over the ground filling in wherever we have a problem!

 

[rgauci]

I wouldn't mind a few of our midfielders being protected through the year by putting guys like DeBoer at the coal face for certain games. Mundy to play off half back flank for instance while DeBoer cracks in.

 

[Cobbler]

Deboer could be used in the Crowley role, but as someone who gets it a tad more.

Other then that he will be reliable depth.

So I'm not expecting much from him next year as our classy youngsters will be trying to push ahead of him.

 

[Nickos66]

He'd be good for the occasional chop out, but he's not a consistent ball winner at AFL level. He barely ever cracks the 20's or 30's in possessions, more often than not he sits in the teens.

 

[PurpleHeart]

In my mind Deboer is not up to AFL standard.
His kicking is shocking.
I highly doubt he would get a game at Hawthorn or any of the other top 4 sides.

 

[Quant]

He has hope to be the next brownlow winner imo.

He isn't so different from Priddis, chuck him in the midfield and watch him rack up the disposals.

 

[Fred Ziffel]

He has hope to be the next brownlow winner imo.

He isn't so different from Priddis, chuck him in the midfield and watch him rack up the disposals.

Naah.

 

[freofc1994]

I was listenting to sport FM this morning and a good point was made that lists and not 22 on the day win you a flag. IMO we simply need guys like MdB performing to a high standard regardless if it's with us or Peel to give us depth and coverage. I also feel that his leadership at Peel (i'm assuming he'll be playing there most of the time) will be valuable for our young guys.

 

[counting bodies like sheep]

Deboer will be an adequate back up. I don't know that he has the ability (concentration) to do what Crowley does. And as much as people rag on crow legs skills, he is much better than deboer I think. Happy to have him playing for peel, but that's about it.

 

[TheMcManusNose]

He'd be good for the occasional chop out, but he's not a consistent ball winner at AFL level. He barely ever cracks the 20's or 30's in possessions, more often than not he sits in the teens.

When he plays mid he does. Usually gets 10-15 as the defensive forward, but a few games where he has started in the middle a good amount of time he has racked up ~25. In 2012 he spent a couple of games as the #1 mid IIRC and got a lot of it.

He's just so redundant for us. Yeah, he's great to have if, say, (Priddis forbid) Barlow or Neale gets injured. But we have so many guys who are there or thereabouts that it could potentially become a list issue in the future. Don't begrudge him a 1 year contract though.

 

[Steinfreo]

We have Neale. The guy overtook him after about 10 games. He was 5th in tackles overall in 2012-13 for the league. If he can be a tackle beast in 2015 he has a place in the middle, if not then no. Our midfield needs someone to stop those handball chains out the middle because our guys got beaten in there a fair few times. It could work for us too, we did to many kick out of congestion. De boer has good hands he could help us be more calculated in congestion start those movements that Pearce and Hilly can end on. He doesnt have the speed, evasive skill, kick, positioning. Good hands in close though.

People saying he'll go into the middle and get 20+ a game are deluding themselves. He will pop up every now and then but thats it.

 

[Docker Dynasty]

Apparently this are his stats for 2012 (scroll down to 2012) according to this website http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/M/Matthew_de_Boer.html#teamp:
I recall he was killing it in Supercoach or dreamteam that year for a while. I reckon he will have to prove more worth than Crowley to get a spot in the team. If he adds more offensively and close enough to crowley defensively he can hold a spot - definitely when Crowley retires. Needs a chance to prove it next year tho with only a 1 year extension

 

[pokerspiv]

Deboer will be an adequate back up. I don't know that he has the ability (concentration) to do what Crowley does. And as much as people rag on crow legs skills, he is much better than deboer I think. Happy to have him playing for peel, but that's about it.

Crowley's kicking skills aren't his problem, it's his fumbling and inability to win centre clearances while being in the middle for most centre bounces. Compare him to Will Langford, and that's one of the reasons Hawthorn will be playing in the GF this year. They don't have any "role players". Their tagger shows up with 29 disposals and 10 centre clearances.

 

[counting bodies like sheep]

Crowley's kicking skills aren't his problem, it's his fumbling and inability to win centre clearances while being in the middle for most centre bounces. Compare him to Will Langford, and that's one of the reasons Hawthorn will be playing in the GF this year. They don't have any "role players". Their tagger shows up with 29 disposals and 10 centre clearances.

Understand your point, however mine is that Crowley can atleast go forward and kick you goals.... I'm not sure deboer has hands that are that much cleaner to displace him

 

[Docker Dynasty]

I started to question crowleys worth. Maybe its because we weren't as good as last year, so people all of a sudden don't look as good. I'd prefer out tagger to be able to rack a few quality possessions along the way. Have loved him for years tho. I times this year he looked a bit slow or lethargic to me.

 

[TweeBeard]

Deboer will be an adequate back up. I don't know that he has the ability (concentration) to do what Crowley does. And as much as people rag on crow legs skills, he is much better than deboer I think. Happy to have him playing for peel, but that's about it.

What are you basing that off? If there is one thing de Boer has going for him IMO it's that he is tough both physically and mentally. I think he would do as good a job tagging as Crowley did this year and he'd probably get a few more clearances and disposals in the middle whilst doing it too. They'd be messy clearances sure, but that's why he'd be in the middle doing a tagger's job rather than a pure clearance midfielder's one.

 

[rgauci]

DeBoer is a far better clearance player than Crowley. He has quick clean hands when playing at his best and shepherds beautifully after giving the ball away. Some players do this instinctively like Matty but others have to be trained to make space for others.

Matt has had 20+ disposal games with 10 clearances in the last few years. I remember him destroying Richmond in the rain. If given an extended run onball he'd be excellent.

 

[Wizard]

He'd be good for the occasional chop out, but he's not a consistent ball winner at AFL level. He barely ever cracks the 20's or 30's in possessions, more often than not he sits in the teens.

Not a easy task for a guy that sits primarily on a HFF.
He'd get 20+ every week if he played inside mid permanently.

 

[Taylor]

DeBoer is a far better clearance player than Crowley. He has quick clean hands when playing at his best and shepherds beautifully after giving the ball away. Some players do this instinctively like Matty but others have to be trained to make space for others.

Matt has had 20+ disposal games with 10 clearances in the last few years. I remember him destroying Richmond in the rain. If given an extended run onball he'd be excellent.

He shut out Cotchin that game too I think.

 

[counting bodies like sheep]

What are you basing that off? If there is one thing de Boer has going for him IMO it's that he is tough both physically and mentally. I think he would do as good a job tagging as Crowley did this year and he'd probably get a few more clearances and disposals in the middle whilst doing it too. They'd be messy clearances sure, but that's why he'd be in the middle doing a tagger's job rather than a pure clearance midfielder's one.

Not basing it off anything, just opinion. If deboers concentration was so good, then he wouldn't go missing for such large parts of the game..
Same could be said for suban.. I don't want this to be me bagging deboer anyway, I like deboer, I just don't think he is at afl standard, Crowley, whilst not with the cleanest skills has always been lauded for his epic ability to concerntrate.

 

[Alfonz]

The train of thought that Crowley kicks goals is a bit of a myth. Look at the stats the last few years, pretty much the only players who average less goals per game are the defenders. Besides, I'd rather a midfielder gets 25 touches and 0 goals, than 10 touches and 1 goal.

As good as Crowley has been, I think we need to reassess his value to the side. This is a thread about DeBoer, and I'd personally play him ahead of Crowley. DeBoer was a ball magnet in his junior days. He is actually a natural midfielder and would win a lot of possessions if thrust into the middle for a lesser side where he could get a game. It's a shame he has average kicking skills. His speed (some people saying he is slow are way off the mark), size/height, marking, tackling, toughness ... all very good attributes.

 

[counting bodies like sheep]

The train of thought that Crowley kicks goals is a bit of a myth. Look at the stats the last few years, pretty much the only players who average less goals per game are the defenders. Besides, I'd rather a midfielder gets 25 touches and 0 goals, than 10 touches and 1 goal.

As good as Crowley has been, I think we need to reassess his value to the side. This is a thread about DeBoer, and I'd personally play him ahead of Crowley. DeBoer was a ball magnet in his junior days. He is actually a natural midfielder and would win a lot of possessions if thrust into the middle for a lesser side where he could get a game. It's a shame he has average kicking skills. His speed (some people saying he is slow are way off the mark), size/height, marking, tackling, toughness ... all very good attributes.

Agree to disagree I suppose, your right on with deboer and his kicking though, it is a shame, as he does have so many good attributes, his kicking generally isn't even passable as we saw in the final against port. If it were then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Ross loves Crowley and id suggest he will be in the side for a while longer yet

 

[strobe00]

De boer has good hands he could help us be more calculated in congestion start those movements that Pearce and Hilly can end on. He doesnt have the speed, evasive skill, kick, positioning. Good hands in close though.

People saying he'll go into the middle and get 20+ a game are deluding themselves. He will pop up every now and then but thats it.

De boer doesn't have speed? Compared to hilly, pearceD and balla maybe. But he's pretty quick. Easily quicker than any of our inside mids. Quicker than mayne, as a guide... no slouch on the toe is de boer. Lateral movement and agility aren't great though.

If de boer was played onball full time, I think it's very believable that he'd pick up 20+ a game. Lots of contested possessions, tackles and some clearances. Probably quite a few shanks too.

He's still a bit hesitant and defensive at times. Not as bad as crowley, but it's there.

 

[TweeBeard]

Not basing it off anything, just opinion. If deboers concentration was so good, then he wouldn't go missing for such large parts of the game..
Same could be said for suban.. I don't want this to be me bagging deboer anyway, I like deboer, I just don't think he is at afl standard, Crowley, whilst not with the cleanest skills has always been lauded for his epic ability to concerntrate.

I'm not trying to have a go here but the bolded is pretty similar to "making shit up and talking about it."

The reason I'm think de Boer does not lack in concentration and is mentally tough is because he is in the leadership group and Ross Lyon said something like "It's a testament to his mental toughness" (or something like that) when speaking about de Boer and his quick recovery from his knee injury earlier this year. If de Boer couldn't concentrate then he probably wouldn't be on an AFL list and he definitely wouldn't have been entrenched in the 22 for such a long time until this year because as we can definitely agree on he isn't gifted with great talent.

 

[go_the_dockers]

I'm not trying to have a go here but the bolded is pretty similar to "making shit up and talking about it."

The reason I'm think de Boer does not lack in concentration and is mentally tough is because he is in the leadership group and Ross Lyon said something like "It's a testament to his mental toughness" (or something like that) when speaking about de Boer and his quick recovery from his knee injury earlier this year. If de Boer couldn't concentrate then he probably wouldn't be on an AFL list and he definitely wouldn't have been entrenched in the 22 for such a long time until this year because as we can definitely agree on he isn't gifted with great talent.

Lets not kid our self, 99% of what we say on bigfooty is opinion. The rest is quoting some article which is somebody's else opinion, even the training reports or the WAFL reports are 50% fact, 50% personal opinion.

Personally I would like to see us play a large chunk of next year with out Suban, de Boer and Crowley and see how we go, and would happily trade each of them for a 3rd round pick.

I think Mzungu would be a great tagger, and he has already done the role this year but he also wins his own ball.