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Player Watch Pick #5 (2018) - Connor Rozee (AFL Captain)
- Thread starter Forzaport
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- Aug 15, 2015
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Absolute crap leadership. You don't get there just by rocking up and hoping things fall your way. It hasn't worked for 12 years. We have no ruthlessness whatsoever. Even when we finish top 4 literally everyone in the AFL knows we're zero threat. We could finish top next year and we'd still be about 6th in premiership odds.
We have no other level to go to in finals and can only beat good sides rarely, and shit ourselves at home. That doesn't win flags Connor. And your final series was poor. Ok against hawthorn, soft as piss other than that. See what Heeney does? Do that.
The comparison to Heeney is poor.
I agree that Rozee needs to get to that level, but Heeney has only finally put it all together at the age of 28. Prior to that he's been a huge tease for his entire career, and has barely been capable of spending half a year in the midfield.
He's now reached his prime and his body has fully matured. Furthermore, he's not a captain of his side
Go look at his 2022 finals series, and compare it to his regular season.
FishingRick04
Brownlow Medallist
Heeney live was amazing, he is an athlete and a half, strong, athletic, aggressive, Rozee has a lot of things to improve to compare.
At the same point of his career though, Rozee is a better player than Heeney was.
Heeney was given the time to grow, and improve his game in the areas that needed improvement.
I think Rozee deserves the same patience
Ford Fairlane
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- Feb 21, 2002
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Isaac Heeney is 28 already? 
FishingRick04
Brownlow Medallist
Well Connor will have a career in the AFL, it’s not like he’ll be delisted. He definitely needs to add some hardness to his game IMO
- Aug 15, 2015
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Isaac Heeney is a machiney
All I'm saying is, if Rozee had only 11 touches in an AFL grand final flogging (See: Heeney's 2022 GF performance) this forum would throw the baby out with the bath water..
And now we're saying Rozee needs to be more like Heeney.. something to be said there about how reactionary we can be at times
FishingRick04
Brownlow Medallist
Of course, we are comparing him to what is the best now, not two years ago.
- Sep 25, 2013
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Hmmm. Was ready to crucify Connor - for his output this year, his on and off field leadership and for those pressers.
Definitely needs to work on some things - but which AFL players don’t?
Which captains are perfect? Darcy Moore was great in his premiership year and terrible since. Gawn seems to exemplify leadership but his club implodes around him. Cotchin, Buckley, etc were initially hyper alpha and took a lot of work to improve their leadership style. Jonas missed most of last year as captain. Oscar Allen the same for different reasons. Walker was embroiled in Racism and didn’t turn up on grand final day and burned players who left. Have the suns had an adequate captain? Greene had a stinker of a year at GWS.
Whilst Connor hasn’t had his best year he has also had a pregnant wife, his first major injury and a lack of support around him. Wines was average till late in the year, Dixon and Boak have been ordinary, SPP out injured, DBJ inconsistent, Butters also a young fellow leader.
And did we expect him to bag the coach? Bag himself and the team? His pressers need work for sure but I don’t think they’re that far from what you would expect, particularly from a young leader who is still working it out and doesn’t have great support around him. And he is towing the party line - it’s almost like the role models he has did the exact same thing - Dixon, Wines, Boak, Jonas…
Perhaps we need to give him some slack. He needs some good people around him to guide him. I would see if Buckley or Cotchin or Selwood or Sloane or Ebert etc could mentor him. And maybe get him up to see the Richmond mindset gurus - Emma Murray or something like that and that Crowe guy.
But let’s give him some time to grow into it. There are concerns for sure but I think he has the potential to be a great captain and player for port. Let’s see how he goes over the off season and next year.
Definitely needs to work on some things - but which AFL players don’t?
Which captains are perfect? Darcy Moore was great in his premiership year and terrible since. Gawn seems to exemplify leadership but his club implodes around him. Cotchin, Buckley, etc were initially hyper alpha and took a lot of work to improve their leadership style. Jonas missed most of last year as captain. Oscar Allen the same for different reasons. Walker was embroiled in Racism and didn’t turn up on grand final day and burned players who left. Have the suns had an adequate captain? Greene had a stinker of a year at GWS.
Whilst Connor hasn’t had his best year he has also had a pregnant wife, his first major injury and a lack of support around him. Wines was average till late in the year, Dixon and Boak have been ordinary, SPP out injured, DBJ inconsistent, Butters also a young fellow leader.
And did we expect him to bag the coach? Bag himself and the team? His pressers need work for sure but I don’t think they’re that far from what you would expect, particularly from a young leader who is still working it out and doesn’t have great support around him. And he is towing the party line - it’s almost like the role models he has did the exact same thing - Dixon, Wines, Boak, Jonas…
Perhaps we need to give him some slack. He needs some good people around him to guide him. I would see if Buckley or Cotchin or Selwood or Sloane or Ebert etc could mentor him. And maybe get him up to see the Richmond mindset gurus - Emma Murray or something like that and that Crowe guy.
But let’s give him some time to grow into it. There are concerns for sure but I think he has the potential to be a great captain and player for port. Let’s see how he goes over the off season and next year.
I think it's fair to say that 2024 Heeney is what Rozee should aspire to be. It's also fair to say that pre-2024 Heeney was underwhelming to a similar extent as current Rozee.
However it's not so easy to just say that Rozee needs to elevate his game like Heeney, as the latter's form is due to a positional change. Heeney's contested possession rate has gone up by 50% this year, but he's also attending more CB's than ever before (around 20 per game, while only averaging around 3 a game in the previous few years). Rozee has averaged around 16-18 CBAs per game in the last couple of years, however his contested possession count only saw a marginal increase from 6 to 8 contested touches per game.
Of the 126 players to have attend more than 35% of CBs per game in 2024 (i.e. pretty much any midfielder), Rozee is ranked 45th for % centre clearances per CBA at 10.7%. Heeney is ranked 66 (9.2).* So it's not purely stoppage work that is the problem, it's the around the ground stuff, which can be seen with Heeney's far superior ability in groundballs (7.2 v 5.4) and hard ball (1.9 v 1.2), while Rozee gets more HB receives (8.9 v 7.8).
So my concern is how we use Rozee. Is it potentially a coaching thing in telling him to try and stay loose and use his agility to generate clearances, at the expense of helping with the contested work? I'm hoping so, because it's rare to see players significantly improve their contested possession rate beyond their first couple of years in the system. So if it's purely an ability thing, then we need to make the call to keep him as a forward.
*Shoutout to JHF who is ranked second in this stat (at 17.5%) just fractionally behind Shiel.
However it's not so easy to just say that Rozee needs to elevate his game like Heeney, as the latter's form is due to a positional change. Heeney's contested possession rate has gone up by 50% this year, but he's also attending more CB's than ever before (around 20 per game, while only averaging around 3 a game in the previous few years). Rozee has averaged around 16-18 CBAs per game in the last couple of years, however his contested possession count only saw a marginal increase from 6 to 8 contested touches per game.
Of the 126 players to have attend more than 35% of CBs per game in 2024 (i.e. pretty much any midfielder), Rozee is ranked 45th for % centre clearances per CBA at 10.7%. Heeney is ranked 66 (9.2).* So it's not purely stoppage work that is the problem, it's the around the ground stuff, which can be seen with Heeney's far superior ability in groundballs (7.2 v 5.4) and hard ball (1.9 v 1.2), while Rozee gets more HB receives (8.9 v 7.8).
So my concern is how we use Rozee. Is it potentially a coaching thing in telling him to try and stay loose and use his agility to generate clearances, at the expense of helping with the contested work? I'm hoping so, because it's rare to see players significantly improve their contested possession rate beyond their first couple of years in the system. So if it's purely an ability thing, then we need to make the call to keep him as a forward.
*Shoutout to JHF who is ranked second in this stat (at 17.5%) just fractionally behind Shiel.
- Jun 18, 2014
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I understand and accept that he’s essentially learning on the job as captain, but the worry for me is that I see no natural leadership qualities in him at all that would give me confidence he’ll get better. He doesn’t exactly lead by example in the tough moments with his actions, and every time he opens his mouth in public it’s just a disaster.
His ridiculous post game interview after Hawthorn, and his stupid shit eating grin standing behind Hinkley while he embarrassed himself after the game really put me off him, he is just not what you want a captain to be.
His ridiculous post game interview after Hawthorn, and his stupid shit eating grin standing behind Hinkley while he embarrassed himself after the game really put me off him, he is just not what you want a captain to be.
BZT, Wines, Drew were all laughing. Bit unfair to call out Rozee tbf.
I think the players were mature enough to focus on the game in lieu of trash talk with Ginny. Can we give them credit for that? They went out there and played the game.
It doesn't surprize me. I've been here a long time and I remember the savagery toward both Burgoynes in the 2000s. I could go back to those posts but that would be petty. There's more negativity than positivity on the boards which puts myself in the minority.
I do like the maturity that we've been able to bring to the team over the season. Early we saw Butters and JHF struggle to deal with this and Connor will obviously learn from those struggles, and how we overcome them. I totally agree with you that everyone's got something to work on. I wouldn't be impressed being a Bulldogs or Carlton supporter and think they both have a lot to work on.
FishingRick04
Brownlow Medallist
Do we need Connor to mimic Daicos role?
Same attributes, fit, fast, good ball user, let him be the seagull?
Same attributes, fit, fast, good ball user, let him be the seagull?
You realise that Daicos gets about twice as many contested possessions as Rozee right? If anyone is the seagull, it's Rozee
Lets see Connor back from his honeymoon and a year on from captaincy and that stupid injury.
Rozee2Butters
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- Apr 2, 2023
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Rozee is an elite footballer in a form slump. He will be fine. Check back in one year after he gets his 3rd AA jacket.
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Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
He did a hamstring, probably one of the most common and one of the easier injuries to recover from, especially if it's a one off.
I've seen it get used as an excuse but it really shouldn't have been that big of a deal.
And he was rushed back from an ankle injury
As a player he is absolutely fine.
The only concern is some of those post-game comments show a real lack of focus and also a lack of gratitude to the fans.
The only concern is some of those post-game comments show a real lack of focus and also a lack of gratitude to the fans.
- Sep 25, 2013
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True.
Hammies are also normally three week injuries not rushed back after a week to play in a showdown where you are sledged by the opposition after you struggle about ten minutes in. And your coach takes responsibility by saying I shouldn’t have played him but also he put himself up for selection.
IIRC he played the next week on it because Hinkley went over the head of medical when a hammy is 3 to 4 weeks rest to get it back good.
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