6 goals and 2 assists over a few half hearted chases is a no brainer, but it is something he has to improve on. Do they make a point of it by showing him the replay and tell him he's staying in the magoo's until he gets that out of his game, maybe. Sometimes you are spent, so excusable, I've seen Dusty and Bolton do it. But this was just lazy. He'll get it eventually. Besides we are all looking for it, so he is getting marked hard.
VFL Round 18 vs Box Hill July 22nd Punt Road 10:05am
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Harrison Bergeron
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Such a shame Dow hasn't come on and will be delisted - the senior game really underlined how much we've missed Edwards quick hands and work in tight since he fell off the cliff in '21 - and Dow shares those qualities - though it appears Coulthard does too but he won't be attending too many stoppages let alone centre bounces you'd imagine like Dow would've been doing- all moot because you need to find the ball first and he can't at AFL level, which along with his ability to spread and horrible disposal by foot is where he falls down. Part of me hopes we persist like the Scum have with his brother though won't exactly be slitting the wrists when we don't.
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Delist him as we’ve given him four seasons.
I don't think he is a definite delist. Right now he is playing very good football in the VFL. He is clean at the ball, has good hands and has started to add some good outside run in his game. Kickiing has been good as well, one of his knocks. We have not one inside mid in the club who is not playing AFL and he has something the other inside mids in our side don't have besides Bolton, a really quick step/lateral movement. We loose Cotchin, Martin is not far behind, Prestia is fairly injury prone. We have no backup at all. You'd think they would target one in the draft, but that is a season or two away.
If Dow was 3 kg's heavier he would be a better player. At the moment he gets to great spots but can get knocked off the ball and is not strong enough to be a really good tackler. It took Shedda who he is sometimes compared to, years before he could play midfield effectively, tackle etc. Dow to me is a bit the same. One more year and a summer of steak and chips and the gym.
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Not sure about Dows kicking being good, maybe it’s picked up slightly, but still a real weakness in his game.
MRJ and HRS also have below average foot skills.
Banks promotion has been a good move, Clarke is another of our kids who uses it well and Brown is also in that category. These are the guys we should be getting games into. Dow well down the pecking order imo in the development priority list .
It is funny about kicking, I think there are multiple parts to whether you are considered a good kick.
1. There is your kicking penetration, where Dow might be below average to average.
2..Your ability to hit say a fixed target or area with your kick, where Dow might be average ish.
3. I guess if you want to be considered a brilliant kick you need to be able to pull off angled touch kicks etc to get players into space. I haven't really seen any evidence Dow can do that but most players can't.
4. But there is a less easily defined element to kicking where I have queries on Dow. It is made up of the combination of the ability to place the ball to the advantage of your team with bodies in your eye line moving in all directions, and also your ability to build up to your kick in a certain way that allows players forward of the ball to understand where to go to receive the ball.
It is this 4th element(or mixture of elements) I think a lot of people overlook when they see a Matt Crouch chip the ball 25 metres to an easy target and hit it. Or a Dow slot a goal from 45m out with a set shot. They see the player hit his target and think he is kicking well. But these are the easy parts of being a good kick. The tough parts are the parts 3 and 4 above. Dow to me has to run around traffic quite often by retreating or tracing circles, replete with several direction changes. It is very difficult to execute damaging kicks from that basis. He needs to do some serious work on his straight line running. A good example of this at present would be Jack Ross, where when faced with traffic seems to be able to keep his chest facing the target and sidestep the traffic. You are a lot more likely to execute a valuable kick from that platform than having to turn and run backwards away from the traffic then start twisting turning in order to get a clear kick, which is what I see Dow do a lot.
Hopefully he can improve this part of his game. But like you, I see Dow's lack of damaging kicking as a serious limitation in his game.
Dow just doesn't have the level of talent required. Can win a modest amount of inside ball in the 2's. That's about it.
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We recruited Hopper and Taranto for a reason. Contested ball
I think we should add another good inside midfielder to the list if we can manage to get enough picks to do that. It’s not as big a need as a kpf but still a need.
Don’t think Dow has shown enough to be confident that he’s going to be part of our inside mid brigade post Cotch, Dusty, Prestia
I think we should add another good inside midfielder to the list if we can manage to get enough picks to do that. It’s not as big a need as a kpf but still a need.
Don’t think Dow has shown enough to be confident that he’s going to be part of our inside mid brigade post Cotch, Dusty, Prestia
In regard to kicking, it was noticeable that he was hitting targets, even Morris made note of it. As an inside mid you don't have to be an elite kick, Cotchin, Taranto, Hopper and plenty of others. Of course he is behind others generally, but not as inside mid/general mid, which is the one thing that might save him.
Injury/suspension/retirement, he is next in order.
Harrison Bergeron
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Two of the best passes by foot I've ever seen were both executed by Conca - both were low bullets out on the boundary right on the 50 to Edwards and Cotchin respectively about 45 out right in front. One was at the Punt road End and the other was at the City End. Don't think anyone would ever call Cuddles a good kick though. Also saw him a do blind turn once that was way better than Pickett's. Then there was that goal in '15 EF v Norf after he pulled off the cleanest one on one steal you'll ever see. Probably did all that shit in that WAFL match where FJ was hiding behind the tree.
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I hear you, but don’t think that’s necessarily a healthy thing “next in order “ from a list perspective.
From what I saw this year he’s a long way off being able to compete at AFL level if he was needed to replace any of our inside mids.
And that’s not having a go at the kid his worked his arse off to get where he is and is playing some good VFL football. But like he’s bro I reckon that is his level.
Agree, having said that he has only played one game so hard to judge, even then he played mainly half forward and bench. Being backed in makes a massive difference to emerging players. I said at the start of the season that he needed to play a good half season of VFL before being considered for higher selection because he had to learn to play proper hard inside football. He is starting to do that now and is easily our stand out as an inside mid in the VFL in the last few weeks. Only thing that might save him, and the fact that he is quite dynamic around the ball, which we don't have a lot of.
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Cuddles in a final also kicked the ball from the true CHF position and it went 15 degrees to his right OOBOTF. He was more often terrible than good.Two of the best passes by foot I've ever seen were both executed by Conca - both were low bullets out on the boundary right on the 50 to Edwards and Cotchin respectively about 45 out right in front. One was at the Punt road End and the other was at the City End. Don't think anyone would ever call Cuddles a good kick though. Also saw him a do blind turn once that was way better than Pickett's. Then there was that goal in '15 EF v Norf after he pulled off the cleanest one on one steal you'll ever see. Probably did all that s**t in that WAFL match where FJ was hiding behind the tree.
Harrison Bergeron
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Think you've might've misunderstood the gist of my post.
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No HB all good.Think you've might've misunderstood the gist of my post.
Harrison Bergeron
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Yeah well just in case anyway- yes Conca was indeed a dud and something about the sun shining on a black dog's arse...
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Used to live in Coburg and he'd be easy to find in any pub TAB.
Harrison Bergeron
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While his brother tucked into the counter lunches.
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Never ever actually seen the two together in their time.While his brother tucked into the counter lunches.
Harrison Bergeron
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Pretty sure Luke ate Reece and it's actually him who went to Freo and is now the Melbourne runner.
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