Travis Cloke

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C

Colin Wood

Rookie
Aug 4, 2008
33
0
Mars
AFL Club
Collingwood
Ok. Ive had enough. Im sure there will be some who disagree with me, and thats ok, but seriously.....I keep reading on these threads that "Cloke is out of form" or comments like this....so I ask the question. WHY IS HE OUT THERE??? When players are out of form, they get dropped. Take Scott Lucas from Essendon. Out of form, so they dropped him. I dont understand why Malthouse persists with a guy who is so terribly out of touch right now. He dosent take marks. He dosent kick goals, he dosent contest. Dont give me this rubbish about him contesting around the ground and adding value that way.... He plays in the forward line. He is paid to take marks and kick goals. He has not done this for 7 weeks now. It makes no difference that Medders, Davis, Anthony were not playing tonight, Cloke may as well have not played either. Im all for giving a guy an opportunity to turn things around, but 7 weeks is WELL AND TRULY LONG ENOUGH.

If ever there was a night for Travis to stand up and fight, it had to be tonight. And he failed, again.

Malthouse and the selection panel are going to ruin the guy if this keeps going.

Sorry...a very negative post. But this situation is beyond a joke now.
 
Worked his butt off again.
Don't know if you noticed, but we didn't score much tonight and when it went down our end there was always an extra number back there.
Tough night as a forward for us tonight.

Went off injured late in the piece as well.

Would love to know who you think could take Clokes spot though. It is easy to flame what we have out there without giving any solution to the problem.
 
Invigoration said:
Worked his butt off again.
Don't know if you noticed, but we didn't score much tonight and when it went down our end there was always an extra number back there.
Tough night as a forward for us tonight.

Went off injured late in the piece as well.

Would love to know who you think could take Clokes spot though. It is easy to flame what we have out there without giving any solution to the problem.
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i think its time u take ur hand away from ur eyes. what does it matter if he works his butt off he doesnt use it for any good. stop making excusses like an extra number back and all that shit what u dont think all clubs have extra numbers back but still good forwards stand up and take marks, kick goals. i have the feeling he is not fast enough for AFL all in all agree with thread and needs to be dropped.
 

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Invigoration said:
Worked his butt off again.
Don't know if you noticed, but we didn't score much tonight and when it went down our end there was always an extra number back there.
Tough night as a forward for us tonight.

Went off injured late in the piece as well.

Would love to know who you think could take Clokes spot though. It is easy to flame what we have out there without giving any solution to the problem.
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He "works his butt off" every week...please..they all do, face facts, he's out of form. Went off injured late in the piece...yep, last quater. How were his other 3 quaters? Terrible. Solution? Reid, Dawes?...anyone really. Please explain how he "works his butt off"...I am sick of hearing people say that. Explain how? How many tackles did he have? What, is he leading to the ball but not getting it? I certainly dont see him contesting for marks. If by working his butt off you mean hes leading left right and centre, then obviously hes not leading to a spot where the guy with the ball thinks hes going to get the ball....again...FORM, Confidence (lack of).

If you think that leaving a guy in the team who is playing in the forward line and cant take a mark, cant kick a goal and isnt contesting hard enough in the HOPE that he will come good, you are kidding yourself.

The solution is to put him in the 2's for a few weeks, help him sort out his leading, hope that he kicks a couple of bags and gets some confidence up, and then bring him back.

And every game is a tough game for our forwards, the Champion forwards are the ones who find a way to get through it. We had a heap of inside 50's, plenty of opportunity. Trav needs to find a way.
 
Don't know if you noticed, however the delivery was the WORST I've ever seen, particularly as we managed to break-even just about for I50. Putting it on his head with players such as Fisher, coming over the top every time is rubbish service.

There was absolutely zero space to work into, (credit to the Saints) and our midfield was not upto it skill-wise tonight. Decision making was mind-blowing too.

The best delivery I can recall to a leading target was when Cloke drilled a spearing ball into Rocca on the lead in the 3rd.

Just imagine if he could receive that kind of service and space from his teammates.
 
dalethomas13 said:
Don't know if you noticed, however the delivery was the WORST I've ever seen, particularly as we managed to break-even just about for I50. Putting it on his head with players such as Fisher, coming over the top every time is rubbish service.

There was absolutely zero space to work into, (credit to the Saints) and our midfield was not upto it skill-wise tonight. Decision making was mind-blowing too.

The best delivery I can recall to a leading target was when Cloke drilled a spearing ball into Rocca on the lead in the 3rd.

Just imagine if he could receive that kind of service and space from his teammates.
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Im not talking about 1 game here....im talking about the last 7 weeks. You mention we matched them for inside 50's. So why the excuses? Stop making excuses for him and go back over the last 7 weeks. Its been the same every week. Champions find a way to beat the traffic.

And no im not a Travis Cloke hater, I think the guy has an opportunity to be as good as Reiwoldt, as good as Jonathan Brown, as good as any of the champion forwards, the simple fact is that right now, he is terrible. Big deal, it happens. But for god sake give the guy a CHANCE to get himself right with a few weeks in the 2's and get him back a better player!
 
I agree hes been playing pretty bad all year. I hear hes putting in the effort but hes just not doing that much for the team at the moment.

Im not sure of the solution maybe dropping him is best because whats currently happening isnt working for him.
 
yep.. collin wood is 100% right.. trav is getting way too much leniency.. has not performed anywhere near what is expected for a player of his calibre... i was blaming gameplan etc but i have come to realise even this excuse is wearing thin.. he is horribly out of form and needs a spell as a permanent CHB or a week or two off.. he is just going through the motions atm...
 
I think Trav has been overrated by most.

In previous years he has had a fully fit Rocca suck up key defenders and leave him as the second or third... or forth (given that the rock gets triple teamed sometimes) man down.

This year it's a different kettle of fish.

Stop bi**hing and whinging about the player he should be and treat him like the player he is - a second or third forward.

If we keep losing... it will slaughter our chances of a dignified end to the season, but we need to start blooding some of our forward options. Rusling when he comes good, Reid (I know! I know!) and what ever we have left in the tank.

At the end of the day, Cloke + whomever is currently playing, is not enough of a forward option to make the world go round.
 
Don't chastise me because of my unsympathetic statement but Travis Cloke's injury is a blessing in disguise.

Seven goals in seven games is just not good enough for a key position forward.

Hopefully Cloke uses this time wisely and collects his thoughts about his football.

The club should see to it that he returns via the VFL and proves himself to the selection committee and wider footballing commmunity that he is ready for senior AFL football.
 
If Dawes has another ripper next week, and Cloke has a stinker against the Blues, I think we'll need to give Clokey a game in the VFL whilst Dawes mans CHF against the Eagles.
 
He hasn't been great for the whole season BUT was OKAY in the 1st quarter. Not what you call great but it was a lot better than the panzy efforts he has given us lately. He went in hard, marked it and got a few disposals in the first quarter which was good but went quiet for pretty much the rest of the match (pretty much like the rest of the team).

You can't really judge Cloke tonight as when we went forward we didn't have the experience nor our main forwards up there to help Cloke out, and everytime it went up there it was just a bundle of players. We died out in the 2,3,4 quarters and the 1st quarter was our only little decent effort and Cloke was good/better.

Give him another shot next week and see how he fairs up, if thats not up to scratch then I'll agree with you and we should dump him in the two's.
 

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There are a number of issues here. I have said a few times one of which is MM's failure to change his gameplan to suit his new foward set up. Trav Cloke leading into space is a lot harder now teams are using the zones to shut down that space. Trav Cloke getting the ball on the wing and kicking a 50/50 ball to a fit Rocca to take or bring down is not gonig to happen much. Therefore he is playing a nothing role at the moment. Leading into congestion and when he gets the ball and kicks it inside 50 his success rate is just not good enough.

The problem is we have no other BIG foward to take his place. Dawes has played two good VFL games this year amongst a host of other hopeless games in the NAB cup and at VFL level. It comes as no suprise that those two games came against the Geelong VFL team and the Box Hill Hawks. Geelong with both Harley and Egan out of their senior team have a small / suspect defence at VFL level. Box Hill with Croad out of the Hawthorn AFL team have a small / suspect defence in the VFL. It is also no suprise that Bryan has also kicked about as many goals as Dawes has in Dawes 2 best games. I think Bryan may have more goals in the VFL side this year then Dawesy.

My answer is simple, play and pick sides to your strengths. One of Rocca and Cloke can / must play but deep as a full foward (even if it is Wil Minsonesque and Cloke is doing a good job of impersonating Wil Minson at FF at the moment.) Rather then trying to use Cloke as a lead up target to a wing with no space so we can move the ball slower and make it harder for our number 1 foward who is not a big pack crashing foward. Keep Cloke deep to contest if we can't spot up a leading target. Move the ball quicker and try and make it easier for our fowards who are getting the job done in Medhurst and Anthony.

Hawthorn had this problem a couple years back when Williams was there key foward. They where consistantly maligned for over using the ball. In one game Sam Mitchell and Hodge where given the worst and second worst player on ground despite both having over 30 touches. The reasoning for it was the commentator felt they overused the ball and hurt the side doing it. In reality all they where doing was playing to their strengths. It is no point kicking the ball long to a contest when your contested fowards aren't firing. There is no point moving the ball slowly to not turn it over and hope your contested fowards do the job when that is just not happening.

For anyone blaming the disposal to the fowards I hope they were at the game and noticed the fowards have a fair amount of the blame too. Too often the just didn't give the player with the ball a good option and made the ball carrier try and execute a really difficult kick. It is a lot easier to have a good looking disposal when your hitting a good option rather then trying to manufacture an option and hit it at the same time.
 
ksardog said:
any thoughts on throwing travis cloke on the ball for ten minutes so he can get his hands on the ball and get some confidence
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I cant agree with this one either. He's running around like a headless chook out there. naaa, he needs 2 to 3 games in the reserves. He has all the talent, all the potential, but leaving him in the seniors in this state is doing him no favors, Malthouse is not helping his development in any way.

Sometimes you gotta take 2 steps back and re evaluate yourself and your players. He will come back, but its not going to happen the way MM thinks it will. MM needs to stop being so freaking STUBBORN and give the kid a chance to get himself right.
 
i wonder if those who claim he worked hard around the ground actually went to the game or watched it on tv? I went to the game and then came home to see the last 1/4 and half. the commentators on tv kept going on about how hard cloke was working, how he was leading etc. TOTAL CRAP !!! they had to have been watching a different game.

I went with my mate and we both commented continually that Cloke looks like he doesnt have a clue. often he was wandering around like he didnt know where to lead to, simply wasnt leading, was butchering other players leads, it really was pitiful to watch.

I commented he reminds me of some Joe who spends his life watching the game but never plays, so when he gets in a game situation he has no idea what to actualy do himself.

He has been one of my favorite players, but surely the brownie points have run out now and he needs a spell to jolt his confidence.
 

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