Footy Tragic

Courtesy of regular Footy Tragic poster, Gghippo, here is a rundown of everything that went down at the Western Bulldogs intra-club earlier this week.

Big thanks to Gghippo for his contribution!

I headed down early Saturday morning to check out the WB intra-club match.  Although I follow the Dogs, I’ll try to keep these thoughts DT relevant and not digress into the Dogs 2012 chances.  My main aim of attending the intra-club match was to see how Boyd, Wallis, Dickson and Lake were progressing.  I’ve also included players who stood out for completeness in the summary below. Oh and I have also commented on Howard for LeatherHed.

It was a wet first half and Gia dominated. He was fit, sharp and playing a very high half forward role.  I’ve always felt he was a wet weather specialist, second only to Jimmy Bartel in this area, I recall a game against Adelaide at the end of 2010 when Gia went on a riot and scored 140 in the wet.  Given we are still in the midst of a La Nina period, I began wondering if he could be a viable unique in 2012…  To be honest, if the dogs weren’t pencilled in to play under the roof for half the season, I could almost be tempted to start him as a unique.  Here’s the main reason why – Looking at his last two game average against the Doggies’ opponents in the first 9 rounds, Gia is predicted to average 100 ppg.  In this analysis I made a conservative assumption that he will average 100 ppg against GC and GWS, but in reality we can pencil these games down as a big day out for the perennial cherry picker, as we all know he is very capable of delivering big 140+ numbers.  So Gia could be a massive POD for the first half of 2012.  At a similar price to Martin and with the Tigers having a very tough draw before the bye, a swap of Gia to Martin (possibly at a discount) for the second half of the season could be a master stroke, too risky for me, but such moves could win you a car.

Unfortunately, Boyd and Dickson DNP… Dickson missing was disappointing.  I was really keen to check out his game after Dan’s article.  The Dogs AFL website reported Boyd did not play due to a down loading phase in this training regime…. But I feel there could be something more to that knock the other week than we are getting fed.  At least I have 3 months to see how things are panning out before I consider bringing him in as a possible R12 mid upgrade.

Wallis was fantastic, I know people on other boards have questioned his disposal, but the boy is only 19 and would have had close to the most possessions on the ground in my opinion.  He tackled, won his own ball and played predominately in the middle.  He looked really comfortable out there.  I really like how he keeps his feet in contests and repeatedly goes in hard.  Also when he tackles they stick.  He is definitely on my DT watch list and could sneak in, if picking him opens up other worthwhile opportunities with the freed up funds.  I don’t think an average of 80+ is beyond him this year.

Now for Howard… Hmm… First round draft pick three years ago… Does that mean this is his break out year?  Personally, I’d steer clear.  He played on the wing and I thought he was soundly beaten by Moles, he also was matched up against Tutt on occasions.  I’m not convinced wing is his best position, but he does seem to be an outside player.  He got a couple of easy kicks early and looked okay, but if he was in my DT side he would frustrate me.  He lacks intensity and appears to shuffle and chug along to stoppages and contests, even at full pace he didn’t look to be lengthening his stride, maybe something to do with the hip surgery a while back?  This might be harsh, but because he doesn’t lengthen his stride, he looks ‘slow’ in running to contests or making space.  In terms of his game I feel when he does get the pill it is more due to luck than him creating his own opportunities, which is a concern for DT.  In DT you want a player who creates opportunities for themselves (running hard into space, demanding the ball, etc.) as these players tend to have higher floors.  Probably way too early to call it, but being pick 15 in 2009, he seems a fair bit behind others drafted after him (Fyfe, Bastinac, Tapscott, Menzel, Pittard, Gunston, Duncan, Christensen) but it is only early in his career.

Now for the big fish that everyone is interested in – Brian Lake.  I actually thought he did alright, he played a half at full back and was serviceable.  He is definitely a lot further along than I thought he was.  He was moving freely and attacked the ball.  He didn’t get that many possessions but he will improve from that hit out.  I don’t think he will ever get back to that 100ppg average, but at his current price he will make you some money.  Given the bye situation with most DT relevant backline players being out in R12 and R13, Lake could be a handy pick up, especially with the Dogs playing Port and Bris at home over those two rounds.  He also has a good historic record against those two teams.  While we are considering Lake, I should mention Hargrave who played three quarters on Jarred Grant.  He won that battle and was moving freely.  There was a pack mark contest (Jones marked the ball) in the third quarter, and Hargrave got up gingerly, I don’t think it was anything major and him coming off at ¾ time was probably part of the original plan.   Like Lake I can’t see him getting back to being an elite back man (93ppg average) he was a couple of years ago, however, he could make you some money in 2012.

Probably not 2012 DT relevant, but Dahlhaus and Jones are two players who really caught my eyes, and could be DT stars in the future.

Dahlhaus is the closest thing the dogs have to a young Ablett or Rioli type and when I make reference to these two players, I mean in terms of doing special uncanny acts that all spectators, irrespective of club, go to the footy to enjoy.  I hope he can develop a tank and put on some bulk on his slight frame to enable him to be an elite midfielder star for the Dogs long term.

Jones ‘clunked’ a number of contested marks.  Bare in mind, his opponent was Markovic, but he looked very impressive.  He needs to continue working on his kick and set shots on goal, but I look forward to see him develop into an elite forward in the coming years.  The thing I really love about this guy is he’s smart, he reads the play well and times his leading to find space.  And when he goes for his marks (contested or uncontested) he doesn’t shut his eyes nor does he drop his head.  And I don’t see that in many players.  That is a big differentiator for me between going to be good vs going to be great.  He is someone the Dogs will be able to build their forward line around.  I’ve pencilled in as a starter for my SC side.

@ Mezz, or anyone else at the game, if you have any other comments you would like to add, please do, so we can pass the information on for others who could not make it to the game.

Cheers,
Gghippo

I was rapt to finally be able to head out and watch the Tigers train and I’m happy to report I got quite a bit out of the two hour session!

There were a few players in the rehab group from what I saw; Ben Griffiths, Trent Cotchin, Jake Batchelor, Jack Riewoldt, Luke McGuane, Steve Morris, and Andrew Browne.

None of them looked injured, so they might’ve just been on light duties for the day. Trent Cotchin was running laps with Wayne Campbell for the first quarter of the session, and I must say, he was looking mighty fit! Cotchin is due to participate in full training by next week, as well as Jack Riewoldt.

Kelvin Moore and David Astbury walked laps and then disappeared under the race for the rest of the session. We know Moore is still recovering from a severe hip injury, but I’m not exactly sure what was wrong with David Astbury.

Players I didn’t see were Addam Maric, John Heslin, Dean Macdonald and Gibson Turner, but I very well might have missed them.

There were a few match simulation drills that caught my eye because it gave a fair idea of some player positions.

Much has been made about Brett Deledio and Reece Conca moving to the midfield, and while they did train there, it was interesting to see the captain, Chris Newman playing up the field as well. He did a lot of kicking inside 50, and was very much a link up player in the centre square in the drills. Other players rotating through there were Dustin Martin, Daniel Connors, Matthew Arnot, Shane Edwards, Nathan Foley, Shuan Grigg, Daniel Jackson, Jeromey Webberley and Shane Tuck.

Training in the backline group were Brandon Ellis, Dylan Grimes, Bachar Houli, Alex Rance, Ben Darrou, Piva Wright, Steven Verrier, Matt Dea, Bradley Helbig, Jayden Post and Matthew White.

Brandon Ellis was fantastic in the drills. He stands up in the tackles brilliantly with his powerful core, and best of all I didn’t see him miss a target all day. There’s been talk he may be strictly a shut down defender, but from what I could see, he and Bachar Houli were the two ‘kickers’ out of defence. If Chris Newman ends up playing up the ground, then Bachar Houli could be an excellent choice for Dream Team because he’ll be the main ‘go to’ guy out of the backline.

In the forward line, things were pretty interesting! Obviously without Jack Riewoldt, they structured up a bit differently, with Tyrone Vickery playing at centre half forward, Tom Derickx out of full forward, and Brad Miller playing as a floating third tall. Todd Elton substituted with Tyrone Vickery every few minutes, and he looked extremely impressive. If I were to hazard a guess here, I’d say when Jack Riewoldt is back, Miller would be the guy to move out.

Damien Hardwick likes to play three talls up forward, so at the moment I have Tom Derickx in my round one side. He had a horror 2011 with injuries after he was bookmarked to play much of the season as a mature age draftee. He’s now 24 years old, and has grown to 202cm, after being 195cm as an 18 year old. He moves extremely well for a big guy and he clunked some really great contested marks in the drills. If you look back at his NAB Cup performance last year against Collingwood, he showed some great contested marking ability in that match. Most importantly, I saw him take about ten set shots, and he didn’t miss one of them.

Robin Nahas and Jake King were the two terriers in the forward line, and Nahas especially looked really lively and looks set to continue on from his brilliant 2011 season.

Another new draftee that was training up forward was Brett O’Hanlon, who I really liked. He linked up well up across the wings and half forward and he has such a good kick on him.

I got quite a lot out of yesterday, and I really recommend if you’re keen on certain players to head down to training. You can really get a grasp on what type of role they’ll be playing and best of all you get to see them for yourself and make your own judgements. It’s especially better at this time of year now because there’ll be mainly match simulation drills going ahead, but unfortunately some clubs don’t offer open training sessions as much as others clubs do; in particular Essendon.

I’ll finish off with a little predicted round one side after what I saw today.

I hope this article helps with your Tiger selections, there are certainly a few to consider!

KRISTIAN’S PREDICTED ROUND ONE SIDE

FB: Alex Rance, Dylan Grimes, Steven Morris

HB: Brandon Ellis, Jayden Post, Bachar Houli

C: Chris Newman, Brett Deledio, Reece Conca

HF: Dustin Martin, Tyrone Vickery, Shane Edwards

FF: Robin Nahas, Tom Derickx, Jack Riewoldt

R: Ivan Maric, Nathan Foley, Trent Cotchin

INT: Daniel Jackson, Shaun Grigg, Shane Tuck, Jake Batchelor

*NOTE* Jake King is suspended for round one.