I'll try to follow along and do my own like the forward video. LDU - B+ - Lots of growing pains within our midfield losing Cunners, Thomas, Goldy and not having Jy around in our early games was always going to be rough. This guy basically had to run a midfield of young mids and a new ruck.. Played 23 games which was really good to see. His only let downs were some pretty bad turnovers and in some games he would pass off instead of having a shot from 45-50 out on the run. I really think LDU will explode next year with a healthy George, Sheez and Jy around him earning his first AA blazer. Warlord - B - Similar to my opinion on Duurs, it's hard for some young players to find their feet and put together consistent games, he was in and out of the side at the end of the season losing consistency. He played some big games against Wet Toast, Collingwood and Melbourne from memory. Looking forward to next year I think we see George string together more consistent 20-25 disposal games with 5+ tackles and hitting around 10-15 goals for the season, I think Josh has an expectation too high for a 2nd year player here. Sheez - A+ - I mean what a champion, the player we have been waiting for. If he didn't have to play on 1 leg in the Geelong game and played the last 2 games he would've been wearing an AA blazer and you could argue he should've been anyway. Moved from HBF to Midfield seamlessly and gave us class that we were missing. Great season, can't wait to watch him next year. Powelly - B - Good season, cemented his spot. I think once Jy came back we saw him fall off a little bit after having his magnet moved around a lot. He has a lot of class with the footy and is dangerous in front of the goals. One of our young guys now inching towards 100 games, so I think he will only get better next year. Jy Simpkin - C+ - I think we all expected Jy to be one of our best mids this year and the fans treat him as our midfield whipping boy. After having his head taken off by an "E" tier player in a practice match he lost a lost of confidence and then carried a quad injury until the bye. Once he returned you could see him controlling our young midfield and leading them on field and really being the older head we desperately needed in there. His game in Perth against Wet Toast was elite but I personally think he had to sacrifice his own game this year to be an on field teacher, so he is a hard one to rate. Curtis Taylor - C - Rated him in your forward video. Hugh Greenwood - Not going to rank him, I think he was used as a veteran in the VFL to teach the young guys there. Did the best he could do with opportunity he was given. Bailey Scott - C- - Played out of position for most of the season but still didn't impress me that much until the Richmond game, very lackluster and I hope to see better next season. Liam Shiels - B - Did what he had to do, not sure if I expected much? Wish I saw Will Phil a little more over him, but I guess the coaches saw the impact he had more than we do. Dylan Stephens - D- - Really expected a decent wing recruit. I know he couldn't break into Sydney's side but yeah, expected better from him. Skills let him down quite a few times, looked a little lost. Would I rather Curtis Taylor on the wing? maybe Will Phil - D - Underwhelming season, which hurts because the skills are there. He hits targets, kicks goals, lays tackles and bleeds for the club. I went back and watched his draft videos again and he looks faster & stronger. I'm not sure if it's just because it's juniors and it looks that way by comparison, but he looked like a beast. Needs to really put in a monster pre season and go work with LDU to get some leg drive and speed or needs to reinvent himself. He will replace Shiels' spot this year more than likely if he has a good pre season, I don't want him to just be a tagger because he has potential to be way better than that. Lazzaro - D - Another 180cm midfielder who is struggling to make a mark in AFL. Excellent VFL player but either needs to reinvent himself as a Wing, Half Back or Half forward or I can see him being delisted. Big X - A+ - He just has that dog in him doesn't he. We could argue that he was robbed of the AA blazer. I hope to see him tidy up his ball use and hand off to his mids a bit more instead of the standard NMFC long bomb next season. Side note: Hawks spent 5 seasons out of the top 8 from 2019-2023, the difference? They have players in the 25-29 year old range that we are missing and genuine stars around the 100+ game mark. I believe they are atleast 2 years ahead of us currently, most of their great players are hitting the 100+ game mark currently and the younger guys are learning from experienced heads like Sicily, Gunston, Bruest, Sam Frost, Amon, Moore, Wingard etc. We need Sheez, Wardlaw, Powell etc to hit 100+ games while LDU, Jy, Souv, Scotty are hitting 150-200+ games before we start making real pushes to the finals.
Thanks for touching on the Cameron Joyce, debacle
Biggest areas of improvement for next season: Stephens less scared of his own shadow, Simpkin less blind hack kicks and Marnie more dummy spitting
I'll try to follow along and do my own like the forward video.
LDU - B+ - Lots of growing pains within our midfield losing Cunners, Thomas, Goldy and not having Jy around in our early games was always going to be rough. This guy basically had to run a midfield of young mids and a new ruck.. Played 23 games which was really good to see. His only let downs were some pretty bad turnovers and in some games he would pass off instead of having a shot from 45-50 out on the run. I really think LDU will explode next year with a healthy George, Sheez and Jy around him earning his first AA blazer.
Warlord - B - Similar to my opinion on Duurs, it's hard for some young players to find their feet and put together consistent games, he was in and out of the side at the end of the season losing consistency. He played some big games against Wet Toast, Collingwood and Melbourne from memory. Looking forward to next year I think we see George string together more consistent 20-25 disposal games with 5+ tackles and hitting around 10-15 goals for the season, I think Josh has an expectation too high for a 2nd year player here.
Sheez - A+ - I mean what a champion, the player we have been waiting for. If he didn't have to play on 1 leg in the Geelong game and played the last 2 games he would've been wearing an AA blazer and you could argue he should've been anyway. Moved from HBF to Midfield seamlessly and gave us class that we were missing. Great season, can't wait to watch him next year.
Powelly - B - Good season, cemented his spot. I think once Jy came back we saw him fall off a little bit after having his magnet moved around a lot. He has a lot of class with the footy and is dangerous in front of the goals. One of our young guys now inching towards 100 games, so I think he will only get better next year.
Jy Simpkin - C+ - I think we all expected Jy to be one of our best mids this year and the fans treat him as our midfield whipping boy. After having his head taken off by an "E" tier player in a practice match he lost a lost of confidence and then carried a quad injury until the bye. Once he returned you could see him controlling our young midfield and leading them on field and really being the older head we desperately needed in there. His game in Perth against Wet Toast was elite but I personally think he had to sacrifice his own game this year to be an on field teacher, so he is a hard one to rate.
Curtis Taylor - C - Rated him in your forward video.
Hugh Greenwood - Not going to rank him, I think he was used as a veteran in the VFL to teach the young guys there. Did the best he could do with opportunity he was given.
Bailey Scott - C- - Played out of position for most of the season but still didn't impress me that much until the Richmond game, very lackluster and I hope to see better next season.
Liam Shiels - B - Did what he had to do, not sure if I expected much? Wish I saw Will Phil a little more over him, but I guess the coaches saw the impact he had more than we do.
Dylan Stephens - D- - Really expected a decent wing recruit. I know he couldn't break into Sydney's side but yeah, expected better from him. Skills let him down quite a few times, looked a little lost. Would I rather Curtis Taylor on the wing? maybe
Will Phil - D - Underwhelming season, which hurts because the skills are there. He hits targets, kicks goals, lays tackles and bleeds for the club. I went back and watched his draft videos again and he looks faster & stronger. I'm not sure if it's just because it's juniors and it looks that way by comparison, but he looked like a beast. Needs to really put in a monster pre season and go work with LDU to get some leg drive and speed or needs to reinvent himself. He will replace Shiels' spot this year more than likely if he has a good pre season, I don't want him to just be a tagger because he has potential to be way better than that.
Lazzaro - D - Another 180cm midfielder who is struggling to make a mark in AFL. Excellent VFL player but either needs to reinvent himself as a Wing, Half Back or Half forward or I can see him being delisted.
Big X - A+ - He just has that dog in him doesn't he. We could argue that he was robbed of the AA blazer. I hope to see him tidy up his ball use and hand off to his mids a bit more instead of the standard NMFC long bomb next season.
Side note: Hawks spent 5 seasons out of the top 8 from 2019-2023, the difference? They have players in the 25-29 year old range that we are missing and genuine stars around the 100+ game mark. I believe they are atleast 2 years ahead of us currently, most of their great players are hitting the 100+ game mark currently and the younger guys are learning from experienced heads like Sicily, Gunston, Bruest, Sam Frost, Amon, Moore, Wingard etc. We need Sheez, Wardlaw, Powell etc to hit 100+ games while LDU, Jy, Souv, Scotty are hitting 150-200+ games before we start making real pushes to the finals.
Tom Powell had a great season. A+
Not playing Big Hugh Greenwood cost us 4 or 6 games for sure!!! Am I right Marnie? :)
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Watching hawthorn is a stark reminder of how incredibly poor north Melbourne is