I mention most of our A list, but I've excluded some players who have not played a senior game.
Taylor Adams has played competently without setting this observer's world on fire (from 4 games).
Luke Ball - quiet achiever; just keeps on keeping on; what you see is what you get - which is almost always good and sometimes very good.
Dayne Beams is getting back to his best after a previous year of injuries. He leads the team for many keys stats for the year (disposals, tackles, inside 50s, clearances).
Jarryd Blair always seems to be trying. Even when he's not getting a lot of the ball, he chases and tackles - and it's always with a lot of intensity, not just going through the motions. He doesn't always get a lot of possessions, but he's persistent.
It was disappointing that Nathan Brown did his shoulder against Buddy. He was playing a pretty good game at the time. I hope he can return and continue to play reliable defensive football.
Marty Clarke has only played one game this year and was quiet. He is not on the injury list. That doesn't look good for the kid. His return to Collingwood has not hit the heights of his first stint.
Travis Cloke is well down on previous years. Lots of room for improvement - which might come with Reid's return - though you'd have to think Jesse White has done all that has been expected of him in that role. He's kicked 8.14 for the year, so he only has himself to blame. He could in theory be leading Collingwood's goal kicking.
He has a team high 6 goal assists for the year. However with Trav, that could be a bit misleading. Let's say he passes to Elliott (17.3 for the year) - good chance of a conversion and therefore a credit for goal assist. Later, Elliott passes to Trav (8.14!) - same excellent pass, much lower chance of a GA.
Sam Dwyer is the Energiser bunny. A quality player who shows no signs of ever being outstanding.
Jamie Elliott has followed up a very successful 2013 with an excellent opening to 2014. Plenty of X factor. Easily leads the goal kicking with 17 - ahead of Beams (10), White (9) and Cloke and Swan (8). He equals Cloke for marks (44), but Langdon has 47.
Alex Fasolo appears to have had a Leon rebirth in defence. I have great hopes for him as the designated kicker. He kicks a long way and usually does it extremely well.
Since before Nathan Brown went down, Jack Frost has been a revelation. He has played every game this year, did well when opposed to Buddy and has since gone from strength to strength. He is remarkably mobile for a big man, very athletic and very effective. And quick!
Perhaps Tyson Goldsack has chosen to omit some of the X factor from his game, but he is very effective; can play tall or not so tall; forward or back; is quick; is prepared to chase with intent and loves to tackle. If that means hurting an opponent, he seems acquiescent.
The Collingwood hierarchy have put a lot of faith into Brodie Grundy. Sometimes, he repays that faith convincingly; sometimes, not so much. From the beginning he showed real passion in his tackling (like Goldsack). He's probably not as fast, but just as comfortable in hurting opponents. Recently, he has demonstrated sublime marking skills and some pretty impressive finish. He is very mobile, prepared to collect his own ball from the bounce, run forward and bang it long into F50 or take it upon himself to kick the running goal.
However, he gives away a lot of frees, and, it looked to me, once or twice, that he didn't handle frustration well. His FF/FA this year are 4/22. To put that in perspective, the team has 112 frees against for the year; Macaffer has 12 FA - but he's a tagger, so that's understandable. No other Collingwood player is in double figures.
When it comes to frustration, the last thing we need is another Heath Shaw. Grundy is nowhere near there yet, but he's still very early in his career. His 7 games for the year have brought his total to 14.
As a ruckman he can be one-dimensional: when plan A doesn't work, he produces no plan B. Essendon's Ryder for instance jumped all over him.
Lachlan Keeffe is like Jack Frost: athletic and mobile. To my eyes, he looks a little awkward, but he is, nevertheless, very effective. There's something quite blatant about the way he watches the ball onto his foot, almost as if he's trying to show someone - his dad? - that he really is watching the ball. His kicking is remarkably accurate (probably because he watches the ball), and he's pretty reliable on his left. He has recently demonstrated an ability to feint to wrong-foot his opponent - so far successfully. He looks like a player who is constantly trying to learn and improve.
At 204cm he's a couple of cm taller than Grundy and 4cm shorter than Witts.
Ben Kennedy hasn't done much this season, playing in only 2 games, both times as a sub. He kicked a very nice goal in the preseason. In my review last year I wrote,
Ben Kennedy looked ok when he got a game, but I think there are several similar players ahead of him.
I guess nothing's changed.
Tom Langdon has been a very effective defender. He's played every game this year and looks very comfortable. He reads the play well, gets a lot of the footy, spoils and marks as appropriate. He has two rather unfortunate blemishes: some of his decisions are monumentally bad; his disposal can be very ordinary. That's a pretty toxic combination. He'll be 20 next month, so I guess the coaching staff will stick with him for a while.
I don't think H (Heritier Lumumba) has played as well since his hair was cut. Maybe it was the name change. He still has his moments, but they occur a little less often, and his clangers are a little more frequent. He still gets a lot of the ball and still does good things. Just needs to find a balance.
You know he's still running by this stat: he's had a team high 10 bounces, 4 more than the next best (Pendles, Sidey).
Quinten Lynch hasn't played a senior game this year. Probably conceded his position to Jesse White.
Brent Macaffer has been reinvented as a tagger. Did he play that role last year? I don't recall. Maybe only occasionally. There's a bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul, because we lose an unusual forward, one that oppositions find difficult to quell. So far he has been effective, winning some impressive scalps.
The pundits can say what they like about Nick Maxwell; this observer considers him a very effective defender, one who has been improving his craft over the years. He'd be a player that I'd pick early in the count. He provides a reassuring influence to the back line. Even though he is no longer captain, he continues to provide on-field leadership.
Scott Pendlebury, like a good wine, is just getting better and better. He sets a high standard, maintains it and provides a wonderful example for the rest of the team. His ability to slow down time is legendary. This punter has one criticism: over the last couple of years he has developed a technique for drawing frees. It ain't pretty and, in my opinion, it's beneath him. (A bit like the Geelong Selwood. They are both extraordinary players; they don't need that crap. Anyway, rule changes have foiled Selwood's tricks.)
We are all hanging out for Ben Reid to come back.
Paul Seedsman: not seen, not injured. I think he's returning from injury.
If anything, Steele Sidebottom has got better this year. Only Beams, Pendlebury and Swan have had more disposals for the year. That's pretty impressive company.
Ben Sinclair has only played 2 games; he has reasonable stats.
If Dane Swan were anyone else you'd say he's having a great year. But he's "only" averaging 27 disposals a game. Partly his numbers are down because he's playing up forward a bit more (8 goals). Partly, I think he's been out of sorts. He had operations on both wrists in the preseason and also suffered glandular fever. Perhaps as a consequence, he hasn't looked right most of the year, though he does appear to be improving. He's looked proppy at times, and his disposals have been dodgy. I think he'll come good soon.
In his 4 games (2 as a sub), Josh Thomas has done some good things. I guess it's hard to fit another midfielder into a team with the constellation we have. He'd probably be an early pick at another team (say Melbourne).
Alan Toovey has taken time to get back into the game. Bear in mind, that an ACL is usually 12 months, so with 6 respectable games for the year, he's probably ahead of expectation. Continues as an effective and reliable defender; yet to regain his former dash.
I've been impressed with Jesse White; I think he ticks all the boxes. Of course, Bucks doesn't share with me the intimate details of his thinking on each of the players so I can only speculate. My guess is that he has been chosen to play a similar role to Lynch. Having said that, I notice that Witts is often selected in the same team as Grundy so perhaps the coaching staff are trying out the idea of two ruckmen versus a single ruckman and a part-timer. As a forward, he has kicked one more goal than Cloke for the year. I'm not suggesting that they are competing; merely providing context: he has been a reasonable goal kicker. He is impressively agile for a tall.
Marley Williams played his first game for the year against Carlton (round 7). Under the circumstances, it was encouraging.
Jarrod Witts is a couple of years older than Grundy, taller, but has been slower to develop. However, this year he has shown a few tricks that suggest he might yet be a beauty. Another athletic, agile tall.
I've had a lot of negative things to say about Clinton Young. Others can decide if I've been unfair. At 28, you'd expect him to be a ready-made player. Admittedly he missed most of last year through injury, but he has managed 6 games this year, mostly on the wing. He averages under 18 possessions (H averages 22); has recorded half the tackle count of Blair (also 6 games). He is a long kick, occasionally very accurate, but I struggle to see his value to the team.
The wrap
So there it is: most of Collingwood's list from A to Y. I think the players are all right, a good blend, a team I think can take us far. I think there is room for improvement in many of the players.
The defence is solid and reliable. It has adjusted well to the change in personnel from last year. The younger defenders have stepped up.
The midfield is where we find many of our recognised stars. Grundy can be a bit of a weak link in the ruck; Swanny has been up and down; but overall the midfield has been good.
This year, our forward line has been sus. Elliott has gone from strength to strength, but that's where it ends. You've noticed me grumble about our accuracy before. Well, it's official. At %52.2 we have the lowest goal-to-behind accuracy in the league! - a shade worse than West Coast's %52.6 but miles behind Hawthorn's %67.8! I am unable to include rank misses because I don't know where to find those figures. I can't imagine them bringing any joy. When one looks at the raw figures the picture, if anything, is even more grim. We've kicked 83.76 (11th for number of goals, 9th overall - because we've kicked so many behinds!), well behind Hawthorn's 135.64.
Bucks, you know where to look for improvement. I know you read this blog.
Sources:
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/2014.html#4
www.collingwoodfc.com.au/season/injury-list
No comments:
Post a Comment