1. I don't actually think we're paying Mitch Clark all that exorbitant an amount of money

2. If he turns into the power forward we need - he's worth every dollar (and it's looking more and more like he will fulfil that role)

3. If he doesn't:

3a. There is speculation Jamar is off, despite the fact he's been shizen so far, we probably should keep him at the right price.

3b. Given 3a. Clark can move to the Ruck, acknowledging a futile experiment - He's a good footballer no matter what so it'd be money well spent/money not given to Jamar can be directed elsewhere

4. He's a hard-nut and about the only guy who wears the jumper with pride - amazing after 3 games. Oozes passion. A true part of the club already.

imo a really smart pick-up and one of the only positives to take from this awful awful start ~ Augers well for list management/recruiting transformation that is underway

1. I don't actually think we're paying Mitch Clark all that exorbitant an amount of money

2. If he turns into the power forward we need - he's worth every dollar (and it's looking more and more like he will fulfil that role)

3. If he doesn't:

3a. There is speculation Jamar is off, despite the fact he's been shizen so far, we probably should keep him at the right price.

3b. Given 3a. Clark can move to the Ruck, acknowledging a futile experiment - He's a good footballer no matter what so it'd be money well spent/money not given to Jamar can be directed elsewhere

4. He's a hard-nut and about the only guy who wears the jumper with pride - amazing after 3 games. Oozes passion. A true part of the club already.

imo a really smart pick-up and one of the only positives to take from this awful awful start ~ Augers well for list management/recruiting transformation that is underway

Interesting about jamar, anyone heard how the contract talk are going with the big russian?

Agree wholeheartedly pitchfork. It seems no matter what MFC does or who plays for them regardless of where they've come from they attract criticim at some point. Very rarely are players afforded their due when warranted.

Mitch Clark has been in our best 5 players thus far (not saying much I know) but the way he has conducted himself has been exemplary. To have kicked 9 goals across 3 games when the team has had 15 inside 50s is better than anyone could expect.

FWIW, regarding Jamar I think trading him would be a good move. He + one of our compo picks might be enough to land an A grade midfielder, something we need desperatley. In fact we need 3 desperately and I suspect the big Russians best footy is behind him.

Plus we've still got Clark, Martin, Fitz and Gawn on the list.

With the quality of our midfield at the moment Jamar could have 100 hitouts to advantage per game and we still wouldn't get the ball inside 50.

So far i'm very happy that we picked up Mitch. He's kicked 9 goals in 3 games (Should be more) in a weak side and I think he will do wonders for our club in the years to come and he is one of the few good things about the MFC for 2012 so far.

FWIW, regarding Jamar I think trading him would be a good move. He + one of our compo picks might be enough to land an A grade midfielder, something we need desperatley. In fact we need 3 desperately and I suspect the big Russians best footy is behind him.

Plus we've still got Clark, Martin, Fitz and Gawn on the list.

With the quality of our midfield at the moment Jamar could have 100 hitouts to advantage per game and we still wouldn't get the ball inside 50.

Good we give up our only proven ruckman creating one hole to try and fill another.

That play where Clark stood up, broke through two would-be tacklers and handballed off the gimme goal to Sellar warmed my heart. A big man doing big man stuff in the forward line is something we haven't seen since Schwarz and Neitz.

How bad would we be right now if we didn't get him?

It actually terrifies me thinking about it!

FWIW I don't want to see him moved to the ruck, we need a big forward damn it and it appears we may have found it!

Last year he was just as important with his goal assists (can't remember how many but it was high) as the actual goals kicked which was 29 from memory. I would have been happy with that sort of performance this year but he is already on the way to kicking a lot more than that while the team is rock bottom. His scoring opportunities have to get better as the season goes on so his no. of goals by the end of the year are going to more than justify getting him. Plus he is such a great team player and his goal assists will continue to be high.

How bad would we be right now if we didn't get him?

It actually terrifies me thinking about it!

FWIW I don't want to see him moved to the ruck, we need a big forward damn it and it appears we may have found it!

FCS sloones, give it time......we have only had a few months to undevelop him.......wait till end of season, that will be fixed

Last year he was just as important with his goal assists (can't remember how many but it was high) as the actual goals kicked which was 29 from memory. I would have been happy with that sort of performance this year but he is already on the way to kicking a lot more than that while the team is rock bottom. His scoring opportunities have to get better as the season goes on so his no. of goals by the end of the year are going to more than justify getting him. Plus he is such a great team player and his goal assists will continue to be high.

Funny you should mention that - he kicked 27.13, had 27 marks I50, and 20 Contested marks, and had 13 goal assists last year for the Lions in 17 games.

Watts had 21.11, had 18 marks I50, and 26 Contested marks, and had 12 goal assists last year in 22 games.

The benchmark is Cloke with 68.48, had 88 marks I50, and 96 Contested marks, and had 13 goal assists last year in 25 games.

The goal assists stat is surprising...

1. I don't actually think we're paying Mitch Clark all that exorbitant an amount of money

2. If he turns into the power forward we need - he's worth every dollar (and it's looking more and more like he will fulfil that role)

3. If he doesn't:

3a. There is speculation Jamar is off, despite the fact he's been shizen so far, we probably should keep him at the right price.

3b. Given 3a. Clark can move to the Ruck, acknowledging a futile experiment - He's a good footballer no matter what so it'd be money well spent/money not given to Jamar can be directed elsewhere

4. He's a hard-nut and about the only guy who wears the jumper with pride - amazing after 3 games. Oozes passion. A true part of the club already.

imo a really smart pick-up and one of the only positives to take from this awful awful start ~ Augers well for list management/recruiting transformation that is underway

Re: the bolded part - maybe it should give you a clue that playing like that doesn't actually give any indication towards dedication to the club.

It's more indicative of confidence, self-respect, work ethic, aggression and competitiveness.

Something immature players often have not yet developed.

Remember only two weeks ago Leigh Matthews stated Ben Hudson would be a more valuable pick up than Mitch Clark? Who got dropped last week from the Lions Leigh? Statement for the sake of a statement.

I've got to admit that i've got mixed feelings about Clark's performance to date. He's done just as many things to annoy me, as he has to please me. Take last weekend's game. Multiple times when the ball was coming in to the forward line he continued to run back towards the goals. At one stage when watts was bringing the ball into the forward 50 from the half forward flank (about 65-70m out) Clark just ran further and further away from him rather than backing back before making a lead into space (it was only he and Rance in the forward 50). This happened numerous times in the first quarter where he was caught playing from behind, and has been one thing he's been criticised for in the first couple of weeks. He has moments where he plays like a big strong forward, and others where he looks uncertain and weak (think the attempted mark against WC where he failed to establish position, or protect the fall of the ball, which lead to an easy punch away from the WC defenders).

Then there's his brain fades and failure to execute. I'm thinking of the great mark he took out position Rance 10 metres out, then playing on only to get tackled and turnover the ball!!! Not to mention the entry into forward 50 where he ran in from directly in front, and rather than kick a clean drop punt through the middle, decided to kick a low one towards the left that never looked like going in.

To me, he could be that monster forward we need, but he doesn't yet play like a forward. I rarely see him using multiple leads to put himself in a position of advantage by out-maneuvering his opposition deffender. Rather he just makes one or two leads or just expects the ball to be kicked long and high to him. I'm not sure if that's the gameplan or just him though.

With that said, I do feel better about the team with him in the side, but I also believe he need to work on his ability to play as a forward. I can actually understand why Matthews ranked him as only an average forward based on what I've seen to date. He could be so much better.

I've got to admit that i've got mixed feelings about Clark's performance to date. He's done just as many things to annoy me, as he has to please me. Take last weekend's game.

Would that be the game where we got the ball into our 50m zone 30 times?? One above our all time low? Yep crucify him. He's a hack. Imagine if we got it in there 15 times a quarter? Imagine of we had midfield that could deliver the ball to a forward??

Good grief.

If Mitch Clark had the luxury of the same amount of inside 50's as, lets say, the Hawthorn midfield, He would be the leading goalkicker so far this year.

Mitch Clark will be fine. At the moment he has no idea how the ball will be delivered. He has to be ready for multiple possibilities. He is doing fine without setting the world on fire.

But once the midfield improves its delivery from "blind bombing" to Bullet passes the Mitch Clark factor will increase.

Peter Hudson would struggle with our midfield right now.

Play Fitzpatrick as a tall defender/ruck, and stick Sellar up forward to compliment Clark...?

Play Fitzpatrick as a tall defender/ruck, and stick Sellar up forward to compliment Clark...?

I'd like to see Fitzy given a run of three or four games at the expense of either Sellar or the underperforming Martin.

It's time to see what he can do.

I'd like to see Fitzy given a run of three or four games at the expense of either Sellar or the underperforming Martin.

It's time to see what he can do.

I agree. Give the big lad a run this weekend.

FWIW, regarding Jamar I think trading him would be a good move. He + one of our compo picks might be enough to land an A grade midfielder, something we need desperatley. In fact we need 3 desperately and I suspect the big Russians best footy is behind him. Plus we've still got Clark, Martin, Fitz and Gawn on the list. With the quality of our midfield at the moment Jamar could have 100 hitouts to advantage per game and we still wouldn't get the ball inside 50.

agreed!

I think he's been an excellent recruit so far, he's still learning the craft but thus far he's giving us an effort up forward and that's at least something we've been lacking for a while. Something I really love about him is he's got a little mongrel about him!

I know a lot of "experts" would disagree with this, but I think what we are paying him is irrelevant. We know we paid over the odds for him, but we had to in order to get him, he was heading to Perth if we didn't convince him and money talks. Bottom line is we had a massive hole in our budget to fill thanks to $cully, and he had something we wanted. Once he learns more about running to the right areas, and when he starts getting decent delivery, he could prove to be our best recruit for a very long time.

Edited April 18, 201213 yr by Pates

I think he doesn't know where to lead because he has no idea as to the delivery from the midfield.

The first two weeks he did get in front several times, only to have the ball bombed high to the contest and not in front of his lead. So this week he tried to call it over the defender's head still to no avail. In the first two weeks he also had to fly against several of our other tall forwards.

How many goals would Dunstall, Lockett, Lloyd kick if they relied on our current midfield to deliver? Not half as many as they did. Lloyd was a classic example - at their peak the Essendon midfield speared him the ball wherever he called for it; in the early 2000s when the Bomber midfield sagged so did he.

Give the man a go.

Overall have been very impressed with big Mitch so far. If it weren't for a few brain fades he could be leading the league in goals at the moment in a VERY ordinary team. He has been worth every cent, and I expect him to improve.

Mitch Clark = Awesome.