James has worked incredibly hard through his rehabilitation from a serious broken leg to work his way back into the AFL side during the back half of the year, and play seven consecutive weeks. After surgery in the first half of the season to remove screws from his leg, James’ movement increased significantly and he was able to return to Casey and play solid VFL football, before earning his recall to the senior side against Fremantle in Round 16. - Andrew Nichol (back line development coach) melbournefc.com.au

Games MFC 2012 7 MFC Total 18 Goals MFC 2012 0 MFC Total 0

Games CSFC 2012 4 Goals CSFC 2012 0

Games CSFC DL 2012 2 Goals CSFC DL 2012 0

MFC 30 kicks 47 handballs 77 disposals 14 marks 19 tackles

Keith "Bluey" Truscott Memorial Trophy 69 votes

Great effort to come back from the leg injury. STill have high hopes and looked a lot more composed when he made it back into the side. Maybe Neeld's game plan suits him??

Great effort to come back from the leg injury. STill have high hopes and looked a lot more composed when he made it back into the side. Maybe Neeld's game plan suits him??

I agree jnrmac

When the injury happened in 2011 I thought 2012 would be a write off.

However he made it back and played OK for a guy coming back from that injury

Sure shows he has the desire.

Have my fingers crossed for 2013.

I see nothing in this guy to suggest that he can be even a mid-range AFL player. He is the weakest player I have seen in a MFC jumper and is far too easily nudged under the football even by players who are younger and smaller, eg Matera. Most of his possessions seem to be rushed handpasses after he dithers and panics for about five seconds waiting for someone to tell him what to do. Delist please.

I see nothing in this guy to suggest that he can be even a mid-range AFL player. He is the weakest player I have seen in a MFC jumper and is far too easily nudged under the football even by players who are younger and smaller, eg Matera. Most of his possessions seem to be rushed handpasses after he dithers and panics for about five seconds waiting for someone to tell him what to do. Delist please.

Somewhat agree. Matera should have has 3 goals in 3 minutes when we played them at the MCG. Panics under pressure, shows no composure and does not go in hard enough. So far a weak link in the backline. Even before his injury he didn't show enough to suggest he will be as good as his draft pick suggested.

Has shown enough that with continuity he will be a Dyer 'good ordinary footballer'.

Rabbit in the headlights

I see nothing in this guy to suggest that he can be even a mid-range AFL player. He is the weakest player I have seen in a MFC jumper and is far too easily nudged under the football even by players who are younger and smaller, eg Matera. Most of his possessions seem to be rushed handpasses after he dithers and panics for about five seconds waiting for someone to tell him what to do. Delist please.

You've got some serious double standards poita.

This is what you wrote about Cale Morton:

"I have supreme confidence that Cale will be a very good AFL player in time. The question is whether this club has any confidence in itself to iron out his remaining kinks, or whether someone else will get all the benefits. If Cale gets a smooth, injury free pre-season"

Im sorry but you cant tell me that a #19 draft pick who broke their leg, came back into the side, and clearly shows drive and improvement is worse than a #4 draft pick who has more experience yet never improved, impressively soft and showed the drive of Travis Jonstone combined with the skills of Richard Tambling is the weakest player to wear the jumper and should be delisted over Morton.

This madness has to have a line somewhere

wel

You've got some serious double standards poita.

This is what you wrote about Cale Morton:

"I have supreme confidence that Cale will be a very good AFL player in time. The question is whether this club has any confidence in itself to iron out his remaining kinks, or whether someone else will get all the benefits. If Cale gets a smooth, injury free pre-season"

Im sorry but you cant tell me that a #19 draft pick who broke their leg, came back into the side, and clearly shows drive and improvement is worse than a #4 draft pick who has more experience yet never improved, impressively soft and showed the drive of Travis Jonstone combined with the skills of Richard Tambling is the weakest player to wear the jumper and should be delisted over Morton.

This madness has to have a line somewhere

Well said!

I admire James for coming back after such a bad leg break.

He does have guts.

I hope he can put it on the grass in the next 2-3 years

He needs to improve his contested ball, which is an area you can be certain Neeld and co. will push him on, and he needs to regain confidence in his kicking. He was drafted on the strength of his kicking, and somewhere along the way seems to have lost a bit of confidence in this attribute, despite (or because of?) being used as a designated kicker out of defence in a lot of games. His challenge this year is to get games ahead of guys like Watts, Nicho and Dunn.

A classic wait and see type. I never thought much of Rhys Shaw but he's a solid cog in a Premiership team. As those around him find their feet he may well surprise us,

I see nothing in this guy to suggest that he can be even a mid-range AFL player. He is the weakest player I have seen in a MFC jumper and is far too easily nudged under the football even by players who are younger and smaller, eg Matera. Most of his possessions seem to be rushed handpasses after he dithers and panics for about five seconds waiting for someone to tell him what to do. Delist please.

People throw this comment about so often, who is the weakest player in a MFC jumper, Watts?, Morton, bennel? Cook? Davey? Blease? also Stauss?

He is not weak imo, before the break he was proving he has skills and was good playing on the smaller backs and creating play

Is he still uncontracted?

Just bumped this up.

Having a coffee in Richmond today and Jimmy Strauss popped into the same shop.

Without being a gushing, dithering old fool, I had a quick chat to him and wished him all the best for this season.

Here's the good news....he's huge, looked frighteningly fit and much taller than I thought.

I really, really hope he has a great year.

Edited February 14, 201312 yr by jumbo returns

A classic wait and see type. I never thought much of Rhys Shaw but he's a solid cog in a Premiership team. As those around him find their feet he may well surprise us,

Yeah really good comment. We need to be more like the swans and not give up on players so early. he definitely needs a bit moere time before we can make a real decision. He needs to find his feet and play in a competitive side to show off his other talents. Would like to see him break the lines a bit more and show a bit more composure which should come in time.

He is still young. Surely one of these higher draft picks with pace and kicking ability can come good !!

He needs to make significant progress this year to keep his place - I think the jury is out and undecided, as yet.

Yeah really good comment. We need to be more like the swans and not give up on players so early. he definitely needs a bit moere time before we can make a real decision. He needs to find his feet and play in a competitive side to show off his other talents. Would like to see him break the lines a bit more and show a bit more composure which should come in time.

He is still young. Surely one of these higher draft picks with pace and kicking ability can come good !!

At the risk of sounding obvious its a team sport and among other things we have not been playing like a team. Neeld is training us that way and we have a group that looks like they will play that way. That and contested footy are his philosophy.

Collingwood and the Swans play like real teams. Individually their bottom 8 cattle aren't great but as a team they gel very well.

Plenty of ordinary players have played in premierships and while some have been lucky usually its because they are role players who do a job. STrauss can definitely be that player.