It took the first five seconds of the opening match of the NAB Challenge to define Brayshaw's 2016 season when he injured his knee in the first play of the day after a tackle from Port Adelaide midfielder, Hamish Hartlett. The injury forced him to miss the rest of the preseason and he was clearly not ready to return when he played in the club's embarrassing thirteen point loss against Essendon. After missing a week, he struggled with his form and when dropped again to the VFL, he sustained concussions in his next two games forcing him to be placed on the sidelines for an "extended period of time". He returned after missing a month and was month and understandably displayed only moderate form interlaced glimpses of brilliance. Some hard work over the preseason should bring a restoration of the form that saw him secure a top five finish in last year's AFL Rising Star award.

Games MFC 2016 10

Career Total 31

Goals MFC 2016 7

Career Total 12

Games CSFC 2016 5

Goals CSFC 2016 4

Keith "Bluey" Truscott Memorial Trophy 101 votes

After a brilliant debut season he didn't reach the same lofty heights due largely to his preseason injury. 

Looking forward to seeing him join the other guns next year.  

Yeah hopefully he has a massive preseason and gains a few kilos. He would really add to our midfield rotation and also has potential for quality ball use. 

fave player of 2015 for me. hard to see him struggle this year, but am sure he'll bounce pack and be a valuable regular that other sides fear.

Not worried about Brayshaw. He'll be ok.

One of my favourite players, had a shocking run of luck with the injury and concussions, looking forward to seeing him next year with a full pre season under his belt.

Gus will be back better then ever in 2017.

Looking forward to big years from both he and Salem.

I thought he made a bit of an impact in the back end of the year, another full pre season/injury free run and i reckon he'll jump to a new level in 2017

12 hours ago, dtrinh said:

Yeah hopefully he has a massive preseason and gains a few kilos. He would really add to our midfield rotation and also has potential for quality ball use. 

He was told to lose a few kgs at the start of the year,.............

Edited October 4, 20168 yr by jnrmac

I remember going into Round 1 2015 I was feeling underwhelmed by what Brayshaw had to offer; not that he was going to be a poor player, just that I didn't see anything special.  He shone that day and showed he is a gifted, natural footballer.  You can't teach that; you can't train for that.

Will be a gun. 

48 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

He was told to lose a few kgs at the start of the year,.............

Think it was part way through the season, Jnr.  Something to do with his soft drink intake, which he ended up dropping around 5kg.

Regardless, I hope to see Gus play 22+ games next year, as I have no doubt about his ability.  He's a beauty.

Wish we had more like him.

2016 was full of bad luck for him. His confidence started to come back a bit towards the end of the year. Oliver, Brayshaw, Tyson, Viney,,Petracca make a potentially brilliant young midfield (plus Salem (another hard luck story in 2016)

He bounced back after a run of injuries which was important. He has a bucket load of talent and will be a good footballer for the club.

He will be a star next season.  Lock it in.

9 hours ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

I remember going into Round 1 2015 I was feeling underwhelmed by what Brayshaw had to offer; not that he was going to be a poor player, just that I didn't see anything special.  He shone that day and showed he is a gifted, natural footballer.  You can't teach that; you can't train for that.

Will be a gun. 

he and Salem had poor years for any and an abundance of reasons. looking fwd to the real Gus returning

 

had a rotten run with injury but i've been really disappointed with his disposal - his short kicking when in the open often fails to hit the target which is quite frankly inexcusable. he is really good at getting it tho, so i'm just presuming / hoping his ability to do the basics will get better as he gets more experienced.

Will almost be like a new recruit in 2017 .

A real bonus who I see being a part of the Magnificent 7 midfield of Viney, Jones , Brayshaw, Petracca , Salem,Tyson and Oliver.

Edited October 6, 20168 yr by DeeZee

Actually thought his return was really encouraging and showed some good signs. After having extended time off he won his fair share of the ball and was one of very few who tried in the last round. He will be one of our main improvers in 2017.

Another who still needs to iron out the creases. Great kick one minute, shocker the next. Great handball one minute, terrible one the next.

I'm sure that will happen over time. I'd like to see him play much more midfield time next year and I'm sure he would have this year if his year/fitness hadn't been so interrupted.

Brayshaw, Viney, Tyson, Jones and Oliver to spend most minutes on ball next year with others pinch hitting.

But overall, I have no doubt he'll be champion of our club and someone who will be a future big game player in finals.

This might spark some replies, but I reckon he'd be a better Captain than Viney too. And I reckon at the end of next year, people will start talking about it.

Edited October 7, 20168 yr by stevethemanjordan

2 hours ago, stevethemanjordan said:

Another who still needs to iron out the creases. Great kick one minute, shocker the next. Great handball one minute, terrible one the next.

I'm sure that will happen over time. I'd like to see him play much more midfield time next year and I'm sure he would have this year if his year/fitness hadn't been so interrupted.

Brayshaw, Viney, Tyson, Jones and Oliver to spend most minutes on ball next year with others pinch hitting.

But overall, I have no doubt he'll be champion of our club and someone who will be a future big game player in finals.

This might spark some replies, but I reckon he'd be a better Captain than Viney too. And I reckon at the end of next year, people will start talking about it.

I agree somewhat with the captain part. He is more level headed and seemingly more intelligent that Viney. Not sure how much that counts towards prospective captains but it is somewhat of a factor. Brayshaw and Viney are the 2 obvious ones going forward but Viney will almost certainly be captain after Jones.

Brayshaw is a 'pure' mid as is Viney, Jones, Tyson and Oliver. It's up to them to add other facets to their game so they can contribute away from the contest. I think Viney and Oliver may struggle to develop much of an outside game due to playing style so Brayshaw will be one of the mids that will need to spend time forward, back, etc. Brayshaw could try and emulate a Bartel who could move between roles within games to best serve the team.

 

Has anyone got the GIF of Gus breaking away after the Viney tackle on Pendles, and giving off to Bernie for the goal?