2016 Player Review - # 30 Alex Neal-Bullen

[Adam The God 30,249]

Still panicked under the heat in tight against the Saints, but did a couple of nice things on the outside.

Pretty overrated game for mine though, but he did contribute, which was pleasing.

It sounds like Kent needs to work on a few things at VFL level, so unless Tyson replaces ANB, the latter will get another chance to prove himself this week. Should be interesting.

 

[Gator 17,342]

Unlike Red, I don't want him spending too much time in midfield rotations because he's not a great distributor under extreme heat.  He fumbles and turns it over.  I don't mind him in a high half-forward role where he can help keep the ball in our forward half and allow our zone defence to push up higher and help facilitate repeat entries. 

Structurally, his role is important to the game plan.  He lacks a bit of class, so I don't care if it's Neal-Bullen or someone else, but right now it's his position to lose. 

[ArtificialWisdom 4,045]

3 hours ago, ProDee said:

Unlike Red, I don't want him spending too much time in midfield rotations because he's not a great distributor under extreme heat.  He fumbles and turns it over.  I don't mind him in a high half-forward role where he can help keep the ball in our forward half and allow our zone defence to push up higher and help facilitate repeat entries. 

Structurally, his role is important to the game plan.  He lacks a bit of class, so I don't care if it's Neal-Bullen or someone else, but right now it's his position to lose. 

I felt like he was better in part because of the role Hannan played. It was almost like Garlett was a deep forward, Hannan was the high half forward and then ANB was a very high half forward/extra midfielder. He got in and around stoppages on the wing a few times when Hannan/Garlett were ahead of the ball. Their games made it seem ANB was off the leash a bit when it came to structure. Meant he could play his natural see ball, get ball game thats had him racking up touches in the VFL. Last year he played as a deeper half forward and was consistantly stuck in no mans land. I still have doubts he will keep the spot long term but he was good on the weekend.

[What 18,810]

Another great game from ANB, that backwards kick aside.

Starting to see why people were calling him a steal at pick 40 in the 2014 draft, with some mock drafts having him go in the late teens.

(And his equally impressive mate Billy Stretch was a steal in that drat too at pick 42)

[Deestroy All 14,266]

Pity the 25 minute score review took the shine off what was a great goal. 

[Dee-licious 1,949]

That draft had the ability to make or break a premiership for us. So glad to see him succeeding this year. I remember reading a little about him when we had pick 21 (traded for Frost) but didn't bother again as we were moving to 40 and 53. Loved his videos about his background. A boy who isn't all about football and you can tell that football is just for now - he is going to go on and do even better things post footy. 

[whatwhat say what 22,750]

does all the little things well.

has continued to improve, which is all you can ask really.

[Mad_Melbourne 877]

His absolutely horrible decision in the last quarter was a major momentum changer and contributing factor to the loss. 

 

He he needs to remove such errors from his game and he will be a first team player for the next 5-6 years. 

[Demonised 1,354]

Would like to see him kick a few more goals. But, then again, I'd like to see them all kick a few more goals.

[Little Richard 6,262]

2 minutes ago, Demonised said:

Would like to see him kick a few more goals. But, then again, I'd like to see them all kick a few more goals.

If they all kicked a few goals we'd kick 66 goals in a match, so I really hope that happens.

[hells bells 2,023]

He has played 18 games and is showing good promise. 

[rpfc 28,417]

12 hours ago, Mad_Melbourne said:

His absolutely horrible decision in the last quarter was a major momentum changer and contributing factor to the loss. 

 

He he needs to remove such errors from his game and he will be a first team player for the next 5-6 years. 

A 21 year old with less than 20 games to his name has to stop making errors to keep playing in the first team?

...

You know, I think we are currently spoilt with our current performance of young players (Oliver, Stretch, Viney, Petracca) that in comparison - the completely normal development of O Mac, Brayshaw, Neal-Bullen, et al is minimised by association...

[Dee Dee 1,108]

37 minutes ago, hells bells said:

He has played 18 games and is showing good promise. 

Appears to be a pretty smart young man. I thought he played well last Saturday (clanger aside, and there were some worse ones from more experienced players).

At the beginnng or the season I had ANB as depth, but now I'd have him best 22/24. He and his mate Billy look like great pickups for us.

[ArtificialWisdom 4,045]

11 hours ago, Mad_Melbourne said:

His absolutely horrible decision in the last quarter was a major momentum changer and contributing factor to the loss. 

Far be it from me to defend a bloke who I was against picking in the first place... But he was not the first to do this kick during the game. Infact it has been done quite a number of times through the year. It's not the most attacking move but thats not what we needed at the time, given the cats were coming hard, we needed control. We have kicked backwards in that style to get an uncontested mark to then launch a number of times this year. So far we have 1 instance of it failing and countless of it working... I have no problem with his decision, had it been a well executed kick we wouldnt even be talking about it.

[JTR 2,846]

I cringe whenever we start kicking in backwards, especially when one of those receiving the kick is OMac or TMac as the disposal after that can also be a problem....  

 

[Mad_Melbourne 877]

59 minutes ago, rpfc said:

A 21 year old with less than 20 games to his name has to stop making errors to keep playing in the first team

 

I understand fully that he is a developing player, but he consistently at both levels makes clearly poor decisions. It is his biggest weakness, but his natural ability to find the footy is a strength not many players have. I don't know why, but from all the good things I've seen from him on the weekend the thing I remembered the most was the horrible decision to float the footy 15m backwards as opposed to handballing it to running players. 

But yes, it is quite obvious to say that a developing player needs to fix something and it's probably easiest to point at decision making which should develop with time. 

36 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Far be it from me to defend a bloke who I was against picking in the first place... But he was not the first to do this kick during the game. Infact it has been done quite a number of times through the year. It's not the most attacking move but thats not what we needed at the time, given the cats were coming hard, we needed control. We have kicked backwards in that style to get an uncontested mark to then launch a number of times this year. So far we have 1 instance of it failing and countless of it working... I have no problem with his decision, had it been a well executed kick we wouldnt even be talking about it.

He had running option on both sides which he should have given too, but I agree that we have used this option often, but the choice to float a kick instead of use a handball to this person was silly. I don't think there was any way he could execute that kick well, it would have consistently placed his team mate under pressure. I understand why we use that option but at the time I think it was the wrong one regardless of execution. 

[Deeoldfart 8,030]

56 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Far be it from me to defend a bloke who I was against picking in the first place... But he was not the first to do this kick during the game. Infact it has been done quite a number of times through the year. It's not the most attacking move but thats not what we needed at the time, given the cats were coming hard, we needed control. We have kicked backwards in that style to get an uncontested mark to then launch a number of times this year. So far we have 1 instance of it failing and countless of it working... I have no problem with his decision, had it been a well executed kick we wouldnt even be talking about it.

Exactly AW.  It was the right decision at that time, but poorly executed.

[Cheap Seats 3,310]

Am really happy for ANB. I hope he can keep his hood form up.

From all our current stock of draftees, ANB has flown a little under the rader (clearly oliver is a class above and deserves the attention).

But I'm quietly hoping this lad can step up as well. 

Go nibbler I'm rooting for you

[Jaded No More 68,915]

Really surprised me this season, as I've gone off him a bit.

He is so much better in the midfield than as a half forward. I thought he was fantastic on the weekend again. 

Well done to him, a real credit to break into our midfield at the moment and hold your own. 

[Wiseblood 24,637]

Just now, Jaded said:

Really surprised me this season, as I've gone off him a bit.

He is so much better in the midfield than as a half forward. I thought he was fantastic on the weekend again. 

Well done to him, a real credit to break into our midfield at the moment and hold your own. 

I agree, and it's a problem we've got because we want to get games into these young players and there are only so many spots in the midfield to go round.  It's the same for someone like Brayshaw.  Now that ANB is getting more midfield minutes we are seeing the sort of player he can be for us going forward.

[Skuit 10,031]

The '2017 delist' thread will be interesting this year. We're running out of players showing no signs of development.

[The Chazz 4,077]

22 hours ago, Mad_Melbourne said:

His absolutely horrible decision in the last quarter was a major momentum changer and contributing factor to the loss. 

 

He he needs to remove such errors from his game and he will be a first team player for the next 5-6 years. 

Absolute tripe.  The 2 goals in the last 90 seconds of the 3rd quarter is what gave them major momentum.  We go in at 3/4 time 15 points up, I couldn't see them beating us from there.

[Wrecker45 3,378]

51 minutes ago, Skuit said:

The '2017 delist' thread will be interesting this year. We're running out of players showing no signs of development.

Unfortunately it is going to be lead by 2 of our most loyal and at times promising players of the last decade.

[spirit of norm smith 16,452]

7 minutes ago, Wrecker45 said:

Unfortunately it is going to be lead by 2 of our most loyal and at times promising players of the last decade.

lamumba x 

trengove x trade to crows for pick 117

garland x

pedersen x 

vandenburg x to the rookie list

m.white (r) x 

4 open spots reflects strength

picks 11, 29, 47 plus a Trade/free agent pickup.

 

 

[monoccular 17,428]

11 hours ago, rpfc said:

A 21 year old with less than 20 games to his name has to stop making errors to keep playing in the first team?

...

You know, I think we are currently spoilt with our current performance of young players (Oliver, Stretch, Viney, Petracca) that in comparison - the completely normal development of O Mac, Brayshaw, Neal-Bullen, et al is minimised by association...

Well said.  We really have a fantastic developing group, and some of course will always outshine others. 

1 hour ago, Skuit said:

The '2017 delist' thread will be interesting this year. We're running out of players showing no signs of development.

Nice problem to have for a change.

H for starters. 

Edited April 12, 2017 by monoccular