Alex Neal-Bullen

[Wiseblood 24,637]

Had a shocker today.  No doubt about it.

But he's been more good than bad for us this season and we had plenty of others down on their output today as well.

[red&blue1982 255]

19 minutes ago, Docs Demons said:

I will apologise in advance but ANB along with Pedders, Spargo, Garlett, Hunt should not be in a AFL side. VFL players at best. Again we lost this at selection. Pedders, Hunt in for first games in a while against a desperate Swans outfit did not work. Vince would have been good today with his positioning and kicking.

For goodness sake they had 2 down in 1st quarter and we were absolutely useless. I'm sick of it and players that think they are good need to actually show us they can play under pressure. Got 2 games to do it but I doubt it.

What was wrong with Ped's game? Spargo? The others would be better in our two's though.

[red&blue1982 255]

1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

Had a shocker today.  No doubt about it.

But he's been more good than bad for us this season and we had plenty of others down on their output today as well.

Garlett would be one. But he hasn't been good for awhile.

[Wiseblood 24,637]

Just now, red&blue1982 said:

Garlett would be one. But he hasn't been good for awhile.

When he latched on to a ball in the last, after having already kicked one, I thought he was about ready to tear the game apart.  But, in line with the season he has had, he sprayed it and didn't hit the scoreboard again.

[red&blue1982 255]

I was hopeful as well, but he sprayed a shot like that last week, or maybe the week before.

I find the most frustrating thing with him isn't so much his missed shot, but his lack of physicality.

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

[censored] terrible 

[Little Goffy 14,528]

It was Nibbler's turn at the bathwater, with the extra praise and publicity recently.

He'll learn from it. He'd bloody better.

[dazzledavey36 54,881]

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

It was Nibbler's turn at the bathwater, with the extra praise and publicity recently.

He'll learn from it. He'd bloody better.

I have serious doubts

[billyblanks29 184]

Kicked it to Garlett with 2 Swans players on him. Needs to learn from this.

[Mickey 4,684]

Fell over with a beautiful Petracca kick coming at him in the middle. Went up the other end straight away

[titan_uranus 25,015]

Horrendous game today. 

In our 8 losses he's only had 20 possessions once (22 against Hawthorn).

To me, it feels like he struggles massively against the better sides. 

The running is important but my concern has been, and remains, that his skills aren't good enough when under pressure and just being able to run isn't enough (Bugg is another example of this).

Will, and should, get another game next week as there are others to drop who aren't as important to the side, but if we're going to praise the good bits, we have to be critical of the bad bits with ANB.

[layzie 33,796]

Still waiting for Nibbler to crack in and take over a game like this. Hopefully not far away. 

[spirit of norm smith 16,449]

Horrendous game today

turnovers killed us

he needs to do better under pressure 

[Beetle 4,653]

Needs to learn to put his head over the ball for starters. Unfortunately ANB is the definition of a front runner..

[Redleg 40,903]

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I have serious doubts

And you share them with me. This bloke absolutely cracks under pressure. That pathetic dropped mark in the middle, off the Petracca pass, which could have been better, granted, but nevertheless, ANB shat himself. It was obvious. That could have been the chance to do something and redeem himself, after at least 7-8 turnovers from him entering our F50. His skill errors kill us against good sides.

I don't give a damn how far he runs, he has terrible ball skills, fumbles, gets in the way, cracks under pressure and destroys our forward thrusts.

Yes he can snag a goal against the crap, but he is not AFL standard and IMO will never be.

 

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

4 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

When he latched on to a ball in the last, after having already kicked one, I thought he was about ready to tear the game apart.  But, in line with the season he has had, he sprayed it and didn't hit the scoreboard again.

Jeffy panicked for fear of body contact, stepped wide and rushed the shot. Exactly what Derm was talking about with Ablett (where it didn't actually happen).

[Redleg 40,903]

3 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Jeffy panicked for fear of body contact, stepped wide and rushed the shot. Exactly what Derm was talking about with Ablett (where it didn't actually happen).

Jeffy might not have had a lot of disposals, but at least he gave us defensive pressure and tackled madly.

Tackles 0. 

Edited August 12, 2018 by Redleg

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

5 minutes ago, Redleg said:

And you share them with me. This bloke absolutely cracks under pressure. That pathetic dropped mark in the middle, off the Petracca pass, which could have been better, granted, but nevertheless, ANB shat himself. It was obvious. That could have been the chance to do something and redeem himself, after at least 7-8 turnovers from him entering our F50. His skill errors kill us against good sides.

I don't give a damn how far he runs, he has terrible ball skills, fumbles, gets in the way, cracks under pressure and destroys our forward thrusts.

Yes he can snag a goal against the crap, but he is not AFL standard and IMO will never be.

 

I'm inclined to agree, although I'll give him some benefit under that kick because Hunt was behind him and knowing Melbourne they didn't communicate. Not standing under a high kick when you have an opponent coming down is worse than not standing it when you're concerned about spoiling a team mate. 

The fumbles and skill errors are a huge concern. The hope is he cuts some of them out, Harmes has shown this year that it can happen. But ANB is worse than Harmes was, he's just not a fluid mover out on the footy field. 

I wonder how much he can improve his chase down speed and tackling. If he absolutely nailed every chance he has to tackle his mistakes with the ball wouldn't matter very much.

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

2 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Jeffy might not have had a lot of disposals, but at least he gave us defensive pressure and tackled madly.

Tackles 0. 

I spotted Jeff out on the ground in the pre game warm up. Beanie on. Rugged up. Looking uninterested. Can't blame him, AFL footy looks a pain in the backside. Not at all surprised by his output, although would've been nice if he could've belted his cousin Lance at some stage.

I hope he doesn't sting us for a pay cheque next year if he doesn't want to be here any more.

 

[layzie 33,796]

5 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

I spotted Jeff out on the ground in the pre game warm up. Beanie on. Rugged up. Looking uninterested. Can't blame him, AFL footy looks a pain in the backside. Not at all surprised by his output, although would've been nice if he could've belted his cousin Lance at some stage.

I hope he doesn't sting us for a pay cheque next year if he doesn't want to be here any more.

 

For a guy who really hasn’t been back in the side long that is kind of disappointing. Was hoping he’d be burning never to lose his spot again but then again maybe it’s just a game.

[IvanBartul13 2,564]

6 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

[he is the worst player ive seen play for Melbourne to play the percentage volume of games he does]

Obviously haven't watched many Melbourne games over the years !!! hehehe.

Ive watched every game for 30 years and he is the worst MFC player to play every game in a season i can recall

[KingDingAling 3,757]

He runs a lot. Gets the ball, coughs it up. Repeats that sequence. Needs to learn how to read the play so he doesn't have to run as much, and needs to be more effective with ball in hand. Not rocket science. Has a lot of work to do over the summer. Could do with some work on his mobility as well - always looks stiff, robotic and limited. .

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

4 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

To me, it feels like he struggles massively against the better sides. 

The running is important but my concern has been, and remains, that his skills aren't good enough when under pressure and just being able to run isn't enough (Bugg is another example of this).

Good post.

He's good ordinary, isn't he. You need those guys in a list. Bugg's another classic case as you say. But unfortunately he's played every game this year and done serious minutes in important roles.

The other old footy axiom... is he a premiership midfielder? Or to put it another way, if we're going for a premiership, and he's depth (10-15 games a year) that means we're pretty good. But if he's playing 90% game time for 22 home and away games... Do we need to recruit/draft someone better to take his spot to threaten for a flag? No doubt today his disposal was one of a number of things that cost us the game.

Going forward though... he is still young. Can he develop a couple more sides to his game? Develop a tagging ability like Harmes? Negating forward role? There's still time of course, he's only 22 and only just cracked the magic 50 games a few games ago. But personally if he's as good now as he's ever going to be, we're going to need to look elsewhere.

[Queanbeyan Demon 6,843]

2 hours ago, goodoil said:

Ive watched every game for 30 years and he is the worst MFC player to play every game in a season i can recall

Simon Eishold, Lyndon Dunn, Michael Seddon, Michael Byrne . . . 

[Rollo2 64]

7 hours ago, Mickey said:

Fell over with a beautiful Petracca kick coming at him in the middle. Went up the other end straight away

That play was a huge turning point. We had momentum, the centering kick from Trac was genius, ANB just needed to take possession. He's lively and was involved a lot, but he's still just not composed enough with the ball. Someone needs to challenge him to stand up against good sides.