I feel we just look like a better and more balanced side whenever he's out there, whether it's in defence, midfield, or up forward now, he just gets to the right spots and I think it makes up for his lack of pace. 6 marks today and should've kicked 4. A brilliant negating effort on McGovern, outsmarted him with bodywork. He's obviously found a lot better form in the last month and in the VFL, if this continues, then surely he offers more value than taking on an extra list spot on rookie or kid. We need to keep as many players on our list who can kick and make smart decisions. Given the form rejuvenation, I hope he and the club reconsiders his on-field value for next year and gets him to go around 1 more year.

I'd just like to request that Mods don't merge this with the other thread. The title is a blight on the forum. JL is a 300 game great with multiple BOG level grand final performances and deserves better.

 

Edited July 21, 20196 yr by John Demonic

Thanks Mr Lewis.

He's done. A few decent games in unusual roles doesn't change that.

He's still struggling to play 4 quarters, falling over when attempting to tackle or win a contested ball and severely lacking pace. 

They've found some roles to give him a dignified exit and he's done them well but there's no way he's tagging in a serious game, we've got a more than handy tagger in Harmes and midfielders who will demand the centre square time. The tagging forward job worked but more times than not we can cover that with an actual forward like Melksham or Tim Smith.

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Thanks Mr Lewis.

He's done. A few decent games in unusual roles doesn't change that.

He's still struggling to play 4 quarters, falling over when attempting to tackle or win a contested ball and severely lacking pace. 

They've found some roles to give him a dignified exit and he's done them well but there's no way he's tagging in a serious game, we've got a more than handy tagger in Harmes and midfielders who will demand the centre square time. The tagging forward job worked but more times than not we can cover that with an actual forward like Melksham or Tim Smith.

Tim Smith never gets on the park. And there's no assurances that our rotten luck with injuries this year, will not occur again next year. Lewis is handy depth at worst even with his stumbling over and lack of pace. And if he continues this form for the next 6 games, will have shown himself to be providing far more value than ANB, JKH, Stretch, Wagner. Why have them on the list for a year over Lewis? Much depends on the upcoming trade period, but having him as a utility backup for one more year won't hurt. Do you think the club will actually reshuffle our forward line over the draft and trade period and add more depth to the position that he played today? Will we bring in another ready to go mid/wing at no cost to the current midfield group? Will Hibberd and Jetta remain injury free? They're getting older. I don't have a big amount of faith that we'll address the issues through the draft or trade period and we might be even less well off for depth next year if we get rid of another senior player that has shown the form to be selected over many others. Much depends on whether a few senior players actually choose us. We could get no-one.

If there is almost unanimous belief on this forum, that our club has the potential to bounce back up the top half of the ladder with a few tweaks to our game-plan, list, coaching staff and a bit of luck on the injury front and fixture, then a skillful kick and intelligent player like Lewis can surely provide value to a team that is paper thin for depth. If we think we're down the bottom next year or no better than a 9th/mid table team, then there is probably no point in him playing, and we need to blood a year into another kid.

Anyway, probably need to see the next two months. I was excited for his performance today as i've been wanting to see him forward for 3 years, given he kicked plenty of goals for Hawthorn, so maybe I got a bit overzealous in making this thread. The thread should be amended to "Lewis is NOT cooked, give him the remaining games to prove his value for a 1 year extension."

Edited July 21, 20196 yr by John Demonic

You are right, he ain’t cooked. He charcoal! He is so over cooked he ain’t even good no more. 

In saying that, if he played on at a very very low wage and knew he was a Casey player unless outstanding form/injuries he is just insurance. Then I’d be ok for a another year.

A big yes to giving it serious thought and discussion with the player himself. If he says he can play on I would trust him, he could easily make equivelant money in the media or a coaching role to what we should offer him, so he would not give it the nod just for the money. 

No, he's already acknowledged that his time is up. Our task is to smoothly transit him to a support role, as we did with Crossy

I think we are seeing that last flash of light before the sunset.

I would love to see Lewis stay on in some sort of specialist coaching role...…..

But as a player?  No!  We need to look to the future.

The beauty about  having Lewis and Fritsch up forwards was that for the first time this year i felt we were able to connect to our forwards through clean delivery from these two guys.

Could have easily kicked 4 yesterday. 

Lewis as been largely unfairly treated around here in all 3 of his years at the club, but he's been a good servant for us in a time when we've needed leaders.

It's going to be a hindsight decision, if we have another injury crisis in 2020 we'll be wishing he is still here. (Vince would have played this year) If not, he is a waste of list space

Besides, I think Lewis is ready to retire himself, hopefully he plays out the year in the manner that he has the last 3 weeks and the club shows him the respect he deserves,

Last game at the G is a Friday night against Sydney, maybe we can try rally some Hawks fans to get behind him, we know there won't be many dees fans making the effort to get there

Coulda woulda.

Who said we couldnt hit a wall in a locked room? Bad kicking is bad football. Id agree if Lewis had kicked straight.

 

 

Interesting opinion @John Demonic. I think it's a borderline call. My lens is, will he be part of our next premiership? I think that's highly doubtful, moreso than likely, thus let's blood some kids and send the bloke off in style...whilst we get his football acumen from a coaching perspective.

I would delist Maynard, Stretch, JFK, Keilty, the Wagners, T Smith (always injured), and possible even ANB and Garlett before I'd get rid of Lewis. So on that basis he gets another year. 

He's said before on AFL360 this is his last year, I though about 5 or 6 weeks ago he'd only get back for a send off game, but too his credit he dominated at Casey. However, some credit has to go to Goodwin, he didn't just bring him back and plonk him on the half back flank, he's used him in positions that have helped the team, both from a game time needs perspective but also to not diminish the roles of other players. Against Carlton he used him to tag Murphy who was really dangerous the week before, allowing our best run with player (Harmes) a bit more freedom and had Harmes been used against a slower Murphy it would have been a waste. He then also used him against Bont, and then the best one was against McGovern. Before the game I was worried McGovern would destroy us given we have a very makeshift forward line at the moment, but Lewis held him to only 5 marks, and his lowest disposal numbers for the year. 

Shows huge leadership to come in and do any job the coach asks, so hopefully in his last few weeks with us that rubs off on the younger kids. 

Worth considering 

You never lose your footy IQ.  Lewis has it in spades, and it enables him to play roles like the one he did yesterday.

Does he deserve another year?  Possibly, but at his age, you would hope that a few of the kids would step up and take his place.  If he gets another year then I'm fine with it, but I'd also be disappointed in a few others for not making the improvement to have his spot in the side.

12 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

You never lose your footy IQ.  Lewis has it in spades, and it enables him to play roles like the one he did yesterday.

No, but you do lose your legs.

Lewis was good value in the role he played yesterday but at crucial times he still went to ground rather than keep his feet.

For a champion player that's always a sign that the end is near.

He knows that and will finish a fine career at the end of this season.

Would a rookie list option be our best case moving forward? 

Yesterday may not have been so good for him if Hurn had played.

Best to go out on a high.

Has served us well.  We need a smart footy brain off-field as much as we do on-field so would be a good addition to the coaches box.

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I would delist Maynard, Stretch, JFK, Keilty, the Wagners, T Smith (always injured), and possible even ANB and Garlett before I'd get rid of Lewis. So on that basis he gets another year. 

Agreed also, except I would remove the 'possible' in front of ANB

was good yesterday but 1 good game doesn't get you another year. catching out teams by throwing something unexpected at them can only work so many times. yeah he's got the smarts still, but like Vince last year before him, he's lost his legs. we have other guys who can do these roles he's been filling in, and if Lewis is getting a game just as depth because of injuries, then we are more than likely out of the running anyway. just like this year, so I just don't see the point of him going on. his time is up. i would rather see us get some games into another Jordon next year, James.

Yes for me, added leadership to what has been a shambles of a forwardline all year and actually had it looking in order with us taking marks inside 50. It’s not like we have great talent being kept out of the team either for him to play this role.

56 minutes ago, olisik said:

Yes for me, added leadership to what has been a shambles of a forwardline all year and actually had it looking in order with us taking marks inside 50. It’s not like we have great talent being kept out of the team either for him to play this role.

The dilemma is that if he plays perhaps he will be keeping a great talent out. The player who plays instead of Lewis might become a champion. If he doesn't get to play because Lewis does, we would never know.

My view is that Lewis's time is up. I think he's been a great addition, but as time has progressed we've received diminishing on-field returns. (That's not a criticism; we knew when we recruited him that his third year would likely be highly problematic because of his age.) And I would expect those returns to diminish much further were he to play on in 2020.  

Probably on an AFL approved training program

41 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The dilemma is that if he plays perhaps he will be keeping a great talent out. The player who plays instead of Lewis might become a champion. If he doesn't get to play because Lewis does, we would never know.

My view is that Lewis's time is up. I think he's been a great addition, but as time has progressed we've received diminishing on-field returns. (That's not a criticism; we knew when we recruited him that his third year would likely be highly problematic because of his age.) And I would expect those returns to diminish much further were he to play on in 2020.  

Just can’t see Spargo, ANB, Garlett or Hannan becoming champions.

the delist list is a long one if you include the injury prone players such as AVB the Smiths Stretch etc.

Keeping Lewis would not be a good idea but it shows how desperate we are