Luke will have a breakout game like Gawn did several years ago against the Cats and when he does the belief in himself will help create the star we hope he will turn out to be.

If you have look at the Gawn breakout game he dominated the game but he had help from the 2nd ruckman in Spencer and they created a headache for the Cats maybe it will come to pass this next weekend, with a Jackson breakout.

A very good game from LJ

Reasnoably “Quiet” but oh so effective 

 

Flying under the radar this kid.

His development trajectory for a young tall is beautiful.  Going to be a genuine star of the comp.

I wondered if he was going to be more athlete than footballer.. his footy IQ is as good as any in our team.  He knows how to play footy.

I just hope he want's to be a one club player?

2 hours ago, durango said:

Luke will have a breakout game like Gawn did several years ago against the Cats and when he does the belief in himself will help create the star we hope he will turn out to be.

If you have look at the Gawn breakout game he dominated the game but he had help from the 2nd ruckman in Spencer and they created a headache for the Cats maybe it will come to pass this next weekend, with a Jackson breakout.

I feel he's a little way off a "breakout" game but these games are critical as he's clearly growing in confidence and composure.  It's also massive for the team in that it is allowing Gawn to go forward which takes the pressure off TMac.

Having said that, we're yet to play against a team with an experienced recognised ruckman so will be interesting to see how he and Gawn go when that happens.  Hopefully they can keep it up and Jackson can keep progressing.

Credit to Binman for this idea. Jackson stays when Weid and Brown return. Matchup hell for the oppo. Extreme flexibility for us in the forward line and ruck. When Jacki takes the third defender, he’ll run riot. 

Jet.

Courtesy of @Marty from the Gameday thread

 

This is as surprising as Weid being one of our highest for distance covered last season.  So if T Mac runs out of gas and is dropped we will still have two tall aerobic beasts in LJ and Weid out there. 

 

A Saints supporter admitted to me over the weekend that he’s envious of us for having a player with Jackson’s talent and ability. Say he rates him higher than Max King because of his athleticism. This bloke rarely concedes anything about other clubs but on Jackson, he says he’s convinced. 

11 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Courtesy of @Marty from the Gameday thread

 

This is as surprising as Weid being one of our highest for distance covered last season.  So if T Mac runs out of gas and is dropped we will still have two tall aerobic beasts in LJ and Weid out there. 

 

Ben Brown also recorded the AFL's highest average distance covered per game in 2019. 

19 hours ago, Grr-owl said:

Credit to Binman for this idea. Jackson stays when Weid and Brown return. Matchup hell for the oppo. Extreme flexibility for us in the forward line and ruck. When Jacki takes the third defender, he’ll run riot. 

The other thing  about Jackson is that he has bulked up enough to do some serious minutes in the ruck. And do well.

Plenty of teams will resort to flooding back lines, like the giants did. 

Running Jackson as a ruck gives us terrific tactical flexibility at creates the opportunity to play Max at deep full forward, as was the case on Sunday night.

This is a great option to combat the flood as we have three talls, who if they can't mark will bring it to ground, where kozzue the mozzie and his two comprades can go to work.

 

1 hour ago, Skuit said:

Ben Brown also recorded the AFL's highest average distance covered per game in 2019. 

All from his set shot routine probably 

19 hours ago, Grr-owl said:

Credit to Binman for this idea. Jackson stays when Weid and Brown return. Matchup hell for the oppo. Extreme flexibility for us in the forward line and ruck. When Jacki takes the third defender, he’ll run riot. 

Conceptually like the idea but you’ll lose a small (eg Sparrow) to achieve that which might throw the defensive balance and mid-rotation plan out. 

Jackson led Melbourne for ground ball gets on the weekend, along with Jack Viney (9 each). He also had 11 contested possessions, behind only Viney, Oliver and Gawn.

Of all rising stars, he has the second most contested possessions (1 behind Chad Warner) this season.

Given that he's a teenage second ruckman, the signs for him are ultra-promising.

3 minutes ago, Axis of Bob said:

Jackson led Melbourne for ground ball gets on the weekend, along with Jack Viney (9 each). He also had 11 contested possessions, behind only Viney, Oliver and Gawn.

Of all rising stars, he has the second most contested possessions (1 behind Chad Warner) this season.

Given that he's a teenage second ruckman, the signs for him are ultra-promising.

The words of Kelly O Donnell still ring loudly when describing Jackson..

"He's got the best running patterns I've ever seen in a long long time for a young ruckman"

Well worth the watch again.

 

10 minutes ago, Axis of Bob said:

Jackson led Melbourne for ground ball gets on the weekend, along with Jack Viney (9 each). He also had 11 contested possessions, behind only Viney, Oliver and Gawn.

Of all rising stars, he has the second most contested possessions (1 behind Chad Warner) this season.

 

Thats crazy.   The kid is crazy.

Don't forget the Inspector Gadget arms.  The number of times he stuck a mit out and either intercepted the ball or deflected to advantage in close was huge!

i love his work in the ruck. he wins his own taps.

15 minutes ago, Demon Dude said:

i love his work in the ruck. he wins his own taps.

Yes it’s incredible, it was evident in the first practise match of 2020 against the Crows. A few times he won the hit-out that day and accelerated by our mids to get the ball first. 

Edited April 6, 20214 yr by Dee Zephyr

He’ll be a beast.

Was worried he may be more athlete than footballer but he’s laid those fears to rest. Quiet start to the year but has grown in confidence and was a real contributor on the weekend. Good hands. Best ruck combo in the league with Maxy. Slotted his goal nicely.

Looks like we struck gold with LJ, Kozzie and Rivers. That’s the kind of drafting that premiership teams are built on.

Loved his game on Sunday and there a couple of times he was so close to just grabbing the centre bounce by the scruff of the neck, ala Naitanui.

I want him to just grab that footy and thump it long or take the game on out of the middle. He can do it, just needs that bit of confidence to back himself and no look for the handball straight away.

Love that we can now throw him in the ruck with confidence and then put Gawn where we feel he is most needed.

3 hours ago, The Jackson 6 said:

Conceptually like the idea but you’ll lose a small (eg Sparrow) to achieve that which might throw the defensive balance and mid-rotation plan out. 

Yeah, I'd like to hear Binman's response to this.

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

The words of Kelly O Donnell still ring loudly when describing Jackson..

"He's got the best running patterns I've ever seen in a long long time for a young ruckman"

Well worth the watch again.

 

Cheers, that was excellent. A brilliant series unfortunately and maligned for it's title. Never bothered me, TBH, just thought it referred to pre-season training taking players to the toughest places. 

4 hours ago, The Jackson 6 said:

Conceptually like the idea but you’ll lose a small (eg Sparrow) to achieve that which might throw the defensive balance and mid-rotation plan out. 

Maybe.  Maybe not -- given LJ can play as effectively as any "small", and has been touted as a future midfielder (when not actually in the Ruck)...

Matthew Lloyd had a really good comparison on Footy Classified and gave Jackson a bit of a pump up - compared him to the King brother's, in that he gets to a ton of contests & gets hand to ball attempting to mark, but not quite mature enough to the point they all stick, and that it's only a matter of time til he explodes. 

Edited April 12, 20214 yr by adonski