High Praise

 Wow, that's fair praise from the big fella.

The competition is on notice. Jen Phelan reports

Top-three Dees teen 'already better than me': Gawn

Jackson has to play Round 1.      (if the season goes ahead)

Cant believe anyone would have Weid in the team ahead of him.

7 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

Jackson has to play Round 1.      (if the season goes ahead)

Cant believe anyone would have Weid in the team ahead of him.

He's great and a long-term prospect

Why play him round 1 against Nic Nat/Hickey and on OS?  

He would get crushed by both I'm afraid

He's a talent no doubt but bring him in when he's ready and when the team has won a few games and there is more team confidence. 

Would hate to see him debut, we get pumped by the Eagles and he loses some confidence in himself. 

2 minutes ago, MF-C said:

Why play him round 1 against Nic Nat/Hickey and on OS?  

He would get crushed by both I'm afraid
 

I think you will be pleasantly surprised

LJ would take  it up to both of them

The hawks rucks pushed him around early but he was smart enough to use his athletic ability and not go body on body after that

Nic Nat might be a bit of an ask though

As I said in another thread I reckon he’ll get. Few games at Casey before getting a senior run

14 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

The hawks rucks pushed him around early but he was smart enough to use his athletic ability and not go body on body after that

Nic Nat might be a bit of an ask though

As I said in another thread I reckon he’ll get. Few games at Casey before getting a senior run

In a half of footy.

Team balance,  and teammates who know one another's games,  is crucial to get off in a winning way. Especially over there.

If he is to play early,  then let it be at the 'G',  against the Giants.

24 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

I think you will be pleasantly surprised

LJ would take  it up to both of them

I have to disagree 

Nic Nat is a force (love to play at Optus too) and Hickey is no scrub. 

What is the rush to play LJ?

He'll find his feet and no doubt will debut this year. The club just needs to do this at the right time and when we've had a few wins to ensure he has confidence in himself and the team. 

Would play Weid and really challenge him to show some grunt and compete in everything. I think he knows he is under a bit of pressure which is good and we all want him to come on so a good showing vs a great defence in the Eagles would go a long way. 

41 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

Cant believe anyone would have Weid in the team ahead of him.

How many rucks/ tall forwards can you name that have dominated in their first season? The rare ones that look good from day 1 are man-children (Hogan, Darling). Barring injury, Jackson will play senior footy this year, but he's at least 2 years away from being an above-average AFL player (assuming he makes it). 

Weideman was one of the biggest disappointments of 2019 (and that's saying something). But he's well ahead of Jackson at this stage and deserves first crack.

7 minutes ago, Accepting Mediocrity said:

How many rucks/ tall forwards can you name that have dominated in their first season? The rare ones that look good from day 1 are man-children (Hogan, Darling). Barring injury, Jackson will play senior footy this year, but he's at least 2 years away from being an above-average AFL player (assuming he makes it). 

Weideman was one of the biggest disappointments of 2019 (and that's saying something). But he's well ahead of Jackson at this stage and deserves first crack.

Weideman doesnt deserve first crack at all  He has done nothing to earn it.

LJ can at least jump over anyone and is an X factor with his athleticism,   and will provide a contest at every stoppage.

LJ brings plenty to the table, Weideman brings little to nothing.

Easy decision.

Edited March 12, 20205 yr by JakovichScissorKick

2 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

Weideman doesnt deserve first crack at all  He has done nothing to earn it.

LJ can at least jump over anyone and is an X factor with his athleticism,   and will provide a contest at every stoppage.

LJ brings plenty to the table, Weideman brings little to nothing.

Easy decision.

Weid was actually pretty solid against Adelaide and in the Hawks game he did his ankle. 

I also think Weid needs more time purely playing forward. If he can play 80% forward this year then we'll know if he can cut it. 

He's 22 and even his body shape is still somewhat growing. 

Doesn't need to dominate every game but needs to be consistently contributing. 





 

I have gone from being optimistic on Weid to being slightly pessimistic. Have seen some glimpses but one area of real concern for me is his inability to regularly hold marks.

Fix that and he has the potential to become a good player but I'm not sure you can fix such a problem that easily.

You can already see Max’s style as captain. Loves to pump up his boys.

4 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

I have gone from being optimistic on Weid to being slightly pessimistic. Have seen some glimpses but one area of real concern for me is his inability to regularly hold marks.

Fix that and he has the potential to become a good player but I'm not sure you can fix such a problem that easily.

If he doesn't show some signs of improving this then it's a concern. 

He doesn't need to take huge pack marks but he needs to impose himself on games. 

Big tackles, smothers, blocks, 1%ers

Should try to model his game off Aaron Naughton or Membrey. 

Max needs to find a balance between being himself and dialing back the sarcasm and jokes. 

The Fritsch stuff is fun, but pumping up Jacko is a bit dangerous and he shouldn’t be talking up potential structures. 

 

36 minutes ago, JakovichScissorKick said:

Weideman doesnt deserve first crack at all  He has done nothing to earn it.

LJ can at least jump over anyone and is an X factor with his athleticism,   and will provide a contest at every stoppage.

LJ brings plenty to the table, Weideman brings little to nothing.

Easy decision.

You are both wrong and right 

 

Weideman has to nothing to deserve it in the tuck, but he isn't a ruckman. Max will ruck the majority of the game on his own. I think the role we are filling is a forward who can attend maybe 8-10 centre bounces a game.

 

Who is the better forward?

 

For what it's worth I'd be happy to play all of Weideman as a stay at home forward and have McDonald and Jackson push up and run back, which is what I think will happen 

 

15 minutes ago, MF-C said:

If he doesn't show some signs of improving this then it's a concern. 

He doesn't need to take huge pack marks but he needs to impose himself on games. 

Big tackles, smothers, blocks, 1%ers

Should try to model his game off Aaron Naughton or Membrey. 

Disagree, I think the way he can most to the team is like Hawkins. Lead, mark, kick, goal, repeat.

31 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

I have gone from being optimistic on Weid to being slightly pessimistic. Have seen some glimpses but one area of real concern for me is his inability to regularly hold marks.

 

That is clearly his achilles heel.

He is a nice kick and battled manfully as a chop out ruckman.

However, he does drop far too many marking chances and I agree, that unless he fixes that he has little chance of being a long term key forward.

Key forwards take marks.

let him mature,i remember hawkins being bagged early in his career,filled out as he got older ,it takes time with the big blokes

1 hour ago, MF-C said:

He's great and a long-term prospect

Why play him round 1 against Nic Nat/Hickey and on OS?  

He would get crushed by both I'm afraid

He's a talent no doubt but bring him in when he's ready and when the team has won a few games and there is more team confidence. 

Would hate to see him debut, we get pumped by the Eagles and he loses some confidence in himself. 

His game and skills appear first rate. He really needs match experience to bring these traits to the fore. He is young, too young to carry the overdue burden of the team scorecard on his shoulders. Tom, Fritta, Melk and the smalls up forward (and that includes Jones' experience and kicking attributes) can do that if they play the spaces and run. Jackson is better than the Weed - far better - and his main attribute is mobility with his body. A few early weeks from the bench, I say! Rapid rotations forward with Tom pinching in the back-up ruck role around the ground (Tom's best asset is his mobility and aerobic capacity in combination). We could be unstoppable - I wonder if the FD understand that?

36 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Fix that and he has the potential to become a good player but I'm not sure you can fix such a problem that easily.

 

6 minutes ago, Redleg said:

However, he does drop far too many marking chances and I agree, that unless he fixes that he has little chance of being a long term key forward.

Key forwards take marks.

Pretty much spot on I reckon. His other traits are great - he's a fierce tackler for a tall bloke, is good below his knees, hurts people, and he's a great kick. You can see he works his [censored] off - he does a lot right, but doesn't have a lot to show for it stats-wise. If it clicks, we'll have an absolute weapon on our hands. No doubt contested marking is a hard thing to drastically improve, but it's worth remembering that Gawn couldn't take a grab to save himself for the first 6 years of his career. Hawkins pretty much the same. I hold hope. 

4 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

His game and skills appear first rate. He really needs match experience to bring these traits to the fore. He is young, too young to carry the overdue burden of the team scorecard on his shoulders. Tom, Fritta, Melk and the smalls up forward (and that includes Jones' experience and kicking attributes) can do that if they play the spaces and run. Jackson is better than the Weed - far better - and his main attribute is mobility with his body. A few early weeks from the bench, I say! Rapid rotations forward with Tom pinching in the back-up ruck role around the ground (Tom's best asset is his mobility and aerobic capacity in combination). We could be unstoppable - I wonder if the FD understand that?

I agree, 

I think LJ will sky rocket past Weid in terms of mobility and impact long-term. I think Weid just needs more time. 

In the here and now,  LJ just isn't ready and I'd hate to see him get destroyed by the Nic Nat and Hickey. Even if we played LJ forward, Eagles defence is damn good and I wouldn't have much confidence in his game over there. 

Weid is in front of LJ at this stage (by a fraction) but if his form is off in a month then I'm happy to have LJ replace him

 

Excellent signs from LJ

Weed clearly ahead of him for me however.  stronger body and 3 preseasons ahead

I like the kids to earn their place and I don't think LJ has yet.  Weed would be on notice though!

How awesome when Weid and LJ both play at their best?

6 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

How awesome when Weid and LJ both play at their best?

Would set us up for a decade plus in the ruck/ key forward department.

Id love to see Weid arrive big time.

7 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

How awesome when Weid and LJ both play at their best?

Would be great 

Ideally would love to see LJ play second ruck become that roving type ruck and drift forward. 
 

My only concern is that we need to develop him in 1-2 positions. Although he can do a lot and can play in any position I’d much rather him be a specialist in 2 areas than test him in 4.