The Harry Armstrong Thread

[demoncat 1,309]

1 hour ago, Nascent said:

The ‘ruthless’ top-10 prospect with goalkicking great in his corner - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1248642

Looks similar to the above article but has some different details in there.

Pump up article so take from it what you will.

 

Indeed, ruthlessness is among Armstrong's biggest strengths. As well as being a straightshooter and athletic – he finished seventh in the agility test at the national Draft Combine – the Dragons prospect is also a fierce competitor.

"I believe that he has … nastiness is the wrong word – that's what Kevin Sheedy instilled into me – but he has the ability to be what I call a tenpin bowler. He takes down everyone with him and flies for his marks," Lloyd said.

Interesting that Lloyd points out his aggression when it doesn’t really come across in his highlights 

I’ll back JT in if he sees the same traits and drafts him, but I’ll be holding my breath that’s for sure 

Edited October 26 by demoncat

[Dee Viney Intervention 1,924]

2 hours ago, MurDoc516 said:

What's everyone got against Armstrong? 

I'd love Lalor and FOS but those guys aren't attainable. I reckon the idea of a year 4 JVR, year 3 Jefferson and year 1 Armstrong on the books gives us great optimism for a dynamic and functional forward line for many years to come. 

For what it's worth, Armstrong also looks more ready than Jefferson did.

Nothing against Armstrong but we have lost Brayshaw, Harmes, JJ, Dunstan etc and we replaced them with?????The midfield cupboard is bare at Casey. You can have JVR, Jefferson, Armstrong and Jesus Christ in our forward line but if we persist with slow ball movement and blindly bombing the ball into a congested forwardline I don’t care who you are, you are going to struggle to score. And we do. 
 I get where you are coming from it is a bit of what comes first the chicken or the egg. I think we need midfield depth with quality ball users. We have the personnel in our forward line to get the job done, however there is no doubt we need a better system down there or players having clearly defined roles and they need to be made accountable for playing their role. 

[Melonmonster 112]

Jagga no good nothing special 

Langford too slow 

So let’s split 5 and take Reid, Trafaglia  and Lindsay ! 🙃

[Young Angus 770]

If we don’t just pick the best mids it will be a disgrace…hope we don’t pick this guy doesn’t make any sense. 
 

Brisbane winning was just one of those “everything went right for them on the day” and Sydney shouldn’t have been there they were hopeless, but no way Brisbane was that much better. Just had the best game of their life and happened to be a granny…bloody good luck I say the footy gods were smiling on them that day. 
 

sorry I know this isn’t a thread about Brisbane, but seriously they got so lucky that day no way they are that much better than there other teams, even us haha

Edited October 26 by Young Angus

[don cordner 204]

On 24/10/2024 at 12:24, picket fence said:

David Cordner says Hi!!

Huh?

[DeeSpencer 25,453]

2 hours ago, Dee Viney Intervention said:

Nothing against Armstrong but we have lost Brayshaw, Harmes, JJ, Dunstan etc and we replaced them with?????The midfield cupboard is bare at Casey. You can have JVR, Jefferson, Armstrong and Jesus Christ in our forward line but if we persist with slow ball movement and blindly bombing the ball into a congested forwardline I don’t care who you are, you are going to struggle to score. And we do. 
 I get where you are coming from it is a bit of what comes first the chicken or the egg. I think we need midfield depth with quality ball users. We have the personnel in our forward line to get the job done, however there is no doubt we need a better system down there or players having clearly defined roles and they need to be made accountable for playing their role. 

Gus - Windsor
ANB - Kolt
JJ - Sharp
Harmes - pick 9?

I’d like to rebalance the list with more midfield depth than that too but when it comes to pick 5 you got to go best available. 

I can see the case for Armstrong being the best available. 

[FreedFromDesire 941]

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Gus - Windsor
ANB - Kolt
JJ - Sharp
Harmes - pick 9?

I’d like to rebalance the list with more midfield depth than that too but when it comes to pick 5 you got to go best available. 

I can see the case for Armstrong being the best available. 

Definitely agree with this. Best available is where we're back to with adding to our list in my view also. I think if you look at our list profile, and taking into account what we did last year, it seems we know we have a 'solid' group of under 22s coming through but it's somewhat lacking in the really top end talent. It does seem doing what we've done this year to get 2 picks in the top 10 with only a very small chance of us using another pick (outside of rookie upgrades) is more evidence of that. Quality over quantity.

In saying that, I'm not draft watcher so I have no idea personally if Armstrong is that, but I do believe he's been likened to Luke Jackson by Jason Taylor in terms of being able to make an immediate impact, and I think by now, even on Demonland, most would agree he has earned considerable trust for what he's been able to produce in his time with Melbourne. I do recall there was lots of supporters and other football pundits shaking their heads when we took Jackson as well, but he turned out a fantastic selection (albeit with the go home issue of course).

[2021 289]

AFL Draft Expert (Chris Doerre ESPN/Knightmare)

 

@AFLDraftExpert

 

With the quality of Hawkins, Dixon, Daniher, Brown, Reid, Casboult all retired and Taberner presumably not getting another go, expect clubs from this draft and in future drafts and trade periods to start overpaying for key forwards.

[adonski 11,809]

6 minutes ago, 2021 said:

AFL Draft Expert (Chris Doerre ESPN/Knightmare)

 

@AFLDraftExpert

 

With the quality of Hawkins, Dixon, Daniher, Brown, Reid, Casboult all retired and Taberner presumably not getting another go, expect clubs from this draft and in future drafts and trade periods to start overpaying for key forwards.

Usually the opposite of what Chris Doerre says comes true as a general rule of thumb

[2021 289]

I could see us taking The Viking over Armstrong.

Edited October 26 by 2021

[spirit of norm smith 16,273]

I am not supporting drafting Armstrong as I believe MFC needs two high quality midfielders/running players from this draft. 

Nonetheless I think Armstrong can become a very good future AFL player. 

From Code Sports … 

A Geelong fan, Armstrong models his game on Jeremy Cameron and similarly works hard up the ground to provide a marking option. 

The 195cm forward’s contested marking stood out this year, along with his speed, athleticism and an improved ground ball game. 

Rival clubs believe Melbourne (pick five) could be first to pounce on Armstrong in next month’s draft, potentially getting in before St Kilda. 

 

[DeeSpencer 25,453]

3 hours ago, adonski said:

Usually the opposite of what Chris Doerre says comes true as a general rule of thumb

I’m having a Knightmare trying to work out what he was saying in that tweet!

[picket fence 17,042]

14 hours ago, Dee Viney Intervention said:

Nothing against Armstrong but we have lost Brayshaw, Harmes, JJ, Dunstan etc and we replaced them with?????The midfield cupboard is bare at Casey. You can have JVR, Jefferson, Armstrong and Jesus Christ in our forward line but if we persist with slow ball movement and blindly bombing the ball into a congested forwardline I don’t care who you are, you are going to struggle to score. And we do. 
 I get where you are coming from it is a bit of what comes first the chicken or the egg. I think we need midfield depth with quality ball users. We have the personnel in our forward line to get the job done, however there is no doubt we need a better system down there or players having clearly defined roles and they need to be made accountable for playing their role. 

Agree and if we select him it is a HUGE blunder for those reasons, mids, mids and more MIDS ! END OF STORY!

[adonski 11,809]

Looks like he's happy to crash packs, good speed too. I think he's looks decent, whether he's worth bypassing the more highly rated mids at pick 5 is another question.

Edited October 26 by adonski

[The Jackson FIX 3,072]

On 24/10/2024 at 13:42, Nascent said:

I suspect we will go hard at a free agent or out of contract mid at the end of next year, particularly if one or both of Oliver and Petracca move on.

 

It’ll be really difficult to attract decent free agents and/or trade in decent mids if Oliver and Trac leave. We’ll be portrayed (again) as a basket case.

I’d love to recruit a gun tall but feel our situation is calling more for somebody ready to play in ‘25

[Slartibartfast 17,190]

13 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Gus - Windsor
ANB - Kolt
JJ - Sharp
Harmes - pick 9?

I’d like to rebalance the list with more midfield depth than that too but when it comes to pick 5 you got to go best available. 

I can see the case for Armstrong being the best available. 

Gawn, Trac and Hogan are sitting in the room waiting for you to pick “best available”.  Who do you pick?

Best available is avoidance to me, it’s best available for your list against the background of scarcity. 

[Nascent 9,107]

2 hours ago, The Jackson FIX said:

 

It’ll be really difficult to attract decent free agents and/or trade in decent mids if Oliver and Trac leave. We’ll be portrayed (again) as a basket case.

I’d love to recruit a gun tall but feel our situation is calling more for somebody ready to play in ‘25

It's going to be hard to recruit anyone if they both leave and the media push the basket case narrative. 

Would be nice to have a ready made player for '25, and we may get one with one of our top 10 picks. But we shouldn't be having a narrow short term focus on recruits and we shouldn't be expecting one or two 18yr olds to be the difference between making finals or not.

All I know is if one or both of Oliver or Petracca leave, we are going to be swimming in salary cap space. Think we will have an easier time trying to recruit a young quality mid over the next few years than a ready to go 25yr+ KPP that wants to sign a 5-7yr contract in a premiership contending team.

We're going to be very short on key position players at the end of next year when McDonald most likely retires and May on his last legs at 34 in 2026. With Tomlinson and Schache gone, Fullarton not looking likely and both Jefferson and Adams no guarantees, I see a good argument to adding quality KPP players to the list. Our list has a lot of needs.

Whether that's at 5, 9 or 83 will depend on how the JT sees this crop.

 

Edited October 27 by Nascent

[Mouseymoo 227]

2 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Gawn, Trac and Hogan are sitting in the room waiting for you to pick “best available”.  Who do you pick?

Best available is avoidance to me, it’s best available for your list against the background of scarcity. 

That's how you end up with Watts and McCartin. Best available is the responsible thing to do with the draft assets you have. 

[The Jackson FIX 3,072]

1 hour ago, Nascent said:

we shouldn't be expecting one or two 18yr olds to be the difference between making finals or not.

We’ve seen some evidence they can help fast track a change in game plan though.  

[old55 23,389]

50 minutes ago, Mouseymoo said:

That's how you end up with Watts and McCartin. Best available is the responsible thing to do with the draft assets you have. 

He's asking you who is "best available" from Gawn, Petracca and Hogan. Put them in order. We'll see if everyone agrees.

[picket fence 17,042]

4 hours ago, The Jackson FIX said:

 

It’ll be really difficult to attract decent free agents and/or trade in decent mids if Oliver and Trac leave. We’ll be portrayed (again) as a basket case.

I’d love to recruit a gun tall but feel our situation is calling more for somebody ready to play in ‘25

We have Jeffo, ready to go, we can't wait another 2 years for development to take place, pick MIDS !

[DeeSpencer 25,453]

4 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Gawn, Trac and Hogan are sitting in the room waiting for you to pick “best available”.  Who do you pick?

Best available is avoidance to me, it’s best available for your list against the background of scarcity. 

Im not always wedded to best available. In 2019 I was all for Jackson over Green and Young because we had the Tracc/Oliver combo and quality in a lot of spots. Plus Jackson had a crazy high ceiling.

Unless you have 2 gun mids but no key forwards the answer is Tracc from Hogan with the ruck 3rd (sorry Max). 
 

The big body powerful mid is the most important player in the game IMO. So if there’s a Tracc level type at 5 then sign me up. What I’m seeing isn’t anyone remotely on that planet if Lalor and Langford are gone.

Right now we don’t have the gun key forward and the future of the 2 gun mids is both up in the air. So from a longer term list perspective there’s no push one way or another.
 

But I’m not convinced JVR yet alone Jeffo are the main men up forward so if we think Armstrong is that guy then grab him. Hoping we can recreate the last few games of BBB exactly when needed in 2019 isn’t a reliable strategy. 

[mo64 5,853]

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Im not always wedded to best available. In 2019 I was all for Jackson over Green and Young because we had the Tracc/Oliver combo and quality in a lot of spots. Plus Jackson had a crazy high ceiling.

Unless you have 2 gun mids but no key forwards the answer is Tracc from Hogan with the ruck 3rd (sorry Max). 
 

The big body powerful mid is the most important player in the game IMO. So if there’s a Tracc level type at 5 then sign me up. What I’m seeing isn’t anyone remotely on that planet if Lalor and Langford are gone.

Right now we don’t have the gun key forward and the future of the 2 gun mids is both up in the air. So from a longer term list perspective there’s no push one way or another.
 

But I’m not convinced JVR yet alone Jeffo are the main men up forward so if we think Armstrong is that guy then grab him. Hoping we can recreate the last few games of BBB exactly when needed in 2019 isn’t a reliable strategy. 

If you don't believe that JVR or Jeffo are the answer, then why would you put your faith in Jason Taylor's assessment of Armstrong? If you add Weideman to the mix, his track record should be poor in your mind. 

[FreedFromDesire 941]

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

We have Jeffo, ready to go, we can't wait another 2 years for development to take place, pick MIDS !

I like Jefferson and think he came a long way this year, but he's always been a longer term project - From what I can tell, if we drafted Armstrong he would already be ahead of Jefferson in terms of being ready to play. Pick the best available, regardless of position - not only is that when we've done our best drafting, but it's also reflective of a team that finished 14th this year.

[Ted Lasso 19,285]

I think he's going to St Kilda at pick 7 or 8 to be honest. 

If i was to guess, pick 9 we will be choosing between Lindsay, Reid and Trainor