2024 Player Reviews: #2 Jacob van Rooyen

[Demonland 72,528]

Strong marking youngster who plays forward and relief ruck, continued to make significant strides forward in his career path. The Demons have high hopes for van Rooyen as he stakes his claim to become an elite attacking forward.

Date of Birth: 16 April 2003
Height: 193cm

Games MFC 2024: 21
Career Total: 41

Goals MFC 2024: 30
Career Total: 58

Brownlow Medal Votes: 1

[Diamond_Jim 12,602]

A very good season. Has the makings of a dominant and dare I say elite forward if he can find the mystical "forward connection" with our midfield

[Roost it far 8,329]

Champion forward in the making. Can’t understand the doubters. 

[Tarax Club 3,920]

93kg

[Demon Jack 6,927]

First forward we've had since Hogan who isn't afraid to crash a pack.

His goal tally for this season would be pushing 40+ if he wasn't forced to play as a second ruck.

[dazzledavey36 55,141]

Absolute gun.

[John Crow Batty 8,871]

Needs more time in the forward line. Can’t make a unicorn out of a bull. 

[old dee 23,813]

1 hour ago, Demon Jack said:

First forward we've had since Hogan who isn't afraid to crash a pack.

His goal tally for this season would be pushing 40+ if he wasn't forced to play as a second ruck.

Last para says it all DJ

 

[old dee 23,813]

51 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Absolute gun.

Don't agree dd. Reasonable CPF. 

[Oxdee 368]

He has a strong potential to be the best player in the league. He has even been matching it with most ruckman and all at the age of 21. 

in a way, his foray into the ruck will end up serving him well up forward. 

looking forward to seeing  ‘the ox mach II’ break out. 

[DeeZone 9,918]

What’s not to like about Jacob van Rooyen, looks great, can take a strong mark, kicks straight and is good below his knees and brings the crowd to their feet. He’s made of the right stuff and hopefully becomes a 50 goal a year forward for us.

[DEE fence 5,033]

Am going to be boring here and repeat myself, but outside of retaining CP5 & CO13, the best news for Melbourne 2024 is JVR fixing his double grab when marking a third of the way through the season. Will be an absolute weapon in 2025.

[bluey 1,108]

Needs a big preseason

Edited November 2 by bluey

[Ollie fan 3,421]

I think he's great. He actually reminds me of Dermie - and whatever else Dermie  is, he was a tremendous player.

And I like him going into the ruck. It gets/keeps him involved, he holds his own doing it, and my feeling is that he enjoys it too. He is a player that seems to love the physical contest.

Edited November 2 by Ollie fan

[old dee 23,813]

Dermie he is not. 

[Demon Disciple 12,193]

30 goals from a season where our midfield was poor (due to obvious reasons). Not bad at all

[Sir Why You Little 37,056]

This coming season just might be the one where he kicks 50-60 goals.

He looks to me like a confidence player, if he can take marks and kick subsequent goals, he will just get better and better, so far we have only seen glimpses 

[old dee 23,813]

35 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

This coming season just might be the one where he kicks 50-60 goals.

He looks to me like a confidence player, if he can take marks and kick subsequent goals, he will just get better and better, so far we have only seen glimpses 

Only if stops wasting 20% of every game in the ruck. 

[58er 6,464]

8 hours ago, old dee said:

Dermie he is not. 

No but he is a better player than you give him credit for OD.

Considering he will be still 21 yrs when we first start Round1 in 2025.

You wanted a 30 goal forward in a recent post and then said how he might kick 40 a season if not required to back up as a second ruck. 

As I have posted he is still only 21 and averages approx. 1.5 goals per game, very reasonable over 41 games.

He can improve his two grab marks to become a one grabber more often and yes if he is not required in the ruck for relief or another big forward or any of Turner Petty Jeffo can improve or our draft pick can star it will give Rooyie a lot more support.

I quite like him in the ruck as he is reasonably competitive and it gets him in the game. He could also be handy acting as a defender down back as a relief ruck considering he has played at full back in Junior competitions National and state. 

A very promising forward key position player he clearly has more levels to go to before he reaches his career zenith.

Can’t wait for this and 2025 might be this year of forfullment.

[Ollie fan 3,421]

15 hours ago, old dee said:

Dermie he is not. 

I didn't say he was as good as Dermie. I said he REMINDS me of Dermie. But I believe that this coming year will be when he puts it all together, and that is when we will find out just how good he is which I think is: very very good.

[Hawny for Gawny 461]

3rd year KPF breakout feels imminent to me. Would love so see him just start clunking everything and come in looking like how Thilthorpe did at the start of last year for the crows, as a unit.

[whatwhat say what 22,798]

he seems to relish playing as the second ruck

it gets him involved in the play and he loves the hurly-burly of the contest

[old dee 23,813]

1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

he seems to relish playing as the second ruck

it gets him involved in the play and he loves the hurly-burly of the contest

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not sure how you judge him relishing playing second ruck. My observation  is he is average at best as a Ruckman. It just takes him away from his role as a  kpf. A role we need desperately. We need another good kpf not backmen trying to fill the role. 

[MrFreeze 1,971]

1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

he seems to relish playing as the second ruck

it gets him involved in the play and he loves the hurly-burly of the contest

Can see him becoming the Hawkins style tank who just toses skinnier ruckman and snaps goals when he is older.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,869]

The West Coast game at the MCG was the first time we've seen an MFC key forward take control of a game of footy since the Hogan halcyon days of 2016-2018. And McGovern and Barrass were playing that day so it wasn't as if he got hold of a bunch of mugs.

Good on him for cracking the 30 goal mark, and blokes like Harry Mckay and Curnow didn't manage 50 goals until their 4th or 5th AFL seasons.

Aside from a 3 goal performance against GC, he didn't end the season well taking only 10 marks in the final 5 games.