Best game for the club today I think. He’s put a couple of good ones together.

Borderline insipid footballer, another Tim Lamb special

8 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

How so? Rioli done SFA today.

Because McVee’s mostly been on him.

4 intercepts from Howes. 2 score involvements. 170m gained from 10 kicks so he’s pretty much only going sideways. Panics under pressure. Doesn’t impact in the air despite plenty of height.

He’s pretty much just doing cardio out there.

just another 'nothing' footballer

good in the vfl; below average in the afl

10 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Borderline insipid footballer, another Tim Lamb special

Because McVee’s mostly been on him.

4 intercepts from Howes. 2 score involvements. 170m gained from 10 kicks so he’s pretty much only going sideways. Panics under pressure. Doesn’t impact in the air despite plenty of height.

He’s pretty much just doing cardio out there.

That's what Salem has been doing for four years, so Howes is in good company.

1 minute ago, poita said:

That's what Salem has been doing for four years, so Howes is in good company.

Salem on his worse day at least looks like he’ll win a one on one on the deck and wants the ball. Had a poor game today but has looked better this year. Howes has Salem’s apathy but no class. He doesn’t have a strength to his game to hang his hat on.

He really wasn't bad. A totally acceptable game.

1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

just another 'nothing' footballer

good in the vfl; below average in the afl

i thought he was better then majority today, id like to see him in the medium size fwd role think he would go okay he is not big enough to be a tall defender plus we have like 15 too many of them ffs

Edited June 15, 2025Jun 15 by jaydenh10
.

I want Blake in a new position. Wing/HFF would be a worthwhile experiment.

4 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Borderline insipid footballer, another Tim Lamb special

Yep

3 hours ago, higgsy75 said:

Best game for the club today I think. He’s put a couple of good ones together.

Bog Average

Sticking the boot into a 20 gamer who took 7 marks, laid 6 tackles. 15 touches and had maybe one or two kicked on him is what this forum is all about! I remember Turner getting the same treatment. That aged well.

Howes was fine today and other then a turnover like majority of all our players ye was fine today.

Only a goose would rate his game as 'insipid' as clearly they weren't even watching the game.

16 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

Sticking the boot into a 20 gamer who took 7 marks, laid 6 tackles. 15 touches and had maybe one or two kicked on him is what this forum is all about! I remember Turner getting the same treatment. That aged well.

When?

Disco played one game in ‘22, looked ok, got knocked out at half time.

He played 2 games in 23 and was fine. And whilst it was up and down he made an immediate impression last year in a foreign position.

Repeated injuries are a concern and I’m a little iffy on his ceiling (is he good enough to be the main interceptor). But he’s always had AFL traits with his marking, the way he moves for his size and his ability to win the ball.

16 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Howes was fine today and other then a turnover like majority of all our players ye was fine today.

Only a goose would rate his game as 'insipid' as clearly they weren't even watching the game.

A good Howes game in the easiest position on the field is fine. A bad Howes game is a disaster that sees him throw the ball under pressure.

He has 2 afl traits, he’s got good endurance and he’s tall for a flanker. The latter he doesn’t use right now, he might, but generally if you’ve got an overhead marking game you at least show glimpses of getting hands on the footy.

The one thing he does do is mostly track opponents with reasonable discipline. Rarely wins contests with any conviction. Offers little in attack, if he could kick or break lines that would be nice but there’s no evidence of that.

If this was year 1 or 2, maybe even 3 I’d be glad to have him. But it’s year 4 and there’s no significant progress. His contract extension is similar to Laurie’s on the back of some good preseason footy. It’s wishful thinking.

He’s basically Cale Morton whilst being low enough of a draft pick not to get hate and high enough for people to think there’s upside.

Massive step up for Blake and Disco. Huge faith from the match committee to trust these two as our key defensive pillars, pushing out 2 premiership players is no small feat.

Out with the old, in with the new!

On 16/06/2025 at 14:19, DeeSpencer said:

A good Howes game in the easiest position on the field is fine. A bad Howes game is a disaster that sees him throw the ball under pressure.

He has 2 afl traits, he’s got good endurance and he’s tall for a flanker. The latter he doesn’t use right now, he might, but generally if you’ve got an overhead marking game you at least show glimpses of getting hands on the footy.

The one thing he does do is mostly track opponents with reasonable discipline. Rarely wins contests with any conviction. Offers little in attack, if he could kick or break lines that would be nice but there’s no evidence of that.

If this was year 1 or 2, maybe even 3 I’d be glad to have him. But it’s year 4 and there’s no significant progress. His contract extension is similar to Laurie’s on the back of some good preseason footy. It’s wishful thinking.

He’s basically Cale Morton whilst being low enough of a draft pick not to get hate and high enough for people to think there’s upside.

He and McVee tagged team and completely shut Bobby Hill down on Kings birth and then backed it by doing the same on Willie Rioli.

Hes doing his job and doing it well. That's why hes picked.

You've picked out the most obscure deficiencies that anyone has seen.

Edited June 27, 2025Jun 27 by dazzledavey36

31 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

Massive step up for Blake and Disco. Huge faith from the match committee to trust these two as our key defensive pillars, pushing out 2 premiership players is no small feat.

Out with the old, in with the new!

Lever is out. Who is the other?

32 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

Massive step up for Blake and Disco. Huge faith from the match committee to trust these two as our key defensive pillars, pushing out 2 premiership players is no small feat.

Out with the old, in with the new!

I am excited to see how they go.

Collingwood used an undersized defensive back 7 in 2022-2023, but it allowed them to be good at ground level and ping quickly off half back.

Salo is the next one in the gun I reckon. If he had a bit more speed, he'd be perfect back there. That said, his leadership and experience will probably be needed if Lever is on thin ice generally and May is edging towards the cliff.

With this last block of games, I hope they give the back 6-7 some continuity together. Likewise, we need to find a forward mix soon enough, instead chopping and changing. I think mostly because JVR has had such a poor year as a forward, it's thrown out our forward mix.

Blake has really good endurance, but he's also a nice, neat kick. Good luck again, Blake.

29 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

Lever is out. Who is the other?

Howes has taken the 3rd tall role TMAC played in 24 and early 25

Edited June 27, 2025Jun 27 by MrFreeze

22 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I am excited to see how they go.

Collingwood used an undersized defensive back 7 in 2022-2023, but it allowed them to be good at ground level and ping quickly off half back.

Salo is the next one in the gun I reckon. If he had a bit more speed, he'd be perfect back there. That said, his leadership and experience will probably be needed if Lever is on thin ice generally and May is edging towards the cliff.

With this last block of games, I hope they give the back 6-7 some continuity together. Likewise, we need to find a forward mix soon enough, instead chopping and changing. I think mostly because JVR has had such a poor year as a forward, it's thrown out our forward mix.

Blake has really good endurance, but he's also a nice, neat kick. Good luck again, Blake.

Collingwood run with Moore and Frampton and then have Howe as the third tall, who is a similar size to Howes but obviously has a big leap.

It can definitely be beneficial at ground level and playing the rebound game, but it means our mids need to put on a lot of pressure. If they don't Suns will take easy marks inside 50.

23 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I am excited to see how they go.

Collingwood used an undersized defensive back 7 in 2022-2023, but it allowed them to be good at ground level and ping quickly off half back.

Salo is the next one in the gun I reckon. If he had a bit more speed, he'd be perfect back there. That said, his leadership and experience will probably be needed if Lever is on thin ice generally and May is edging towards the cliff.

With this last block of games, I hope they give the back 6-7 some continuity together. Likewise, we need to find a forward mix soon enough, instead chopping and changing. I think mostly because JVR has had such a poor year as a forward, it's thrown out our forward mix.

Blake has really good endurance, but he's also a nice, neat kick. Good luck again, Blake.

I'd say the Hawks also used a similar undersized key defensive structure last year. IMO they look worse with a clunky Barass and Sicily there now.

Im very keen to see AMW return as I feel he has similar traits to Hibberd, tough, super aggressive and fast.

IMO Salo has had a very good year, and our current game style feeds into his skill set. He was often criticized for not taking on aggressive kicks but we need to reliably chip the ball in our back half to rebound.

Edited June 27, 2025Jun 27 by MrFreeze

8 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

Howes has taken the 3rd tall role TMAC played in 24 and early 25

Yep, that's fair, although TMac was a premiership forward, but I get you.

8 minutes ago, DistrACTION Jackson said:

Collingwood run with Moore and Frampton and then have Howe as the third tall, who is a similar size to Howes but obviously has a big leap.

It can definitely be beneficial at ground level and playing the rebound game, but it means our mids need to put on a lot of pressure. If they don't Suns will take easy marks inside 50.

But it doesn't matter who you have defending, if the midfield pressure isn't on, any defensive unit will get scored on.

So I think it's a respectable gamble.

Collingwood have more run than us with Crisp, Maynard and Quaynor to our Bowey, McVee and Salem.

We'd be more comparable if Rivers stayed at half back, probably at the expense of Salem or ultimately Lever.

10 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

I'd say the Hawks also used a similar undersized key defensive structure last year. IMO they look worse with a clunky Barass and Sicily there now.

Im very keen to see AMW return as I feel he has similar traits to Hibberd, tough, super aggressive and fast.

IMO Salo has had a very good year, and our current game style feeds into his skill set. He was often criticized for not taking on aggressive kicks but we need to reliably chip the ball in our back half to rebound.

The Hawks have done the undersized thing at both ends.

I think Collingwood have shown the way in terms of undersized set ups at both ends of the ground. If you have speed of ball movement or are slinging back into a relatively empty 50, their pace by foot and handball game is certainly difficult to contain, despite having shorter players.

it doesn't mean we have to play this way mind you. Because we have shown we can contain the Collingwood game.

Edited June 27, 2025Jun 27 by Adam The God

On 15/06/2025 at 18:05, DeeSpencer said:

Borderline insipid footballer, another Tim Lamb special

Because McVee’s mostly been on him.

4 intercepts from Howes. 2 score involvements. 170m gained from 10 kicks so he’s pretty much only going sideways. Panics under pressure. Doesn’t impact in the air despite plenty of height.

He’s pretty much just doing cardio out there.

Metres gained is a pretty poor indicator of someone's performance. If he had double the metres gained with dump kicks would you rate it statistically better?

At training on Thursday the coaches were imploring players to take the shorter option.