I'm an Individual

I was there in the final round of 1987. Same situation: playing for a spot in the finals, down at half time, we lost a promising young forward early in each game. The difference in '87 was desire. The Dees played as though they wanted to win. Saturday's loss was the kind of result I have come to expect. There is a flakiness at the club that makes it unlikely we will win when it matters and we are good at wasting opportunities. Including Saturday we also dropped winnable games to North, Hawks, Freeo. All teams well below us on the ladder. Add 5 wins to our tally and obviously this year turns out very differently. We should have beaten Geelong at Etihad too, but for appalling kicking. Following Melbourne = long periods of disappointment punctuated by occasional false dawns.

I've always wanted Jack to do well, to perform well consistently. But now I've come to see him as consistently mediocre. After around 150 games how many has he dominated? Not many. Is he likely to improve? Probably not. He is what he is I guess.

I once read on a forum (could have been here, could have been Demonology), that Matthew Bate was the worst player ever to reach 100 games for the Dees. Now that Jack has reached that milestone a statistical comparison makes interesting reading. Jack's 100 games have yielded: kicks- 871, handballs- 695, total disposals-1566, marks- 513, goals- 77, tackles-192, Brownlow votes- 7. Bate played 102 games for: kicks- 900, handballs- 698, total disposals- 1598, marks-555, goals- 98, tackles- 283, Brownlow votes- 7. Just sayin'.