further to my disagreement that toumpas' first year has been "sensational"
- he has regularly ducked his head in contested situations (against gold coast in particular he was poor before being injured)
- his tackling attempts are often one-arm reaches rather than dedicated attempts
- he doesn't one-two run as outside players should, i.e. he doesn't get the ball, dispose of it, then make himself an option further afield
- he doesn't look remotely fit enough (see the photo posted on the mfc facebook page of him in a recycle bin ice-bath? he's nowhere near as ripped as other players, and looks a bit porky)
- he's not quick for an outside player
players i can think of off the top of my head who've had better first years than him in 2013:
- jaeger o'meara (the kid is a freak)
- ollie wines
- brad crouch
- lachie whitfield
- sam dwyer
- jamie elliott
- sam mayes
- nick vlastuin
- jake neade
and that's just 2013.
melbourne players who i can think of off the top of my head who've had more impressive first years than him in recent times:
- nathan jones
- clint bartram
- matthew bate
- jamie bennell
- jack trengove
- tom scully
- cale morton
- ricky petterd
irrespective of his hip injury, we were told he was 'ready to go' by nearly every story on him prior to the draft. he looks far, far away from that.
the damning fact for me is that cale morton produced superior football to toumpas in his first year in 2008, when we were probably even worse than we are in 2013.
fortunately, from what we've seen he is a very nice kick, but he has a long way to go to be what i was expecting we were getting when we drafted him.
a sensational first year? not on your life.