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To the top wrote: ↑Fri 11 Oct 2019 10:05pm
Goddard has the turning circle of the Queen Mary hence deployed as a quarter back
If he was so good why was he used in that role and not in the “guts”
He was generally a good ball user but his possessions were usually accrued in the spare quarter back role including by demanding the ball as the free player
Hence he was let go
FFS, talking up a C grade AFL player in Acres and knocking Goddard is ridiculous. Anyone comparing Acres to Goddard in anything other than similar size is taking the piss.
Just because you emphasize your opinion by writing “I repeat” does not validate your opinion as being remotely factual.
Goddard was a gun in his 4th season before he did his knee, he was AA at the same age Acres is now.
You believe Acres is a match winner, that’s your opinion but reality is he is a guy who shows flashes of talent and elite quality from time to time but is right now a C grader without a position not a gun.
If he was a gun wouldn’t Freo have grabbed him along with #6 for Hill? Why don’t they want the match winner on their list?
It is my fault Goddard was bought into this. All I wanted to do was point out that sometimes talent takes time to develop.
It wasn’t about age or time spent in the system. Players develop differently.
Plugger won a Coleman and a Brownlow at 21.
So shouldn’t all our young players with talent be guns?
To the top wrote: ↑Fri 11 Oct 2019 10:05pm
Goddard has the turning circle of the Queen Mary hence deployed as a quarter back
If he was so good why was he used in that role and not in the “guts”
He was generally a good ball user but his possessions were usually accrued in the spare quarter back role including by demanding the ball as the free player
Hence he was let go
FFS, talking up a C grade AFL player in Acres and knocking Goddard is ridiculous. Anyone comparing Acres to Goddard in anything other than similar size is taking the piss.
Just because you emphasize your opinion by writing “I repeat” does not validate your opinion as being remotely factual.
Goddard was a gun in his 4th season before he did his knee, he was AA at the same age Acres is now.
You believe Acres is a match winner, that’s your opinion but reality is he is a guy who shows flashes of talent and elite quality from time to time but is right now a C grader without a position not a gun.
If he was a gun wouldn’t Freo have grabbed him along with #6 for Hill? Why don’t they want the match winner on their list?
It is my fault Goddard was bought into this. All I wanted to do was point out that sometimes talent takes time to develop.
It wasn’t about age or time spent in the system. Players develop differently.
Plugger won a Coleman and a Brownlow at 21.
So shouldn’t all our young players with talent be guns?
Acres will be 25 next season.
That’s not a young player in football terms, that’s a player who has been in the system 6 or 7 years and in his prime.
Acres displays elite qualities from time to time and that is what seduces, but fact is at this point in time he is a C grade AFL player who needs to produce to fulfill his undoubted potential.
The romance on this site surrounding Acres being a gun and a match winner is fanciful and not remotely factually based.
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I think Acres has a lot of good attributes, but seems to lack that killer instinct as do too many of our players- but that's something you're born with and don't develop. His biggest improvement would need to be consistency over 4 quarters, but I though he would have that by now.
spert wrote: ↑Sat 12 Oct 2019 8:18am
I think Acres has a lot of good attributes, but seems to lack that killer instinct as do too many of our players- but that's something you're born with and don't develop. His biggest improvement would need to be consistency over 4 quarters, but I though he would have that by now.
Totally agree, but sadly that's what happens when you draft players based on character / leadership, and not how can influence the outcome of a game
I find Acres a very interesting player to assess. Some call him a tease which is probably a factual description and back handed compliment as you can't tease unless you've got the goods. So will a new coach or a new club be the slap across the face required? Or will neither help get him to play his best football consistently?
Another description is C grade with glimpses of A grade potential. Personally I'd prefer a player like that than one whose ceiling is C grade. This has been St Kilda's problem with a lot of players over the past 5 plus years. We have a lot of players that have shown glimpses of A & B grade, setting high bench marks but rarely realising that again or making that bench mark the new zero.
So new coach & new challenges OR new club? I'd like Ratten to show some confidence in himself and Blake, that he can make him the player he's often teased us he can be.
Slow hands means him not taking the first option often puts him under pressure. Possibly cannot handle a complicated game plan/role. Good size but injuries cruel continuity. In punting you can go broke backing a nag that often flashes home late never to actually salute. Tease may be a fair description. Hope he stays though, have got used to having him around and his big body has assisted some important free balls ending in goals.
He's one of the players I'd be willing to trade out. Maybe he'll turn the consistency corner under a new coach, but up until now, tease is a good description.
Yorkeys wrote: ↑Sat 12 Oct 2019 9:26am
Slow hands means him not taking the first option often puts him under pressure. Possibly cannot handle a complicated game plan/role. Good size but injuries cruel continuity. In punting you can go broke backing a nag that often flashes home late never to actually salute. Tease may be a fair description. Hope he stays though, have got used to having him around and his big body has assisted some important free balls ending in goals.
That's interesting Yorkeys when you explain it like that. It is interesting what others see. I've always taken Acres' "slow hands" as a player looking for the best option, a player willing to draw tacklers to free up others. I think he'd enjoy a game plan where everyone is on the same page be it complicated or simple. Whichever it is, he's got talent but we don't see it often enough which is the pity.
Time for Acres to be moved on. He's had enough time to prove himself. There's only so long you can say "oh but he has potential and keeps showing signs".
Still waiting for closure ... if you get my drift.
To the top wrote: ↑Fri 11 Oct 2019 9:58pm
With a better and better balanced side on the park, I am of the view that correctly deployed Acres will be one of our leading lights among a raft of others
We need to make a decision on Ross, Steele and Dunstan
Whilst those 3 have different skill sets, Steele as a tackling and handball asset, Dunstan as a bottom of the pack contester and Ross who mostly runs away from the contest going to his left side hence not straight at the goal hence generally poor disposal, they are all similar in what they contribute to the side including in regard leg speed
So the question to me is not Acres who contributes to scores but Steele, Dunstan and Ross who has 22 goals in 124 games
That is what I mean by better balance
Then maybe absent Steven whose contribution supports the above assessment
We need Hill
I read Jones has leg speed
Gresham is clever but does not have leg speed hence better deployed within range of goal
So, again, we put the right players in the right positions - including Acres
Exactly. Ross and Dunstan are the same player. Slow, left sided, accumulator, rarely kick a goal. Replace one of them and we have a better balanced midfield. Steele is our best two way runner.
Acres has been deployed in the F50 (including having to contest in the ruck) Plus has been used lining up on the edge of the centre square, so as a wing player for lack of a better description noting Melbourne’s comment that they tried 15 thru that position without success last season and have now recruited as they have
To play that position is a thankless task because you can very easily be deployed to running the length of the ground defensively (because you are restricting space). Acres has done thus well (but it remains my view that this is a waste of his talent including because by hand and foot he is so damaging with the ball - note the distance he can handball over)
To suggest he has no defensive asset is an abject nonsense
There are plenty of others such a description could be levelled at - but I note they are never the subject of analysis
To the top wrote: ↑Sun 13 Oct 2019 11:19am
Acres has been deployed in the F50 (including having to contest in the ruck) Plus has been used lining up on the edge of the centre square, so as a wing player for lack of a better description noting Melbourne’s comment that they tried 15 thru that position without success last season and have now recruited as they have
To play that position is a thankless task because you can very easily be deployed to running the length of the ground defensively (because you are restricting space). Acres has done thus well (but it remains my view that this is a waste of his talent including because by hand and foot he is so damaging with the ball - note the distance he can handball over)
To suggest he has no defensive asset is an abject nonsense
There are plenty of others such a description could be levelled at - but I note they are never the subject of analysis
He is our Issac Smith, I hope we don't trade him, with Hill and Jones in the middle he will be even more of a weapon.
spert wrote: ↑Sat 12 Oct 2019 8:18am
I think Acres has a lot of good attributes, but seems to lack that killer instinct as do too many of our players- but that's something you're born with and don't develop. His biggest improvement would need to be consistency over 4 quarters, but I though he would have that by now.
Totally agree, but sadly that's what happens when you draft players based on character / leadership, and not how can influence the outcome of a game
Totally disagree. Instead of playing Blake as a back up ruckman or using him as a half forward I think his previous coach just didn't give the kid a role he was suited to
Richo didn't push his players. We all know that there were way too many on the senior list who weren't fit enough. The new coach needs to challenge a player or a group of players and give them a goal to work towards, and a reward (e.g. achieve a standard of fitness and I'll provide x amount of weeks in the centre)
The old coach was into telling a player what he wasn't good at- like; "you don't work hard enough defensively"
Richo used Acres and coached Acres incorrectly. Richo didn't understand that Acres could have been one of his best and most influential mids.
I totally believe that we need to try Blake for consecutive weeks in the guts for 4 quarters a game. I hope Ratts gives him the opportunity
minneapolis wrote: ↑Sun 13 Oct 2019 2:50am
I think Acres has a slow body construction, compared to others that is.
His thinking is not nippy.
He runs like a bear rather than a horse.
His hands are linked to his brain.
He is good kicking for goal because he is on his own time continuum.
I would think he has reached his ceiling and I would be OK to let him go.
Looking back it was an interesting selection. As a drafter I would have learned a lesson from it.
There's some very insightful comments in that description. After watching the highlights reel posted in this thread I would describe his style of play as that of someone who is used to using his strength and balance to achieve his outcomes as opposed to using speed to get there. Watch him and he doesn't try to run away from tackles, he looks to play through them by standing through the tackle and looking to dish off by hand. His alternate methods are to either keep moving and rotate through the tackle and shake off the tackler, or look to simply side step and run through the ineffective grasp of a wrong footed tackler.
As for his running, it is that of a middle distance runner rather than a sprinter.
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To the top wrote: ↑Sun 13 Oct 2019 11:19am
Acres has been deployed in the F50 (including having to contest in the ruck) Plus has been used lining up on the edge of the centre square, so as a wing player for lack of a better description noting Melbourne’s comment that they tried 15 thru that position without success last season and have now recruited as they have
To play that position is a thankless task because you can very easily be deployed to running the length of the ground defensively (because you are restricting space). Acres has done thus well (but it remains my view that this is a waste of his talent including because by hand and foot he is so damaging with the ball - note the distance he can handball over)
To suggest he has no defensive asset is an abject nonsense
There are plenty of others such a description could be levelled at - but I note they are never the subject of analysis
I don't disagree with your assessments of Acres but what is also proven is, for a guy his size, he cannot take a tag and win the ball consistently. He fades in and out of games and, on average, plays his best game once every 5 weeks. He hasn't built the skills, they been there for 4 years.
This would be the next step for him and I'm not sure he works hard enough to take it. I hope we can keep him though, he might just get the freedom he needs.
Last edited by CQ SAINT on Sun 13 Oct 2019 3:43pm, edited 2 times in total.
To the top wrote: ↑Fri 11 Oct 2019 9:58pm
With a better and better balanced side on the park, I am of the view that correctly deployed Acres will be one of our leading lights among a raft of others
We need to make a decision on Ross, Steele and Dunstan
Whilst those 3 have different skill sets, Steele as a tackling and handball asset, Dunstan as a bottom of the pack contester and Ross who mostly runs away from the contest going to his left side hence not straight at the goal hence generally poor disposal, they are all similar in what they contribute to the side including in regard leg speed
So the question to me is not Acres who contributes to scores but Steele, Dunstan and Ross who has 22 goals in 124 games
That is what I mean by better balance
Then maybe absent Steven whose contribution supports the above assessment
We need Hill
I read Jones has leg speed
Gresham is clever but does not have leg speed hence better deployed within range of goal
So, again, we put the right players in the right positions - including Acres
Exactly. Ross and Dunstan are the same player. Slow, left sided, accumulator, rarely kick a goal. Replace one of them and we have a better balanced midfield. Steele is our best two way runner.
That's why Dunstan is despendable. He's an accumulator that doesn't get a lot of the ball.
To the top wrote: ↑Sun 13 Oct 2019 11:19am
Acres has been deployed in the F50 (including having to contest in the ruck) Plus has been used lining up on the edge of the centre square, so as a wing player for lack of a better description noting Melbourne’s comment that they tried 15 thru that position without success last season and have now recruited as they have
To play that position is a thankless task because you can very easily be deployed to running the length of the ground defensively (because you are restricting space). Acres has done thus well (but it remains my view that this is a waste of his talent including because by hand and foot he is so damaging with the ball - note the distance he can handball over)
To suggest he has no defensive asset is an abject nonsense
There are plenty of others such a description could be levelled at - but I note they are never the subject of analysis
I don't disagree with your assessments of Acres but what is also proven is, for a guy his size, he cannot take a tag and win the ball consistently. He fades in and out of games and, on average, plays his best game once every 5 weeks. He hasn't built the skills, they been there for 4 years.
This would be the next step for him and I'm not sure he works hard enough to take it. I hope we can keep him though, he might just get the freedom he needs.
His start to 2018 was brilliant. Then got injured, a few weeks after he started to ruck. Who would have thought that could happen a 22 year old being jumped on by 100kg+ monsters?
Watching his lack of confidence kicking over 40 meters this year has me believing he was still carrying a niggle. He missed a chunk of pre season, which wasn’t a great sign.
Even after that, I thought his importance linking play was massively under appreciated. It was really telling when he missed the Adelaide game and we couldn’t move the ball beyond they centre square.
I also thinks he works pretty hard. I’ve watched him closely at games and his gut running is really impressive. He isn’t explosive with pace, but my word he can cover a lot of ground quickly.
He doesn’t do grimace face, maybe that’s the problem.
