Jack Bytel

[Rubyjo]

How did people see his game ...thought he was very good and worth a round 1 spot.

[Otiman]

Yes, walk up start, especially with Windy out.

[Crossy66]

Excellent inside work, beautiful hands. I still noticed on a few occasions he was happy to jog rather than sprint to do something defensively. If he can satisfy RTB with his spread and defensive effort, he could be an important cog in the midfield. I keep coming back to, who does he replace as an inside mid? Crouch, steele ?

[spert]

Probably has the cleanest disposal by hand and foot of all our mids and I would persist with him.

[Vortex]

How did people see his game ...thought he was very good and worth a round 1 spot.

Only if Windy doesn't come up, did some ok things but was a reserve and only got a go because of the broken hand. Still has a mountain of work to do if he is going to push out similar types like Steele, Crouch and Sebby, I recon his best chance of cementing a spot in the team is fight for Windy's spot, and sheez ya'd have to think if that's what's in front of him he's fighting for his career.

[6621104]

kept Parish quiet - I suspect that was his job, but also good when his opportunity to attack arose

[shanegrambeau]

He’s been an enigma from afar.

Thought he had it all.

What I can deduce is that in respect to his potential selection, the minus column has two things…

1) lack of pace and outside run

2) too similar to Crouch, Ross and other competitors.

I wonder now, as I did back in 2019 or whenever, if the back operations, though thoroughly healed and successful, may have had an impact on his pace and flexibility .

[saynta]

Got the quickest hands on the list. Only injuries and biased coaches have held him back.

IMHO, he has far more natural ability than Burns but is not a coach's pet.

[CQ SAINT]

Bytel is like Armo, with the same strength, a little slower and a lot more skilled.
Might allow Ross to break loose and wide.
If Ross can play outside and accumulate a lot of short disposals and bring other runners forward, our mids just might get on a roll.

[shanegrambeau]

Bytel is like Armo, with the same strength, a little slower and a lot more skilled.
Might allow Ross to break loose and wide.
If Ross can play outside and accumulate a lot of short disposals and bring other runners forward, our mids just might get on a roll.

They need a line breaker with skill and speed, I think Crouch does the snatch n’ handball, as does Ross, very well. Hence, they feel Bytel is another alsoran, so to speak. But now, with windy down, he may have a chance. Hunter is also slow, but has the shimmy and balance and enough skill so that even if he is nanosecond late, his execution is good enough.?

We need a version of Hill on steroids - a giant Hill! Mountain. I think Windy might be it, or who knows if NWM packs on 10kg?

Brilliant Shane

[shanegrambeau]

Bytel is like Armo, with the same strength, a little slower and a lot more skilled.
Might allow Ross to break loose and wide.
If Ross can play outside and accumulate a lot of short disposals and bring other runners forward, our mids just might get on a roll.

They need a line breaker with skill and speed, I think Crouch does the snatch n’ handball, as does Ross, very well. Hence, they feel Bytel is another alsoran, so to speak. But now, with windy down, he may have a chance. Hunter is also slow, but has the shimmy and balance and enough skill so that even if he is nanosecond late, his execution is good enough.?

We need a version of Hill on steroids - a giant Hill! Mountain. I think Windy might be it, or who knows if NWM packs on 10kg?

Brilliant Shane

[CQ SAINT]

Bytel is like Armo, with the same strength, a little slower and a lot more skilled.
Might allow Ross to break loose and wide.
If Ross can play outside and accumulate a lot of short disposals and bring other runners forward, our mids just might get on a roll.

They need a line breaker with skill and speed, I think Crouch does the snatch n’ handball, as does Ross, very well. Hence, they feel Bytel is another alsoran, so to speak. But now, with windy down, he may have a chance. Hunter is also slow, but has the shimmy and balance and enough skill so that even if he is nanosecond late, his execution is good enough.?

We need a version of Hill on steroids - a giant Hill! Mountain. I think Windy might be it, or who knows if NWM packs on 10kg?

Brilliant Shane

The line breaker will be coming off half back or the wing (Sinclair, NWM, Hill, Stocker) running a line that will flank Ross.
Ross is strong, has pace, can step left and everyone is aware of that. Try planning to run to his right and let him expect you to be there. If the tag goes to Ross he can handle it and Steele gets on his bike and Ross and Crouch go in and under.

[saintbob]

Seems to have got his s*** together and done the hard work over the summer, lock for round 1.

[Scollop]

Was it Crouch who was the difference in the midfield or was it the influence of Bytel that turned the game in our favour?

It's a genuine question and I really don't have an answer (yet)... I will watch the replay of the 2nd quarter in a few hours time and update this thread

Most of Crouch's touches up to the start of the 2nd quarter were contested and some of his touches gave him the double bonus of counting as a clearance stat... BUT

Only 1 problem! ....I thought most were insignificant and most were turnovers. I could be wrong but that was just my perception watching live

I don't care if you have 20 possessions if none have lead to attacking chains or created any opportunities for inside 50's.

I was watching live and thought gee I hope they don't rabbit on about how good he's been when he's had little influence on the game or on score involvements.

Crouch worked really hard and his disposal improved after the 1st quarter and his clearances also improved but I'm wondering how much did he influence the game after quarter time

Was it some Saints players starting to get it together in the second qter that saw us dominate? Was it Essendon's poor performance that was the difference?

I'm hoping that at some stage our coaches realise that Bytel should eventually replace Crouch in the centre

[Scollop]

First bounce out of the centre in the 2nd quarter.
Nil all draw in the ruck and there’s a scrimmage where Bytel is in and under
Jack gets the slick handball out of the congestion to Crouch who kicks it forward.

Second bounce in the centre straight after our first goal of the game, the Bombers mids get first use but Jack lays a strong tackle and the ball is freed. Crouch swoops on it and handballs back to Bytel. Jack kicks it from the centre to deep forward pocket

With both instances, it was Bytel who created the opportunities.

We were putting their defence under pressure by getting it in quick and deep.
We started dominating in regard to contested marks around the ground. Marshall, Wood, and Owens

RoMa was enormous. Marshall competed well against Draper and took 4-5 big marks. He was crucial for clearances as well
Roma did it all. Took a lovely grab and kicked a long bomb from 55 to put our fifth goal on the board

During this period in the 2nd quarter, Bytel was more prominent than Crouch. We had good contributions from quite a few, including NWM, Wood, Steele and Webster. Hunter Clark moved into the midfield and also got a couple of clearances.

We got our sixth goal from the Bomber defender blindly kicking the footy out as a dump kick. Wood was the beneficiary and he kicked truly from about 40 metres out

[spert]

First bounce out of the centre in the 2nd quarter.
Nil all draw in the ruck and there’s a scrimmage where Bytel is in and under
Jack gets the slick handball out of the congestion to Crouch who kicks it forward.

Second bounce in the centre straight after our first goal of the game, the Bombers mids get first use but Jack lays a strong tackle and the ball is freed. Crouch swoops on it and handballs back to Bytel. Jack kicks it from the centre to deep forward pocket

With both instances, it was Bytel who created the opportunities.

We were putting their defence under pressure by getting it in quick and deep.
We started dominating in regard to contested marks around the ground. Marshall, Wood, and Owens

RoMa was enormous. Marshall competed well against Draper and took 4-5 big marks. He was crucial for clearances as well
Roma did it all. Took a lovely grab and kicked a long bomb from 55 to put our fifth goal on the board

During this period in the 2nd quarter, Bytel was more prominent than Crouch. We had good contributions from quite a few, including NWM, Wood, Steele and Webster. Hunter Clark moved into the midfield and also got a couple of clearances.

We got our sixth goal from the Bomber defender blindly kicking the footy out as a dump kick. Wood was the beneficiary and he kicked truly from about 40 metres out

Good observations. One thing about Bytel is that he hits his teammates with his disposals by hand or foot around clearances, which is what we need more of in our midfield.

[Impatient Sainter]

He was good for 2 1/2 quarters but then faded, he needs to strongly run out games if he is to force his way into the side.

[B.M]

Good player

Behind a few who are similar

[WellardSaint]

He was good for 2 1/2 quarters but then faded, he needs to strongly run out games if he is to force his way into the side.

Did he get benched in the 3rd though?

[saynta]

Interesting post from a guy on big footy.

"Someone on here was writing off Bytel on the basis that he's been around a long time (sorry - I didn't mark the post at the time). So I thought I'd go and have a look at his career. The guy has played almost no footy:

Drafted 2018
2019 - 0 games
2020 - 3 AFL, 0 VFL
2021 - 13 AFL, 2 VFL
2022 - 0 AFL, 12 VFL

That's 30 games in four seasons. Not 30 AFL games, 30 total games.

He played seven VFL games early in 2022 when we were flying, then got injured just as our injuries started to pile up, so probably missed a chance there.

He played the last five in the VFL and had a good run - averaged 26 disposals and 8 tackles in those games.

Would have liked to see him rack up more than 16 disposals on Friday, but he did have seven tackles and, as others have noted, his hands are elite (he had two centre clearances, along with Clark. The stats don't seem to include general clearances, but he's a great clearance player generally).

So, I think judging him on games played is more applicable than judging him on his age. I'd like to see him play 20 games this year (AFL or VFL) and then assess him at the end of the year."

7 tackles where Howard, Phillipou and Higgins had none between them.

[nostalgicsaint]

Games played is a great point.

With a good run at it it probably means his ceiling is higher than we're giving him credit for.

[saynta]

From AFL.com.au

"Surprise packet
It may not be a surprise, but expect St Kilda to use taggers once again. However, unfortunately it might not be using Marcus Windhager (MID/FWD, $448,000) after he broke his hand early in the first quarter. Set for surgery, the Saints still hold hopes that he'll be right for round one. In the absence of Windhager, the Saints turned to Jack Bytel (MID, $305,000) who put the clamps on Darcy Parish (MID, $888,000), holding him to just 39 points. These St Kilda taggers will be a problem.

[skeptic]

IMO he clearly has all the tools. It’s very clear to me that what has to happen for him to succeed is a) he needs to get fitter (needs to start generating those reports like Coffield was of being a running bull), b) he needs to play more.

He needs to have good games and get on with it, get beaten and work through it and do all the things that help not only build confidence over a longer term… but also make him want to push himself harder too.

IMO he’s a good kid but another that’s suffered from an average culture that’s seen him not work as hard off-field as he should mixed with lukewarm attitudes towards him from his coaches.
Why push yourself when others that don’t earn opportunities get a free pass.

[Killa]

In 2021, Dunstan was picking up Brownlow votes.

Over the last Rounds of the Season, Dunstan found himself in the Seconds, Bytel preferred.

Dunstan read the tea leaves and left.

On replacing Dunstan, Bytel was clean with the ball and hit the scoreboard (which was a measure)

Unfortunately, as the games played per season attest, he has been blighted by injury.

We look forward to him continuing to showcase why he was preferred to Dunstan.

And stay on the park.

[CQ SAINT]

Good player

Behind a few who are similar

Under the old regime that may have mattered.

But effective play will take a priority over an accumulation of missed handballs, handballs to no advantage and poor rushed kicks to an unprepared forward line in 50/50 contests.

You can't just apply manic pressure all the time. You need to hold the ball when you get first dibs.