Farren Ray

[TriColourDisciple]

Looking forward to seeing how he goes with us & I hope he is not discarded just as he begins to show promise.
Unlike our previous recruit from the Bulldogs.

[Batnoe]

i have mentioned many times i cant wait to see him in stkilda colours. is already in my top 4 players for the saints, i know my players and have seen Farren play at the dogs and had always noticed him with the ball

That makes our depth poor. He wasnt in the Dogs 22 and he is top 4 for us. Makes me wonder how you have seen him play in saints colours when he hasnt played yet.

he is in my top 4 players

i didnt say he was 4th best saint

some people's favourite players was Michael Rix and he wasnt even in our top 40

So i have a favourite player- it doenst mean he is the best player

[Sobraz]

I quite like him, I hope he goes ok for us. Quick, skillful, just what we need.

Be careful Killa... he is somewhat similar to your 'favourite' player circa 2004-2008... what was his name again??...

[saintly_safes]

I think hes in our best 22 we need run & carry players , our forward setup tonight was a dogs breakfast & disposal into it was little league stuff.We can only get better( hopefully)

[uncle joe]

He has been around long enough to make an impact if he ever was going to .

Didn't happen .

Better than Fiora , but still a fringe player . Will get more games here than at the 'dogs , because they have more players about his size , pace , etc than we do , but he won't win us any premierships .

[groupie1]

He basically gives us pace and not much else; this is not exactly the only tonic we need, but bringing pace to this side means he'll probably be hard not to pick

[lyonhearted]

I think Farren Ray was terrific last night and he definitely exceeded my expectations. Well played Farren, keep it up mate....

[Saints Premiers 2008]

so ray had 24 touches but 19 were handballs???

forgive me however i thought he was a running player who had good footskills???

or just a runner???

[WayneJudson42]

so ray had 24 touches but 19 were handballs???

forgive me however i thought he was a running player who had good footskills???

or just a runner???

crap weather. Even Dal looked ordinary.

[CURLY]

so ray had 24 touches but 19 were handballs???

forgive me however i thought he was a running player who had good footskills???

or just a runner???

Never played football in wet conditions I see!!

Ray won plenty of the ball on the ground wre all he could do was handball, we all know he can run so seeing this side of his game was a positive.

[Saints Premiers 2008]

so ray had 24 touches but 19 were handballs???

forgive me however i thought he was a running player who had good footskills???

or just a runner???

Never played football in wet conditions I see!!

Ray won plenty of the ball on the ground wre all he could do was handball, we all know he can run s

o seeing this side of his game was a positive.

i guess i wasnt watching the game too closely however it did concern me that we had around 200 kicks, 150 handballs and 20 were his alone

but if he gets himself in situations to get the pill albeit a easy handball dish off its positive to see him go in there

a criticism of him from the dogs was that he couldnt win his own ball

[WayneJudson42]

so ray had 24 touches but 19 were handballs???

forgive me however i thought he was a running player who had good footskills???

or just a runner???

Never played football in wet conditions I see!!

Ray won plenty of the ball on the ground wre all he could do was handball, we all know he can run s

o seeing this side of his game was a positive.

i guess i wasnt watching the game too closely however it did concern me that we had around 200 kicks, 150 handballs and 20 were his alone

but if he gets himself in situations to get the pill albeit a easy handball dish off its positive to see him go in there

a criticism of him from the dogs was that he couldnt win his own ball

Does he only have 1 testicle? I though that was Ottens.

[CURLY]

It was clear to see last night he won plenty. Will be very handy link up player this year. Sort of player who wont be in the top 3 but will never be in the bottom 6 each game

[WayneJudson42]

I think he showed something

[Red]

If his kicking doesn't let him down like it did at the doggies then we have a

real player.

[TheDomeHero]

showed some good awareness.
showed an ability to dispose cleanly.
showed a willingness to put his head over the ball.

[vacuous space]

The number of handballs was a worry, particuarly since he has a history of being handball happy, but he did do some good things. He won 5 CPs, which isn't great, but it's about double what he averaged last year. He regularly put his head over the ball. He also won 4 clearances, which was equal best.

If he keeps up the effort, he should be just fine.

[Solar]

showed some good awareness.
showed an ability to dispose cleanly.
showed a willingness to put his head over the ball.

was a plesent suprise last night, both teams played the handball, especially in that first half.

the biggest thing was his awareness.....

[TheDomeHero]

was a plesent suprise last night, both teams played the handball, especially in that first half.

the biggest thing was his awareness.....

a good honest outside carrier.
we could have done alot worse.
seems to have a very direct kick into the fifty aswell.
not sure yet on his ability to spoil and tackle.

[WayneJudson42]

He'll never amount to anything because people on this forum say so. Worst draft decision of 2009 so far.

Let's see who we can hang next week.

[Armoooo]

He was OK, pretty good in the middle I thought, can get the ball a bit and give it off. But for the lvoe of god never put him in the defensive 50, I saw him just get in the way of the real defenders 3 or 4 times last night.

If he can't cut it on the wing try him on a forward flank otherwise it's off to Sandy IMO...

Having said that I hope he can step up and become a handy member of our midfield rotations.

[TheDomeHero]

just on the edge of the square thank you very much kindly.

[Devilhead]

I don't know if any you realise however Geelong in the last 2 season were number 1 for handballs - yes that right Geelong are handball happy as were West Coast in 2006 - why does that it matter that Ray preferred to handball rather than kick?? If his handballs were able to release another player in a better position to hit a target with a kick then he can have 50 handballs for all I care - his efficiency rating last night was 83% same as goddard's who incidentally also had 19 handballs

[BAM! (shhhh)]

I've thought Ray's showing both on the weekend and at the intrasquad was interesting - mainly because it was not was I was expecting given the numbers.

I was expecting: hangs around the outisde of packs, won't put his head over it, last possession in the chain and effectiveness comes directly down to number of kicks and efficiency.

What I saw: A guy who's quite willing to throw himself to the bottom of the pack, just isn't very good there (probably aware of his ridiculously low contested numbers at the 'dogs and trying to address it... ). If Ray's first Saint in, the ball doesn't come out in our favour. Plays a link in the running game the same way regardless of traffic, always running to try and get the ball back and break the line.

He handballed too much, but given role and time with the club, my only concern there is that he's got a history of high handball counts... but since I've viewed the Saints running game as oft-let down by the teams handball skills, it's not necessarily a problem.

1) I hope that was not his best effort - wasn't bad, but wasn't especially good either.
2) He'll be one to watch, as he could still prove to be nothing for us, or he could be an excellent addition.