Raph Clarke (THE STRIDER)

[LENNY LEADS THE WAY]

Was Flying home late this afternoon after watching the saints put on a clinic last night and i had the pleasure of Sitting next to Cyril Rioli's father on the plane ride home.

He was a great guy to talk to, as i went out finding about young cyril, (i'm looking forward to seeing how he goes).

After we talked about Cyril he went on to mention how he watched the clarke brothers when they was younger i said oh yeah they've got some talent just got to keep them injury free his response was

"Oh yeah they both have talent especially raph to see him run with those strides in full pace is awesome i've seen him tear games apart when he was younger"

He seemed to no his footy and i was quite surprised that he rated raph over X if they both can stay fiit.

[SaintBot]

i rate X far above Raph but neither have really had a full season to prove themselves...yet

Cyril Rioli will be a terrific player...expect him to be as good, if not better than Alwyn Davey's debut season last year.

He will be the best indigenous player since...actually I think he will be even better than the likes of Long, Akermanis, Davey's, Clarke's, Motlop's, Burgoyne's, etc


Another boy from up north to watch in the next few years is Nathan Djerrkura at Geelong. Hope he gets his chance in such a strong team.

[Devilhead]

From what I can remember Raph was touted as a better prospect than Xav before he ws drafted. I remember him being spoken of in here and our chances of getting him in the draft were slim because it was thought that he would go top 5 in the draft which would have meant us missing out. Well he didn't and we nabbed him. Will only get better in my opinion and if Xav can stay fit he will have a blinding year.

[SaintBot]

any news on what happened to the third Clarke brother...supposably the best of the lot? Marius i think his name was?

[iceman]

can I just ask... is it only since the Aus open that Rach clarke is known as Rapha?? or did I miss something that Bruce didn't??

[st_Trav_ofWA]

can I just ask... is it only since the Aus open that Rach clarke is known as Rapha?? or did I miss something that Bruce didn't??

i know i cringed every time Brooooouce called him Raffa

[ace]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

[SaintBot]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

knew id forgotton someone

no junior is something special and an afl club is only going to do wonders for him as his only weakness is pehaps being a tad underfit and lazy

with proper training his endurance will rise and his skin folds deminish

at the least will be on par with long and winmar imo

[plugger66]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

knew id forgotton someone

no junior is something special and an afl club is only going to do wonders for him as his only weakness is pehaps being a tad underfit and lazy

with proper training his endurance will rise and his skin folds deminish

at the least will be on par with long and winmar imo

Maybe its me but that is nearly the biggest weakness a player can have so if thats the case you may be overating him.

[SaintBot]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

knew id forgotton someone

no junior is something special and an afl club is only going to do wonders for him as his only weakness is pehaps being a tad underfit and lazy

with proper training his endurance will rise and his skin folds deminish

at the least will be on par with long and winmar imo

Maybe its me but that is nearly the biggest weakness a player can have so if thats the case you may be overating him.

i would argue that a few years of preseason training at an afl club with a personal routine aimed at improving his endurance would help any player with poor endurance

his style of game doesnt require extreme endurance (rather short bursts of speed over the duration of the game, which he proved he was able to do with his repeated sprints test at draft camp) but obviously to survive at afl level you need it

if he is willing to work hard with hawthorn trainers over the next few years im sure he will leave as one of the better players in the afl

[plugger66]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

knew id forgotton someone

no junior is something special and an afl club is only going to do wonders for him as his only weakness is pehaps being a tad underfit and lazy

with proper training his endurance will rise and his skin folds deminish

at the least will be on par with long and winmar imo

Maybe its me but that is nearly the biggest weakness a player can have so if thats the case you may be overating him.

i would argue that a few years of preseason training at an afl club with a personal routine aimed at improving his endurance would help any player with poor endurance

his style of game doesnt require extreme endurance (rather short bursts of speed over the duration of the game, which he proved he was able to do with his repeated sprints test at draft camp) but obviously to survive at afl level you need it

if he is willing to work hard with hawthorn trainers over the next few years im sure he will leave as one of the better players in the afl

Didnt you also mention lazy so who says he will work hard. After all you say it is a weakness.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

He will be the best indigenous player since...actually I think he will be even better than the likes of Long, Akermanis, Davey's, Clarke's, Motlop's, Burgoyne's, etc

thats some big wraps there for a bloke who hasnt yet tasted the intensity of AFL footy

[stinger]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

great post ace....

[SaintBot]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

knew id forgotton someone

no junior is something special and an afl club is only going to do wonders for him as his only weakness is pehaps being a tad underfit and lazy

with proper training his endurance will rise and his skin folds deminish

at the least will be on par with long and winmar imo

Maybe its me but that is nearly the biggest weakness a player can have so if thats the case you may be overating him.

i would argue that a few years of preseason training at an afl club with a personal routine aimed at improving his endurance would help any player with poor endurance

his style of game doesnt require extreme endurance (rather short bursts of speed over the duration of the game, which he proved he was able to do with his repeated sprints test at draft camp) but obviously to survive at afl level you need it

if he is willing to work hard with hawthorn trainers over the next few years im sure he will leave as one of the better players in the afl

Didnt you also mention lazy so who says he will work hard. After all you say it is a weakness.

hes been playing for a school club...do you think they have the coaching staff to give him a kick up the arse if hes not working hard enough?

afl coaches are ruthless and they wont allow rioli to get away with it. he will be pushed, and he wants to be pushed. he will work he just needs the motivation.

an afl club will be the best thing for him

[st_Trav_ofWA]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

i think i read somwhere that nicky was pointing to his guts "to say have you got the guts to say that to my face" or somthing to the effect and he never really ment for it to be the profound image of racism in the game but at the same time he was glad that it opened so many eyes

[stinger]

You must be too young to have seen Nicky Winmar in his prime.
He went into the magpies nest at Victoria Park.
The vile filth that filled the Collingwood members stand hurled racial abuse at him.
He simply replied by ripping their excuse for a football team apart.
At the end of the game he raised his jumper and showed the Collingwood members that his skin was all black, no white.
Even Evil Eddie went home sobbing at the humiliation Winmar had inflicted on his team.
Ever since, Eddie has been opposed to racial vilification in football. He still has nightmares of Winmar destroying his magpies in retaliation.

i think i read somwhere that nicky was pointing to his guts "to say have you got the guts to say that to my face" or somthing to the effect and he never really ment for it to be the profound image of racism in the g

no...that's just a crap story made up by an age reporter who is a bummer supporter and who wants all the credit for the intensification of the racial problems in football and the eventual racial reforms to be given to long...and not to nicky.....

[Otiman]

I think Winmar has come out and said that his comments were about having guts to get out on the footy field and play.

[Teflon]

Raph Clarke was touted as better than X by many who had seen them both play in NT - BUT and yes injury hasnt helped - right now X has it all over Raph IMHO.

It isnt about skill - its the difference in intensity - X goes flat out and will tackle (sometimes not thinking bout his safety). Raph to me still lumbers and looks slow with decisions. He HAS to stepup this year - by the end of this year Raph Clarke needs to have made the clear statement he belongs in our best 22.....right now (and if others continue to come on as we have started to see) thats up for debate IMO.

[spiral2]

Another boy from up north to watch in the next few years is Nathan Djerrkura at Geelong.

not having a direct dig at you here SaintBot (this is something I've noticed across the football media), but it's disappointing how frequently the word 'boy' prefixes an aboriginal players name.
I'll lay heavy odds it's used far more rarely when referring to non-aboriginal players.
IMO it's one of those subtle racial slurs/habits that everyone should be wary of.

[LENNY LEADS THE WAY]

I refer to alot of our younger guys as lads is that bad?

[spiral2]

I refer to alot of our younger guys as lads is that bad?

no, there's history with the term 'boy'

[Teflon]

Another boy from up north to watch in the next few years is Nathan Djerrkura at Geelong.

not having a direct dig at you here SaintBot (this is something I've noticed across the football media), but it's disappointing how frequently the word 'boy' prefixes an aboriginal players name.
I'll lay heavy odds it's used far more rarely when referring to non-aboriginal players.
IMO it's one of those subtle racial slurs/habits that everyone should be wary of.

Oh please leave the AMERICAN political correctness to school teachers masquerading as professionals can we?

[spiral2]

it's easy to dismiss as pointless political correctness when it doesn't affect you, isn't it?

[LENNY LEADS THE WAY]

Maybe we should just say sorry and lock this thread hey boy?

[saintbrat]

Raph was given huge raps the year or so before he was drafted but about the mid season of the year of drafting he had an injury or just a really bad carnival and his stocks went down.

but he has shown glimpses of what he can do
was great to see X running strong and leaping off the ground again

although slight hiccup mid third I think- although waved the physio away.