Blue Sombrero wrote:
RickJ wrote:
Yeah, read this over breakfast. Interesting slant from Jake Niall suggesting that Collingwood Hawthorn and Carlton are the three teams with most promise for 2012 fueled by the burn of 2011 and "what might have been".
We all feel that we are now close, but we'll need everything going for us injury wise, tactically (welcome aboard Willo), and particularly with player development of those half dozen who are on the cusp but need to (must) take the next step. Shaun Hampson, you're at the top of the list mate, along with Lucas, Tuohy, Watson, and Warnock. I'm also hoping and expecting a huge breakout year from Bryce and Matty Kreuzer. And hope that our top echelon have a good run with injury and dont drop off. All this together might almost get us over the line.
The cattle are there, we just need to ensure that we put some intensive Collingwood style development into some of the lesser lights to take the chocolates.
Won't be easy.
At the risk of being howled down, I actually think that Bryce hasn't got a lot of improvement in him. He is such a vanilla ice cream player. You like it and know exactly what you will get every time you buy one so you do. Unless he has a change of role, I think he will just go on doing what he does, play good, reliable footy every week. He doesn't have pace to burn. He rarely takes a pack mark, his skills are great already, he reads the play beautifully, plays every week (except one), gives it everything (even though he looks like he isn't). I just wonder how he can improve dramatically. Maybe you can enlighten me...
Murphy is another story. Apart from his annoyingh habit of ducking his head to get frees, he has developed into a dynamic payer, big tank, hard at it, inside outside, good hands and feet (apart from set shots at goal from close in
). I just can't see Gibbs changing dramatically as has Murphy or Robbo even. Kreuzer we should expect a big year from if he can stay on the park. He's had time and the opportunity to test his knee and now he can get into the pre-season and get fit. I want him to mark the footy more. That'll do me. The rest of his game isn't too bad. He even taps the footy OK for a kid.
Fair enough BS.
Because Bryce is only 22, he still has significant improvement in him, as do most 22 year olds. I also think Bryce's development so far has been suppressed by him being used as a stop gap player. He plays well almost everywhere he is asked to play - as a sweeping half back, as a mid moving forward, as a tagger, deep in defence taking the kick ins -because he is very adaptable and very capable. I also suspect he never complains about where he is asked to play because that is the sort of bloke he is, unlike some others. Many of us (myself included) think his best football will be as a goal kicking mid, albeit an outside mid. If he is allowed to settle into an attacking role, improves his engine over the summer, and is allowed to consolidate this position he will become far more damaging. Murph's development has clearly surpassed Bryce's so far, but Murph is almost 2 years older (20 months older), and has only ever had to play one role. Potentially, Bryce has more strings to his bow than Murph, although Murph is clearly the better player at this point.
You may be right BS, we may have seen everything we are going to see. But I hope and I think he can take a big leap forward and be the gun with real impact that we expected when we took him with the number 1 pick.
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