SOS wrote:
Let's compare their first seasons then.
Eddie was born in November and Harvey was born in May. Harvey was a couple of months short of 18 at the start of his first year whereas Eddie was 18 years and 4 months at the start of his this year's season.
In his first year, Eddie played 19 games. He kicked bags of 3 on 4 occasions. He ended up with 19 goals. He also applied 42 tackles, with a game-high of 6. His lowest possession tally in a game was 0 and his best was 11. He had 122 possessions at an average of 6.42 per game. As we know, he spent a lot of time on the bench.
In his first year, Harvey averaged 1 possession per game. In fact, he only had 1 possession - in his one game in the last H&A game of 1996. Admittedly, that was a premiership year for them, so breaking into the team would have been quite difficult. But on the other hand, having Carey and Longmire to crumb to should have been good for a forward pocket.
In his second year, Harvey didn't break into the side until Round 5. He then played 17 games including 2 finals. He had 159 possessions, with a high of 20 possessions and a low of 3. His average was 9.35 possessions a game, which sinks to 8.9 ppg if you include the one in the previous year. He kicked only 10 goals, with only one bag of 3. He had 9 tackles.
I think it is really hard to say that Eddie's debut season fell so far below Harvey's that you can write off his chances of making it in the midfield. Harvey had a year in the 2nds to mature. Disregarding his debut game, he was 7 months older than Eddie when they broke into the seniors. The average possessions per game are reasonably comparable despite this, and the difference may have been due to Harvey having more time in the middle.
Well as you said he didn't get a go in his first couple of years due to being in a very strong side. He still managed to get a high of 20 disposals that shows he is capable of getting a lot of ball.
Betts isn't the type of player to get those numbers IMO. Thats not a dig at him, I just think he'll make a great forward flanker. There have been some fantastic players over the years that have played in this position.
TheGame, why do you think Betts wont be capable of ammassing 20+ possies p/game as a midfielder in the future?
Betts will be a good small forward yes, but it'd be better for Carlton if he turned into a highly skilled & paced midfielder will great evasiveness and defencive pressure don't you think?
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