Sorry Shades, think he is very average. Makes stupid mistakes which is acceptable for a developing player but at his age, not for mine.
I saw Sam Rowe kick blindly out of defence maybe 10 times this year that resulted in another inside 50 and usually a goal.
don't remember White making to many poor decisions, usually beat his man and kicked goals when moved forward. happy to be proven wrong, but think he had a pretty good year.
Sorry mate I reckon he is a spud! Don't get me wrong, he looks solid at times but he goes to water under real pressure. Just doesn't have what it takes IMO.
I wouldn't call him a spud most of the time, but his tackling technique leaves a lot to be desired, really. For a guy who is built like someone shoved a bunch of giant wall nuts under his skin, he sure misses a lot of tackles and has a lot of people break the tackles that he does lay. I think it's because all too often he just throws arms out and expects it to catch rather than using his core strength and driving through his hips and legs.
Like I said, plenty of flaws in his game and he's far from a world beater.
White is certainly no star but an average foot soldier IMO. Does the job he's given mainly to a competent level and doesn't mind a bit of the rough stuff - doesn't take backward steps. A good ordinary player as Sir Jack Dyer would have said.
I'm hoping he can become more of a stand out next year and lift his game to the next level.
I think we'd all hope that, but I'm pretty sure we're already seeing the best of Simon White. He's a reasonable option as a utility but is never going to be a world beater. There are still plenty of flaws in his game and he doesn't really have much spark or x-factor about him. I don't know how else to describe him other than 'solid'. Not that this is a bad thing, every team needs dependable players like Simon White where what you see is what you get.
Watson, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to have the fire in the belly to make it as an AFL footballer. He doesn't have the intensity required, even though he has plenty of the physical attributes. It's a shame as he definitely has a lethal hoof on him, but it's not enough by itself.
I am pleasantly surprised by Casboult, and glad he is on the way to proving me wrong if he consistently improves. I hope this isn't one of those bursts before the contract type scenarios some players put out for the dollars.
But in terms of Casboult's v Watson early days I cannot find a significant difference between them. I'd even say some of Watson's early 1s games surpassed Casboult's and by some margin. So I won't be throwing Watson out with the bath water, especially with Waite about to retire.
It's good for a person to admit their mistakes, even better to learn from them. Been there before myself!
I agree BTW.
Once again, I'd love to be proven wrong. Key position players don't grow on trees and if Watson can turn into a gun FF/CHF for us, that'd be an outstanding result.
Unfortunately, I just see the areas him lacking in to be areas that you can't really train into someone. You can teach someone to kick better or even to run to better positions, but you can't teach them to want to be gun footballers. It's a desire issue that I have with Watson, in that I'm just yet to really see him display that true hunger to be amazing. He's certainly got the skills and the size to be outstanding, it's all down to his application and desire.
He reminds me a bit of Adrian De Luca in that regard.
Watson, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to have the fire in the belly to make it as an AFL footballer. He doesn't have the intensity required, even though he has plenty of the physical attributes. It's a shame as he definitely has a lethal hoof on him, but it's not enough by itself.
I am pleasantly surprised by Casboult, and glad he is on the way to proving me wrong if he consistently improves. I hope this isn't one of those bursts before the contract type scenarios some players put out for the dollars.
But in terms of Casboult's v Watson early days I cannot find a significant difference between them. I'd even say some of Watson's early 1s games surpassed Casboult's and by some margin. So I won't be throwing Watson out with the bath water, especially with Waite about to retire.
Can certainly respect that stance and I agree that Watson has played some solid games earlier in his career, but I still maintain that was more to do with the fact that he's actually got talent than anything else. I don't doubt Watson's talent at all, I question his attitude and application. As I said, he doesn't appear to have the hunger or desire to be a top line player (at least for us) and is playing like he is just going through the motions.
Sorry, the only French I know is not fit to print so I went with that. If it makes you feel better, I rate Florence or Rome over Paris but they are all great places to spend time in.
Vienna, Prague or Istanbul are better.
Istanbul meh.....
@nathbear
I'm the opposite I see our boys firing up for this one with the four milestones.
I really hope you're right, I'd love to be proven wrong, I just don't think we're focused on winning games of football at the moment, especially ones we're quite justified in losing ... (please note, I did NOT suggest we are officially tanking then... just unofficially )
Opposition supporters rate Casboult far more highly than most on here do, from my experience.
He is an elite mark, he busts packs and you can see his team mates walking a little taller when he's around. He's a huge physical presence, and his kicking has actually improved considerably already.
You'd have to be a lunatic to trade him or let him go after we've put so much into his development. He's only just become an AFL standard player and most clubs would jump at a chance to sign him.
Watson, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to have the fire in the belly to make it as an AFL footballer. He doesn't have the intensity required, even though he has plenty of the physical attributes. It's a shame as he definitely has a lethal hoof on him, but it's not enough by itself.
Call me depressing if you like, but I just can't shake this image of Petrie booting 10+ goals this week.
North are playing outstanding football at the moment and if they bring that sort of intensity and execution to the table against us, we're going to turn to water.
I want to be positive, I really do, I just can't see us even getting close in this one given the respective positions on the ladder. We're effectively jockeying for the best draft picks we can get now.
I did some analysis just after Casboult played his 10th game, comparing his output over those first 10 games with the first 10 games played by some of the game's greatest ever power forwards. Casboult came a close second on that table to only Wayne Carey himself.
FFS, Carey really!
By the time Carey had been around Norp for 4 ~ 5 years he averaged nearly 3 goals a game and 7+ contested marks, that is 7 Contested Marks! In Carey's 4th season he ranked number #1 at Norp, not #2, #5 or #14, that's #1! Carey also ranked #6 in the VFL averages the same year, #6 in the competition wide averages!
After the same number of years Casboult averages less than 1 goal and 5.3 marks in total, he is currently ranked #242 on averages(Last year #478 on averages)!
La Vie En Rose Nathbear!
The comparison was after 10 games played, champ, you may have missed that in your irrational desire to lash out at every post I make for no apparent reason.
I did some analysis just after Casboult played his 10th game, comparing his output over those first 10 games with the first 10 games played by some of the game's greatest ever power forwards. Casboult came a close second on that table to only Wayne Carey himself.
I posted it all on here at the time and suggested that the data, just by itself, suggested that we needed to invest in Casboult and see how he developed. I was brutally shot down on here at the time I posted it, so I'm glad to see the club went with an approach similar to what I was advocating and it's now starting to pay dividends .
Get the boy signed up and let's review again at 50 games!
If he can develop the rest of his game in defence, the crunching will become an awesome diversion.
When he was drafted he made a comment about hurting opponents that caught my attention. It's taken a while but it seems that he is delivering on that aspect of his game.
He does need to develop his awareness and improve his decision making but that should come with more experience. I hope so, both for his sake and because we need a competitive tall defender.
Dare we dream...Earl mk2?
Earl was a better contested mark than both Rowe and Watson put together.
Casboult is a better comparison, really, plus they both have/had ridiculous kicking actions that give us all nightmares. Earl was a very ordinary kick for goal also... we had Kernahan nailing them from everywhere at the time, though, so it wasn't as noticeable, plus our defence was so good that we could win with an 8 goal total most weeks .
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