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Welcome Tyler Sonsie
- Thread starter Willo
- Start date
Sure but he had 4 possessions last time up in the role before being subbed off.
Until exposed to it at snr level im not getting caught up by the hype. I do hope he gets an opportunity to show what he can do.
Surprised at any negativity about his game. You play what is in front of you and he was very good.
One of the keys with Sonsie is to understand what sort of player he is and not expect him to be something else. He is not an in and under mid he is an outside mid. His strength as a mid is reading the play and being available again and again, to complement the work the inside mids do.
Teams need both inside and outside mids, you can’t have exclusively one or the other. He is a different player to say Thomson Dow or from what I have seen Kane McAuliffe as well.
The only comment on that is that when it is his time to go he has to do it and this year I think he has generally but he can still get better at that, his body is bigger than it was.
He is a good reader of the play and his kicking skills are good. If there is a senior spot in the midfield we have to play him imo and if there is not he plays mid in the VFL. I don’t want to see him playing half forward in the seniors except by necessity.
One of the keys with Sonsie is to understand what sort of player he is and not expect him to be something else. He is not an in and under mid he is an outside mid. His strength as a mid is reading the play and being available again and again, to complement the work the inside mids do.
Teams need both inside and outside mids, you can’t have exclusively one or the other. He is a different player to say Thomson Dow or from what I have seen Kane McAuliffe as well.
The only comment on that is that when it is his time to go he has to do it and this year I think he has generally but he can still get better at that, his body is bigger than it was.
He is a good reader of the play and his kicking skills are good. If there is a senior spot in the midfield we have to play him imo and if there is not he plays mid in the VFL. I don’t want to see him playing half forward in the seniors except by necessity.
We’re stufffing Sonsie around. Just accept his weaknesses and focus on his strengths. Stop playing him as a half forward. Let him accumulate around the ground as a receive mid from the bulls and take advantage of his play reading, decision making and execution. Give him an extra spell or rotation on the bench to account for his aerobic limits at the moment.
Yes he’s not great at pushing back or defensive work rate but that can still come. Yes he’s not that physical. Maybe he won’t make it, who knows. But right now we’re not cashing in well enough on his positives to make a good enough determination of that imo.
Free Sonsie !
Yes he’s not great at pushing back or defensive work rate but that can still come. Yes he’s not that physical. Maybe he won’t make it, who knows. But right now we’re not cashing in well enough on his positives to make a good enough determination of that imo.
Free Sonsie !
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Why not play him at half back as a distributor and move Daniel Rioli either into the midfield or half forward? We have nothing to lose finding out about these players.
I think we’ve done well out of it. Injuries aside Gibcus is a gun, Brown is going to be a serious player and I’m a big wrap for Clark. The one I’m not sure about is Banks, needs a fair bit of work still. Sonz we all know is very talented but it’s up to him if he wants it bad enough
More than happy to see him get another shot so we can see one way or the other if he can cut the mustard against AFL level midfielders.
Dow has been given opportunities to find his feet even after ordinary games.
Sonsie should get that chance too so long as his intensity is sufficiently there.
Here's hoping he succeeds.
We need to play the kids, this is a re-build. WTF is the point playing a guy like Naismith who's almost 32 years old. It's comical.
I'd rather Sonsie, Ryan etc get regular games. Just need to pump games into the kids.
I'd rather Sonsie, Ryan etc get regular games. Just need to pump games into the kids.
That door swings both ways. You can’t just put games into any young player and expect them to become AFL quality. You have to put games into those that show AFL traits. Our problem right now is that precious few of our young players have shown those traits.
Tyler Sonsie (32 disposals, 19 contested possessions, 10 clearances, seven inside-50s, five marks, one goal)
“An outstanding game from Tyler. I was particularly pleased with his attitude and the damage that he had from his possessions. He had a huge impact on the game with 19 contested possessions, and I thought that he got the ball in dangerous spaces consistently throughout the game.”
“An outstanding game from Tyler. I was particularly pleased with his attitude and the damage that he had from his possessions. He had a huge impact on the game with 19 contested possessions, and I thought that he got the ball in dangerous spaces consistently throughout the game.”
We have lots of young players who have shown AFL traits.
That isn’t the issue with a lot of the younger ones, almost all have the ability. The issue is that they have to show consistency in games and they have to show consistency week after week.
That’s what playing Sonsie, Banks, Brown and others will tell us. Are they good enough consistently enough to make it as an AFL player.
Good points as well. If they show they have the ability and are willing to work that’s a start.
I agree, its very simple for people to say "very few of our kids show AFL traits". I assume thats because not many of them have come in and blown it away. The reality is, not many players come into sides (particularly struggling sides) and just look like they belong, its far far easier for kids to do that in strong sides, as their weaknesses (largely due to consistency etc) aren't exposed as greatly.
As you say, we have many players that have shown AFL traits but we need to see them play a lot more games to accelerate their development which means we need to push a lot of games into them and play probably 10-12 players with under 50 games experience every game this year.
MRJ is a perfect example, has now played 33 games. I'd hazard a guess that most on here (myself included) probably thought he was likely to be delisted at the end of this year as "we hadn't seen enough AFL traits" in his first 25 or so games. We are now starting to reap that benefit as those later draft picks, gain more experience and understanding of what they should be doing.
Its why we need to keep getting games into a lot of these players that have shown that they can play at the level, to help iron out the inconsistencies that you tend to see with most players, especially those picked outside the top 20 or so in the draft (which most of our kids were). Its a shame that Clarke got injured again, just back from the shoulder and getting confidence in his body again, and does an ACL, so likely won't play much AFL if anything again next year either.
Judson Clarke is a good example. He has never really had a game that you would call a break out game, he has had games where he did some really good things but wasn’t a dominant player. I posted about him preseason and said that my issue with him was not whether he had the ability because I think he has the tools. He just didn’t get enough of the ball
By playing Judson Clarke we give him the best chance of showing whether he can consistently impact a game at AFL level. Sadly we won’t see that this season.
Banks is another, his first half last week was good, 9-10 possessions and playing well but he largely disappeared after halftime. That’s not good enough for an AFL player but we aren’t going to find out if he is capable of getting to be an 18-20 possession winger by playing him in the vfl imo.
Some will fail and it will hurt us on field but to me it is the way we need to go.
Agree. Losing a lot of games isn't an issue for junior development, but getting thrashed and being uncompetitive every week is.
