Liverpool said:
There were a couple of posters who argued with me earlier in the season when I said that Lids was not "elite" and I stand by it.
In fact, due to Bling's 300+ page thread, Lids has slipped under the radar a bit to be frank.
We still talk of "potential" when describing Lids and I still think he can be an elite player...but like Bling, I think the way he has been handled since he was drafted into the club has been destroying.
The fact that he has to write "run hard" in his hand....surely an elite player would already know this?
The only thing Judd would write on his hand would be "bottle of wine and a bunch of roses" to take home to Rebecca after he racks up 30+ disposals in another influential game-breaking performance.
Now livers as ur the last one on this thread talking up elite or not, im going to use ur post to finally pass on to posters on this site what the term elite means...I read some posts which attempt to put meaning to the word elite and i cant bear it no more reading posters continually use the term elite alongside gut running.
The term elite derives from a midfielders ability to use the ball to the teams advantage, to set up play with concise decision making, to be able to hurt the opposition with exquisite skills by either foot or hand, this inevitably influences games.
To many posters are associating the word elite with gut running, having a core tank doesn’t qualify you for being elite, its another bow to ur string, winning ur own ball is also very important but again it aint what makes you elite it categorizes u from being either outside or inside mid or being able to do both...Jackson i reckon is a gut runner or very close to it but he aint elite cause he’s skills let him down and more importantly he simply doesn’t make the right decisions to the betterment of the team..
Tucky too is a hard runner, wins clearances, hard at it but the most important aspect of a gun midfielder is decision making and foot & hand skills which either puts the team fwd or has u turning over the ball...
Now if im going to be objective, being able to gut run on top of having great skills and excellent decision making capabilities this is another stepping stone to the make up of your game, winning ur own ball is another tick, having all 3 will take u from being an elite midfielder to super star status. Lids has 2 out of 3 that we know, skills and decision making absolutely elite and wins his own ball and is courageous too that we know..
Now if the last few weeks is anything to go by he could add gut running to his bow by years end...Jade is playing him more so in the midfield and this is another aspect of his game which i believe he will achieve....Montagna now gut runs didn’t previously, Luke ball is a hard nut wins clearances at will but i wouldn’t say he is a gut runner but IMO he definitely is elite.
There are elite players which are termed as A graders by media and the like, then super starts and champions....Lids is an A grader, hopefully the next step will be a super star and at the end of his career be named a champion of our club, but a long way between drinks till then.
Last night had a great hour or 2 discussion with 2 pies fan, a bombers fan and dees fan, we were talking about players in our teams and when i mentioned lids they all said yeah a star luv to have him, but one pies fan said great with the ball always uses it well but needs to run hard when he hasn’t got the ball, fair enough i said, he’s done it the last few weeks and to not repeat myself as ive stated it at the top of this post to be able to build ur core aerobic capacity to gut run all day pretty much stems from playing on ball for the majority of the match not parts here and their. We continued our chat and i returned back in a subtle way, how about pendlebury? he says, he’s an elite player, i reply does he run hard both ways when not in possession, can u say he is a gut runner...he says with an honest reply well no, i say does that then not make him elite cause he doesn’t run hard both ways, his reply was of course not, he hurts the opposition with the ball, he has elite skills that’s why we look to pass the ball to him as he sets us up.
To PREnders, what about players like Mark Murphy, Bryce Gibbs, Scott Pendlebury, Nic Del Santo, Lovett, Joel Corey, Jordan Lewis, Ryan Griffen, Kane Cornes and Shaun Burgoyne to name a few...Now can anyone say these guys are gut runners personally speaking id say no to all but in saying that most if not all are elite players as they hurt the opposition...
Im not sure how many people have played footy on this forum and im not saying it’s the all and be all but it does give u more insight into the backend of the footy world...
Now first off in terms lids and bling the way they have been handled, this i agree its been nothing short of disgraceful and Terry Wallace should take full blame for this, for lids playing him back, fwd, wing and mid doesn’t settle u in one spot and can infact hinder ur development in one position, sure TW thought this guy can play anywhere IE: utility and as much as that is true the best development would’ve been in 1 position or 2 not bloody 4...
Now with mentioning Lids writing “run hard” again not sure if uve played footy but as having played myself for over a decade us players would at times write something on our hand to what we wanted to get out of ourselves for “that match”, we didn’t do it all the time but we did do it at times...if u saw the footage as i suspect u did you would’ve seen that not only lids was writing on his hand so were all the players or majority as they were passing the texta around to write on their hand, so if u gonna write the story write it in full, a little bit ignorant that paragraph their livers...Have u ever been in footy change rooms they have all sorts of inspirational words and so forth, again its just anyway to give players an extra edge, motivational videos why do they watch them even if they’re elite or champion players, if it gives them that extra something on ‘game day” each to their own...
As i said a few days back as did disco08, perhaps he hasn’t built his core tank up enough to run out full games in the midfield, is that his fault, absolutely not! TW as coach should’ve ensured his development in all areas of his game but having recently read damain streets article regarding TW having almost no track record of developing players u can understand the lack of proper development in some or most of our players.
Lids last 2 games have seen him run hard both ways meaning in both games V the crows and blues he was top 2 and top 3 for most meters gained, against the blues he had run 569mtrs and judd 570....with Cousins running the most, against the crows he ran 542 mtrs and bling 544 meters gained which some have said was blingers best game, id say it was right up their.
I played fwd and mid in my footy career but more fwd and when i played on ball no sh!t i would find it hard to run out games and i was damn fit but in the intensity of the game you do tire out quickly, the only way to build up ur gut running ability pretty much comes from playing on ball week in week out, its like anything the more u do it the more ur body becomes tolerant to running and running without lactic acid building up quickly in ur legs or feel like ur chest is going to explode, had Wallace been playing lids more so than not on the ball he’d be doing as he has been doing the last few weeks under rawlings...cousins and judd are brilliant in gut running so is Ablett, Bartel and even Chance Bateman, they can run all day...again if uve played footy ud understand it didn’t just happen over night for these guys, they played on ball pretty much from the start of their careers and over time even 1 or 2 full seasons on ball can help u towards running out games...
Alan Didak, has played majority of his career on the fwd line when he would go on ball he’d tire out completely or not run hard both ways, not because he is lazy because he didn’t have the tank, this year he is pretty much playing on ball majority and now can run out games and run hard both ways, he has built up that tank in “actual games” not running or sprinting at training it’s a different intensity match day compared to training...
So lets reverse the roles as to many posters are confusing being a gut runner with being elite, lets say lids could run to the cows came home but continually turned the ball over or couldn’t even kick on his opposite foot and just butchered it time after time, would he still be considered elite due to being able to run all day, i think not!
Anyways as having played footy in the club rooms and at training mids having great skills and using the ball to the teams advantage was paramount plus winning ur own ball.
Gut running is perhaps the missing piece from being an A grader to super star status, and as much as lids is one of my fav players until he adds this final bow to his game he will be considered elite or A grader but i wont call him a super star until all 3 boxes are ticked.
It’s a common theme in footy that media or fans say play ur best ball users on the ball, why? If you need an answer to that then i rest my case...
