Noah Balta - Welcome to Tigerland

[Go The Tiges!]

Needs to play all year in defence to
Build confidence in the role again, I would not move him forward all year. The swing man position can come later in his career

 

[Dyer'ere]

Full forward. Full back. CHB. Ruck. CHF. Back pocket.

Wherever he plays Noah Balta is a project player. It’s not that he has a very low footy IQ - sometimes he’s a genius. It’s that he’s not rounded at all. Everywhere he plays he is a rookie much of the time.

Being a natural small the aerial was always a mystery to Balta. Prior to 2022 there was a simple footy sequence that had never occurred to him - run at the ball, jump very high, catch or punch the ball. The jump very high bit just never happened.

When you ruck you have to jump very high. Noah was resistant to this but sometimes he did it. Jump very high.

And when he was forward he finally learned to lead and jump very high. He didn’t catch them all but he did jump.

Noah can jump very high. Astbury could not. Grimes and Broad did that. If we settle him back we want Noah to jump. He can have a bigger impact if he does that. Not all the time but when it matters.

Noah got air in his very interrupted 2022. It was a huge development.

Changing his role was demonstrably good for him.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Sure he was stuffed around a bit last year with the fwd experiment but I'm putting a bit of heat on him in 2023.

Needs to own his position or he'll get left behind. His future with us is not a lock.

 

[5SKULL5]

The guys who have uncertain futures invariably play a chunk of VFL. Don't think you will see Noah in the 2's.

 

[Tigers of Old]

The guys who have uncertain futures invariably play a chunk of VFL. Don't think you will see Noah in the 2's.

I sure hope we don't.

 

[Tony Braxton-Hicks]

Sure he was stuffed around a bit last year with the fwd experiment but I'm putting a bit of heat on him in 2023.

Needs to own his position or he'll get left behind. His future with us is not a lock.

Dimma not pleased with him one bit. A future trade is not out of the question. Sam Taylor or Ben King?

 

[momentai]

Dimma not pleased with him one bit. A future trade is not out of the question. Sam Taylor or Ben King?

We haven’t traded a player of Noah’s potential since Billy Barrot. No chance he gets traded.
Fix up his eye sight issue and we will have another Royce.

 

[Feeling Tigerish]

Noah is a power athlete, with poor endurance, and the footy IQ of a moron.

Personally not sold on him just yet, big year coming up for him though. Hopefully he can take the final step up, and become a consistently good player.

 

[turk-d-tiger]

Wow

 

[DuD_Delist]

Sure he was stuffed around a bit last year with the fwd experiment but I'm putting a bit of heat on him in 2023.

Needs to own his position or he'll get left behind. His future with us is not a lock.

Tend too agree.Not the smartest cookie on the list football wise.

 

[DuD_Delist]

We haven’t traded a player of Noah’s potential since Billy Barrot. No chance he gets traded.
Fix up his eye sight issue and we will have another Royce.

Half as good would be nice.

 

[Tenacious]

Noah is a power athlete, with poor endurance, and the footy IQ of a moron.

Personally not sold on him just yet, big year coming up for him though. Hopefully he can take the final step up, and become a consistently good player.

Have said this before when a young player is cited for low footy IQ

Alex Rance in his early years was fast and brave and relentless - but would often then stuff things up completely by having poor awareness and basically a lack of footy IQ. I have vivid memories of watching him being tackled from behind with him having no idea that opposition players were lurking nearby.

Anyway - he's my example of why Balta can still become one of our great defenders (and I stress the defender bit)

 

[davidc0055]

Have said this before when a young player is cited for low footy IQ

Alex Rance in his early years was fast and brave and relentless - but would often then stuff things up completely by having poor awareness and basically a lack of footy IQ. I have vivid memories of watching him being tackled from behind with him having no idea that opposition players were lurking nearby.

Anyway - he's my example of why Balta can still become one of our great defenders (and I stress the defender bit)

I hope Balta does improve at the rate that Rance did. The key difference at this stage of their development is that Balta doesn't seem to like being body-on-body, which Rance excelled at. Balta looks a little meek at times.

 

[Sintiger]

I think we tend to forget Balta's 2020 season. He was superb that whole year and I remember a lot of "Alex who?" comments at the time.

 

[TigerFurious]

Rance and Balta are/were very similar in a lot of ways but with one very significant difference. Rance always had a strong, bordering on fanatical work ethic. Balta does not and unless that changes he will not get anywhere near the heights that Rance did.

 

[FitenFitenWin]

Full forward. Full back. CHB. Ruck. CHF. Back pocket.

Wherever he plays Noah Balta is a project player. It’s not that he has a very low footy IQ - sometimes he’s a genius. It’s that he’s not rounded at all. Everywhere he plays he is a rookie much of the time.

Being a natural small the aerial was always a mystery to Balta. Prior to 2022 there was a simple footy sequence that had never occurred to him - run at the ball, jump very high, catch or punch the ball. The jump very high bit just never happened.

When you ruck you have to jump very high. Noah was resistant to this but sometimes he did it. Jump very high.

And when he was forward he finally learned to lead and jump very high. He didn’t catch them all but he did jump.

Noah can jump very high. Astbury could not. Grimes and Broad did that. If we settle him back we want Noah to jump. He can have a bigger impact if he does that. Not all the time but when it matters.

Noah got air in his very interrupted 2022. It was a huge development.

Changing his role was demonstrably good for him.

Balta's a budding David Dench*. Except that he forgets not only to jump but to run.

What does Balta do well in a system that prioritises player's strengths and asks them to play accordingly? He jumps, he runs, he kicks. He does these things way better than the average beefcake. That's what he should do. But he has forgotten to run and so his kicking does less damage than it should. Maybe he's been told not to run - that'd be a pity.

If he can get back to running more, learn to dish by hand when he draws a crowd, otherwise kick it a mile into the forward line - he'd be a significantly more impactful player.

*David Dench was the first KP defender to take the ball and run half the field with it. Way ahead of his time. But he wasn't a Rhodes Scholar of a footballer either.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Balta is very talented but I think he's best when he follows the KISS theory. Needs structure & consistency to maintain focus & thrive.
That discipline allows his ample X Factor to be cream rather than cake.
We've seen him do that before & he's a Premiership player. Can he return to that level & improve again? Time will tell.

 

[caesar]

Balta's a budding David Dench*. Except that he forgets not only to jump but to run.

What does Balta do well in a system that prioritises player's strengths and asks them to play accordingly? He jumps, he runs, he kicks. He does these things way better than the average beefcake. That's what he should do. But he has forgotten to run and so his kicking does less damage than it should. Maybe he's been told not to run - that'd be a pity.

If he can get back to running more, learn to dish by hand when he draws a crowd, otherwise kick it a mile into the forward line - he'd be a significantly more impactful player.

*David Dench was the first KP defender to take the ball and run half the field with it. Way ahead of his time. But he wasn't a Rhodes Scholar of a footballer either.

Well @FitenFitenWin you will be pleased to hear that so far this pre-season that Balta has been exploding away out of the back-line albeit sometimes still like a Wild Brumby, (a free-roaming feral horse ).
I am one who does think Balta can stand his ground against some of the bigger bodied forwards, have seen him take some amazing grabs when seemingly out of position too. Decision making can bring things undone for him at times.
I love that pretty much always Noah chooses to go for the grab, would like Gibcus to be given the green light to back himself a bit more.

 

[tigertim]

Balta is very talented but I think he's best when he follows the KISS theory.

in that he needs to rock n roll all night and party every day?

 

[Tigerhealer]

Balta is very talented but I think he's best when he follows the KISS theory. Needs structure & consistency to maintain focus & thrive.
That discipline allows his ample X Factor to be cream rather than cake.
We've seen him do that before & he's a Premiership player. Can he return to that level & improve again? Time will tell.

im sure Rutten will help him improve to surpass 2020