Bye Bye Jack Higgins! | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Bye Bye Jack Higgins!

Na, that would be Short or Oleg.

I love Higgo. Love his heart, his footy brain, but our pressure drops when he's in because he struggles to get there. And he cannot *smile* ing kick.

I'm being a bit cheeky here, but Higgo's last game last year was our last loss. Since he's been back we haven't won. His last five games have been four losses and a draw. Before anyone jumps on me, I'm not blaming him for the losses - we were undermanned in the three last year and many other things are wrong at present. But 12 touches v Collingwood, 8 from marks. For a small. 4 ground level touches. Yes, it was his first game. Yes, it was great just to see him out there. But I texted Big Jack over a year ago, before the brain bleed was diagnosed: "Should we trade Higlet?" It would be tough. Ruthless.

Maybe he's a mid. But 1 clearance for the year so far (he's playing forward). 1 goal. Fewer goals per game than any of Rioli, George, Butts or Shai at the same stage.

But it's more the balance of the side. Not enough heat on the oppo.

You have some salient points here Spooker.
 
If we are lacking in forward pressure and intensity I'm not against Aartsy getting a run as a small forward you can bet ya bottom dollar that he'd be up for it and desperate to impress. He's also a pretty handy converter.
 
The Prince is struggling, fo' sho'. So's George. And Lablett. Gives credence to the word that we've been putting a lot of miles into legs. They're heavy now, so that they may be lethal later.

Higgo can get a kick, and at the moment Dan can't. But ball use is also at opposite ends of the spectrum, Daniel going at 92% for the year, Higlet 55%. The Prince is our #1 heat man, Higgo somewhere above Short but below Jack (R, that is).
Higgins is a mid not a small forward.

In 2018 where he hardly missed a beat and we barely lost a game, his greatest influence was in the guts. At times he put our more experienced mids to shame.
 
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Dan had 2 kicks last week & 4 the week before!
#LiesDamnlies&statistics :))
I did say Daniel can't get a kick! :))

Higgins is a mid not a small forward.

In 2018 where he hardly missed a beat and we barely lost a game, his greatest influence was in the guts. At times he put our more experienced mids to shame.
I agree he is a mid.
 
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I am still surprised to see Higgo back playing in the big league after his serious health problems and to see him starting to get all his old confidence back in his body and his role is encouraging. A way to go yet but the signs are there. If only he had more speed of foot
 
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The Prince is struggling, fo' sho'. So's George. And Lablett. Gives credence to the word that we've been putting a lot of miles into legs. They're heavy now, so that they may be lethal later.

Higgo can get a kick, and at the moment Dan can't. But ball use is also at opposite ends of the spectrum, Daniel going at 92% for the year, Higlet 55%. The Prince is our #1 heat man, Higgo somewhere above Short but below Jack (R, that is).

Higgo is still averaging more effective disposals than all of Rioli, Bolton, Castagna. Didn't check last week but 2 weeks ago Higgo had many more pressure act points than Bolton and Castagna and just less than Rioli. Right now he's our best performed. His disposal is nowhere near as bad as he's been producing. I trust that to improve with confidence and more forward team mate support.
 
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He isn't a midfielder.
He is a small forward.
I just wish over the next year or so, he can become more composed with the ball.
At times he seens to rush and choose the wrong option.
 
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Higgo is coming back from having his brain cut open and yet would be top 5 in the B&F at the moment. Amazing blight on his team mates. Feel sorry for the kid.
 
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Higgo is coming back from having his brain cut open and yet would be top 5 in the B&F at the moment. Amazing blight on his team mates. Feel sorry for the kid.
Totally agree. But for a poster or two, Higgo looks sharp; mercurial, bold. He's got a quick brain, esp given the surgery (no pun intended).
 
Thirty months ago in an interview with Matt Clarke nervous teen Jack Higgins was asked what he had to offer an AFL club. Higgins famously said "I have nothing to declare but my genius."

Two years later our prodigy reminded the world of this when he performed his own brain surgery. You doubted?

I certainly did.

I'll leave the human interest angles for those who like humans. I'm only interested in numbers and football.

Jack is very small 178/78? Did he test 3.14 for 20m? Can he jump at all? Why is he on a list? Does he get ball? Nup. Can he outgoal Gary Ablett even if only once? Yeah. He can do that. So there is something to this idea of his genius.

What about the practical world?

He can't play small forward with those disadvantages - he might as well be a tall. Defensive pressure is everything in small forwards and it always was. Jack can't bring that. JR is quicker at them.

In 2020 he could play high but he'd need to be very constructive and he'd have to read the play well enough to vector for defensive position. (He can do that for attacking position.) Oh, that's right - his field kicking in 2019 was poor so constructive is not a demonstrated virtue. Cf Liam Baker similarly too slow to play forward but brilliantly constructive. Higlet's kicking, ball use in general, is not in the same galaxy. Or at least in 2019 it wasn't.

Jack Higgins came through being dropped to the VFL for mediocre form in 2019. And the gods smiled on his very delicate health situation. Jack Higgins, with nothing much to declare played senior football on the weekend in a losing lacklustre side. And he got seventeen touches. He got what? twelve in a half? Seven hard. Three clearances. 1.1. And he kicked it to team mates. He was BOG for a while.

I think Higlet has more than just genius. I think he's got a really big *smile*.
 
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Thirty months ago in an interview with Matt Clarke nervous teen Jack Higgins was asked what he had to offer an AFL club. Higgins famously said "I have nothing to declare but my genius."

Two years later our prodigy reminded the world of this when he performed his own brain surgery. You doubted?

I certainly did.

I'll leave the human interest angles for those who like humans. I'm only interested in numbers and football.

Jack is very small 178/78? Did he test 3.14 for 20m? Can he jump at all? Why is he on a list? Does he get ball? Nup. Can he outgoal Gary Ablett even if only once? Yeah. He can do that. So there is something to this idea of his genius.

What about the practical world?

He can't play small forward with those disadvantages - he might as well be a tall. Defensive pressure is everything in small forwards and it always was. Jack can't bring that. JR is quicker at them.

In 2020 he could play high but he'd need to be very constructive and he'd have to read the play well enough to vector for defensive position. (He can do that for attacking position.) Oh, that's right - his field kicking in 2019 was poor so constructive is not a demonstrated virtue. Cf Liam Baker similarly too slow to play forward but brilliantly constructive. Higlet's kicking, ball use in general, is not in the same galaxy. Or at least in 2019 it wasn't.

Jack Higgins came through being dropped to the VFL for mediocre form in 2019. And the gods smiled on his very delicate health situation. Jack Higgins, with nothing much to declare played senior football on the weekend in a losing lacklustre side. And he got seventeen touches. He got what? twelve in a half? Seven hard. Three clearances. 1.1. And he kicked it to team mates. He was BOG for a while.

I think Higlet has more than just genius. I think he's got a really big *smile*.

Thank *smile* you're back Jack. You've been missed.
 
1593662731685.png

Higlet has dropped off from his own not-high-to-begin-with standards. Maybe his *smile* is dragging on the ground.
 
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View attachment 10036

Higlet has dropped off from his own not-high-to-begin-with standards. Maybe his *smile* is dragging on the ground.


That Screenshot explains everything for the Tigers and the Eagles.

Both not interested in doing the hard yards required.

Them - Yeo, Shuey, Redden, Cripps, Gaff and Sheed ................................ thats there midfield aside from Kelly pretty much.

Us - Prestia, Lambert, Edwards, Caddy, Baker and Rioli .......................... says alot also.

Both sides are crushing their defenders under an avalanche of ball.
 
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You could read my recent posts on Higgo and conclude I don't like him. Au contraire - I love him. But I'm not sure I want him in the side.

Today, we have Jack Higgins, Jake Aarts, and Kane Lambert in the one team - for what I hope is one of the few if not only times. I just don't think we can win a flag with three smalls who aren't quick and can't kick over a jam tin. You could add Baker into that, but his kicking has better penetration.

I hope and expect to see Higgo more in the midfield today. I hope he follows Lablett around in pre-seasons, and I hope he develops Kane's gut-busting running power, because then we have our Lambert successor.
 
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Na, that would be Short or Oleg.

I love Higgo. Love his heart, his footy brain, but our pressure drops when he's in because he struggles to get there. And he cannot *smile* ing kick.

I'm being a bit cheeky here, but Higgo's last game last year was our last loss. Since he's been back we haven't won. His last five games have been four losses and a draw. Before anyone jumps on me, I'm not blaming him for the losses - we were undermanned in the three last year and many other things are wrong at present. But 12 touches v Collingwood, 8 from marks. For a small. 4 ground level touches. Yes, it was his first game. Yes, it was great just to see him out there. But I texted Big Jack over a year ago, before the brain bleed was diagnosed: "Should we trade Higlet?" It would be tough. Ruthless.

Maybe he's a mid. But 1 clearance for the year so far (he's playing forward). 1 goal. Fewer goals per game than any of Rioli, George, Butts or Shai at the same stage.

But it's more the balance of the side. Not enough heat on the oppo.


disagree. I reckon he's been our best new normal small

but I agree our fringe player quotient is getting dangerously high.

its almost a cluster?
 
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If our new normal is letting the oppo walk out of defence, our results will go back to old normal. Higgo out of the forward line.

its certainly not a hill I'd die on, and I wouldn't argue he's a walk up 22 yet by any stretch,

but to my naked eye, his work rate has been Prestia-like over a very difficult month

I could be wrong.
 
its certainly not a hill I'd die on, and I wouldn't argue he's a walk up 22 yet by any stretch,

but to my naked eye, his work rate has been Prestia-like over a very difficult month

I could be wrong.
To borrow one of your favourite expressions, Higgo works like a borrowed horse (and is hung like one, according to Jack). But to my naked eye, no matter how hard he scrambles, he's a yard or two short when it comes to applying the heat to the bad guys. There was one bit of behind the goals vision against Hawthorn that showed him scurrying from Hawthorn defender to Hawthorn defender, always arriving too late to pressure an error or rushed disposal. It was Higgy In The Middle. In our forward line, the smalls have to get there.
 
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