They should get SOS back, with his record he'll be able to snaffle them a star
Think he's tried all his kids - will have to go for nephews or neighbours now
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Pick 53: Jack Graham
- Thread starter puregreen
- Start date
Think he's tried all his kids - will have to go for nephews or neighbours now
Well, I got that right. Jack signing for three more years sounds like music to my ears.
I love Dusty a pretty unhealthy amount and not ashamed to say that despite being a grown ass man..... But Jack is a born leader and has always been seen to do the hard yards. Always in the thick of it just like captain Cotch.
I'm not going to complain if Dusty gets the gig, put it that way.
Very happy we found some middle ground as I like what Graham brings.
Need that meat and potatoes in the midfield as well as Champagne Bolton.
He lacks burst speed, despite what everyone keeps sayin’. But we work around that as we do with all our blokes. Fridge’s strengths are maximised.
Look at Jack R, who’s almost lost what little pace he had. Still making things work, still leading, still kicking goals.
We will need a superstar in the middle when Dusty has been Leigh Mathhewsed up forward and Graham ain’t it.
The support cast of the next gen is coming together though and that’s important.
Need that meat and potatoes in the midfield as well as Champagne Bolton.
He lacks burst speed, despite what everyone keeps sayin’. But we work around that as we do with all our blokes. Fridge’s strengths are maximised.
Look at Jack R, who’s almost lost what little pace he had. Still making things work, still leading, still kicking goals.
We will need a superstar in the middle when Dusty has been Leigh Mathhewsed up forward and Graham ain’t it.
The support cast of the next gen is coming together though and that’s important.
Yep I agree he runs all day and can slay over 200m, but he won’t be catching many blokes from a staring start at stoppage.
More tackles than anyone else in the team by a factor of nearly two since 2018.
For a slow bloke oppo players seem to run in to him quite a lot.
Exactly.
To be fair, it's true that he hasn't got the greatest acceleration. But it's just an unnecessary thing to harp on about.
It's like undermining everything Prestia does cause he's short, or saying, yeah Martin's great but he's never gonna take a speccie. The only response to that is... So?
it’s a factor to consider when he’s being stuck in the middle. Ya know, at stoppages.
there’s tackling in congestion and then there’s the ability to break from stoppage.
Shai can do it through sheer evasion, Dusty uses brute strength.
Ideally you want as many blokes as possible to have this ability around stoppage. But he brings other things which is all well and good.
In any case the main point is that we don’t pay these types too much as we will need to replace the top tier of our midfield at some point. Hence my caution around Graham. Happy the deal is done.
no, he actually doesn’t. He tackles in congestion as a general rule. but keep that highlight reel under the bed
That's exactly what catching a guy from a stoppage is. They can't burst away if he's wrapped around them.
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You also want your key forwards to be able to leap onto shoulders, but I'd prefer Dusty to Jeremy Howe at full forward any day. And Dusty would struggle to get his pumas above Prestia's waist.
Graham is built for September. I'll bet Jack gets more quality clearances than Danger does this week, with three times the tackles. And Danger can keep burst sprinting himself into a turnover as much as he likes.
you like to turn a phrase without actually saying anything
I’ll lay it out nice and simple.Jack Graham doesn’t hunt the ball like Cotch and Prestia.
He doesn’t create space for himself like Bolton, Martin and Edwards do.
What Graham does is apply defensive pressure around stoppages. He’s a get the ball back specialist, and that’s fine. Our game plan depends on it.
With ball in hand we break. Like really *smile* break more than anyone in the comp. it’s insane how aggressively we break.
Jack Graham is fine at creating the turnover and running 200m up and down the paddock, but he isn’t bringing the damage like the other mids I’ve mentioned.
If his one wood ain’t working at 100%, if his shoulders are troubling him, if his just OK pace over 15m isn’t quite there, if his pressure rating is slightly off, he ain’t bringin’ much.
He reminds me of Lambert in the sense of seeing a sharp drop off in output if the one wood ain’t working.
This is why he’s been dropped over the past couple of years. When he’s purring he’s best 22, no question. I just don’t want to pay too much opportunity cost in setting up contracts for these good honest soldiers.
No player in the league hunts the ball like Cotch. But JG does hunt the ball, and he's young.
He is very good at creating space too, comparison to Martin is unfair, another extreme outlier, but I'd say its a strength.
no, this logic doesn’t wash.
Jack Graham is rightly and fairly judged within the context of a premiership midfield.
A midfield we hope will continue to net us flags.
Comparisons with extreme outliers? As a concept that is about as logical as it gets. But, whatevs.
not sure if serious
Graham is in a premiership group. Why shouldn’t he be judged against his peers if there’s an opportunity to make our five star midfield even better?
hypothetically, why keep Graham in the 22 just because it’s “unfair” to compare his ball winning ability to Cotchin?
If Graham is your first tier mid (ie Carlton) you ain’t gonna win many flags.
and btw, Graham doesn’t create space for himself. Not by a long shot
I reckon Hub life really agrees with Jack. He looks super-fit, his stats bear that out and he's playing both an inside and outside/link game these days. After the first Iso break he did look sluggish, couldn't cover the ground, low stats. He's turned that around amazingly.
Maybe he swapped GPS device with Markov for a game.
Maybe he swapped GPS device with Markov for a game.
Maybe don't get ahead of yourself. A long way to go. Finals are a whole new ball-game where anything can happen.
Even IF we get through the Lions, another bye before the often toughest game of all, a PF, worries me. Often a continuous run of finals seems advantageous.
Over-confidence is one of the worst flaws in human beings. Fact.
