I knew him as a gentle young man, I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes, and years before his time
Ah, he never strayed that far away! Anyway he has been doing some coaching with the Academy (if I have my facts right) and probably they had a runner down with the woggies and he pinch hit for him. BTW Jude confirmed it was him, but I don't think his "voice" is going to be ruled in his favour.
Who cares, its great to have him involved, no matter what. We'll wear him down in the end
If you've never jumped from one couch to the other to save yourself from lava then you didn't have a childhood
He also swings his foot across his body. So poor dropping technique and swinging foot means he goes left nearly every time. It is almost as if he gets lucky when one goes straight. I maintain it has a lot do with him being pidgeon toed with the swinging foot. Indeed, where are the coaches? He was recruited as a key position defender so that might say something. I noticed Schoenmakers got him this week so clubs may not seem him as the danger they previously thought. May not the best backman from now which might help.
From what I've seen of the Hawks so far this year it's not abnormal for Shoenmakers to take a decent forward and for the far better defender in Gibson to either take a lesser forward or play loose, I assume the logic being that he can then have a defensive impact on more contests than if he was having to stick closely to the #1 forward. That said, that Sammy didn't give him a bit of a touch up, or just break even, is a bit of a worry.
I think we just need at least 1 more forward to lead in straight lines, we generally have too many that float in- I think LRT, for example, is a decent marking forward, but normally through floating into a pack/contest and not often from taking the ball out on a lead- Andrejs appeared to be playing this way (hard to tell on tv) on the weekend, whereas the weekend before he did a bit of both. It doesn't leave a lot of space for Sammy (or any key forward, really) to work in. I think we're also playing without a half forward line again, and Sammy is playing closer to goal, and when we try to move it in quick we're often trying to hit a target from a bit further out than is ideal for quick movement and it makes it easier for it to become a pack instead of a 1 on 1 contest.
I knew him as a gentle young man, I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes, and years before his time
Captain, I am detecting large quantities of win in this sector
its very natural for a tall forward to go thru ups and downs the first 3 to 5 years
most CHF and FF say around 24 yrs of age is when they felt they were making head way and actually delivering consistently !
he is miles away yet and like tom hawkins and Cloke they need time
"be tough, only when it gets tough"
This is very true but progress is not inevitable! Cloke worked very hard to improve his goal kicking,running and body work.It paid off.Hawkins seems to have just suddenly "got it" the way we hope and pray Jesse will one day. I would like to see Sam trying different styles and procedures to kick. The AFL is full of forwards who had lean patches and then tried something new and it worked. Sam has the most potential to be a superstar but needs to work really hard on his game.I am not party to training so I really can't comment on what his effort on the track is like.
Does anybody seriously think that both Sam and the club are not acutely aware of his kicking woes?
Does anybody seriously think they are not doing everything in their power to rectify it?
We just need patience and hope he comes good, but if he doesn't and remains a dodgy kick the rest of his playing days, I'd like to think the club we love has done everything they could to get him up to speed. It will come, he's technique may not be flawless, but I'm convinced 90% of his problem at the minute is between the ears...
Driver of the Dan Hannebery bandwagon....all aboard. 4th April 09
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