Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board

People Hal,.... not robots, this doesn't concern you!

What people?

Leon does not impact games and when he doesn't play close to his best he doesn't even contribute. If we can a trade for him we should take it and run. When he comes back into the side in the next week or two he has to make an impact as a midfielder over the rest of the season or he is finished.

Realistically, would you give a 23yo with the capacity to win/turn a game of his own boot an extra year or would you get rid of a couple of old hacks from other clubs (ie: Williams, C Morrison, Caracella, Woey) who are at the end of their careers or just not up to it.

Leon is a crumbign forward, no more no less.
His job is to kicks a few goals from extremely limited opportunities. I think his sublime skills are exactly whats required although I woudl like him to crumb to the CHF rather than the FF. His speed and evasion skills are desperately needed there. This year we have been smashed at the fall of the ball.

Where did he get it?

Every great side needs a player who can do the freakish and the impossible. These players need not be everything else: a hardworker, an athlete, etc etc. Some players have everything, eg Buckley, but you cannot expect all players to be like this. You need your hardworkers, you need your superstars, you need your consistent contributors and you need your mercurial x-factor players, like the Ignitor, even if they are can't turn it on 100% of the time.

He has kicked 4 goals on several occasions and when he is on he sparks the team. This value cannot be underestimated.

If he can improve his consistency and workrate even 50%, he is of more value to us here than trading him. He is proven with the limited opportunities he has had this year that he has improved on his workrate 100%: chasing down opponents, putting on forward pressure, presenting, tackling hard and working hard around the packs.

In round 1, he was one of the best for us, the next two rounds saw him have limited game time and every time he came on he did something. Against the roos he should have kicked a couple, but really did not get enough game time to get into the swing of things - plus we later learnt he was playing with a broken wrist.

Can't wait to have him back. In a winning team, these are the sorts of players that turn games around.

You don't think he's been good this year MarkT ??

I think Didak & Davis have stood out as a class above the rest in 2005 as far as disposal by foot,...... although you could argue that's not saying much at Collingwood ATM.
Lightning turn of speed, good vision, creative and skillful - add to that his chasing, tackling & 1%ers this year and we've much to look forward to.

I like super neon, he needs to get a decent forward coach with him to spend time learning to read the ball and crumbing skills.. If neon can get consistent, we have a excitement machine that should bag2-3 goals a game.. Carra is the one i'm worried about, not giving us much at all this year, very disappointing.. Neon and Carra are perfect small forwards and should be playing heaps better..

Leon is ok.
He isnt the sort of guy that wins games like a Rocca but he can still play his part, still needs the big bodies like Rocca around him to be able to work off though.

42 wrote:Leon is a crumbign forward, no more no less.
His job is to kicks a few goals from extremely limited opportunities. I think his sublime skills are exactly whats required although I woudl like him to crumb to the CHF rather than the FF. His speed and evasion skills are desperately needed there. This year we have been smashed at the fall of the ball.

Good post 42 it happens week in week out. One of things they should be working on at training! Obviously Guy Mckenna needs new prescription glasses as he has yet to notice this and teach the forwards some defensive crumbing.

42 wrote:Leon is a crumbign forward, no more no less.
His job is to kicks a few goals from extremely limited opportunities. I think his sublime skills are exactly whats required although I woudl like him to crumb to the CHF rather than the FF. His speed and evasion skills are desperately needed there. This year we have been smashed at the fall of the ball.

Good post 42 it happens week in week out. One of things they should be working on at training! Obviously Guy Mckenna needs new prescription glasses as he has yet to notice this and teach the forwards some defensive crumbing.

One of the few players on our lists that can do something good with the ball once they get it. The others are Caracella, Didak, Lonie, Lockyer and Clement. Not sure if it is easy to teach some of these players how to get it more, coz if they did, I think out team would be a lot better. We definitley have more players that know how to find the ball. Licuria, Johnson, Rhyce, O'Bree, Burns, Holland amongst a couple of others. Not sure what is easier to do, teach a player how to find the ball, or teach a player how to dispose of silkily. Probably the former. Hopefully we can teach the first list how to get it a bit more, with the exception of Clement. We need Leon because of this.

When did he finish?