Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board

AN_Inkling wrote:^^Not sure about that. Unless they had a specific need for his type. As a forward he's a medium in a smalls body, without great pace or a leap and lacks for agility. That's essentially a non-starter.

Yep, a hopeless player with no obvious qualities, who keeps on getting 30+ possessions and a couple of goals every week by pure fluke. Much better to pick some nice flashy good-looking poster-boy type and who cares if he can't actually get the ball?

With you Tannin. The kid can play midfield or forward & wont be out of his depth. Hope he gets his chance because other teams will make offers for him that he wont be able to knock back.

Tannin wrote:

AN_Inkling wrote:^^Not sure about that. Unless they had a specific need for his type. As a forward he's a medium in a smalls body, without great pace or a leap and lacks for agility. That's essentially a non-starter.

Yep, a hopeless player with no obvious qualities, who keeps on getting 30+ possessions and a couple of goals every week by pure fluke. Much better to pick some nice flashy good-looking poster-boy type and who cares if he can't actually get the ball?

If he was doing that at AFL level? Sure, he'd be worth his spot . There is a difference between AFL and VFL though, and a lot of it is the physical requirements. There are many quality, smart footballers in the VFL who just don't have the capability to make a proper go of it at AFL level.

I think there's some chance that Kyle could make it as a mid (a similar type to Beams), though he's running out of time. But as a forward? I don't see it.

woftam wrote:With you Tannin. The kid can play midfield or forward & wont be out of his depth. Hope he gets his chance because other teams will make offers for him that he wont be able to knock back.

Why specifically do you hope for he gets his chance? Which others? Why not?

AN_Inkling wrote:If he was doing that at AFL level?

But he does. Six goals in three and a half games, 14 tackles, average of better than 16 disposals .... you really couldn't ask a lot more of a young player in his first four games. Martin simply hasn't put a foot wrong. If we can't find a spot for him, another team will. He'd win the best and fairest at Melbourne. Well, OK, so would you, but the fact that you are unable to figure out why he gets so much of the ball and does so much with it - I admit, I don't see it either - should not blind us to the fact that he does get the pill and he does trouble the scorers.

Martin doesn't have the athletic qualities to make it at AFL level.

Then again neither does Sam Mitchell but he seems to have made a pretty good go of it.

I'm pretty sure Martin would be a very good AFL player because he has a special quality called footballing ability. You'll find being extremely good at football trumps 6ft vertical leaps and supersonic 20 metre sprint times under match conditions.

Compare Martins game to Caolan Mooney's game today to see what I mean and that's no knock on Mooney.

Martin is a better version of Blair for starters.

Can't make it as a forward?

Turn it up Ink the guy knows how to slot a goal (an excellent kick) and a very good mark for his size.

He'll only struggle with us because of our depth and we have a few similar players like Elliott.

Martin's kicking for goal in windy conditions were terrific today. Even outside 50m on an angle he was slotting them.

Flashman wrote:Compare Martins game to Caolan Mooney's game today to see what I mean and that's no knock on Mooney.

^ Well said. Natural football ability is hard to beat.

swoop42 wrote:Martin is a better version of Blair for starters. He'll only struggle with us because of our depth and we have a few similar players like Elliott.

Yep. And he's another midget. We have too many midgets already. But with Elliott moving more and more into the midfield, perhaps there is a possible spot opening up. It's going to be very, very tough to break into the senior 22 this year, specially when you look at some of the players going around in the twos, including Broomhead, Kennedy, Schernberg, Armstrong (I rate Armstrong higher than most here), Sinclair, Williams, Adams, Freeman, Karnezis, Dwyer, Oxley, and Martin .... there is probably one, at most two spots available for those 12, plus the odd temporary spot to cover injury. So Martin is no certainty to get a run this year. If he does, though, he won't let us down.

why wasn't martin given a senior list spot at the end of last year?

^Because we gave it to token.

swoop42 wrote:Martin is a better version of Blair for starters.

Can't make it as a forward?

Turn it up Ink the guy knows how to slot a goal (an excellent kick) and a very good mark for his size.

He'll only struggle with us because of our depth and we have a few similar players like Elliott.

We used to have another bloke on our list who was a great kick for goal too. Even kicked 50 goals in a season. Turned out he wasn't quite built for AFL footy in the end.

I don't consider Martin a similar player to Elliott. Doesn't have the pace, leap or agility. All pretty important qualities for a small forward.

I agree with you that Blair's not a forward. Ideally he's an inside mid. I think the same of Martin. As a forward he'll probably kick more goals than Blair, but from what he's shown in the seniors so far, it's not going to be from winning a contest or crumbing, it's going to be from plays where we've opened up the defense and he gets on the end of it. You don't build careers from that, and that's why I think he needs to be a mid.

I'll admit that I often underrate these type of players (see Beams and before him Stanley), but Martin does not strike me as an AFL forward. Maybe a very high half forward if he really works on applying pressure, but he'd be behind Goldsack and Blair at the least. Is he a better option than Blair? Maybe. So far in the AFL he's not shown Blair's level of toughness and commitment at the contest, though that's on limited opportunity.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter what I think of Martin. Maybe you guys should start writing letters to the club explaining why he should be in the team .

I'm of the opinion that guys like Frost, Dwyer and Martin were recruited solely to boost our VFL ranks. Not making the finals and having match fit players available was hurting the senior team. Fortunately for us, they've all proven more than capable of playing at the higher level. Unfortunately for Martin and to a lesser extent Dwyer, it's just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with many similar types competing for similar positions. He still may get a chance yet. Remember 2010 when Blair got his chance? I remember the following year when MM said that it was a close call between him and Luke Rounds for a call up with Luke, slightly ahead but for injuries, which cancelled him out. As we know, the rest is history. Anything can happen.

as well as martin has been travelling i am not convinced he will get many, if any, afl games this year.