« Round 10 Preview | Main | Cats make it 5 in a row »
June 06, 2007
The Excitement Machine
The Jimmy sure is hitting his straps at the moment and he is starting to get the cred he deserves. Young Selwood has shown enough already to say he was a fantastic pick for us ( have to say Geecat picked him as the kid to get very early so I dips my lid to his judgement). Chappy coming off a year where he won the B&F has shown leadership qualities off and on the ground. Ling has again made himself a player that threatens to derail an oppositions best player , he also has made a good fist of captaining the side when Harley was out. But the player I’d like to talk about is Gary Ablett. Watching Gary carve up the Saint's the other night made me reflect on how far he has come. Hes not just a bit player he’s a key driver to our engine room , no longer just a pocket he’s a mid that any team in the league would gladly put in their side and desperately want to stop because he is not. It doesn’t seem that long ago when people were labelling him as “overrated”.Only getting a gig because of his name. In fact , a couple of years ago I posted a reply to a post that said just that , just to rewind a little heres some of that post
***
…When Geelong drafted him, there was a degree of scepticism on his worth. As the Pies are doing with the Clokes most clubs only draft F/S when the player is worth a min of R3P and of course if he is a R2P or a R1P like young Jessie W Smith would have been,(lucky Roos) There is however a point when clubs loose control of the FS on talent and make political decisions. Their thoughts would be something like “Imagine if he go’s elsewhere and is good player .. they will string us up”. So if there was doubt or if it was borderline , they drafted him anyway. Some thought on his fathers name, some thought he was worth a R4P and others who had seen a fair bit of him , like Michael Turner, R2P. He was under age , could have gone another year at U18’s but they still picked him. The pick was around 40 in the 2001 draft , possibly the best draft of all time. Judd, Ball, Hodge the top 3 but just at Geelong we got Bartel at 8 , James Kelly at 17 so there was some half decent players around at 40 that they didn’t pick to get him.
Over rated , 40 was probably fair rating at the time
I remember Thompson starting out with comments like well take it easy and we might give him a run later in the year but in a side that was starved of fresh talent it didn’t take long before he was getting goals in practice games, then setting goals up in WizCup games and then he was in the side for the opener. He played the next ten games straight in his first season. After unluckily missing a nomination in the Rising star early his form started to fade and got dropped and then didn’t get another chance. His ten games in his first year then precluded him from the chance to get nominated or win it in his second year or obviously his 3rd or his 4th , even though he would qualify being only 20 at the start of the year. Guys like Mitchell who won the thing played game after game in the VFL before playing in the big time. The criteria for that award is not quite correct.
Over rated, well they didn’t put a rating on him at all
I remember the first time I watched him. I didn’t just see him I watched him. He’s a different player than his father, Being an inside outside midfielder who was assist conscious whereas the old man thought handball was a sport at the Olympics. He was probably too assist minded but one could see he had the stuff, it was something intangible, it was the thing you see when watching footballers rather than athletes. It was like God had dipped his hand into the same talent pool he had for his old man but put it into a different shell and it had developed in different ways. Watching the way he draws players to him , quite often yes he will be tackled because he draws the tackle but how often in the tackle does he then get the ball off too the free player that the tackler has left. He is now starting to kick some goals himself rather than dish everything, this I feel is him feeling he has to take responsibility to put a score on the board. That’s the mentality of a GotoMan. He is still developing although just last year he finished 4th in our B & F. Overrated not by Geelong selectors or his team mates
Now if you think that the commentators go over the top maybe they do maybe they don’t, its opinion. Judgment of the talent somebody has is affected by ones biases for a certain style of player. Me personally, I could not get Carey. Even when he was kicking nine against us, flogging us in finals I just didn’t see it. To me GAS beats him hands down as a player but its personal. Do you think Hird is better than Voss? Maybe the style of play he performs just doesn’t light your candle but for me this kid has all the attributes of a Greg Williams. The only way this will be proved is if he achieves what Williams did and I look forward to watching over next ten years trying to make it happen, only unlike Williams I hope this kid stays in the Hoops.
Over rated, now compared to Williams , yes a long way to go.
So is he over rated? Go to a Geelong home game watch him approach the ball, feel the buzz level rising , feel the crowds excitement gain momentum. There is no doubt that the crowd rates the chance of something happening when he goes near the ball, and to me that’s the real measure of a rating, not what the Rising Stars say , not what the Papers say, not what the TV commentators say, it’s the law of the crowd and they rate him no doubt.
**
Today , Gary is a player that stands on his own. He’s not his dad but to be fair his dad was not him. In today footy , work rate is demanded at such a high rate , I wonder how Snr would have handled that. Jnr works and runs andf covers more K’s than his old man ever did. Unlike his Dad , who had the ability to threaten and deliver a bit of home spun justice if some defenders got a little to energetic , Jnr only has the ability to run and work to dispose of taggers. Gary runs and runs hard but he has not turned into Greg Williams.
Greg , just as his nickname of Diesel reflected , played hard and strong , was machine like and almost unstoppable. If Gary is a machine , he would be an excitement machine , he is a burst player , he is game breaker. If flooding is the modern symptom of a boring match , Gary is a Dam Buster , his speed and mobility can make a ordinary game interesting and more importantly he can turn a result using this excitement. He keeps his feet as good as anyone , his skill and balance can make others look dopey at times. Like Greg he can still draw players and dish but he’s probably at his best when he beats a player , runs to 50 a sends the Sherin home for a 6 pointer.
For mine Gary is probably very close to the level that guys like Judd are at. All he needs is a performance or two on the biggest stage. Come September if Gary can play like he did against the Saints he will considered one of the best in the League and I doubt anyone will think that is overrating him.
Posted by Turbocat at June 6, 2007 08:00 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://geelongblog.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/56
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Excitement Machine:
» Casino royale. from Atlantis casino.
Casino royale. No deposit casino. Casino royal. [Read More]
Tracked on April 17, 2008 08:41 AM
» Xanax. from Hysbysfwrdd cymrux xanax cheap phentermine.
Generic xanax no prescription. Psyweb xanax. Xanax. Xanax online. Xanax lawsuits. Generic xanax. [Read More]
Tracked on April 18, 2008 06:27 AM
» Lowest price for phentermine. from Phentermine.
Order phentermine phentermine online. Buy no phentermine prescription. [Read More]
Tracked on April 26, 2008 10:58 AM
» Tramadol. from Tramadol.
Buy tramadol. Tramadol hcl. Tramadol. [Read More]
Tracked on April 26, 2008 01:23 PM