Jarrad Grant

[jeemak]

Often enough, completely different player but take Ballantyne or Walters as an example. They work extremely hard. Credit to Jarrad I thought he worked much harder this year, but time ran out.

Problem for Jarrad has been a lack of determination and the drive to succeed for so much of his career, that and the fact that he was generally not up to the fitness standard required of an AFL player. He's like the kid that everyone likes because he always brings the really cool stuff to show and tell, but he gets paid out on in the school yard.

It's a cumulative effect that has brought about his demise, and there are a number of issues with his game that have ultimately caught up with him.

Grant had x-factor - freak goals, speccy marks and a very nice mover with the ball in hand for someone of his height. In my opinion it was his kicking for goal from set shots that proved his achillies heel and cost him his spot on the list. That coupled with the fact that he is not an accumulator (a la Macrae) as a midfielder.

1eyedog, I look at those players and suggest you're almost there. Steve Johnson was someone that probably had it, but that was underpinned by exceptional stamina and a freakish ability to use the ball.

F'scary, I think aside from the obvious kicking issues Jarrad didn't bring enough of the "X-factor" attributes to enough games. Ultimately with his change in role he was fairly vanilla.

It's funny, we chastise McCartney around here for taking the flair out of our players due to his coaching style, but a guy that's been delisted under Beveridge after playing almost a full season as a generic flanker-mid played his most creative and inspired football under the former, as a genuine half forward or forward pocket.

If Grant gets a gig elsewhere I hope it's as a genuine forward. It's where he played his best football to date and where he will in the future, as I've said all year.

[Sedat]

It's funny, we chastise McCartney around here for taking the flair out of our players due to his coaching style

Ross Lyon is an exceptional coach and he doesn't possess any flair in his game style.

It's not about flair or otherwise, we chastised BMac for being incompetent at his job - he simply can't coach at senior AFL level and was brutally exposed by other senior coaches coaching against him virtually every week for 3 years.

[Ghost Dog]

Grant has been at our club a very long time. I always had a problem with his 'fire' in the sense of easily getting whacked around by opposition and not reacting.This is war, and I want our players to go in breathing fire. Grant doesn't behave like that.
He does seem a little out of synch with the young wave that has come through and formed. He can't finish. That's the death knell of any forward as so many others have expressed.

[F'scary]

...
F'scary, I think aside from the obvious kicking issues Jarrad didn't bring enough of the "X-factor" attributes to enough games. Ultimately with his change in role he was fairly vanilla.

It's funny, we chastise McCartney around here for taking the flair out of our players due to his coaching style, but a guy that's been delisted under Beveridge after playing almost a full season as a generic flanker-mid played his most creative and inspired football under the former, as a genuine half forward or forward pocket.

If Grant gets a gig elsewhere I hope it's as a genuine forward. It's where he played his best football to date and where he will in the future, as I've said all year.

Fair enough, but I still feel he would represent better value as a known quality in 2016 than what rolling the dice on pick 51 would bring us, particularly with the lack of experience on the list. Anyway, the club obviously has to make difficult decisions every year and sometimes the wisdom of hindsight suggests that another course of action should have been taken. We will see what happens. If no-one takes Grant on, then the club was probably correct, if someone else (GCS?) does and he plays well in a role that it turns out we were crying out for in 2016, then we'd say he should have been retained. Time will tell.

Part of my desire for the retention of Grant is based on him as an on-field character, which I found engaging. He is not your average footballer either to look at or in his demeanor - those facial expressions! Priceless. But, yeah, this is not a reason to retain a player on a list.

There are other characters on our list who engage one's interest in them on the field beyond what they do with the ball. I guess I will move on.

[The Underdog]

Grant has been at our club a very long time. I always had a problem with his 'fire' in the sense of easily getting whacked around by opposition and not reacting.This is war, and I want our players to go in breathing fire. Grant doesn't behave like that.
He does seem a little out of synch with the young wave that has come through and formed. He can't finish. That's the death knell of any forward as so many others have expressed.

Sorry to be picky and sensitive but it really isn't, it's a game. It should be an escape. I hate allegories between sport and war on every level.

[Ghost Dog]

Sorry to be picky and sensitive but it really isn't, it's a game. It should be an escape. I hate allegories between sport and war on every level.

Yes I apologize. It is a a 'kind' of war, and without wanting to be disrespectful to people who went to war, if it wasn't a sort of battle, nobody would watch it.

[The Underdog]

Yes I apologize. It is a a 'kind' of war, and without wanting to be disrespectful to people who went to war, if it wasn't a sort of battle, nobody would watch it.

No worries. I know I was being pedantic but I have a real issue with many aspects of linking sports/patriotism/war.
We're all guilty of taking sport way too seriously as it is, at heart it's a stupid kid's game.

[Ghost Dog]

Not being pedantic at all. I think you are on the mark. I see this forum as a way of learning about stuff. Throwing out a view and having it knocked around is a good thing to do. Maybe I should have thought more about it.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

No doubt games are preparation for war. This is embedded in the human psyche. A field in which strength, courage, guile and skill is pitted against an opponent but in the friendly, protected environment of adjudication, and an atmosphere of fun because nothing important is on the line.

[Twodogs]

No doubt games are preparation for war. This is embedded in the human psyche. A field in which strength, courage, guile and skill is pitted against an opponent but in the friendly, protected environment of adjudication, and an atmosphere of fun because nothing important is on the line.

Tell that to Steve Bartman. He's still in hiding I think.

[SlimPickens]

double post

[SlimPickens]

Jarrad has been signed by the Suns.

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2015-11-06/...ted-free-agent

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Good luck to him.

[bornadog]

Jarrad has been signed by the Suns.

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2015-11-06/...ted-free-agent

But I thought no one was interested in him.

Good luck to him, one we should never have let go, but we move on.

[LostDoggy]

Yep, good luck to him. Glad he's got another shot at it, deserves that much.

Not a bad fit at GCS really, with Ablett, Prestia, O'Meara and Swallow fitter they'll be strong inside and looking for outside runners. He'll help their age/experience profile.

It's also a long way from Frankston, which should be a plus.