Lachie Henderson won’t play for the Blues again

[Greystache]

Be patient with Talia. What's the highest number of goals he has conceded this year? What about Austin & Young last year?

Roughead kicked 7 on him.

[Ozza]

Bevo was quizzed on Henderson today. Repsonse was he is happy with the way our young talls are developing and something would have to change for us to go down the trade path.

Is there a 'love for Bevo' button.

[SlimPickens]

Talia wants to go to Adelaide and play with his brother.

It may be part of the story but I think you'll find he just wants to play senior footy. He should be backing himself in at the dogs as their is definitely a spot for him, he just needs to keep performing.

[Mantis]

It may be part of the story but I think you'll find he just wants to play senior footy. He should be backing himself in at the dogs as their is definitely a spot for him, he just needs to keep performing.

Improving.

Whilst his ball use is satisfactory, the major knock on him at present would be his ability to 'win or kill' a 1 on 1 contest and his slow ball movement.

If he can fix them up up I see him being a solid contributer for many years to come.

[LostDoggy]

Maybe Daniel will end up at the Bulldogs instead.

How it should be anyway, they are both from champion Bulldog stock.

[Greystache]

Improving.

Whilst his ball use is satisfactory, the major knock on him at present would be his ability to 'win or kill' a 1 on 1 contest and his slow ball movement.

If he can fix them up up I see him being a solid contributer for many years to come.

That's the BIG question mark on him for me. He just gets beaten far too regularly in a marking contest. I'm not even worried so much about his ball use or how much rebound he can provide, we have a huge amount of run and carry from half back, and even Roberts and Hamling provide some as talls. We can afford Talia to be a pure shutdown defender, but at the moment it's not a strength.

On Henderson, I'm not overly keen. The gap between his best and his worst is extreme. It's at the level you'd expect from a player with 20-40 games under their belt, not 100+

[The Underdog]

Improving.

Whilst his ball use is satisfactory, the major knock on him at present would be his ability to 'win or kill' a 1 on 1 contest and his slow ball movement.

If he can fix them up up I see him being a solid contributer for many years to come.

Agree totally. he very often gets himself in the right position but then manages to have no effect on the contest.

He's been up and down but I've largely liked his last few weeks

[Twodogs]

Apparently Geelong will have Selwood, Dangerfield and Henderson all coming their way. Yeah good luck with that one fellas.

That's why they let Joel Hamling go. To free up some salary cap space .

[bornadog]

That's why they let Joel Hamling go. To free up some salary cap space .

They freed him up because they traded for two talls - Rhys Stanley and Mitch Clark

[Twodogs]

They freed him up because they traded for two talls - Rhys Stanley and Mitch Clark

Turned out nice then.

[Ozza]

That's the BIG question mark on him for me. He just gets beaten far too regularly in a marking contest. I'm not even worried so much about his ball use or how much rebound he can provide, we have a huge amount of run and carry from half back, and even Roberts and Hamling provide some as talls. We can afford Talia to be a pure shutdown defender, but at the moment it's not a strength.

On Henderson, I'm not overly keen. The gap between his best and his worst is extreme. It's at the level you'd expect from a player with 20-40 games under their belt, not 100+

Couldn't agree more on Henderson.

Also agree with the sentiment on Talia. Given we have seen so much improvement from a number of our players in recent years - I would expect that Talia is a great chance to improve a hell of a lot in his one on one play. With regards to his ball use, whilst he may never be a star in this area, we've seen from players like Morris - that if he can recognise his limitations and get the basics right and decision making - he will be able to work those 1-2 blunders per game out of his system.

No doubts Talia has a future alongside Roberts and Hamling.

[Ghost Dog]

Agree totally. he very often gets himself in the right position but then manages to have no effect on the contest.

He's been up and down but I've largely liked his last few weeks

Not happy with him giving away frees and 50m penalties either. Great athlete but sometimes not the best decision maker.

[SlimPickens]

Improving.

Whilst his ball use is satisfactory, the major knock on him at present would be his ability to 'win or kill' a 1 on 1 contest and his slow ball movement.

If he can fix them up up I see him being a solid contributer for many years to come.

Absolutely and he has time on his side.

[Happy Days]

Improving.

Whilst his ball use is satisfactory, the major knock on him at present would be his ability to 'win or kill' a 1 on 1 contest and his slow ball movement.

If he can fix them up up I see him being a solid contributer for many years to come.

I really think it's a core strength problem - there has been a few instances of Michael either conceding or losing front position, and showing no ability to win it back. There was one instance against the GC where Dixon simply stood in front of him whilst Michael flailed around helplessly behind him that perfectly illustrates this fault.

The good news is that this is both something that can be improved, and something that, as we buy more and more into the Team Defence Revolution™, will probably become less relevant in the AFL. It also probably highlights that Talia isn't the guy to take the so-called gorillas one out when required.

[1eyedog]

They freed him up because they traded for two talls - Rhys Stanley and Mitch Clark

They freed him up because they drafted Rivers two years earlier and had Mackie playing in the same team (alongside the others you mentioned). Aside from that they have a heap of young talls in the VFL who are promising footballers but not good enough to displace Lonergan, Mackie or Taylor (yet). These kids have been in the system a year longer than Hamling and are bigger bodied.

It seems Geelong earmarked him for a KD post, why else have him going one on one with Hawkins all these years when really they needed to think of him as third defender and bite the bullet on Mackie's position.