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Age: 22
Games Total: 26
Games Last Year: 14
The story:
Recruited (somewhat oddly) under the obscure "players from other sports" rule - aka the AFL trying to get in the best athletes they can from other codes and strengthen the AFL/weaken the other sports (in this case cricket by removing developing depth). James focussed on cricket from ages 16-20'ish before dipping his toes back in the footy waters in his 20th year...there was a bit of cloak and dagger around his signing (and with the death of 'open mike' the full story will probably never come out) but suffice to say James signed with the 'dogs early in 2023 and played soon thereafter, quickly becoming a match committee favourite and a fixture in defense.
He has shown the ability to defend 1-on-1 against smaller players (he's pretty tall at 197cm) and he has good agility. Seems a forthright + determined type who will stick his head over the footy / fly at the contest with little regard to his safety when required...the problem is that he sometimes seems to do those 'things' when the situation requires a bit more nuance...I mean, he plays at times like he missed 3-4 years of key development years...does seem to be the ultimate team player though who will simply put his head down and work to complete whatever task the MC have assigned him,
Is James:
a). Over-rated - Yeah, he's athletic and LOOKS the part but his footy smarts don't correlate to the number of opportunities he's been given.
b). Properly-rated - He's a committed and versatile player who has played < 30 games...but he's also going to make mistakes. He's best 22 BUT if he's playing KPD at this stage of his development then we've got some bigger problems!!
c). Under-rated - He's 197cm tall and runs like a deer - and has played 2 seasons of footy! He just needs to keep getting games and he'll be everything we want and more...think AA FB/CHB is in his future!
Games Total: 26
Games Last Year: 14
The story:
Recruited (somewhat oddly) under the obscure "players from other sports" rule - aka the AFL trying to get in the best athletes they can from other codes and strengthen the AFL/weaken the other sports (in this case cricket by removing developing depth). James focussed on cricket from ages 16-20'ish before dipping his toes back in the footy waters in his 20th year...there was a bit of cloak and dagger around his signing (and with the death of 'open mike' the full story will probably never come out) but suffice to say James signed with the 'dogs early in 2023 and played soon thereafter, quickly becoming a match committee favourite and a fixture in defense.
He has shown the ability to defend 1-on-1 against smaller players (he's pretty tall at 197cm) and he has good agility. Seems a forthright + determined type who will stick his head over the footy / fly at the contest with little regard to his safety when required...the problem is that he sometimes seems to do those 'things' when the situation requires a bit more nuance...I mean, he plays at times like he missed 3-4 years of key development years...does seem to be the ultimate team player though who will simply put his head down and work to complete whatever task the MC have assigned him,
Is James:
a). Over-rated - Yeah, he's athletic and LOOKS the part but his footy smarts don't correlate to the number of opportunities he's been given.
b). Properly-rated - He's a committed and versatile player who has played < 30 games...but he's also going to make mistakes. He's best 22 BUT if he's playing KPD at this stage of his development then we've got some bigger problems!!
c). Under-rated - He's 197cm tall and runs like a deer - and has played 2 seasons of footy! He just needs to keep getting games and he'll be everything we want and more...think AA FB/CHB is in his future!
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