Astronaught - Lost in Space?

[jazzadogs]

What's going on with Naughton?

A pre season interrupted by glandular fever, he was a great performer in round one but has been a non issue since then. He is uncharacteristically dropping simple uncontested marks, not jumping for the football and struggling to apply the defensive pressure he has become known for. His 1v1 win percentage would be shockingly low in recent weeks.

The most likely explanation to me would be that he is having some ongoing symptoms from glandular. It also looks like he is struggling with his legs, like there's some groin pain or similar, which is impacting his leap, timing, agility and explosiveness.

His decision making has also been poor for the last few weeks, although this is never a strength.

So what do we think is going on? How do we help him and get him through this period?

My view: he knows he's not 100%, and so does the club, but with Marra out he is selflessly pushing to get out there each week and try to play his role. I think he deserves some credit for getting out there, but also think he needs a rest.

[GVGjr]

Playing from behind hoping to grab a big mark. He's such an important player for us and normally he's been a consistent threat and goal scorer.
He was on a lot of modified work for a lot of the preseason so lets hope he's starting to get better.

[hujsh]

If this is not a severe debilitation from injury, this is my proposal for the next few weeks.

Darcy does not ruck. Neither does JOD. Naughton is now our second ruck. Naughton looks super low on confidence but relishes the contest. Get him into the contest. Let him scrap in the middle for a bit. Give Darcy more time forward. The second ruck for Brisbane is Sam Day so it's not like Naughts is up against a 210cm giant.

[jazzadogs]

If this is not a severe debilitation from injury, this is my proposal for the next few weeks.

Darcy does not ruck. Neither does JOD. Naughton is now our second ruck. Naughton looks super low on confidence but relishes the contest. Get him into the contest. Let him scrap in the middle for a bit. Give Darcy more time forward. The second ruck for Brisbane is Sam Day so it's not like Naughts is up against a 210cm giant.

The fact he didn't get thrown in the ruck yesterday tells me that we are trying to manage him through games. I do think he's trying to be selfless by playing, and if Bont/Treloar/Marra were all playing he'd be having a rest.

[Rusty12]

If he is training in full, he will come good.
If he is in the rehab area mid-week, he needs a spell, and a training block.
Hopefully, we can blame some of the low IQ moments on fatigue, too.

[Scott2016]

Well if thats the case why do they look for him most of the time. He should be instructed to get out of the targeted area and take his opponent away from Darcy's space. If there are only playing him as others are unavailable then he needs to not be in spots that compromise the outcome of the game.

[Bornadog]

Didn't Naughton also have a calf issue which maybe restricting his leap. I am confident he will come good.

[JackCJohnston2000]

One mustn't forget that Naughton played a great game and kicked 4 goals only 3 weeks ago.

I won't be worried unless we're still talking about this at the bye.

(I'd like him to be better, sure, but I'm not worried about him and his contributions going forward)

[Bulldogs201616]

I'm confident that Naughts will Bounce back this week. Had a couple of stinkers but he just needs to keep a defender in bay so Darcy can do his thing.

[Go_Dogs]

He can’t rely on his assets at the moment. We either need to isolate him deep 1:1 and have a crumble arriving fast, or have him working up and down the wing area and corridor as a target for a 45 rather than a down the line bomb. It means we need more from English and JOD there.

[G-Mo77]

I'm not worried. As mentioned he had a very interrupted preseason. He'll be OK.

[mighty_west]

It's kind of weird, had the interrupted pre-season but was looking great through our scratch matches flying at everything looking like he was getting back to his best launching at everything, played a good game round one then just lost it, i just wonder if he did just tweak something and has lost some confidence with that? He doesn't seem to be moving up the ground as often either which i think he needs to do to gain some confidence to get more involved in the game, he seems like he's in a bit of a rut, he'll be right.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

I recon for sure he has a niggle. My only concern is that he isn’t creating any separation at all.

because it Arron he will get a decent defender but they seem to be confident he won’t impact yeh game.

do it at your own peril, he will come good