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Re: The Bald Eagle
Mofra, just a slight correction - Eagle first came to the club in 2000 and was actually OK in his first season. He then followed up in 2001 and 2002 with poor seasons (noteworthy exception was in one game against the Cats at the Dome when he kicked 7 goals from full forward, as one of the dozen or so short-arse midfielders used by Wallace as full forwards at some point in his coaching career - sorry I digress), and there came a point halfway through season 2003 that he was destined for football oblivion until the penny finally dropped and he turned it all around in the 2nd half of that miserable year. Since 2004, he has frequently wavered from excellent to very poor.
But the one constant with Eagle throughout his career is that he hasn't been able to deliver any standout performances in the really important games. He isn't the lone ranger by any stretch on that front, but for a player getting close to 250 career games, this is the one glaring omission from the Eagleton CV. There's no denying he has had a very solid AFL career but it has probably fallen short of fan expectations unfairly or otherwise.
Unfortunately for Eagle, his arrival at the club came at the expense of 2 much-loved former Dogs in Powell and Montgomery - not to mention the perception that it was outside flash replacing inside grunt. I reckon from day one, Eagle has been up against it to fully win over the Bulldog faithful as a result.
Seeing as this thread is about the Eagle in 2009, he has been genuinely poor in only 1 out of the 5 games, and would probably be top 10 in the B&F count to date - he's ranged from good to excellent in the other 4 games so credit to him so far in season 2009. There are plenty of poorer performing players out of our experienced group in 2009 than Eagleton.
Mofra, just a slight correction - Eagle first came to the club in 2000 and was actually OK in his first season. He then followed up in 2001 and 2002 with poor seasons (noteworthy exception was in one game against the Cats at the Dome when he kicked 7 goals from full forward, as one of the dozen or so short-arse midfielders used by Wallace as full forwards at some point in his coaching career - sorry I digress), and there came a point halfway through season 2003 that he was destined for football oblivion until the penny finally dropped and he turned it all around in the 2nd half of that miserable year. Since 2004, he has frequently wavered from excellent to very poor.
But the one constant with Eagle throughout his career is that he hasn't been able to deliver any standout performances in the really important games. He isn't the lone ranger by any stretch on that front, but for a player getting close to 250 career games, this is the one glaring omission from the Eagleton CV. There's no denying he has had a very solid AFL career but it has probably fallen short of fan expectations unfairly or otherwise.
Unfortunately for Eagle, his arrival at the club came at the expense of 2 much-loved former Dogs in Powell and Montgomery - not to mention the perception that it was outside flash replacing inside grunt. I reckon from day one, Eagle has been up against it to fully win over the Bulldog faithful as a result.
Seeing as this thread is about the Eagle in 2009, he has been genuinely poor in only 1 out of the 5 games, and would probably be top 10 in the B&F count to date - he's ranged from good to excellent in the other 4 games so credit to him so far in season 2009. There are plenty of poorer performing players out of our experienced group in 2009 than Eagleton.
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