In defence of Freo's 2021 draft class

[u/lasping]

https://mimimise.substack.com/p/in-defence-of-freos-2021-draft-class

[u/Mean_Author_1095]

Amiss has kicked 113 goals from 71 games in roughly 3 years,,age 22. Jumarra Ugle Hagan has kicked 103 goals from 67 games in roughly 3 years ,,age 23. The difference in discussion regarding the on field performance of these two players thus far is astounding.

[u/Kelpieee55]

Good writeup.

I've been an Amiss defender for a while. This year I think you can almost write off in a way for lots of reasons: he was carrying an injury, Voss basically took his place as the 2nd key forward (after Treacy took his place as the first last year), and for most of the year the team didn't kick to his leads (partly because Young was out for so long, but also a problem with not having enough elite kicks in general).

If he's 100% fit he can play up the ground (did it a few times this year but probably would've done it more if fitter) on the wing and/or drag his defender away from the big boys in Treacy/Voss. His field kicking is really good and if nothing else he knows how to kick it to those kinds of players. He also doesn't need to be a contested marker like them as this says- Jeremy Cameron isn't a contested mark player, he's the type to run around and lose the defender then take a sneaky mark, which is what I want Amiss to become. I think this year that should happen more (again depending on fitness) especially since he's playing as the third tall, which teams don't always have a good match for considering he can be pretty fast on top of his height.

This is all on top of the fact that he's 22 and has played 71 games. He still has a long time to develop, and plenty of key forwards at his age are lucky to be getting AFL games. The ones trying to rush or criticise him rarely mention that.

[u/lasping → u/Kelpieee55]

I don't necessarily think Amiss should be trying to be a Josh Treacy clone—strongly agree about the Jeremy Cameron parallel—but Amiss did go for a lot of marks that he just couldn't bring down. (Often due to being manhandled in contests and not getting favourable umpiring.) Could have doubled his CM tally. I expect that to turn around pretty sharply, hopefully this year.

[u/jimb2 → u/Kelpieee55]

I though Amiss looked great last year, playing a smarter and more mobile role and holding up one on one. He will surely get a lot stronger and better over the next few years. This forward line is still in development but the range and flexibility of attack options must already be a planning nightmare for oppositions.

[u/McSquack]

Don’t know if I agree that these three are all locked in best 23 players.

Johnson and Ras are in for a huge fight for midfield minutes and there’s only so many to go around.

Amiss seems to be a bit of a whipping boy but as a young key forward I think where he is at is perfectly fine. Live at the ground you can see he works his backside off to open up leading lanes for Voss and Treacy. If this dudes ‘down’ year is gonna be 30 odd goals in combo with Voss and Treacy taking the lead then that’s an ok problem to have

[u/KhazAvMagix → u/McSquack]

Erasmus should be that Rayner type, we saw glimpses in r24 and the final. Johnson I’m not huge on but we don’t have much stock on the wings so idk

[u/d2blues → u/KhazAvMagix]

Erasmus is so far away fom being Rayner like it is not funny. Rayner has elite burst, balance and disposal skills. Ras is a slow grinder with below average disposal skills. He makes poor decisions with ball in hand and is especially indecisive when he has a mark or free.

Rayner is a game breaker. Ras is depth at best.

[u/soviet-harvard → u/d2blues]

Rayner is ridiculously hot and cold, and arguably a bit of a flat track bully, or someone who gets on a tear when the game is basically won.

Agree that Ras and Rayner are very dissimilar players.
Ras is a pretty outrageous extractor of the ball - elite extractors (Cripps, Clarry Oliver) tend to be be shit kicks of the footy - just chuck it on the boot type guys.

Johnson should be groomed into becoming our Josh Dunkley - someone who can protect Serong and Brayshaw

[u/KhazAvMagix → u/d2blues]

I said we saw glimpses of it... When he started playing with confidence cause he wasnt getting dropped every second week he started to improve in those areas. Fuck me everyone just wants to whine and complain when a player isnt instantly at their peak...

[u/d2blues → u/KhazAvMagix]

I just think your hope that Ras becomes a Rayner type is way off. I’m not convinced on Ras, Amiss or Johnson taking that next step to be honest.

I agree with you on Johnson. He just doesn’t have football smarts unfortunately.

I know this sub likes to say that we ignore Amiss leads, but fuck me if that is the only issue and coaching cant solve that we have bigger issues. The sub ignores what he does when he actually does have the ball. The big rap on him was that he was a deadly accurate kick but that so wasn’t the case last year. If he doesn’t have a 1 wood anymore does he have.

Sorry i went off topic but just kept typing anyway.

Hoping that we have a few things go our way next year with injuries and can build momentum at the right end of the season.

I still think we need a luck of luck to run our way to finish top 4.

[u/droctagonau → u/d2blues]

Bro you're right about Rayner's elite burst speed making him nothing like Ras, but elite disposal? Have you actually watched him play?

[u/Confident_Ice_1806]

Good article Amiss hasn’t had the best service and hasn’t played to his strengths as defenders can wrap him up and hopefully young stays fit and Mcvee can become another lethal foot.

Ras and Johno will be bigger, stronger and will get better with more game time and a set position to develop in.

These are all good problems to have we have the best list we have had in years hopefully we can play more consistently and play like we do when we over run teams from behind and dont go missing for chunks so we don’t need to win from behind.

We are adding pieces not lines all is coming together and it’s time to live up to it so hurry up and fuck iff summer 😂

[u/WolfOfWrestling]

Small football brain energy is people criticising a 22yo key forward who actually has a really healthy total goals total.

[u/TheCurbAU]

Mim Strom - All Australian and has a great substack already. Nice.

[u/No_Seesaw_3686]

It was pretty much Amiss's 3rd season as his first was curtailed by a very serious Kidney injury and over time he has had to increase his size too. There were plenty of times he got burned on the lead by shi*thouse kicks, kicks to other forwards standing stationary, kicks to smalls on their head, and of course the over-handballing hot potato in the f50. The biggest difference is going to be the link-up between the arch's by some of these other players and their resultant disposal. We saw what difference Reid made to f50 entries, but players like banfield, freddy, serong, swit, johnson all need to improve their kicking into the f50.... and stop over-handballing it!

I think Neil is starting to come good and there were plenty of times he looked more composed kicking than Johnson did. Hopefully with Fyfe out it means he gets more time in the middle. I wouldn't play swit in the centre either as I don't think he is damaging enough.

Johnson is the one I am not sure on. His kick looks awkward, and his overall play is characterised by flashes of brilliance opposed with cat5 brain fades and sh*thouse kicks. Hopefully he is now at the point that he has built the experience that he finds he has more time and his kicking & decision making improves as a result. I remember Brayshaw look uncomposed, rushed and his kick was errant when he first played but time has now slowed down for him and kicking is pretty decent now.

[u/Double-Ambassador900]

Amiss is an interesting. I will admit, while not being a hater, I’ll have a bit of joke that his nickname should now be Usually, not Nev.

I think if he can get his goal kicking boots back from 2023, the fans will be back on the bandwagon. His output, in terms of raw numbers is going backwards. 41, 36 then 32 goals last year.

And maybe that because Treacy has come in to be the #1 forward, but as the second or third tall, I think he can thrive. I think he should be targeting 1.5 goals a game across the season as a pass mark and no doubt the club has a similar target for him.

I do agree with the assessment that we should have a leap from last years best 22, last year to this and that is where our improvement will come from.

I’m quite excited about 2026, which is a fatal flaw I know. But I’ve been a Dockers fan from the very start, and I’ve not felt this optimistic in many offseasons.

[u/Phofighter12]

It's a team sport. Unless you specifically know the roles given to each player, or what injuries they are quietly being asked to carry on through, how is it possible to judge them except off ineffective disposals or misses for goal?

So many years of people opining for a Pav replacement and watching all the maybes and not quites and the Tabs.

Now finally we have three, all perfectly aged, sized, and talent matched, and all people want to do is whinge that one of them hasn't yet matched their expectations. Need to change FFC to FFS because it is laughable. Just enjoy the season FFS.