Superman Is Going To Need Time

[damienc]

Sorry but I’m in the mood to do a bit of pontificating.

You know. Up high on a pedestal, spouting my sage like wisdom on this, that and the other to do with our footy club.

Yeah right.

I blame the extremely expensive but extremely good bottle of red wine that I opened and drank the other night.

That bottle of wine got me thinking. There is a lot of similarity between a good bottle of wine and a potentially good AFL footballer like Jack Steele.

The man of Steele or Superman is a rare find IMO.

Yeah I know.

You are calling him Superman after only 17 games of footy? Ok, I quite like the nickname.

But getting back to my original point. Like all good bottles of wine, Steele needs time to undergo the magic of his own football chemistry. To froth and bubble and ferment. He needs time to develop and learn and mature.

Make no mistake, how he found his way to our footy club is no accident.

When Bains was asked to describe our approach to this year’s trade he used the word strategic.

I like strategic.

Steele will come to the Saints because he has a specific set of skills we need.

He’s a hard nut. He’s a scrapper. A disrupter of opposition team’s pattern and flow. He likes to fight for the ball and tackle. He is hard to match up on because he gets in your face.

He’s been tearing it up in the NEAFL but that means very little.

The AFL is a gigantic, quantum leap. He needs game time to adjust and step up into the big time. He’s already played a bit in the big show so he’s had a taste.

Our man of Steele has a lot to do.

He needs to recover from his foot injury, which means a late start for him for pre-season, learn his role, learn how to play Saints footy and improve his disposable so that he really hurts the teams we play.

And as supporters we need to lower our expectations of him. Like a good wine, Steele needs time.

But if it goes the way I hope and expect, we are going to really enjoy watching this kid play.

[whiskers3614]

Just as long as he doesn't need similar amounts of time to Freeman!

[felix]

I heard he is more powerful than a locomotive .

[saintspremiers]

My excitement level re The Man Of is based a fair bit about what we have to give away. If it's not too drastic (ie late second rounder or equivalent) I'll be quietly OK with it.

[jonesy]

Anyone got his stats for GWS during this years pre season when he was getting time on the ball? For memory his figures were through the roof....then the real season came and had to play a different role.


Edit- 27,17 and 16, named gws best in 1,and 4th best in another. I remember there was a stat from champion data in the preseason,perhaps it was minutes played per stat or something,he was right up there, therefore I took him as a smokey in supercoach this year. However I dumped him straight away after he was dropped after round 1 and never really watched him much after that

[Bluthy]

And as supporters we need to lower our expectations of him.

The man of Steele or Superman is a rare find IMO.

Looking at some more of Steele's highlights he strikes as a really good all-rounder. He is good without being elite in nearly all areas - tough inside - loves to tackle, some good outside run (bit quicker than I first thought), good height for marking, good hands, seems a reasonably smart footy player. All-rounders worry me a bit as they don't have an obvious stand out weapon you tend to need to make an impact at AFL level. But if you get good enough then having all those components can make you very hard to stop - Kennedy, Watson, even our own Seb are examples of that. Steele has a big frame that he could stack on some good muscle and potentially become a beast in that Armo mould.

I like that he can play forward and is quick enough to play on the wing or even as a running HB. We need more of that versatility. Dogs and Hawks rotate so many guys through the onball they are able to keep the pressure on the oppo the whole game but stay fresh hence tend to win the close ones. Ross, Dunstan and Armo are a bit of a worry they way they can only basically play on ball (although Dunny has shown to be a bit of goal sneak and if he can get his endurance up might be able to play forward a bit more).

Not sure how much he fills our holes (ooh Vicar). He does look quicker than Seb, armo and Dunny so thats handy. But to me the glaring hole in our list is the classy ball using, high pick, inside/outside genuine onballer that most premiership teams have. Our high picks went into other areas. I'm hoping we can pull a rabbit out of the hat with our high pick this year and land a really clever onballer with great delivery. Otherwise I'm thinking we really need Billings to get the endurance and size to play onball. We need more smarts and ball using class onball. Gresham is the other with the possibility to become that onballer with high footy IQ and creativity.

Need to see his price. Seeing as roos bid pick 14 on him I wouldn't be upset about losing our future second rounder - although it would worry me we keep going into "debt" with future picks. But if we can get him lower than that, that would be a huge win. He looks a good addition to the list - in the right age group, increases our midfield depth and has potential to be really good. But I'm keeping it in my pants. He needs a lot more games under his belt before he'll be a real weapon I reckon

And I think poor Minch will be sweating on his spot in the team. Every time he seems to be getting somewhere a new young player comes along who looks like pushing him out - Gresham, now STeele.

[Wombat15]

Sorry but I’m in the mood to do a bit of pontificating.

The man of Steele or Superman is a rare find IMO.

Yeah I know.

You are calling him Superman after only 17 games of footy? Ok, I quite like the nickname.

Heard his nickname on a pod in his draft year and loved it and called him that ever since. Gonna be a beast in the midfield, Fans will love what he brings to the table. He's a very good tackler for his age, when he wasnt the sub or fwd line effected the kid ran riot. Does turn it over a bit but that happens when youre predominantly an inside mid. Im sure with more Midfield and game time under his belt we are looking at something special. Thought hed been quite stiff to not get a game up at GWS but would be near impossible to get a gig ahead of what they currently have. Big win for the club.

[Jacks Back]

I heard he is more powerful than a locomotive .

I heard that he is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

[White Winmar]

The best bit and what we really need is that he's faster than a speeding bullet!

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Steele will come to the Saints because he has a specific set of skills we need.

.

So he's not Superman ... he's Liam Neeson?

[The Fireman]

well he has plenty of time..the son of Jor-El is immortal.

[saint3d]

Steele will come to the Saints because he has a specific set of skills we need.

.

So he's not Superman ... he's Liam Neeson?

Superman is Liam Neeson in disguise. So yes.

[Con Gorozidis]

Let's not get carried away with Bains. Steele is at our club for the same reason 90% of people get trades. He had good games against us in 2015 & 16.
This is the oldest one in the book. e.g Dean Polo. I am also guessing Josh Bruce might have helped us out here?

Now Steele aint no Polo and I believe is the absolute real deal. A genuine gun. I am very happy to have him. He can as much time as he needs to overcome his foot injury. But he is a great get and we are not giving much to get him. A pick around 40 which is Brodie Murdoch. Great get. I am really confident about this kid.

[borderbarry]

We cant use him in the ruck. He would keep smashing his head into the Etihad roof.