Player Watch #36 Joel Amartey

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Joel Amartey
Joel Amartey has shown strong form in the ruck and as a key-position player at both ends of the ground since being drafted to the Sydney Swans as a rookie ahead of season 2018. The Ghanaian-Australian produced arguably his best performance of the 2019 season against Sydney University in Round 6, which saw him collect 42 hit-outs and a goal. In season 2020, he made his AFL debut against Brisbane Lions in Round 17 after producing some strong individual performances in scrimmage matches, and impressed with eight hit-outs and two inside 50.

Joel Amartey
DOB: 02 September 1999
DEBUT: 2020
DRAFT: #28, 2017 Rookie Elevation
RECRUITED FROM: Beaumaris (Vic)/Mentone Gram (Vic)/Sandringham U18

www.sydneyswans.com.au

Joel Amartey | AFL

Follow Joel Amartey's progress through AFL
www.sydneyswans.com.au www.sydneyswans.com.au
 
Nuggetz said:
They've done that this season by managing his gametime, resting him from games & having a tailored training program. Think Horse mentioned it's something similar to Buddy's. They've realised he's a unique power athlete who is susceptible to injuries, so they've altered his training.

He doesn't have the aerobic capacity of Mclean or McDonald but he beats them on athleticism, especially acceleration in putting on defensive pressure. That combined with his contested marking, has lead to the coaches giving him multiple opportunities.

I'm hoping he can improve a bit on his endurance (having an injury free pre-season will be cruicial) but it's his synergy with the other forwards which will determine how many games he plays next year imo.

Buller & him are competing for the 3rd tall spot.
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I can see he and Buller rotating through the season with blocks to work on their fitness without the stress of senior footy, perhaps with managed VFL time. Easy to forget that Buller has only been at this level of fitness for a short time. He will need to build too.
 

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Kiama Chris said:
I can see he and Buller rotating through the season with blocks to work on their fitness without the stress of senior footy, perhaps with managed VFL time. Easy to forget that Buller has only been at this level of fitness for a short time. He will need to build too.
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Very good point.
 
Nuggetz said:
They've done that this season by managing his gametime, resting him from games & having a tailored training program. Think Horse mentioned it's something similar to Buddy's. They've realised he's a unique power athlete who is susceptible to injuries, so they've altered his training.
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Buddy was a notoriously hard trainer early on in his career, though, and had a huge aerobic capacity as a result. He could run all day.

That’s what’s allowed him to reduce his training volume as he got older - he had a huge aerobic base that just required maintenance loads. It happens with lots of veterans.
It’s the basic principle of a preseason - once established, aerobic capacity only needs relatively light volumes (ie: in-game running) to maintain - stretched over a whole career.

It’s not good putting Amartey on a veteran’s program if he doesn’t have a veteran’s aerobic base.
 
J_Moore said:
Buddy was a notoriously hard trainer early on in his career, though, and had a huge aerobic capacity as a result. He could run all day.

That’s what’s allowed him to reduce his training volume as he got older - he had a huge aerobic base that just required maintenance loads. It happens with lots of veterans.
It’s the basic principle of a preseason - once established, aerobic capacity only needs relatively light volumes (ie: in-game running) to maintain - stretched over a whole career.

It’s not good putting Amartey on a veteran’s program if he doesn’t have a veteran’s aerobic base.
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Spot on. Joel is not a Usain Bolt but I bet the latter could do ok in a 2klm time trial.

Will Joel be asked to do 20m time trials in the pre season??.... I think not.

I have no doubt he is expected to do a lot of work this off season.

I'd add that accommodating Joel's lack of tank in matches puts extra pressure on his team mates who carry his load.
 
J_Moore said:
Buddy was a notoriously hard trainer early on in his career, though, and had a huge aerobic capacity as a result. He could run all day.

That’s what’s allowed him to reduce his training volume as he got older - he had a huge aerobic base that just required maintenance loads. It happens with lots of veterans.
It’s the basic principle of a preseason - once established, aerobic capacity only needs relatively light volumes (ie: in-game running) to maintain - stretched over a whole career.

It’s not good putting Amartey on a veteran’s program if he doesn’t have a veteran’s aerobic base.
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I'm not saying it's the same but a similar approach. A unique program for a unique athlete. There's only soo much a person can improve on endurance. His body might not have that capability to go further.

Swans have already mentioned they view him as a power athlete so they might not be worried as much about his endurance like swans fans.
 
Nuggetz said:
I'm not saying it's the same but a similar approach. A unique program for a unique athlete. There's only soo much a person can improve on endurance. His body might not have that capability to go further.

Swans have already mentioned they view him as a power athlete so they might not be worried as much about his endurance like swans fans.
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He doesn’t need to be doing 100m leads up the wing and doubling back like Nick Riewoldt.

But he needs the ability to play his “power game” over 4 quarters. This season, he’s been done at half time.
 
J_Moore said:
He doesn’t need to be doing 100m leads up the wing and doubling back like Nick Riewoldt.

But he needs the ability to play his “power game” over 4 quarters. This season, he’s been done at half time.
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I look at what Ally Morphett has done and reckon Joel could take a leaf out of her book. She had a similar problem but is now finishing games out much more strongly. No doubt our fitness people can come up with a program to achieve something similar.
 

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RUNVS said:
That is unfair. It was a really bad game for the big players due to how slippery the ball was.
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Agree to an extent - but he just rarely made an effective contest.

Just seems to be a player who doesn’t occasionally drift OUT of games.
He occasionally drifts IN to them.
 
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I think it was tough slippery conditions for talls. McLean and McDonald had a quiet first half, but ground it out and worked their way into the game by the end.

I don't mind going in with the standard 3 tall forwards with a smaller quicker player as the sub. It makes the opposition worry about matching up on our big tall marking targets.Also we can't predict how the game will turn out. Amartey might have been the one to have a few moments of brilliance or be able to dominate his opponent.
 
Imo he was thinking about his positioning a bit too much rather than just throwing his body at the contest. It caused him to hesitate in going for the mark. I would've loved to see him throw his body around a bit more.
 
RUNVS said:
That is unfair. It was a really bad game for the big players due to how slippery the ball was.
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He was tired 5 minutes in and spectating at contests

when fitness and endurance was the big issue there was little evidence he fixed it.

Clearly has talent but I question his work ethic rightly or wrongly, not seeing anything to suggest he worked on it.

Ok to have a purple patch quarter v the minnows, but he was a liability last night
 
sataris said:
I thought buddy's retirement was meant to unleash the Amartey/Mclean/McDonald triple threat?
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And it started in a game in basically wet conditions

And the scored 3 goals between them. Should have been 4 if McLean didn't miss a soda
 
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