AFL Player # 5: Elijah Tsatas

[TheGrizz]

Contract Status: Out of contract 2026
2024 My Boy Draft: Pick 14, Lore

 

[jmoo wan]

The problem with his game, when you watch it, is the appalling disposal.

But, also, the kid is playing in close so it neutralizes his biggest strength which is supposed to be 'the spread'.

He should stay in the VFL until either he develops his inside game to hurt opponents or cleans up his kicking so that he is a viable outside player who can play AFL.

Today was not a break out. He was not BOG. That was Roberts who was clearly the most influential player for Essendon. Hatley was the best mid. Yes Tsatas had the ball 13 more times than Hatley did but if his turned it over by foot 15 times what's the net impact of his game? What's the 'meters retained'? Because who cares about the 200m gained in 20 min in the 3/4 that was literally all turnovers and missed targets.

39-15= 24?
that’s pretty good, right? especially for VFL

 

[dank420_]

Can’t trust that 15 number tbh

 

[Call Me Cake]

Was exceptionally good with his hands and exceptionally poor with his feet. Decent game, best thing for him is to keep at VFL level working on his deficiencies.

Exceptionally? Big stretch. He was in everything and had a nice kick to Guelfi later in the game which created a goal. Carn.

Deserves a game more than Shiel at this point. Great stuff from a 7 gamer.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Exceptionally? Big stretch. He was in everything and had a nice kick to Guelfi later in the game which created a goal. Carn.

Deserves a game more than Shiel at this point. Great stuff from a 7 gamer.

Not a big stretch at all, he don't think he hit a target by foot for the second and third quarters. Would have had minimum 5 turnovers in that period. A lot of them uncontested. That is exceptionally bad.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Not a big stretch at all, he don't think he hit a target by foot for the second and third quarters. Would have had minimum 5 turnovers in that period. A lot of them uncontested. That is exceptionally bad.

Must have been watching a different game. The fact that you didn't mention the pass to the Guelf goal proves that. 3rd most clearances and near 40 disposals linking up play all over the ground is great service from a 7 gamer. Again, proved he was more ready for a game than Shiel. Agree to disagree.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Disagree, must have been watching a different game. The fact that you didn't mention the pass to Guelf proves that. 3rd most clearances and near 40 disposals linking up play all over the ground is great service from a 7 gamer. Think you're spitting a bit of hyperbole but agree to disagree.

Hyperbole... I was being generous to him saying his game was decent and avoiding negativity. * that I guess. I don't care about possession numbers. Roberts had half the touches and 10 times the influence. His kick to Guelfi was a standard kick to the half forward line that 95% of all afl players would hit, it wasn't a withering pass through defense or perfectly weighted over the tips. He hit an open man on the lead with lots of space to work with. The only reason it would be considered notable is in comparison to his normal standard.

 

[TheGrizz]

Good to see him finding the pill, but would like to see him have a month stretch of this sort of form and bring him in with some confidence.

Just quietly, would likento see Hobbs be given a run around VFL level as a pure mid with him. See how Hobbs, Tsatas and Hately work as a combo.

Then promote Guelfi to take Hobbs' spot as a half forward.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Hyperbole... I was being generous to him saying his game was decent and avoiding negativity. * that I guess. I don't care about possession numbers. Roberts had half the touches and 10 times the influence. His kick to Guelfi was a standard kick to the half forward line that 95% of all afl players would hit, it wasn't a withering pass through defense or perfectly weighted over the tips. He hit an open man on the lead with lots of space to work with. The only reason it would be considered notable is in comparison to his normal standard.

Speaking of hyperbole, we didn't recruit Roberts to be a forward. If it wasn't for Roberts' goals playing as a spare crumb up the ground his stats wouldn't look so padded. As a HB Roberts was average and his man ran away from him multiple times, didn't lay some tackles he should've, gave away elementary frees, etc. Only reason he's being flushed so much is because he's a late pick with less expectation on him. When it comes to mature play, effort and silk in the position recruited for, Tsatas was ahead of many in that match. Again, agree to disagree.

 

[DERO]

He did get his hands on the footy 39 times! That is pretty good!

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Speaking of hyperbole, we didn't recruit Roberts to be a forward. If it wasn't for Roberts' goals playing as a spare crumb up the ground his stats wouldn't look so padded. As a HB Roberts was average and man ran away from him multiple times, didn't lay some tackles he should've, gave away elementary frees, etc. Only reason he's being flushed so much is because he's a mature age recruit with less expectation on him. When it comes to mature play, effort and silk in the position recruited for, Tsatas was ahead of many in that match. Again, agree to disagree.

Roberts laid the most tackles on the ground with 8, including the match saving tackle. He had a few tackles broken, because he was constantly pressuring. He played on the wing for most of the game. Tsatas laid 3 tackles despite being on ball all game and is currently one of the weakest body on body players his size to have ever played the game.

 

[bennyg12]

Great workrate today

 

[ant555]

He did get his hands on the footy 39 times! That is pretty good!

Between you and me the truth would land in the middle. He did some really good stuff but the was 5 or 6 pretty ordinary turnovers.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

We used to have a player O’Brien who used to get it a lot of possessions in VFL but never made it as he was a terrible kick and slow. Tsatas isn’t slow and can improve his kicking as Jobe did ..you’d hope. But gees he makes far too many errors at the moment. If people are pulling their hair out over Parish’s kicking then won’t be happy if this guy.

 

[Nicholas61]

Tsatas laid 3 tackles despite being on ball all game and is currently one of the weakest body on body players his size to have ever played the game.

I remember early on Prosecutor made the comment in a ressies match against Carlton that Tsatas was way too easy to move and got howled down for the comment. Later in that game Ned Cahill looked like Lockett the way he outmuscled him.

 

[ant555]

Roberts laid the most tackles on the ground with 8, including the match saving tackle. He had a few tackles broken, because he was constantly pressuring. He played on the wing for most of the game. Tsatas laid 3 tackles despite being on ball all game and is currently one of the weakest body on body players his size to have ever played the game.

AFL page has Roberts on 7 tackles and Tsatas on 4. Must have updated it. I am not going to argue that he is not a bit weak in the body right now but that was sort of tto be expected given how much time he has spent out of the game in the alst 3 years. 4 tackles from an inside clearance player is okay. Equal third for us and 4th for both sides. He gave plenty of in close handballs to set a lot of stuff up so you are not going to be making 10 tackles if you are handing the footy of in close 15 odd times.
I am not sold on him yet but the last two weeks have been a step in the right direction competitively compared to the start of the year.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

AFL page has Roberts on 7 tackles and Tsatas on 4. Must have updated it. I am not going to argue that he is not a bit weak in the body right now but that was sort of tto be expected given how much time he has spent out of the game in the alst 3 years. 4 tackles from an inside clearance player is okay. Equal third for us and 4th for both sides. He gave plenty of in close handballs to set a lot of stuff up so you are not going to be making 10 tackles if you are handing the footy of in close 15 odd times.
I am not sold on him yet but the last two weeks have been a step in the right direction competitively compared to the start of the year.

There were definitely positives today, but I'm reacting to the notion he was good or should come into the AFL team talk.

It's not the failure to hold tackles or win hard ball that I'm critical of. It's the avoidance of the attempt, I'd be a lot more complementary if he was throwing himself at tackles that got broken because he isn't strong enough yet, or taking defensive position on an outlet option when the ball hasn't broken his way at the stoppage. There is value in the half broken tackles that aren't counted as they can cause pressured possessions or just moving to defensive positions so oppositions have to dump kick. He just doesn't seem to be adding value outside of his possessions.

He might have legitimate reasons for why he is currently physically underprepared like Tex, but I'd like to be seeing more in regard to competitiveness 12 months out from an injury.

A huge part of our improvement this year has been competitiveness around the ball. I'm not really looking to revert in that regard. Also the failures in his outside game mean we can't really be selecting him as the impact sub or pseudo winger we have recently.

 

[IHurley]

Interesting to know that half of our board would have desisted Clayton Oliver

13

Clayton Oliver

Age

26

Ht

189cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.8

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

18.4

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

6.3

5star

CL

6.3

5star

D

25.1

5star

K

11.1

4star

HB

14.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

5.6

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

19.2

5star

K

4.6

2star

HB

14.6

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

4.4

5star

CL

3.8

5star

after his first season.

Tsatas is 19 and has the second best hands in the comp. He's also quick. He'll be a top 5 player in the comp and half of our supporters want him shipped off for a 4th rounder.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Interesting to know that half of our board would have desisted Clayton Oliver after his first season.

Tsatas is 19 and has the second best hands in the comp. He's also quick. He'll be a top 5 player in the comp and half of our supporters want him shipped off for a 4th rounder.

That's a bad example. Clayton Oliver was a gun from the get go. Averaged 19.2 touches 0.5 goals, 4.8 tackles and 4.2 clearances in his first year and was physically bullying mature players already. His competitiveness and aggression was never in question. Even though his footskills weren't great he had depth and penetration. By this point in his career he was averaging 30 touches, 6.6 clearances and 7 tackles a game. Not comparable in the slightest.

 

[IHurley]

That's a bad example. Clayton Oliver was a gun from the get go. Averaged 19.2 touches 0.5 goals, 4.8 tackles and 4.2 clearances in his first year and was physically bullying mature players already. His competitiveness and aggression was never in question. Even though his footskills weren't great he had depth and penetration. By this point in his career he was averaging 30 touches, 6.6 clearances and 7 tackles a game. Not comparable in the slightest.

Thanks for the stats.

And just to confirm. Oliver was on the wing rather than inside mid for all his 1st year games right?

There's things for Tsatas to work on sure and our current AFL mid set up is working very well. Hence why Tsatas is learning in the VFL - nothing wrong with that. But this talk about his selection being a mistake is half mad, half insane lunacy. Players with his coordination, play reading, athleticism and drive are generation players. Nothing against Durham or Ridley but I'd be giving Tsatas a 5 year extension right now over them.

 

[Don Won]

Interesting to know that half of our board would have desisted Clayton Oliver after his first season.

Tsatas is 19 and has the second best hands in the comp. He's also quick. He'll be a top 5 player in the comp and half of our supporters want him shipped off for a 4th rounder.

Its frustrating. The sorrt of knee jerk reactive , short term thinking that gets us nowhere. Those guys are looking at the way he plays today, and not giving him the potential for growth in the future. Should be asking for a 3rd.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Interesting to know that half of our board would have desisted Clayton Oliver after his first season.

Tsatas is 19 and has the second best hands in the comp. He's also quick. He'll be a top 5 player in the comp and half of our supporters want him shipped off for a 4th rounder.

I generally agree with you in that I think it’s possible and in fact likely he will be that good - he has that upside. 39 touches when you’re not kicking out shows us we have a genuine ball winner, and he’s not one of those pedestrian Tom Mitchell types with no spark. He moves very well, he’s going to be massive in the end and he marks well.

But he does have a bit to work through in terms of kicking and ferocity. So there’s still a maybe.

I am not critical of us selecting him and I’m glad we had a big swing over a more conservative selection.

We don’t need him playing ones at the moment. Our senior midfield is flying. I’m happy to give Tsatas another 18 months to start seriously putting it together. No hot takes from me in the meantime.

 

[Yoda_]

If he was kicking predominantly then you'd worry but he had more handballs than kicks.

If we learn to utilise his (and everyone else's) strengths to the betterment of the team then we absolutely have an AFL player on our hands.

 

[FootyGuru]

Had huge impact in the vfl yesterday. Our senior midfield is #1 in the comp at the moment so would prefer him hone his craft in VFL than he play seniors as a forward pocket/ wing or potentially as a sub.

 

[ant555]

There were definitely positives today, but I'm reacting to the notion he was good or should come into the AFL team talk.

It's not the failure to hold tackles or win hard ball that I'm critical of. It's the avoidance of the attempt, I'd be a lot more complementary if he was throwing himself at tackles that got broken because he isn't strong enough yet, or taking defensive position on an outlet option when the ball hasn't broken his way at the stoppage. There is value in the half broken tackles that aren't counted as they can cause pressured possessions or just moving to defensive positions so oppositions have to dump kick. He just doesn't seem to be adding value outside of his possessions.

He might have legitimate reasons for why he is currently physically underprepared like Tex, but I'd like to be seeing more in regard to competitiveness 12 months out from an injury.

A huge part of our improvement this year has been competitiveness around the ball. I'm not really looking to revert in that regard. Also the failures in his outside game mean we can't really be selecting him as the impact sub or pseudo winger we have recently.

For me I have no issues with him just playing midfield at VFL level. I do not want to see him at AFL playing wing or half forward or even sub. If a midfield spot comes up then fine play him for a bit.

 

[faible]

Tsatas is still growing in to his body, looks to have a frame capable of carrying a significant amount of weight (like Jobe) and is a long way from the finished product physically.

He’s not Judd who was a star from his first game which seems to be what people expect. GAJ wasn’t a star midfielder until his 6th season at Geelong and ended up close to being the best who’s ever played the game.

Not all players are on the same timeline.