AFL Player #23: Harrison Jones

[Lore]

Contract Status: Out of contract 2025
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 22, Duckworth

 

[Lore]

It’s been 12 days for 2 years I thought?

Might be 12. Automatically misses next week anyway

 

[Snake Charmer]

Jones will be ok IMO. Playing without confidence and can’t clunk a mark to save him self. The shinning light is he still flys in to packs around the ground. depth is the issue so it’s hard to drop him, cause he needs a good run in the vfl

 

[andleanback]

Might be 12. Automatically misses next week anyway

Yeh definitely misses next week, wouldn’t be surprised if it’s longer he was in all sorts coming off.

 

[Lore]

Yeh definitely misses next week, wouldn’t surprised if it’s longer he was in all sorts coming off.

Mouthful of blood too

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

Paying the 2-3 contested 'marks' he took today would've helped his confidence

Truly bizarre umpiring

 

[eth-dog]

Paying the 2-3 contested 'marks' he took today would've helped his confidence

Yep. If he got that first one and kicked it I reckon he'd have gotten 4-5.

 

[Happyskeret]

There was one I thought (mark not payed) he was a little bit stiff on but imo he didn’t stick his marks.

 

[Yoda_]

Just said AFL needs to save Paddy McCartin from himself.

We (Essendon) need to save Harry from himself and let him find form in the twos imho.

 

[ghostdog]

Should go back to the VFL get some confidence, dominate a lower standard defender, get some touch. Dropping virtually every ball he gets his hands to.

In fairness, Harry took a couple of marks today that could have been paid on any other day. I thought he looked better today. He's coming on.

 

[ant555]

Paying the 2-3 contested 'marks' he took today would've helped his confidence

Having watched the replay the first one in the square did come off the palm of the Giants player so the call was right but in saying that you will see a lot of them paid a mark as well. May have helped his confidence for sure.

 

[ant555]

I still think the lack of confidence comes from the fact he has come into the side in the last 2 seasons without a good run of lead in form either from a good pre season or the VFL. At some stages he has played because he has been the last man standing for CHF. Last year he cam back and was not 100% and played a very limited time in the VFL and his form was horrible and he has continued from there. There is no doubt he is working harder than anyone in the forward half but it is just not converting into possessions and goals.
He may get a reprieve this week with Weideman being out again but he really needs some VFL time to gain the confidence again.

 

[fairbump_playon]

The hack kick at the end? The game was done 30 seconds left

What about the couple of contested marks he took that weren’t paid. I’d be more focused on that

Yep, maybe he needs some confidence. But he's so close I reckon.

It's not helpful when he takes a very strong pack mark 20 metres from goal in the first quarter and it's not paid. He kicks that, maybe gets a pep in his step, and some of those nearly marks become marks.

Regardless, I would persevere with him. He's structurally helpful even when not dominating... and I feel like he is likely to start sticking it together pretty soon if he keeps getting a chance.

 

[srobbo]

I thought it was an encouraging game yest. Kept presenting with vigour & if those pack marks stuck he’d have grown another leg. He’s not far away.

 

[rumply]

I thought it was an encouraging game yest. Kept presenting with vigour & if those pack marks stuck he’d have grown another leg. He’s not far away.

Getting robbed of a clear mark directly in front of goal early in the game doesn't help matters.

 

[rumply]

Anyway, I saw that Harry was playing on Toby for a while there yesterday so his role probably isn't as straight forward as we may think.

 

[Old Campaigner]

They should give him a run in the ruck for a bit

 

[Squeaky]

They should give him a run in the ruck for a bit

Morning Wallsy!

 

[rumply]

Into the 3rd & trying to keep an eye on him, doing a power of work between the arcs so his final distance covered would be interesting in anyone has access to that info.

 

[Ati Tude]

With the Weid out, you have to keep playing the Jones boy. Maybe Voss comes in for Weid now. Not going to get any easier for Harry though with May and Lever to contend with this week, let alone the poor delivery into the forward line even against average sides. Melb will be more wary of Stringer this week, so maybe Harry can get a soft goal or 2 to build his confidence.

 

[Lore]

Into the 3rd & trying to keep an eye on him, doing a power of work between the arcs so his final distance covered would be interesting in anyone has access to that info.

Less than 14.0km given he isn’t in the top 5 on ground for distance covered yesterday.

He is top 5 for both average speed in attack when Essendon has possession, and average speed in defence when the opposition has possession though. (The tracker calls it “work rate”.)

 

[faible]

Having watched the replay the first one in the square did come off the palm of the Giants player so the call was right but in saying that you will see a lot of them paid a mark as well. May have helped his confidence for sure.

They’ve paid those consistently for years, unless it’s clear as day that it’s come off a hand prior to the contest they always pay a mark if it hits a cluster of hands. Just weird they decided today was the day not to anymore.

Jones looks bereft of confidence in his kicking for goal, this happened the other year and then once he got his head back in it he was a reliable shot.

Probably needs a game or two kicking them at VFL level to get his confidence back, since other than that he’s doing a lot right, but with the Weideman concussion he’s probably stuck in the AFL for at least another week.

 

[yodellinhank]

Yeh definitely misses next week, wouldn’t be surprised if it’s longer he was in all sorts coming off.

They'll package up all available evidence and make a decision based on that. Could be 12 weeks or more.

 

[Vass38]

Positives are he covers ground and offers a marking target
Negatives are he doesn’t clunk enough of those marks as he’s manoeuvred out of the contest too easily and he also has the yips in front of goal
He simply has to stay in now though with Weideman out - hopefully he can have a 3 or 4 goal game soon - it will do wonders for his confidence


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[Call Me Cake]

I say give him one more week.

 

[Lore]

It’s his fourth year on the list and his third season actually playing, but it is kind of like second year blues, in the sense that he had a good year the first year he played at AFL level, and now everyone knows his strengths and how to take them away, they have plenty of footage of him if they want to study it, and he has to learn some more tricks as a consequence. Interrupted preseasons have probably impacted him, though he has put on a fair bit of weight in the gym.

Like basically there’s a fair amount about how he plays that looks instinctual (in congestion particularly, he seems to have good 360° awareness and reasonably quick hands), with a simplistic layer of coaching on top in terms of running patterns and a bit of rucking from when he was a junior. Not sure if he spent much time as a forward in juniors though?

Among other things, I’d kind of like for him to spend more time with Langford, get some second hand goal kicking wisdom from the school of Matthew Lloyd. Neither of those blokes ever seem nervous when they have the ball regardless of the score board, though Lloyd missed plenty in his first year.

Hopefully the big push with hiring more development staff will help him a bit too. He’s one you’d expect to have come on a bit more, along with Perkins and Caldwell. All three are due to breakout.