Byrnes (aka Byrbes) development

[Joffa Burns]

Ran around in the first half like a chook with its head culture off. Hard unrewarding running.

Multiple leads to odd spaces, wondering if he was clearing space?

Covers the ground well, decent speed and tank, confident and uses it ok.

I hope we persevere with him as he looks ok at this early stage.

His point of difference with running capacity probably gives more upside than B2.

Thoughts?

[saintsRrising]

I thought he was B2?

B1 going very well for the numbers of games played.

B2 since coming back in has looked ok with plenty of upside. He also looks to have a solid build as well.


I also prefer just playing the 2 small forwards with the extra mid, and so I quite like the balance we now have with B1 and B2 in the team.

Wood for Ross was not good, and so Ross back will be good too.

[skeptic]

The extra little time/development Bytel has had shows in that he’s clearly ready to compete at AFL. That’s not to say that he will always do well... in fact I expect him to take a few baths from time to time and am happy to cop that given what he has shown, with the view that he’ll get better and better

Byrnes is not quite even there yet.
He clearly wasn’t ready when he debuted last year and he’s somewhere between looking competitive and decent at times to out of his depth.
He’ll have bad games and mess up too... in fact he might have a few absolute stinkers in the coming weeks but again...100% I’d take it and persevere as long as he’s not consistently floundering

Really like the look of this kid

[older saint]

Keep playing him at the moment, Disposal efficiency high and more upside to playing him than other options such as Kent, Long, McKenzie.

[bangaulegend]

Keep playing B1 & B2 there our future & game time will only prepare them for what's to come & hopefully that's a competitive unit continuing to improve to get to the ultimate goal

[saynta]

They're definitely our future midfield.

[samoht]

He is quicker and more agile than I originally thought - and not just "inside."

By playing 2 small forwards only and not reverting back to 3 (which was overkill), we can (and should) keep playing Byrnes.

Makes perfect sense.

[cwrcyn]

It's so hard to gauge. Both guys have played very little senior football. Bytel likes it in close and has good hands. Byrnes is more of a runner. Neither have jumped out of the box like some other young mids in recent times (at other clubs). I look back to Seb Ross, who looked similarly unspectacular in his first 30 games. It can go either way. They can become a Seb Ross or they can become a Luke Dunstan. Flip of the coin at this stage. What's obvious is that we desperately need both of them to develop into competent and dependable mids

[saintbob]

Keep playing B1 & B2 there our future & game time will only prepare them for what's to come & hopefully that's a competitive unit continuing to improve to get to the ultimate goal

Agree totally, I’d rather watch them develop and grow as players than keep going back to the likes of Dunstan and Lonie.

[Yorkeys]

Agree StBob. Stubbornly keep thinking there must be a role for Dunstan though, he has some excellent attributes - getting the ball for one, which is a handy start against teams like Geelong who tend to never give it back once they have it. Very selfish. At same time don't know who Luke would replace in current line up.