Dylan McNeil

[wolftone57]

Not sure about this, when he was kicking bags in the 2's, he tended to function in lead/mark/setshot/goal mode. Roving the packs wasn't a big part of his game, nor were defensive acts. The coaches have had him working hard to improve the latter, but can they improve the former, or is that more instinctive?
It's academic anyway, he's contracted next year (unlike Dyl). So unless he wants out . . .

I'm not saying the coaches need to help him with the instinctive stuff I am saying it has probable suffered a bit because of his concentration on the non instinctive stuff. In writing we talk about the two types of thinking, lateral and vertical. Lateral is the inventive, creative, natural bent and Vertical is the learned behaviour, arithmetic, organisational bent. The trouble is either of these behaviors or ways of thinking can overshadow or completely take over from the other. This means the other side suffers and a work is not complete or substantial. I think the same can happen with footballers, the stuff they are taught is not natural to them so they concentrate so hard on this that the natural side of their game suffers. What the player needs to do is try to get a balance between the two we call this choosing the 'real but unusual'. In other words applying the natural skills that are reasonable to use in AFL footy with the taught skills also in a reasonable quantity. It is no use a player substituting the taught skills for his natural talent but when learning new skills we as humans tend to do just that.

[wolftone57]

Dylan always struck me as a Kirk clone, so if being sacked from our rookie list is what he needs to walk in Kirky's footsteps so be it!!

He may well be retained I am not saying he won't I just think he may benefit from a year there. I don't think there is the constant competition here that he is going to get there. It will teach him to be more competitive in his thinking as sometimes he seems to relax a bit. He won't have that capacity in the SANFL, VFL or WAFL. He has great natural talent, a bit wayward in delivery sometimes, but I think like TDL he is probably concentrating too much on the stuff he is learning to the detriment of his natural game. He will get that back as will TDL it is just as I have said with TDL as humans if we are learning new things we tend to use all our concentration and effort to do so.