Synbad wrote:
JW goes to ground way too easily because he is stuck in 'cruise mode' Cruise mode is an affliction a few of our footballers have because the benchmark from the senior players is cruise mode.
You know youve made it at Carlton when youre in cruise mode.
JW needs to be taken to CHB and given tasks to concentrate.Where if he goes to ground easily his opponent will kick goals.
He has a few terrible habits now and needs to walk in his fathers footsteps (in defence) to iron them out and make him become a more rounded footballer.
Right now he is a show pony.
He doesnt do much except fly for marks or do the flashy stuff..it usually doesnt work for him.
Huge pre season and....
CHB next year!
Waite is a perfect example of our poor youth development program and Pagan's modus operandi..
I remember a TBV reserves game report years ago when Ross Lyon tore strips off Waite for undisciplned play in the back line - probably for the same things he's doing now 5 years later. That's why he was the only player who didn't get a run in that injury-riddled year. Even Davis with his skrawny 13 yr old body got a few games.
But come 2003 he had one thing that gave Den a mini hard-on - he could take a speccy. So in Den's disastrous game plan he became one of the golden haired boys. As long as he could take the odd speccy, his defiencies could be overlooked. You rarely if ever see him get dragged or the runner out to chat with him, so the defiencies continue. Look at young Smith today - 3 mins on, 1 mistake and off. Den has an apartheid system operating - as in "apart-height" - tall is good. I'll bet my balls the thought of taking Kennedy first pick in last years draft would have entered Den's small brain more than once.
Here's what Wisbey wrote about him after Waite was drafted back in 2001:
Waite (46) just a battler? Big mark, big kick but lacks poise, balance, smarts and is a turnover merchant.
Five years on and you could argue that nothing much has changed - except that Waite thinks he's made it (Sheedy picking him in that International side didn't help).
Would I trade him? For a top 10 pick maybe, otherwise no. Even though he remains the same raw talent he was back in 2002, he does have a huge upside and the worry is that, under a half decent coach, he could finally take that huge step. His first round game against Melbourne this year was excellent - his first and only 100 minute game - but he hasn't gone anywhere near that since.
Hopefully a new coaching team devoted to development will at last get Waite on the road to being a disciplined 100 minute performer while still maintaining the wild card element in his game.