Originally Posted by
stopper2
Had an interesting conversation recently with another supporter about how Hoole came to the club originally from Magic as an attacking midfielder yet when he started playing in the Youth team, they converted him to a RB, where he even made his senior debut. Well before you know it we came up with a heap of players who, particularly under GVE, were moulded into RB's or LB's:
Tarek Elrich: originally an attacking wide player
Matt Thompson: originally centre mid, played LB mainly for 2 years ('06/07 - '07/08)
Adam D'Appuzzo: originally centre mid but played mostly LB at Jets
Andrew Hoole: as mentioned above
Jacob Pepper: originally centre mid, was thrust into RB role for 1st half of '13/14 but "experiment" failed
Josh Brillante: originally centre mid but converted to RB for 2nd half of '13/14 to cover for "lack of depth" in that position
The latest in this long history of converting players to fullback is seemingly Nick Cowburn, a player who has always played predominantly in central areas mainly either in midfield or CB is now being preferred as a RB by Muppet.
Lets be honest Tarek as been a major success at either RB or LB but his amazing goal last night against Melb City makes one think what "might've been" if he had been nurtured in his inaugural years at the Jets in an attacking role.
Hoole, I believe wasted at least 2 seasons (Youth/Seniors) at RB and it is evident that he lost his natural instincts in front of goal that he seemingly had as a teenager for Magic. Interesting that Arnold has stated that he sees him as a #10 and can't wait to start working with him, nurturing him for that role.
I think it just highlights the laziness of coaches like GVE and Muppet when they would rather just slot a young player into RB or LB just to basically fill the team sheet because they are good enough to play but in their eyes....not good enough to play in their natural position which is more of a challenge.