Farewell and thanks - John Noble

[uncanny]

Johnny Noble was a very good player for us last year and deserved his spot in the side; except ....
He got caught with the ball and had poor patches in the preliminary final loss. Hopefully that is a game he can learn from and not a sign that the opposition have worked out how to go through him as a defender...

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

To drop a guy from the team he either has to be playing poorly or you have a much better player who can take his place. You're also only as good as your last game. In the case of Noble he was playing as good a football at the end of last season as he has ever played and if you plan to drop him who are you going to replace him with? Let's say for instance WHE makes a move to the backline to make way for Bobby Hill to play in the forward line, how does Noble may way for WHE? I just can't see it. Let's say we choose to play the taller key defender in Frampton and move Murphy out onto the flanks, does that push Noble out of the side? I can't see that either. For me the only way I see Noble being pushed out of the side is if he's playing poorly and based on his most recent form in the preliminary final against the Swans I can't see that happening.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

Johnny Noble was a very good player for us last year and deserved his spot in the side; except ....
He got caught with the ball and had poor patches in the preliminary final loss. Hopefully that is a game he can learn from and not a sign that the opposition have worked out how to go through him as a defender...

We played poorly as a team in the first half. I don't know how you can pick on one player and say that player had poor patches and got caught with the ball. The Swans are a scraggy team to play against and awful to watch. When the game opened up in the second half we played much better and in that last quarter I thought Noble was very good. The Swans got exactly what they deserved against Geelong in the grand final.

[Monco Matt]

With ball in hand, he is a good player. Generally, he uses the ball well and has speed in his favour. However, he is not a ball winner and is beaten in contests too often. We have plenty of ball movers and some can also win contests, Noble's body size & physicality is his issue. So, I think he can be replaced with someone more physical. I want our runners to also be able to win contests and push the opposition off the football more often than not.

[LaurieHolden]

With ball in hand, he is a good player. Generally, he uses the ball well and has speed in his favour. However, he is not a ball winner and is beaten in contests too often. We have plenty of ball movers and some can also win contests, Noble's body size & physicality is his issue. So, I think he can be replaced with someone more physical. I want our runners to also be able to win contests and push the opposition off the football more often than not.

True, he's an uncontested possession winning outsider runner, not what Allan Jeans would have termed “a good driver in heavy traffic”. With that he needs space where he can exploit his 1-wood, which is his speed.
Fact remains, players averaging less than 20 possessions a game are always going to remain on the fringe, unless they have X factor / the 1%'ers, the variety of actions which benefit the team. (not the Hells Angels 1%'ers that reportedly used to turn up to training...)

It's interesting, comparing season '22, IQ's disposal and efficiency numbers are no better than John Nobles, actually Noble's stat web is superior. If we take the blinkers off, and it was comparing against an opposition player, we'd take Noble on stat's alone. But as we know, stat's don't tell the full story. At 10kg heavier, IQ has the ability to break the lines physically, and perhaps where he will go past Noble is through his physical work around the stoppages.
Even Bianco, he's a better kick, but doesn't have the pace to secure a regular starting spot, forward or back.
At this stage, the determined and incumbent Noble keeps his spot, until someone dislodges him, and that will take some doing.
All in all, the back 6 is getting hard to break into, good for the CFC.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

After the comment that he was being caught with the ball in the preliminary final I checked his stats. There was one free kick against him which I assume was for being caught with the ball. So only on one occasion was he caught with the the ball. Also he has 17 possessions which was about sixth or seventh for a Collingwood player. I think only Moore and Howe were ahead of him as defenders. As I said it will take a very good player to push him out of the side.

[gurugeoff]

he has done amazingly well for a mid year draftee - but a bigger stronger version of himself would be preferred, but same goes for lots of players

[Cam]

His height and weight, and ability one-on-one, as others have mentioned.

Off the chain and he is part of our top 3 most consistently damaging runners with Crisp and Nick D. He proved invaluable with his second efforts and as much of footy now is zones rather than matchups he was a one of our offensive rebounding keys.

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

Perhaps people putting Frampton ahead of Noble in Best 22 lists are forgetting that the former played 6 games in a team that finished 14th while the latter played 25 in a team which finished 3rd

While he played a couple of decent games and we all hope he’ll be a good recruit for us, Adelaide effectively replaced Frampton with Keane who, no disrespect, wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire before taking a year off

[Pies2016]

Maynard - Frampton/Murphy/Dean - Howe
Quaynor - Moore - Pendles /Crisp

For mine, any of the above players form our likely best balanced back six and while Noble doesn’t appear above as a best 18 player, there will be a bench of five this year. He still becomes an important player, in that the coaches would give him a role which would likely free up one of Crisp or Pendles to spend some time on the ball.
Naicos will spend little time in the back line this year. He came to club as a silky goal kicking midfielder. They won’t be wasting those god given talents in the back half for much longer.

[inxs88]

Finals footy is about winning contests at all costs. The Preliminary Final was an obvious audit that he failed badly. One can never deny his endeavour, sacrifice and desire but he should over the Summer attempt to put on 5 kg of muscle particularly around the core and biceps.

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

Also someone has to be Jarryd Blair /whipcrack

[LaurieHolden]

John Noble has been labelled by Kane Cornes as the best value for money player in the AFL.

The 2019 mid-season draft selection has started the season in good order, picking up 29 disposals in the Round 1 win over Geelong before he had 19 touches, six rebound 50s and four inside 50s in the weekend’s comfortable win over Port Adelaide.

Noble’s form has prompted praise from Cornes who highlighted the 26-year-old’s output versus his contract which would likely be on the lower side.

“John Noble is the best value for money player in the AFL,” Cornes said on SEN’s Sportsday.

“The 2019 mid-year pickup played every game last year, signed a two-year contract extension, and I reckon he’d be under the average wage.

“I’m guessing here, but I reckon he’s a $300,000 player. I reckon he’s worth $500,000.

“They say in American sport that the best value you can have in the NFL is a quarterback on a rookie contract because for five years the wage is set. When that expires you have to pay them half a billion dollars if they’re any good. It means you can’t spend money on the offensive and defensive lines.

“It’s the same with Collingwood. Because you’ve got such a bonus with Noble, you essentially get another half a good player in your salary cap.

“I just thought he was worthy of recognition. We’re all going to talk about (Nick) Daicos and everyone else at Collingwood, he’s one player that is in ripping form.”

Luke Hodge concurs with Cornes, especially given Collingwood’s recent salary cap issues.

“I don’t even reckon he’d be on that much,” he said.

“I agree with you with the fact that how important he is and what he’s been able to do. He came in at a mid-season draft, he will do anything to hold onto a contract and their salary cap was exploding last year.

“I’m saying it’s probably even more value for them because he’s probably getting unders.”

Since Noble was drafted from SANFL club West Adelaide, he has played 71 games for the Magpies primarily as a half-back. He averages close to 18 disposals a game across his AFL career.

Source :
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/03/27/ ... n-the-afl/

[dalyc]

It always surprised me how many posters thought John was not in our best 22. I think that worm has turned now though and he’s getting due recognition.

[Johnno75]

Up to 71 games already, will be up near 100 by seasons end.