Liam Jones has saved his career.Source:AAP
SOMETIMES a kick in the other direction is all you need.
For Carlton’s Liam Jones, a complete 180-degree turn from the forward line to defence has saved his career, according to AFL legend and commentator Cameron Mooney.
Mooney said the 26-year-old’s potential as a football player had fallen flat after failing to be proactive in attack in his role as a forward.
Mooney played a big role in Jones’ development while coaching the Western Bulldogs’ forward line (Jones’ former club) and said his physical attributes were squandered by his low appetite for big plays.
“Jonesy always had great speed, athleticism and all those types of things, but he was lazy,” Mooney said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“His work rate was shocking. That was Jonesy’s biggest problem.”
Mooney said Jones’ lack of interest in pursuing the ball after marking contests was one of his major faults.
“When you’re in the forward line and you go for a marking contest, you see a lot of players — Jonesy was one of these guys — have one effort and that was it, because you’re not going to get punished with a guy kicking a goal on you,” he said, before claiming his move to a defending position was what saved his career.
“When you run down in defence, you’ve got to work, because if you do one effort and your bloke does two or three, he‘s going to kick a goal on you.
“That’s been probably the greatest thing for his career, actually going down there and playing on forwards who work and work.
“He gets his fitness up and he actually understands what it takes to be a footballer.”
HOW TIGERS CAN WIN THE FLAG
Can Dustin bring the Tigers home?Source:Getty Images
The Richmond Tigers enjoyed a stellar start to the season, going undefeated for the first five rounds and sitting in most people’s top three title contenders list for the season.
Then disaster struck.
The Tigers endured a four-match losing streak against Adelaide, Western Bulldogs, Fremantle and GWS before finally getting their season back on track with a win over Essendon in Round 10.
Despite the hiccups, former coach Chris Connolly says the Tigers have a huge chance at taking home the flag in 2017.
“This is the most even season I can remember. There’s no dominant Hawthorn or dominant Sydney,” he said on SEN’s Hungry for Sport.
“Richmond are a chance to win the premiership. All of the teams in the top eight are a chance to win the premiership the way this season is unfolding.
“When you look at the coaching group of GWS, it is a really inexperienced group…as a collective group they are so inexperienced compared to other clubs in the competition,” he said.
“I think it is something that could bring them undone, particularly when they are under pressure. They are under pressure more than they have ever been because they have got so many injuries.
“Unfairly I think that the people that are missing out the most at GWS in this theory here is that the coaches themselves aren’t being developed as quickly as they should be because there is not enough senior guys around.”
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