It's not easy to replace a Joel Fitzgerald, is it?

Oh, God, no.

When you watch the football, the really, really, really good ones stand out.

Every position they have, every contest and critical contest that's usually won is going to be a pretty positive one from the really good players.

You know, those guys, like Joel Fitzgerald, I mean, you have a look at what he's been able to do at Melbourne over the last six weeks.

And, you know, at the time, Gemma, I didn't realise how much of an impact it was going to have on our football club.

You know, Joel had been in our system for four years.

But do you watch the fact that they've, out of all of the mid-season draftees, probably played the most footy at their new AFL clubs and think, oh, I mean, we did a pretty good job of developing these guys that they've walked into an AFL program and become a regular fixture for them?

He's a real goal magnet, but have you got somebody working with him? Because right now he's only going at 50%, 15-15 for the year, and he's actually a really good goal sneak from what I've seen when he's played local footy in the Northern Footy League in his Coburg days, and even some of the games at Coburg he tore it up last year.

Yeah, look, it's a really good assessment.

You know, we think that his output's been really strong this year and we're really lucky to get hold of him and get him into our program because we felt that, you know, he was a player that we needed on our list.

But, you know, too, you know, he's probably challenges, you know, over the last probably four to five weeks he's He certainly hasn't been hitting the scoreboard as probably as consistent as what he has been.

Mind you, I mean, look, we think again, mate, that that's going to be his best foot.

He's going to be in front of him.

He's working hard on his game.

What are some of the games that really come to mind when you sort of reflect back?

So we saw the best of him last night, do you think? Or has he still got plenty more in the tank?

No, well, I must admit, I wasn't as brave as Nixie because I didn't have him in the team this week.

I was really surprised when they picked him because of the conversation that I was just having around when you're in the detail from day to day and you're coaching young men.

I thought that Hugo had some growth to come, certainly around... you know, the final details of playing as a defender.

You'd even ask Hugo, we spend a lot of stuff around when the ball leaves his area, you know, his ability to be able to defend really strongly one-on-one.

And that takes time sometimes, but Jesus, he's, after 12 games of playing him at half-back and then into an AFL team, I certainly got that wrong.

But, you know, I mean, Adelaide played some pretty good footy last night, so it certainly makes it easier to fit into a system and a strong club and I think his growth is going to be huge once he gets into Adelaide and works on his body even more and becomes a lot more clear on his craft and his role execution.

You got any more there that you can perhaps help the other side of the wicket out here?

I reckon this is another great example of it.

Yeah, it is.

It's, it's certainly, um, a, a good example of a young man that kept working at his craft and, you know, Hugo's story.

You know, he got picked up as a, an eighteen-year-old out of the Sandy Dragons and, you know, when he, when he finished at the, the, the Swans without playing a game, um, you know, you look at him, he was physically not ready, um, mentally wasn't ready, and he even admits himself that he probably went into the, um, into the, the system way too early.

And what he did have was talent, right? So when you, um, when you get that right, um, and, and you've got the player that wants to work on, on getting better and, you know, get the grind happening and, you know, put a plan in place, there's, there's plenty of examples, and he's a really good example of young men that have, have been on AFL lists and certainly guys that missed out, you know, in the under eighteen system because they get...

They, they-- There's a lot, a lot of young men that miss out on a draft, and there's a lot of young men that we, uh, we actually lose to footy because, um, of that dream.

So Hugo's a, he's a really good, um, case model for, for them young men.

So we saw the best of him last night, do you think, or has he still got plenty more in the tank?