WOOF welcomes Cooper Hynes to the Whitten Oval

[SquirrelGrip]

What nickname should Cooper Hynes have?

Coop Dog?

The Hyena

[bulldogtragic]

Or:

IMG_4479.jpeg

[GVGjr]

Dominating for Dandenong Stingrays throughout the season, finishing second in the Morrish Medal, Hynes also showcased his damaging forward half traits on the national stage for Vic Country. The Bonbeach prospect’s best performance came in their win over Western Australia where he gathered 20 disposals, nine score involvements and kicked two snap goals. Hynes also kicked a bag of five and had 23 disposals in a stunning display against the Suns Academy. A 190cm forward-midfielder who is tough, powerful and hits the scoreboard, Hynes tore the Coates Talent League to shreds before suffering a torn ligament in his ankle in round 17. The Stingrays co-captain views that game as his best for the year, finishing with 28 disposals, 17 contested possessions and three goals. Hynes missed a couple of weeks after that blow but managed to have an impact despite still being hindered by the injury, kicking two goals against Bendigo and Gippsland during the finals series. His running capacity is an area of improvement to ensure he can spend more time in on-ball, but if it does lift, look out.

2024 Coates Talent League
131 ranking points, 23.7 disposals, 3.7 marks, 4.5 inside-50s, 4.7 clearances, 7.4 score involvements, 3.1 tackles, 1.5 goals (15 games) 2024 National Champs 90 ranking points, 16.8 disposals, 4.8 marks, 3 inside-50s, 2 clearances, 5.3 score involvements, 2.5 tackles, 1.0 goals (4 games) 129 ranking points, 22.4 disposals, 6.6 intercepts, 5.3 tackles (7 games)

[lemmon]

Interesting that Riley Beveridge said he sees himself more as a forward who takes a turn through the midfield rather than the other way around.

[hujsh]

Interesting that Riley Beveridge said he sees himself more as a forward who takes a turn through the midfield rather than the other way around.

It also sounds like it literally can't be the other way around because he doesn't have the tank (yet)

[bulldogtragic]

Interesting that Riley Beveridge said he sees himself more as a forward who takes a turn through the midfield rather than the other way around.

Well that’s a start. Over a Prima Donna who sulked for years about playing that role for the team before walking out. I think he might be paired with Kennedy about how to play that role at the level.

[hujsh]

I think the profile from rookieme was posted but not the analysis. Bold parts my emphasis
https://central.rookieme.com/afl/player/cooper-hynes/

STRENGTHS:
+ Consistency
+ Creativity
+ Power
+ Production
+ Scoreboard impact
+ Size

IMPROVEMENTS:
- Four-quarter consistency
- Running capacity

Hynes has been tearing up the Coates Talent League for a while now, and his sheer size is a huge factor when competing with peers. At 190cm and with a powerful frame, he holds his own one-on-one inside 50 or when prising contested ball. Hynes' clean hands and good vision make for slick distributive methods on the inside, where he can also lean on his physical advantages to absorb pressure, break tackles, or out-body opponents.

While he may transfer pressure at times, Hynes is relatively clean by hand and wonderfully creative by foot. He has improved significantly in being able to identify short options going forward or inboard, backing his skills to pick out the lower-percentage option and making things happen. The same goes for when he produces scoring opportunities, displaying great composure to assess moving parts ahead of him and pick holes in the defence.

Hynes' physicality makes him a weapon in contests, and while he is crafty enough to use the ball effectively, may sometimes be reliant on that factor. Nonetheless, it's part of the package he offers, and he is a highly impactful player because of it. Few others could compare with Hynes' best games on pure numbers, boasting a season-high disposal tally of 35 and personal-best five-goal effort in the Coates Talent League this year.

He posted such figures on a consistent basis, too. Hynes' lowest disposal haul was 16, dipping below 20 just three times across 15 outings - all within the last month of the season. His influence extended to the scoreboard having split his time between the midfield and forwardline around a 60-40 ratio. He was held goalless five times, but snared multiple majors on six occasions - including bags of five, four, and three (twice).

Despite his evident power, many of Hynes' key improvement areas fit into the athletic realm. He isn't blessed with speed and has come a long way in terms of meeting the high conditioning standards set of Coates Talent League players. That being said, endurance is an area Hynes can continue to improve, particularly if he plays on-ball, and will lend to greater four-quarter consistency - he tends to be a fast starter.

SUMMARY

Hynes fits the mould of in-vogue powerful midfielders who can go forward and impact games heavily in both roles. With improvements to be made to his athleticism and endurance, he may well begin his career up forward where he would capably hold his own one-on-one and help produce scoring opportunities with his creative nous. Adjusting to another step up in speed of play will be challenging, though Hynes has the physical makeup and footy smarts to last. Expect him to feature somewhere in the first round, likely in the late-teens or early-20s.

[hujsh]

If he can be a bit more creative and productive by foot than a Dunkley/Kennedy type and his physicality is used to buy time and space to enable that then he could well be a good mid or mid/fwd for us. We kind of miss players that rotate through both roles well.

[bornadog]

[Axe Man]

Looks like GG has been generating AI images again.

PS welcome back BAD

[jeemak]

Here he is, the one and only BAD!!!!

Good to see you're back from your post season sabbatical with Greystache! How is he BTW? How are you mate?

[Dry Rot]

I know nothing about him aside from having just watched some highlights, which may or may not be a good guide.

He seems to get into the right places in the middle and up forward which makes up for perhaps a lack of speed, good overhead mark, good vision and execution, and the most important for me he can lay a serious tackle.

I liked what I saw.

Could he play round one?

[josie]

Seems like a calm individual & well spoken. Big tick regarding his character that he was co-captain at Dandy. Looking forward to seeing him play for us. Presuming he plays initially in vfl it’ll be nice to have a decent forward, yay.

Who knows, if he impresses in preseason he might play HF in seniors early on. Round 1 is north so it’s a possibility.

[jeemak]

I know nothing about him aside from having just watched some highlights, which may or may not be a good guide.

He seems to get into the right places in the middle and up forward which makes up for perhaps a lack of speed, good overhead mark, good vision and execution, and the most important for me he can lay a serious tackle.

I liked what I saw.

Could he play round one?

If he works hard he'll play round one. Too much talent not to.

See a bit of Clay Smith in his make up. Big body, damaging forward but really good in close.

As an aside, I'd love to have another Clay Smith come along. He was amazing and it was horrible how his knees couldn't stand up. We'd have been a different proposition with him (and Tom Boyd, mind you) these past eight years if they had have been able to put respective careers together.