One thing about those Assie Rules Guys... They can tackle.

Let's hope we never have to see him make one.

"RaiderPride" wrote:

Chris Bryan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Chris "Bear" Bryan (born 6 March 1982) is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.
A mature-aged recruit, Bryan was drafted in the sixth round (no.73 overall) by Carlton in the 2004 AFL Draft. He was 22 years old, and given a second-chance, showing enough at VFL level for both Sandringham and Frankston. He made his debut for the Carlton in Round 11, 2005 against Sydney and showed an immediate sign he was an aggressive and mobile ruckman, having 20 disposals and 17 hitouts. He played the next 11 games, with his form an issue to see him dropped for the last round. In round 21 he amazingly had zero disposals, but managed 20 hitouts, a career-high. He was the replacement of Barnaby French who was out with a foot injury.
He struggled in the 2006 season, as Dylan McLaren was recruited to fill the secondary ruck position behind French. Bryan played only five games, all towards the end of the season, but was dropped to the VFL reserves for the finals. Bryan was delisted by Carlton after two seasons.
Bryan nominated for the pre-season draft, and was taken by Collingwood at no.8 overall. He was a required player with limited ruck stocks, with Josh Fraser and Guy Richards the two key big men. Bryan made his debut for the club on ANZAC Day, where he showed his big kick to black and white fans. A week later he played his best game in his short career, having 15 touches, 9 marks and kicking 3 goals at AAMI Stadium against Adelaide to help an away win. His consistency became a problem, being in and out of the side. He was called up for an injured Fraser in the Semi-Final against West Coast, as well as the preliminary final against Geelong. He kicked a vital extra-time goal against the Eagles, but was beaten as a ruckman. He managed 12 games in his first season with his new club.
After Collingwoods season 2009 came to a close, Bryan was de-listed by the club. In late October, Bryan headed to Hawthorn to train with the Hawks in the hope that he may be drafted by the club.[1]
Late in February, it was revealed Bryan is close to signing a deal with an NFL team in the United States as a punter.[2]

Guess I'm the resident expert as an AFL fan.

Ok so ex-AFL punters aren't new. Darren Bennett was the first and was named to the All-Decade team of the 90s.

Since then we've had Ben Graham and Sav Rocca, who have both been good.

(Matt McBriar only played Aussie Rules as a youngster I believe, and not at anything approaching a high quality level).

Anyway on to Bryan, he was delisted last year by Collingwood after a very average career. The thing I remember about him (didn't play for my team) is that he was more of a small ruckman, which is normally the tallest player in the team who contests the ruck contest, where the ball is either bounced up or thrown in, and his job is to tap the ball down to a speedy, midfielder. The ruckman is also normally the player who's the worst kick on the team.
(emphasis dfosterf)

He may have played other positions, I don't really remember, I think he was a tall defender (again, not the best kicks).

Anyway the thing about the three other ex-AFL punters is that they were all goalscoring forwards. Lead out, take a mark, walk back and kick the ball through the goals. Big strong guys with tremendous kicking abilities.

Chris Bryan, in my humble opinion, is nowhere close to those three in natural kicking ability. He may adapt better to the different ball, but even on the video he looks slow, and I doubt he could kick it as far as the others.

I don't have high hopes for him, I would have preferred Rocca's younger brother Anthony who recently retired, but we shall see.