Hutch - Spirit Days

[shipwreck]

Just wondering if any old spirit fans can fill me in on Hutchs playing style/trademarks, ive been a mariners fan since late season one and i really have never seen him display the form that would justify the nearly unconditional faith that lawrie seems to have in him...
Did i miss something from his old days, it just seems, especially lately, that he is ordinary and slow, please prove me wrong

[northernspirit]

Im an old spirit fan, i remember him in those days as being a pretty decent player - decent passing, scored a couple and fitted well into the team. I guess when you try to compare his NSL days to A-League its not the same, the standard is so much higher now and the players are all full time. He never stood out someone really good (hendo was my favourite back then), but by the same token never stood out really bad either (nicola berti)... I dont rate him that badly, i think he still has plenty to offer the squad.

[shipwreck]

Well...its been over 6 hours and only one guy has *barely* come to his defense, seriously lawrie has signed him on a 3 year contract, the highest offered to any mariner except Mrdja and he hasnt even showed the goods to justify his worth!!!
Anyway, im drunk as just got back from iggies and stopped my mate gettting in a massive fight, can barelyt typr...so anyway, hutch has gotta pick his game up, ive seenh im miss like 4 sitter in the last 4 games!

[blackadder]

Not a flashy player by any means, but solid and reliable esp in defence from time to time can also drift forward in attack.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

shipwreck said:

Well...its been over 6 hours and only one guy has *barely* come to his defense, seriously lawrie has signed him on a 3 year contract, the highest offered to any mariner except Mrdja and he hasnt even showed the goods to justify his worth!!!
Anyway, im drunk as just got back from iggies and stopped my mate gettting in a massive fight, can barelyt typr...so anyway, hutch has gotta pick his game up, ive seenh im miss like 4 sitter in the last 4 games!

i'm not on the computer 24/7, but i reckon if hutch had not been so unlucky to tear his acl in sydney in jan 06, we might well have won the first toilet seat.

he was in ridiculous form, constantly getting to the right place at the right time and finishing like a champ. for the couple of months to that point he was mori-like in his ruthlessness in front of goal - 6 goals from 8 matches is pretty handy!

i don't think it's unreasonable to say that we may well have finished 2nd in the league ahead of sydney and had a better chance at winning the championship had poor old hutch not been cut down.

since then, he's struggled to get up to that pace and form, but it's still in there. if mrdja can get time to prove himself (faith he looks set to repay) then hutch certainly should.

i don't know what his spirit form was like, but uninjured and confident i think he's definitely worth a contract here.

[omni]

I agree with Dibo, I think Hutch had a great season one, where it went wrong is that injury, it seems to me he played last season like he was really worried about getting injured again, or hadn't done everything he should have to recovered.

[DBoon21]

Some stats previous to the Mariners:

Hutchinson, John
Date of Birth: 29-Dec-79
Position: Midfielder

Playing Record
Junior Club: Morwell Pegasus (Victoria)
1996/7 - Gippsland Falcons (NSL) 0 app + 4 sub. 0 gls.
1997/8 - Gippsland Falcons (NSL)
1998/9 - Gippsland Falcons (NSL) 14 app + 7 sub. 0 gls.
1999/00 - Gippsland Falcons (NSL) 31 app. 2 gls.
2000/1 - Eastern Pride (NSL) 24 app. 5 gls.
2001/2 - Northern Spirit (NSL) 21 app. 3 gls.
2002/3 - Northern Spirit (NSL) 33 app. 7 gls.
2003/4 - Northern Spirit (NSL) 23 app + 0 sub. 2 gls.
2004 - Manly-Warringah Dolphins (NSWWSL) 25 app + 0 sub. 4 gls.
2004/5 - Manly United F.C. (NSWPL)

[thesandman]

Agree with Dibo - it's sad to see him so consistently underperform. At the end of last season he appeared to have massive confidence issues - playing it safe a lot, especially turning and playing it back, he just didn't have the confidence to try anything (and with the form he was in, everything he tried failed anyway). I was hoping the off season would do him the world of good, but perhaps it hasn't.....

[mortez]

Obviously his confidence was shot to pieces last season after a major injury which can only be expected.

[bakery5]

shipwreck said:

Well...its been over 6 hours and only one guy has *barely* come to his defense, seriously lawrie has signed him on a 3 year contract, the highest offered to any mariner except Mrdja and he hasnt even showed the goods to justify his worth!!!
Anyway, im drunk as just got back from iggies and stopped my mate gettting in a massive fight, can barelyt typr...so anyway, hutch has gotta pick his game up, ive seenh im miss like 4 sitter in the last 4 games!

Never post when drunk.
How was the new troppo?

[Pete]

Hutch's form in v1 justified the high salary you allude to. He was, I think, one of the top 2 or 3 top goal scorers in the HAL, and his play was brilliant at times. The knee injury was a terrible way to end his season, and yes, with Hutch, we may well have won the GF.


Season 2 was return from injury. It didn't help that public press releases were saying things like "welcome back Hutch, he's back as good as new" and then when you went to the game he was very tentative going into tackles, playing within himself both running with the ball and challenging. Gave you the impression he was being precious with himself.

But Lawrie was still allowing press releases that gave you hope that Hutch was fit and well (search thru the Mariners News Archive you'll find them there if Ben hasn't deleted them yet). So who do you believe? What you see on the pitch or the manager saying the player's ready to play?

I mentioned this a little while ago in another thread, mentioning that what happened on this forum with Spencer last year could easily turn onto Hutch if he played like a princess this season, and lo and behold, DJ had info that Hutch had carried injuries. So maybe you should ask DJ what the go is now (Hutch sustained an injury vs. Perth, so is he OK to play now or carrying an injury). Over to you DJ!

[marinerbhoy]

he scored on his spirit debut against parramatta. liked him ever since. but he was also dismal when he was one on one at spirit. i rate him. its been said about what he can do. he had a disspointing last season but showed us what he could do in the game against adel.

[DJ]

Can't say I followed him at Spirit but on his Mariners form I don't rate him as a starting 11 player...........but in saying that we only have Heff, Brown and Hutch (maybe Tommy too) who can play on the left so we don't have a lot of options.

I don't know what's changed from his season 1 form apart from the obvious injury he suffered against Sydney................I just hope he has the drive to gain that form again? With competition for places he should have enough motivation to.

I do rate his goal celebrations against the scum thou

[wombat]

He was top quality tonight. Very impressive.

[shipwreck]

Definitely, Hutch played really well tonight and i see his quality in true light, he is very calm on the ball, always looks up and never has his head down making a rash panic to get it away, extremely good at shielding it with his back and rolling off his man.
Excellent game tonight hutch, take back any negatives i said or implied about him. A+

[brett]

Lawrie put a lot of responsibility on Hutch's shoulders last night and that seems to have got the most out of him. With Juninho running at him he looked suspect but other than that he was running the show, good on him.

[roylaw]

I thought Hutchinson was outstanding against Sydney; I can can now (much belatedly) see why Mckinna has such faith in him.