North Melbourne’s Aaron Hall is a talented footballer who in the eyes of some has not quite reached the lofty heights his potential has promised.
The 30-year-old is often maligned for what he produces versus what he has in his arsenal.
At his best he is a dynamic attacking midfielder who can take the game on and provided plenty of drive for his side, but he can also turn in a quiet performance on the flanks where he fails to fully impact.
Hall is in his third season with the Kangaroos, which is the 10th of his career after seven with the Gold Coast Suns, and is producing the best football of his short time to date in the royal blue and white.
Fresh off 33 disposals, 12 marks and four clearances in the weekend’s loss to Melbourne, Hall was the subject of discussion with Dermott Brereton wondering if we have seen the absolute best of him over the journey.
“Aaron Hall is a talented player who should have had a better career than he has had,” Brereton said on SEN’s Bob & Andy.
“The number one weapon Aaron Hall has can be in the centre bounce and he doesn’t really always put his nose right over the ball. But he’ll be in the centre bounce and he’ll be on the periphery of the 3 v 3 and his number one quality is if that ball squeezes to him, he can be motoring towards his team’s goal and no one catches him.
“I would think that’s his number one weapon.
“Aaron Hall at times when he’s needed to do things for him team as that player, he sits in the centre bounce because of that weaponry, but doesn’t do them.
“He has during his career chosen when he wants to go.
“Every coach rankles with that and cannot say I prioritise that forward run, that tearaway pace, and to get that I’m willing to throw in Aaron not winning a really hard, tough ball in there for those players underneath.
“You just wish the lad had nutted it out earlier and he would sit up there with some pretty lofty talent because he does have some weaponry that a lot of players would kill for.”
Bob Murphy agreed, suggesting that Hall perhaps never fully realised his potential with the Suns, finding himself in and out of the side.
“His appetite to defend, the balance of his game. We see what he can do,” Murphy added.
“His attacking flair and numbers on a good day are astronomical. He polled Brownlow votes and then Rocket (Rodney Eade) dropped him so it’s the good from afar but far from good.
“The clubs who have him and look closely at it, it’s the question mark of his appetite to run forward or the appetite to defend and it’s too far out of whack.”
In 2021, Hall is averaging 20 disposals and six marks across five games and has been one of North’s busiest players in three of those outings.