I'm not sure where the 'lacks skill' or 'soft receiver' comes from when some posters are discussing Houli. I haven't seen much of him but I did watch his game vs St Kilda and that night he was very good - skillful, quick and hard at it. Seems to have no problem getting a lot of the ball although consistency might be an issue but in someone of that age and experience then it would normally be expected, especially if he has been getting over a broken leg. His stats for the 5 games he played this year don't support the lack of skill or receiver tag - 106 disposals (85 effective) averaging 21.2 (47 kicks, 26 to advantage, 1 directly to an opponent), 23 1%'ers averaging 4.6, 20 tackles averaging 4.0, 38 contested possessions averaging 7.6, 40 ball gets averaging 8, 12 inside 50's averaging 2.4, 4 skill errors averaging 1. I haven't got much of an opinion on him one way or the other except to say we shouldn't trade any National Draft pick and/or use any traded pick lower than the 70's to get him but those are certainly not the stats of a poorly skilled receiver.
