Surprise , surprise

[Donegal Hibby]

What player has most surprised you this season so far … Smith , Rocky , Iredale , Nicky Cadden or do you have another player ?

[MartinfaePorty]

Miller for me. Always thought he was an ok defender, but too patchy to be a reliable starter and there was the tendency to go (and stay) down too easily. He's come on leaps and bounds and the attacking side of his game is excellent as well.

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[Joe6-2]

Definitely Smith, and delighted to be surprised

[kentao]

Nicky Cadden, I thought Obita and C Cadden had decent deliveries into the box until this man showed up. He is unbelievable with his balls into the box. When he is in the pitch you know your strikers are going to get at least a couple of clear cut chances within the box. If possible in our budget we should be looking for similar on the right hand side for next season.

[hibsbollah]

Levitt. I was actually raging at some of his performances last season, i thought we had signed a complete bottler, and i generally support our players without question. Fitness was obviously part of the issue. Hes like a new signing now.

[Stonewall]

They’ve pretty much all pleasantly surprised me more in terms of developing and living up to their potential.

Smith and Nicky Cadden have genuinely been surprises though. I thought that if Bursic was keeping Smith out of the team he really can’t have been up to much, a prejudice only re-unforced by his first game and I expected Nicky Cadden to be a steady Edie kind of squad player.

Haven’t a bad word to say about either.

[Northernhibee]

Rocky. He’s become consistent, and that was something massively missing from his game before. The transformation has been outstanding.

[aljo7-0]

I can't argue with any of the above. Lots of pleasant surprises. I'd probably say Smith if pushed to pick

[Gloucester Hibs]

Smith and Rocky, Smith I had low expectations of given his lack of first team appearances. Rocky I had pretty much given up on. Both have been tremendous from December onwards.

[The Spaceman]

Nicky Cadden reminds me a bit of SDG - a completely missable initial signing who has been absolutely phenomenal all season. Absolutely love the guy and feels like we’ve always got a chance with him on the pitch.

Between him and Smith, with very honourable mentions for Rocky, Millar, and most recently, Levitt. Triantis has also developed into a magnificent player this season.

[Tambo]

I never seen the Kelty game and from some on here who were claiming Smith was worse than Bursik i will admit was worried, he's been brilliant since he came in the team and earnt a new contract.

[blackpoolhibs]

Levitt, we spent a lot of money on a complete waste of time up until he got in the team this season and made the position his.

Rocky Smith Cadden and others, i'd had no real expectations of them, but Levitt came with a price and a pedigree.

[He's here!]

Pretty much the whole team since November! However, the switch of keeper has played arguably the most significant part in boosting confidence so I'll go with Smith, who I'd been led to believe was 'even worse than Bursic'.

[Pretty Boy]

Iredale for me.

I wasn't as upset by some about his signing but I thought it was a bit depth and little more. He's been a revelation. Every week he seems to get better and if it wasn't for the Rocky revival show then he'd be our big defensive story.

Honourable mention for Smith who looked humpty in his first couple of appearances for us but as I said on the other thread is up there as the best in the league on current form.

[Cooshed Kid]

Levitt. I was actually raging at some of his performances last season, i thought we had signed a complete bottler, and i generally support our players without question. Fitness was obviously part of the issue. Hes like a new signing now.

Agreed. He was the only player in the squad I had totally written off, but all it took was some SDG magic to bring out the player we thought we had bought. He's been growing in confidence and looking better and better.

[Northernhibee]

Actually, Boyle. Didn’t think he had another season like the one he’s had in him. Voted for him as my POTY as although he’s not as quick as he used to be, he’s successfully adapted his game and become threatening all over again.

[Unseen work]

Smith for me

Cadden had a decent couple of seasons and was someone I thought we should have went for in previous windows. Iredale whilst met with some negativity, I looked further into it on twitter, forums etc and there was alot that said positive. It’s always the negative side that’s the loudest on social media

Smith looked like a signing we never had any interest in playing and was solely to be second choice. Since coming in he has been absolutely brilliant. I don’t mean brilliant for a back up or done a job, I mean one of the best keepers in the league.

Smith should be our number 1 next season, if he’s not whoever replaces him has to be outrageous.

Smith up there for POTY for me

[Keith_M]

Difficult one, as there's been a few, but I'd go with Smith.

The guy has often been painted as a stop-gap until we get somebody decent but he's pretty much nailed the No1 spot.

[hibee_girl]

Smith for sure, we were all told he was worse than Bursic and that was a scary thought but he’s proved everyone wrong.

Also Gayle to some extent too. Obviously knew he was an excellent player in his day but we’ve seen it before with older players coming up here and doing nothing of note. Gayle has been much better than I thought he’d be.

[TT07]

Levitt for me, last season, couldn't last 60mins, couldn't run, didn't track runners
Played 90mins yesterday and now looks like we have a new Mcgeough. Humble pie eaten by me.

[Bostonhibby]

Levitt, Iredale and Smith, just brilliant how well they are doing.

Levitt's showing us what a player he is.

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[Hibs3-2]

Smith iredale triantis gayle

On the other hand i have been surprised how poor kwon (remember him) was

[Scottie]

Cilla Black :wink:

[500miles]

Levitt. I was actually raging at some of his performances last season, i thought we had signed a complete bottler, and i generally support our players without question. Fitness was obviously part of the issue. Hes like a new signing now.

This. Looked like he was towing a caravan. Can’t remember what game it was, but Newell moved from defensive mid, left midfield, attacking mid and right mid to chase down possession and Levitt didn’t move from a 10ft radius, and it’s looked like he just couldn’t be bothered. His much talked about passing was generally to nobody or even criminally slack in our own half.

Night and day now. He’ll never be the quickest or most athletic, but he competes so much better.

[blackpoolhibs]

Smith iredale triantis gayle

On the other hand i have been surprised how poor kwon (remember him) was
Completely forgot about him.:greengrin

[marinello59]

Completely forgot about him.:greengrin

Me too. :greengrin

[Gmack7]

Lewis Miller has been outstanding at RCB, I'd have been happy if his contract hadn't been extended if you had asked me a few months back, where's the humble pie

[NORTHERNHIBBY]

Smith and Bursik. Both keepers gave me the fear to begin with. Smith was the handy journey-man and Bursik was scouted as our first pick. Can't believe Smith is so good now and Bursik is so far from the minimum quality that we need.

[lyonhibs]

Definitely Smith, and delighted to be surprised

Given his highly inauspicious debut, I tend to agree. Honourable mention also to "only signed because he's Chris' brother" Nicky Cadden.

[NAE NOOKIE]

Dylan Levitt .... in the 2nd half of the season ..... For over a year I've raged about Dundee Utd laughing all the way to the bank having sold us a pig in a poke. Thankfully he's proven me totally wrong in the last few months.

Jack Iredale ..... almost became a forgotten man after signing, been superb since coming into the team.

Lewis Miller .... Since his move to the right of a back 3 he has been a revelation.

Nicky Cadden .... Who knew we were getting the best crosser of a ball in the premiership?

Rocky .... From 'meh' to please don't let him leave :greengrin

Jordan Smith ... Now looking for a back up / challenger to him, rather than someone to simply take his place.

etc
etc
etc

Hells bells, it's hard to say who hasn't surprised us or improved.

[Eyrie]

Smith was signed as a career back up to sit on the bench and didn't look to be even at that level against Kelty. And he was obviously a poor player because we were persisting with the struggling Bursik rather than make a change.

Now Smith is not just our established keeper but has signed an extension and is being talked about a Player of the Season candidate in a team with several other equally good choices so he's clearly not what I thought we'd signed.

[Donegal Hibby]

When we first signed Smith I checked up on him and seen he hadn’t played a lot , his previous club Stockport in league 2 he never played a game for so he’s probably the one that’s surprised me the most in how good he’s been…

I can’t really remember another season where there has been so many players that have been surprisingly good ( better than we thought they’d be ) which I suppose the club , manager and his staff deserve credit for too .

[SHODAN]

Iredale was our deadline day panic backup buy.

How wrong that proved to be.

[Onion]

When we first signed Smith I checked up on him and seen he hadn’t played a lot , his previous club Stockport in league 2 he never played a game for so he’s probably the one that’s surprised me the most in how good he’s been…

I can’t really remember another season where there has been so many players that have been surprisingly good ( better than we thought they’d be ) which I suppose the club , manager and his staff deserve credit for too .

100%. This is what good - great managers do and it looks very much as if SDG and his team have developed and managed players beyond expectations. Had so many managers at Hibs who have done the opposite, so we need to credit and praise when something so important goes right !