Is Howlett good enough defensively to go back?
Ferocious tackler and pretty good 1 on 1, is it worth a go?
Wasn’t that the Pies game? Either way it seems you are unconcerned about Bag’s ability to make the best 22 this year?
There is no denying that he was a liability out there today.
You underestimate people’s ability to deny things
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Based upon his preseason form you couldn’t select him round 1. He has credits in the bank but they might run out very quickly.
I am concerned that he was cramping in the 3rd?!? That seems early to me.
And honestly, if I woosha I would tell him to cut his hair!
I love your profile pic
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While he had a pretty poor game, i am backing him to get the job done or wgatever hawks fwd he lines up on in round 1. I do really want dea in the team as well though
Gee i only saw the last 10 min of the game but wow. I also saw a few of the intra clubs where he got smashed by tippa as well and thought maybe he is just taking it easy but obviously not. Always thought the guy was a gun not sure what’s happened.
Can’t believe we played Bags over Dea. Dea looked calm, composed, marked well and made great decisions last year and against the Pie I thought he was one of our best. Bags looked slow and was making poor decisions all day. If we go Bags over Dea Round 1 I’ll be disapointed.
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Agreed. Even if injury has slowed him down he just looks so out of form it’s not funny. Someone has to replace him so he can go back to the VFL and find form, senior player or not.
The thing that is frustrating about Dea is that despite being deceptively good at most things and especially in light of the fact that he’s a hard nut type of player who you’d think would thrive - he’s terrible playing on genuine smalls (or at least he was for the 22 games we saw him play last year). He got smashed by Betts (as many have) and a couple of other smalls last year.
VS Bags… he may be the lesser of two evils though come Rd 1.
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Dea plays tall much better than he plays small.
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I agree to an extent, although I still think Dea should be in that side. I just can’t see why after his great year under siege last year and a great 1st JLT game they then drop him and go with a veteran like Bags who was slow in the first JLT game and he looks horrid again. I’d honestly rather us have McGrath play a pure shutdown role or literally anyone bar Bags right now. He looks a shadow of that player he was 3 years ago. If we play Bags on Puopolo/Rioli/Bruest then they’re gonna run off him with ease, there’s nothing worse than watching a slow back-pocket struggle to keep up with a speedy forward. It’ll create headaches and mean we have to move other defenders back to help.
And no I don’t want McKenna, we have enough players that do the job offensively but have him well covered defensively.
Agreed.
he was pretty poor last season, form has just carried on.
Who are these reliable small defenders that you speak of?
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We don’t have any otherwise Bags wouldn’t even be in the picture. But I’ll take any one of Bags,Dea, McGrath etc over McKenna any day. Like I said we have plenty of offensive options that either break even with McKenna offensively or do a better job, but they all have McKenna covered in the defensive aspects. I don’t rate McKenn’a ability to defend the high ball, take a mark or stick tackles regularly (yet). McKenna’s strength is his run and creating, not his defending.
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Funnily enough for Jackson Merrett, there’s a spot here for the taking if he’s good enough.
Makes sense why he is being tried there, when you look at our other options
Oh, and I’m in the ‘concerned about Baguley’ camp.
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Is he playing with a cracked rib?
How can people want mcg in over mckenna? conor has shown way more.
for starters hes had good games at AFL level, mcg hasn’t even played 1 yet?
I pump up conor’s tyres more than most but to say mcg over conor because you think mcg might stop a small forward?
fkg lala land.
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By that logic no new player should ever get a game because they’ve never had a good game at AFL level. That’s insane.
Which game at AFL did McKenna succeed in shutting down a player? I must have missed that one. And I don’t call running off loose getting 16 possessions classed as shutting down a player either. If you want to argue he should be in the side to play half back as a running option than fair enough but you can’t seriously suggest McKenna who is argubably our worst defender, play as the small defender over Bags/McGrath/Dea…good god.
Baguley is in the side to shut down a small forward. McGrath can do that, Dea could possibly do that. McKenna can’t do that because that’s not his role and hence he’s not in discussions to take over a defensive role.
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