It depends on the Gamestyle BS wants to implement. Our current game style is based on winning the contest and going forward. When we do force a turnover we look to carefully construct a forward 50 entry by maintaining possession. Ultimately what that means for our forwards is that they have no space to operate.
If that’s our game style then our forward line needs to have talls that can take a contested grab and bring the ball to ground for our smalls to take advantage of. Right now we lack both in our forward line.
If we changed our game style to be quicker ball movement and quick transition with the aim of not allowing our opponents to set up defensively then you can get away with playing medium talls as they have space to work into.
Ultimately if we are maintaining our gamestyle need to find a forward who is strong in the contest and brings the ball to ground and maybe a couple of small forwards who apply pressure and are great in front of goal.
With our gamestyle we need far more talent forward of centre. If we don’t get that then we need to address our ball movement philosophy
Give him a position and say"make it yours". Whatever that spot is, train him there all pre-season. If that is forward, then smash him with forward craft. Then play him there instead of moving him from pillar to post. Cox is faster and a better mark than Wright so work on his accuracy, strength and forward craft. Who knows what could happen from there??
Similar to my opinion on Perkins, the younger guys need a position to develop in and gain confidence through consistency and performance.
Cox is a tall unit so probably mix in some ruck training as well so he can take forward 50 ruck contests if needed and not be too out of his depth.
His first season was very good as a wing, but duursma and Martin are better wingers.
I would keep him well away from the backline and allow him to settle as a mobile forward. He can go on long leads and use his mobility to lose a bigger defender, or go deep to expose a more mobile defender.
He has shown snippets of being able to do that. If he gets himself fit again I do have a bit of faith he could make that role his own. He has more talent than jones but lacks his strength.
Or he could wash out in 2 years, he really hangs in the balance.
There’s 2 components to that game style. The winning at the contest through the middle should favour the forwards that can use movement to take advantage of the space when the ball is moved quickly from a stoppage.
The slow and careful ball movement off half back is surely not the plan long term, but rather an outcome of having slow, and average kicks coming out of the back half (Kelly, Lav, Heppell, McKay even McGrath aren’t cutting sides apart with the speed they move the ball through the air). I’d like to think that with a bit of a rejig behind the ball (assuming Ridley and Reid are fit) the ball movement off half back will improve and this will create advantages for a mobile forward line. On the other hand a stagnant forward line will lead to continued ball movement issues as we can’t provide options forward of the ball.
I guess in my opinion the game plan, as we saw it in the second half of the year, was cooked, and restructuring and making changes is needed to fix that.
I hope you’re right as it’s exactly what I would change. What makes me question whether that will happen or not is Brad Scott’s reluctance to play anyone with speed out of the back half. Hind very rarely having a run out of there, Robert’s only being played late in the year, wanganeen or one of the Daveys not even being developed in those roles. Even playing Merrett back there at stages for precision ball use. He hasn’t yet shown the willingness to change the back half despite it in my opinion being a fairly obvious one to change.
I hope it’s addressed this offseason but if it’s not then we need to look at finding more contested players in our forward line as our opposition were not worried by our game style at all