I like your thinking.
J Davey could add some goal kicking class and excitement to the forwardline.
Caddy just need to get games into him. he flies for everything and crashes packs.
Wanganeen could be a dogged defender if we need a close checking back pocket.
CHF: Martin Caddy Merrett
We are definitely having a much more consistent season than the last ten years. To be third is a bonus with a medium run home.
What I like.
You can see a real step up across the board in player capacity, and we have found an emerging star in Durham.
Our trades have been excellent, clearly we identified the right areas we needed to improve, we attracted the right people and they are performing.
Zac Merrett, how can you not like him and the season he is having.
What I donāt like.
The way we use the sub.
Loosing to port by a large margin.
Loosing two winnable game to Suns and Blues.
Injuries are crucifying us. Ridley, Parish, Redman, Draper, Duursma are all critical and have extended runs on the sidelines. We need to fix our soft tissue injuries.
The run home.
Itās time to grow up and go collect some scalps, Deamons, Cats, and Freo at home are all winnable. But we must go after them and put the foot down to achieve it.
Find some games to blood new players, Iād like to see Caddy and Roberts both get to three games by season end.
The X-factor of Saad, he really could come in and add something to the side.
My expectations.
R13, we are third and with R14 the bye with over half the teams to play are outside the 8, you should make finals and you should win one. Any less than 6th and we have stuffed the back half of the season. We should at minimum win 6/10 of the end of the season.
This is a very interesting point you have raised. Iām hopeful that the group realise they are only at the halfway mark and to a certain degree we become the hunted (purely due to our ladder position). Teams have already started putting work into stopping Durham and Martin and Ridley so we are no longer an irrelevance to the competition. Iād argue that the effort and intensity at game time needs to increase in the back half of the year and I hope the boys embrace it because itās going to come!
We have to try something different forward, agree with ivan. Its not working. Shake it up and get creative
The defining stretch of our season is the Geelong, Pies, Melbourne games.
3 games back-to-back-to-back at the MCG, all in front of 70k+ and the media attention and external pressure will be at a high.
We need to go at the very least 2-1 if we want to be taken seriously. Our ābigā games this season have all been shaky at best. Drew with pies in a game we probably should of won, crawled over the line v a ā ā ā ā Richmond side, and couldnāt kick to save our lives last night.
One concern I have coming out of the first half of the year is whether our best footy is sustainable, both within games and across the season.
Our best wins (and quarters within games) have come off the back of very high pressure and a collective commitment across the ground in defensive actions both with and without the ball. High motivation required with few weak links in the chain.
I wonder whether our relative lack of star-power means we need to be red-lining our pressure ratings to over power the better teams, whereas opposition with a better spread of talent are able to switch gears and generate more sustainable patterns of play without completely draining the mental energy/discipline.
If we can connect up our pressure game with a few more elite players (some of which might be on the list already), weāll be tracking well.
100%. If he doesnāt win it or get the first possession from clearance he has been a huge defensive liability. Get him out of there!!
i think the impotence of our forwardline really compounds any other weakness we have elsewhere in the ground, 24 scoring shots for 9 goals, and at least 3-4 throw ins, and on the full, really means other teams dont need to worry about turnover against us weāll more oft than not score a behind, then you slingshot back.
I donāt think out list is bad by any means. Curious as to what list you prefer? Every side has had some great wins and not so great losses.
Obvious ones are syd and mayyybe carlton but beyond that the comp is just so even its hard to separate.
Depending on injuries I can see us winning 6 more games this season, possibly 1 or 2 moreā¦
My question is where has the positivity and energy gone in the past four weeks? We need to inject someone new or do something different to recapture it. It has happened so often in recent years. Our leaders need to lead!
2 ā ā ā ā performances against the 2 worst sides, and 2 poor losses to competitors, wow where did the positivity go?
Sometimes it does only take a spark to energise the team again, teams this year have slipped from awful to good back to awful again, the bye has come at a good time for us. Iām a pessimistic ā ā ā ā but I genuinley believe we need El-Hawli in the team asap, itāll give us pace and some excitement and you know heās gonna go nuts if he kicks his first goal, the team wil lget around him itāll be a feel good feeling in the team (plus he actually looks good). Plus get Caddy in over Wright/Jones and get him his first goal, let him bang his chest like an ape.
Plus if we can get Duursma itāll badly help the wing situation and Draper back will help Goldstein, combined they play well and singley theyāve been thrashed. Redman helps the defenders too. I donāt know, come out and beat WCE and then weāll just have to put it all on the line against the Cats/Dees/Pies and hope we win some. Right now theyāre all beatable, on our current form we could lose all 3.
Or weāll just finish 12th again what do I know?
We probably need another personality or two a bit like hind in the team.
Our first half of the season has gone better than expected IMO. We won games we didnāt think we could and developed a determination, a willingness to fight to the end that we havenāt seen in years.
The last three games werenāt ideal but there was still a willingness to fight.
While we miss Draper and Parish I think we underestimate how much we miss Duursma. He not only added an invaluable link up through the wing he could also deliver well into the forward 50 and/or kick a goal.
I think the injuries more than anything have made the rest of the team tired and I think the bye came one week too late.
I also think players have been spooked by MRC decisions and umpiring changes and are second guessing themselves.
Poor decision making is still occurring but thatās a learning process. I think of Archie not being able to decide whether to pass to Goldie or kick a goal, taking too long and the option he chose was gone. Thatās lack of confidence in his own ability.
Wright is suffering the same fear of ā¦ā¦ somethingā¦.
I agree we are wasting Stringer in the middle. Heās ok in there when heās needed to block a player to enable us to get the ball, but with the new HTB interpretation he can no longer get the ball and drag two players with him until they fall off.
Heās better in the forward line.
Our forward line is not performing as it should, however neither is our midfield whose job it is to deliver the ball to them.
They need to lower their eyes and look for the best leading option rather than bombing it in long.
Hopefully the bye will allow the players to have a bit of a rest, a bit of a re-set and come out with a little more confidence in both their decision making and their goal kicking.
Thereās a lot to like about how we have played this year and I hope the new found grit and determination carries through into the second half of the season.
That in itself would be an improvement on past years.
Agree bring in Saad and Caddy.
Brad has us playing with elite pressure which is good.
Ball movement at times could be better.
Disagree on the cant beat top 8 sides. We havenāt played half of them.
Blessed to play quality sides all in Melbourne bar Brisbane after the bye.
A good run with injuries will make a huge difference this year.
Its half of Sydneyās success which has them a couple of games clear of everyone else imho.
The big question for me is when Draper is ready, how would we structure the line up? Letās assume BDB will play Goldy and Draper combo (in fact put your house on this), then one of the talls will need to go. My bet is that Jones will get a rest. Then Redman in for Menzies and Dursma for Tastas. That is it.
Our forward half still lacks creativity. Gresham needs to be play deeper and be that crumbing forward.