#24 Craig Bird - Delisted

No, dingus. It certainly wasn’t because of our midfield that we beat Collingwood.

Bird is a real asset. Tough - and accountable. He should have been in weeks ago.

There are others who could make way for Jobe’s return. Bird stays.

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Played well and would be extremely hard done by to loose his place team based on that performance.

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I love Bird and agree with you, I was on his bandwagon a few months back for him to come in, but who else goes out?

I think he’s good for the balance of the side but obviously someone had to make way. But who?

Jobe - spiritual leader, legend, not going to happen
Hepp - captain, form hasn’t been amazing but he is probably unstoppable
Myers - keeps doing what he did on Friday and they can’t drop him
Parish - not getting the amount of midfield time we all like which probably means if bird were replacing him he’d suffer a similar fate which probably defeats the purpose
Colyer - slightly left field but his fumbling is driving me mental and he’s not providing the outside drive he could and should be as a consequence. It’s worth asking the question whether we’d get more benefit playing bird as a defensive mid with Fanta and tippa playing more minutes up the field.

To my eye on Friday hepp seemed to spend a bit more time forward and probably should have impacted a bit more than he did but finished poorly. Jobe gets squeezed out of a forward role by the current structure so maybe hepp moves into parish’s role, he goes to the VFL to punch out massive midfield minutes and bird comes in.

Bird started in the centre square on Friday which is a massive vote of confidence and his capacity to chase and pressure is probably only bettered by Zerret and tippa at the moment.

It’s fantastic that we have a few of these selection headaches (Ambrose to come back, lav and lang putting their hands up, Stanton making a statement). Getting the balance of the side right could make or break the season. Woosh going to earn his money

Where’s that best 22 thread?

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Hang on, you reckon play the kids.

Make your mind up

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Depending on how many retire at the end of the year I am becoming more open to him getting another season.

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Yep sure was, back when all the old duds like Howlett, Hocking, Stanton etc were all underperforming I wanted Bird to come in to address the obvious clearance and inside work deficiency we had. I also wanted players like Mutch, Begley, Langford etc to be getting regular games. Wanting to play more kids does not equal playing 22 kids.

But thanks for reminding me of what I said previously.

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Hepp is in dire need of a rest. Making too many costly mistakes because of fatigue. A switched on saints punish those. I remember a handful of turnovers around the defensive 50

I’m not a huge fan - mostly because we already have enough one-paced inside mids - but thought he was good on Friday.

Is he best 22?

I think it depends on whether Woosha is softening his ‘no tagging’ philosophy.

Assuming we play finals, we’ll need a strategy to contain Sloan, Dangerfield, Kelly, JPK etc. IF we’re going to play a defensive mid then Bird looks like the best bet and we should be giving him more games pre-September.

But it all depends on what’s going on inside Woosha’s head…

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He was great but he goes out for Watson, just not at that level.

Touch wood we have had an excellent injury run this year, reckon he stays next year for cover.

That, and depending on how weak this draft is. Some of the reports I’ve read seem to indicate that it might be pretty shallow, and not one you want to be taking more than 2-3 picks in (unless you’ve traded up of course).

I didn’t see Bird tagging anyone on Friday night. It looked like he stepped straight into Watson’s role.

Stays in, hepp (rest) out for watson

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He had a role on Seb Ross according to McKenna (@2.40), although it didn’t look like a hard tag.

We don’t do hard tags, its ‘start on player x then do your thing’

Yep… that plus a bit of attention around stoppages.

However, from Bluey’s comments it sounds like Bird might have been given a bit more responsibility than that. Not sure… I’d need to look at the replay.

Ross had 20 touches and 151m on the night. Well down on his season average of 29 and 398.

It would certainly appear we put some time into him and I think you’ll find bird started the match in the centre square on Ross.

We’ve actually had a few soft tagging wins this year, despite being a side that doesn’t tag, supposedly.

  • bj v pendles on Anzac Day
  • hepp v Selwood
  • Colyer v gaff

It’s interesting to consider what kind of job Myers could have performed on Kennedy and cotchin and bird could have done on Kelly, Sloan, zorko and Martin.

Reducing Ross’s impact was a big part of our win imo.

Over the coming weeks I’d think about playing bird on higgens, Hunter, Murphy, Sloan, hall and b.Hill

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Must play & must go to Cunnington. This is the Brisbane game all over again, poor side with a few dangerous players particularly in the midfield. Let them have a free reign & they can hurt us, make them accountable & under pressure & we should win comfortably.

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Myers to Cunnington