Season’s over. May as well get some games into the kids.
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We wouldn’t play Smack and Brown in the same forwardline (at least that was the consensus on here) - maybe it makes that difficult choice a bit easier?
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I stuck fat by Myers, and he came good last season.
This season, I’m shifting that to the Hartley bandwagon. I’m backing him in to have a breakout 2019, and consolidate himself in our best 22.
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Smack better step up this week if he wants that spot then. Brown was miles ahead against the Blues. Agree if Joe is back then they both don’t fit in the forward line. But Brown had 3 goals, 9 score involvements and over half of his 18 possessions we’re contested. I agree with the coaches that don’t like to take a good player out of position to plug a weakness.
Good teams cover this sort of loss. If we are to be a good or even great team then this is just a stepping stone for someone else to stake their claim in the team
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Not great news. Calves are definitely an old man’s injury. Feels like yesterday we drafted Cale.
Unfortunately this isn’t the case. As Lavender was a Rookie B player we can only replace him with another Rookie B player, ie an alternate sport background or a Irishman (note each club can only have one Irish player as a rookie B).
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Thanks for the clarification. That’s a downer. Although i’m sure if somebody was available at this stage they’d probably be second rate anyway.
Old man’s injury. Or a flow on injury. Either way. Fk it.
You wonder how much that running style would really start to mess with ■■■■ as he gets older.
Ambrose will be fine. He gives us more run and mobility than Hooker.
Would prefer Hooker when we play cats & pies (for hawk & cox) but we have enough backup.
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You cannot replace Hooker, not only does he beat his man, he leads the backline and his intercepting allows Hurley to play his own game. I also think him there also benefited the Way francis played towards the end of last season.
Massive loss, we have to do everything to ensure he is good for rest of the season.
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We don’t need more backline run. We need a guy who can intercept and clunk them to enable and allow the runners we’ve already got in the best 22.
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Hooker is a big loss, I have him as a better defender than Hurley, his intercepting in contests is so important to our rebounding style and his ability to shut down is as good of not better than Hurls.
Hooker’s on-field presence is also a huge factor, his marshaling of the defence is important as it allows Hurley to focus on his own game and his ability to lift his team, whether forward or back, is something we don’t exactly have a lot of.
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The 6,6,6 going to going make his loss a little more painful… no better one-on-one big marking defender in the club…
One from left field… McKernan? Has the mongrel. Hart’s hopeless at the moment, Brown more valuable forward…
Great. And don’t believe for one minute it’s a 4-6 week injury. I’m thinking the dash is a typo.
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Let’s not give up on Hartley just yet, he was exposed a bit in JLT but our whole defense was rubbish - people who liked McKenna and Saad’s games liked their attacking plays rather than what they saw defensively. (Setterfield brushed Saad off for a walk in goal at one stage).
Once there’s a bit more chemistry they will all look a lot better.
Not saying Hartley is a gun but he’s had some good games for us and deserves a chance to let the nerves settle a bit, I think he won our most courageous award in 2017 so we can back him to keep trying.
Same with Ambrose. He’s been the ultimate defender (read: can’t attack) but I thinking his handballs and kicks broke even in the JLT (normally he has 6 HB & 2 kicks for a match) so I think he’s trying to add more offensively (as Hartley has been instructed to work on in the past) and we need to give him at least some JLT time to improve.
Hooker is a big loss no doubt, he’s not VC for nothing and he’s pretty handy for a mark and a goal or 2 up forward if we need to move things around.
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Hooker has played more forward than back of late so I am sure we can cover him.
Time for Zerk to step up.
When has he played more forward than back lately?
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I am talking in the past two years.
Most people were still wanting him forward just last year.
I’m not keen on Hartley.
I’d be happy to see Ambrose play as an undersized KPP and have guys like Francis and Ridley helping him out with some intercepting.
Hartley was making the same panic mistakes in JLT1 that he always makes.
If they want a taller guy i’d rather try Zerk but the fact he’s still training in the VFL group indicates he’s probably got to show some form in the 2’s before getting a call up
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