I don’t mind that.
Back Hobbs in, while it’s not his role he has goal sense and definitely doesn’t mind the defensive side of footy, and pick up Wanganeen.
To be honest I think we have quite enough mature gap-fillers.
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I’d like to see Hobbs get a taste early, and I don’t mind if its in the sub role.
other option is we send Hind forward. But think that is more panic stations stuff not round 1 stuff, or maybe in game swing player forward move.
Tippa injury basically locks in - Perkins, Snelling, Smith into the round 1 side if they weren’t already locks.
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Could Ham play as a small forward? He does seem to have a pretty good goal sense.
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Big no to Hind, he’s too important to our backline.
The rest, yes.
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Pretty big difference between Tippa and Ham defensively, though.
If we thought the ball pinged out of our forward line before…
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The season is still like 12 weeks away, yes it isn’t ideal but I’m sure he will be able to run at low intensity from mid Jan when they come back to training. As long as he keeps his weight down, a 6 week block of full training before the season is all he needs to be ready to go.
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ham just can’t hit and take hits the way Tippa can. Nor does he seem to have the closing speed. i’m pretty sure his overall endurance is better though. I think ham’s desire and technique for tackling hard is poor. It’s something he needs to dramatically improve and quickly if he’s going to stay on the list. He just doesn’t get low and drive hard into the tackle.
Yeeeees, but his last four games last year he had five disposals in each of them, and then wasn’t fit for the final.
It’s not like he was in peak condition and it’s just a strained calf to come back from now.
I’d lean towards being conservative on an expected return date.
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If the club is thinking another finals tilt this year (and I think they should, as we should only improve on 2021), we should be ultra conservative with Walla. He’s a bloke who could win us a final off his own boot in 15 minutes of footy. No point rushing him back and risking his ability to do that.
Im confident Devon Smith and Snelling can do a role as small forwards while Tippa gets his body right. I’m glad to hear from those watching training that Dev is looking good
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he’s a fair bit overweight in terms of a AFL footballer and just blown his calf up. he’s basically going to have bugger all of a pre season and still be unfit mid February, because he’s not going to be able to get bugger all fitness work in until then.
best case scenario is perhaps he’s good to go around round 7-8 imo
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Go back and watch our final agaisnt the dogs and tell me we didn’t miss a specialist small forward.
I understand the temptation to use the SSP to grab a mature player in reaction to these events but it’s just a band-aid.
Be bold; grab one of these kids and develop them. We did that in other positions last year and were rewarded significantly.
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Walla contributed 7 goals to our second half of last season, i’m pretty sure we’ve already somewhat adapted to not relying on him. Sooner he comes back at his best the better but i’m sure we can find somebody to cover that level of output while he gets himself right.
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I think so too. I’d rather them bring him in fit and happy for the second half of the season than try to fast track it.
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TEX.
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Round one Poll could be who to Debut for specialist small forward role
Round 1 who to Debut
- Hird
- Hobbs
- Wanganeen
- Fejo
- Lord
0 voters
yes im jumping the gun massively here.
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I’m heartbroken. I just want him to be well.
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I’m happy to at least wait for the intra-club game…
Where is the Dell’Olio option??
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Shiel for mine.