If Setterfield plays he won’t have to go in there much. But I think he’ll be called on for a certain percentage a quarter to run (waddle) through there.
I actually think Gesham that has taken his spot.
If caldwell learned how to chase or spread from a contest it might be a different story but until he can do that, it looks like he will be Sam Lonegan mk2.
Interested to hear who your leaving out of the side to fit caldwell in if my take is so bad?
Who are you including to keep Caldwell out? We have so many injuries, hard to see he doesn’t play every game when fit.
Geez I wish Blitz could better co-ordinate who the negative pile on is going to be each week.
I was still over in the Weidman thread and then got all confused due to all the Heppell was a crap Captain (again) in a other thread when really I should have been in here.
We need a roster.
I’ve got some great stuff saved up for when we do Redman and Ridley.
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Good question.
Most best 22s i have seen has Caldwell on the bench without much thought.
I would play an extra small forward in Hind instead of the extra midfielder. From all reports he has been training really well as a small forward and tbh, this was one of our biggest weakness areas of 2023.
In the 2nd mid rotation i have gresham, perkins, hobbs and then i have stringer, martin, durham as potential to go in if we need more than 6 rotating thru. If you want ruck cover and a 7th defender, it means Caldwell and Tsatas miss out.
As mentioned earlier, i think Gresham has taken Caldwell spot as that Mid/HF role.
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He absolutely has. He was leading the league in clearances at stages in 2022. The centre square has generally always been Shiel, Merrett and Parish (Not that I think it’s our best mix at all)
Just because he has speed doesn’t mean that his best position isn’t inside. When he got pushed out to the wing at GWS his AA form took a big hit.
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I think with better team defensive structure and systems (also hopefully some more forward nous and spark) we’ll also benefit more from F50 entries even if they aren’t coming in perfectly, so impact of clearances hopefully goes up
Forward pocket
Defensive role
Some of our best quarters of football last year came with Hobbs and Caldwell on ball.
They struggle to maintain that level for whole games on ball, or for more than 2 to 3 weeks in succession., but that is to be expected considering their age/experience.
They definitely should be in our mid rotations every week.
Setterfield, Parish, Merrett, Caldwell, Hobbs.
With cameos from Stringer, Perkins and possibly Duursma and Durham.
Shiel to be repurposed as high half forward and wing.
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I also struggle with playing all of Stringer, Perkins and Caldwell in the same team unless Stringer is fully fit. I do like the thought of introducing Hind as sub into the forward line. Not sure he can play an entire game there and have an impact though?
This is starting to have the wiff of “Langford not Best 22” from last year. Might have to bookmark this for a good laugh at the end of the season.
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Caldwell is outclassed by Parish and Merrett, but then again almost the entire competition is outclassed by that duo.
The guy has a strong contested instinct and has great skills. He’s a good HF player and able to swing into the midfield as required. Perfect rotation player through a game and can step up when needed as injury cover.
Good teams have a broad range of players who can rotate through the midfield. Caldwell is doing that for us. We need more with that flexibility. And forget center bounces, 99% of the game is played around the ground. You can have a strong midfield role and not attend a single center bounce, it’s just harder to identify the role on tv.
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I get what you’re saying but that’s in the past now - if I was on the match committee, how or why Caldwell got here is irrelevant, I couldn’t care less about it: I’m picking the best 22, that’s it.
It’s on him to prove his worth, not us. It’s his problem, not ours.
Not sure if I can agree with you. Shiel did play wing in his last year at GWS out of necessity - IIRC Whitfield was injured and they had Ward, Cogs and Kelly in the middle. With us, he has always played inside. He is a clearance mid and he got no clue to play outside like Merrett does. Merrett and Martin are the only outside midfielders we have, imo.
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Shiel is finished. Good teams have deep midfields. There’s plenty of room for Caldwell in the guts. People are actually complaining about our depth now…
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Caldwell can kick a goal too. Often many in a quarter. And from hard to kick spots.
It’s interesting to see where Brad will play him.
How is running Stringer through there a problem, its a good thing to do.
Imagine Blitz if everyone was a positive Patsy.
Blitzer 1 “Caldwell is exactly what we need”
Blitzer 2 " Yeah, I agree"
Blitzer 1" Yeah"
Blitzer 2 " "
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It’s not a problem, I quite like him at stoppages. He can do stuff that nobody else in our team can in there.
I used the word ‘problem’ in reference to Joe’s post saying that the second wave of centre square rotations will come from Caldwell, Hobbs and Shiel.
My point was that the issue with doing that (IMO) is that it lacks balance. We need a rotation for Setterfield when he’s having a spell and I don’t believe that it’s from either of those three guys - it’d more likely be from Stringer, Perkins or Durham as a wildcard judging from this pre-season. Tsatas may get there in time.
The net impact of that for Caldwell, Hobbs, Shiel etc is that those type of guys are then rotating through two spots (Parish’s and Merrett’s) rather than three which will mean less time playing where they probably ideally want to play.
I suspect the compromise is that those guys will often play the high half forward role that then spits up to the around the ground stoppages to play an extra around the ball at times. And in the case of Stringer, he often will do his thing at centre bounces and then drift forward and switch with a mid who started forward.
Is Durham being 2 cm taller than Caldwell the reason he is a better like for like rotation for Setterfield though? To me, Caldwell is further progessed in all elements of the game than Durham as an inside/defensive midfielder - except overhead marking.
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