Everyone is saying Cameron…
But i like a fwd line of Hooker, Jenkins and Smack.
No ■■■■■■■ way our mids kick it to McGovern now!
Who plays on our forward line - or more importantly - who plays well on our forward line, depends upon our game plan. Are we to defend from our forwards or are we to play slingshot from our half back line? If we instruct our key forwards to lead hard towards the ball carrier (yes please), we could play a combination of one tall, two mediums, two talls, one medium and three smalls. If we continue to run and gun it in from sixty out we probably needs three talls and three smalls to crumb it when we bomb it in on Walla’s head.
That said I would happily go with:
Laverde/Stewart Smack Smith
Walla Stringer Snelling/Begley
So he’s staying and…we’re getting…his lil bro?
SMALL BALL!
Midgets, flankers, and KPFs that play like midget flankers
Zaharakis Stringer Stewart
Snelling TIPPA Mozzie
Rotations: Langford, Dev, Parish
Pressure and natural goal sense.
OUT - Daniher / Fantasia .
IN- Cox and Casboult .
If that happens ,Thatll be it for me .
Add Orazio mutherfarken Fantasia, baby.
3 Likes
Begley?
Step 1: keep Joe
Step 2: find him a girlfriend/boyfriend from Melbourne
Step 3: get him a security guard to protect from media and supporters
2 Likes
Essendon is determined to keep Joe Daniher but if he does eventually depart, the Bombers could still boast a lethal forward line on the back of one bold coaching move, writes Jon Ralph.
When John Worsfold runs out of ideas late in a game that is slipping away, Cale Hooker is always the answer.
Why can’t a player who won games with last-minute goals when pushed forward against Gold Coast and GWS this season become the permanent solution in 2020?
List manager Adrian Dodoro’s conundrum was laid bare at a PWC breakfast this morning, when he was adamant even a couple of high draft picks wouldn’t help the club’s forward issues next year if Joe Daniher leaves.
Essendon is known to like WA 198cm ruck/forward Luke Jackson, who could firm as a top-10 pick but is years away from becoming a regular senior presence.
But this year’s draft doesn’t have the types that made immediate impacts last year, when Connor Rozee went at pick 5, Ben King at 6, Bailey Smith at pick 7, Tarryn Thomas at pick 8 and Nick Blakey a father-son at pick 10.
So if Dodoro doesn’t just baulk and refuse to trade Daniher, what are the Bombers’ options?
Cale Hooker has been a successful option in the forward line.
They don’t seem to be trying to drag Tom McCartin or Aliir Aliir out of Sydney like Port Adelaide did with Ryan Burton when it became apparent Chad Wingard was going to the Hawks.
They don’t seem to be trying to secure a Levi Casboult type, a young emerging forward like Gold Coast’s Peter Wright, or even another mid-sized forward like Josh Caddy, currently playing his trade on a wing.
The 2017 season might show the path forward.
In that year Richmond won the premiership with one elite key forward in Jack Riewoldt then an array of smaller players around him.
It was also the same year Hooker played permanently forward, and what a massive success it was.
He spent 97 per cent of game time forward in 2017, kicking 41.26 and finishing third in the competition for contested marks (behind only Charlie Dixon and Levi Casboult).
He kicked goals in 18 of 20 games — including five against the Roos and four against a Grand Final-bound Adelaide — before a broken leg saw him miss their finals loss.
In the same year Orazio Fantasia had his best season, kicking 39.22 before two injury-prone seasons.
Mitch Brown, Shaun McKernan and James Stewart will all fulfil roles as forwards at Essendon next year.
But they could have a trio of mid-sized forwards few in the competition could match.
Jake Stringer and Orazio Fantasia can cause opponents plenty of headaches.
They have never had a fit Fantasia, Jake Stringer and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti all in their best form strutting their stuff in the forward line.
Imagine Hooker as the big marking target, with that trio darting around inside 50 to create havoc.
Plus two top-10 draft selections to extend the premiership window at the same time.
Add a fit Devon Smith, and Worsfold and his apprentice Ben Rutten have something to work with.
It takes Hooker out of the backline, but All-Australian defender Michael Hurley, Patrick Ambrose, Aaron Francis and Mason Redman have enough talent to hold up that end.
The clear preference at Essendon is to keep Daniher, but at some stage Sydney will surely stump up the picks to get a deal done.
It hurts the Dons’ chances of breaking that finals drought, yet there are few better swingmen in the game than Hooker, and no better Plan B for life after Daniher is yet to present itself.
5 Likes
Plan A
HF: Stringer Daniher Smith
F: Fantasia McKernan Tippa
Int: Laverde
Plan B
HF: Stringer Stewart Smith
F: Fantasia McKernan Tippa
Int: Mosquito
Better forwardline than this year and we still made finals…just
Plan C
HF: Stringer McKernan Smith
F: Fantasia Hooker Tippa
Int: Laverde
I really don’t understand why everyone wants to put Smith in the forward line.
It just seemed to me that we missed his intensity so much through the midfield this year. I don’t think we can afford to play him forward.
4 Likes
Play Doe Janiher
1 Like
I’ve seen some of the work done by this Doe feller.
Confrontational to say the least.
Fark, this bloke is a genius.
3 Likes
The HFF’rs effectively play midfield as is. They push up around the ball and there’s no doubt he’d be involved in midfield rotations with centre square time as well in stints like TIPPA does also.
His pressure in the fwd half of ground is huge
I don’t think he played solely as midfield in 2018. And for the AA squad was selected in the fwd group as a fwd/mid
1 Like
Forward line with Joe
HF: Stringer Joe Zaka
FF: Tippa,Smack Raz
Forward line without Joe:
HF: Stringer Smack Zaka
FF: Tippa Hooker Raz
Smith needs to be in the middle with small stints up forward. We miss his intensity and pressure in the midfield
I believe Zaka’s best position is high half forward, is a good kick to a leading forward, good kick for goal, just need to drill into him about pressuring the opposition
Stewart has a hell of a lot of work to do, to break into the team imo
This is actually no different to the last couple of seasons. Playing with a Joe-less forward line - we did ok
We really didn’t though, did we.
5 Likes
Let me put it the other way round, a forward line with Joe didn’t do much better than ok
Yes, … and then No, … then Yes, then No again, then …