Shiel gets two weeks to prove he’s prepared to chase tail all day as a forward and work his ■■■■ off to get behind the defence. Call me crazy but I actually think he can do it.
If Jones isn’t available play Stewart there just so we get used to that structure. I don’t have a lot of faith in Baldwin I’m afraid. I think he’s an in between size with limited penetration in his kicking. He’s more a medium forward than a kp and he should drop weight (which will be hard for him) and improve his running. Let him build in the vfl for now because he doesn’t have the tools to worry AFL defenders.
Let’s get another look at Bryan.
We need to get games into that defensive group, no more midfield for McGrath.
Within a 3 - 4 weeks I hope to see something like;-
Lav Reid Kelly
Redman Ridley McGrath
Merrett Hobbs Durham
Perkins Jones Martin
Stewart 2MP Snelling
Draper Langford Parish
Bench: Caldwell Shiel Wanga Cox
SUB: Hind
Some big calls need to be made on;-
Heppell - great guy and servant of the club but not the future - drop him after his 200th and make Ridley captain
Stringer doesn’t come back if he’s not 100% - if he has OP send him for an operation or whatever rehab is required now but reality is he might only have 1 more year left
Baldwin - why are we recruiting guys who have done 2 knees? Can’t run at level required for AFL stays in reserves
Waterman - 1 trick pony depth option cut him from list next year
Smith - cooked reserves only now
Tippa - sadly is finished - give him a role at club in 2023 as indigenous liaison as his AFL playing days are over
Hurley - we are not a rehab facility we are an AFL club - should have retired last year he’s taking a list spot
Some of these calls may be harsh but mostly are what is needed if we are to move forward as a club. We need to rebuild, get draft picks - bring in youth and buy some big bodied and more importantly able bodied AFL players to support this youth as it comes through
Mate Baldwin has cost us 0 and by debuting this early in his journey has almost justified his recruitment already. There is clearly something to work with, our system going forward is ■■■■■■■ dreadful. I think we have hit him up on the lead once in 3 games.
I’d love to see Reid at CHB and BZT at FB for the rest of the season. This leaves Ridley to play the intercept role and frees up some run from the backline.
Smith gave him 2 beautiful passes in his first game and Baldwin gobbled them up.
Baldwin would look better as the third tall. I think we need to bring in a experienced tall, to help the younger guys develop. If Jones could get on the park, well that would be useful too.
Yep, time to view this season for what it is and recalibrate the lens we put over on-field results. This season can still be a stepping stone towards success.
Another low draft pick incoming to add to the Zerrett and under group who are realistically the cohort that will take us forward. A rough year on-field and some media scrutiny might rattle a few cages, see a fitness review at minimum, shake a few positions loose. The game plan translation is genuinely concerning at the moment, but teams can tend to bounce around from season to season as game plan layers are scripted and binned until the balance is found. I liked a lot of what I saw in last years game style - that data is genuine and doesn’t evaporate even if the bottom falls out and injuries derail us completely on-field this year.
There are so many short comings with nearly every aspect of EFC that, even if we had the first 20 draft picks this year, there would be long odds that we’d see a top 4 competitive team even in 2025.
Still need to get Walla in there as a pressure forward to help Tex and to keep the run in his legs for 2023. Put Perkins in the gutz where his biggest upside is and we need to get Snelling back, maybe at the expense of Hind on the bench.
OK, I’ll bite, why am I trolling? I’m quite serious, I mean who else do we have and Ridley at CHB isn’t helping anyone and I don’t think Lav is a natural FB.
Ridley is our best key defender and it isn’t even close. We’ve spent 6 weeks pretending that wasn’t the case and trying to “free” him up and he got dragged everywhere but where we wanted him.
He just destroyed Naughton, despite an overwhelming amount of ball coming in, and had his best game for the year by a mile.
He absolutely should be earmarked as our best key defender and backline general/anchor. What Stephen May does at the Dee’s. Reid hopefully becomes a lever type.
I think you’ll find there are plenty here who agree
No, but the frees (dubious as they were) come from lav being undersized though and he couldn’t out mark him at all. I reckon rids doesn’t give those frees away and straight up outmarks him several times so some of the ground ball goals don’t happen. I reckon Ridley on tab is worth 3 to 5 goals. That changes the dynamic of the game quite a bit I reckon.