Great expectations. Don’t we wish, however our team is halfway out the door on their way to holidays.
Not sure why everyone has Wright returning. The forward line looked more dynamic without him, and kicking a score wasn’t a problem. What we lacked was the small forwards to poach and pressure.
Goldy has to be out, and probably permanently now. I doubt he goes on next year. I’d like to say the same about Menzie. He should be a definite out, and it would be handy if his new contract gets lost.
Guelfi is out injured, and Perkins has earned his run in the twos.
Bring in ADJ, Hind, Setterfield or Hobbs, and it’s about time we blooded someone new, and Roberts has earned his opportunity.
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Sadly, we fall in and out of most teams.
We have to have 2 because one of them cant ruck but is picked because hes a marketing oppurtunity
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Goldy out is the main reason you’d want Wright in.
You could bring in Bryan, but we know that’s about as much chance of happening as Roberts getting a debut.
Draper cannot ruck alone.
We are playing against a top 5 ruck in the competition. Anytime Cox, Jones or another non-ruck goes against him, expect Jack Steele or Jack Sinclair to gather the ground ball and get it forward. That’ll be 5 to 10 minutes every quarter that he sees that matchup. It’s probably around the time that we have our second tier midfielder at the contest too which may not bring favourable matchups.
Draper on his own may work once. But across multiple games, the odds are stacked against us to deliver anything near a good team performance.
And if he has an injury in game (god forbid) we do not have a Paddy Ryder type (played ruck as a junior) to play in the ruck for the rest of the game.
Wright’s forward play is poor in that mix. That’s why the forward mix needs to change to suit.
You cannot just whack together the best 23 players and move them around the field. We’ve rotated players from the backline onto the wing, forwards up to the wing, reduced the number of smalls in our forward line all to suit Wright, Caddy and Ridley. On top of that we’ve leaned back towards a Merrett, Caldwell, Shiel midget mix at the contest. It’s brought about imbalances and mismatches in too many spots. That’s what has happened to us for the past 2 months. Tough decisions need to be made at the selection table. And I don’t mean we go into a ‘play the kids’ mode. Just try and get the roles balanced (defensive v offensive & tall v speed/mobility) across the field.
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Obviously, we need changes. Goldy should be thanked for his career and quietly (even noisily!) retired. Perkins should be omitted along with Menzie. Roberts would seem to have earned his promotion. Heppell should also be thanked for his service and retired.
We need pace and, while he is a very limited footballer, Hind must be recalled and it’s time for one of the Daveys.
This does not address all our needs but it’s a start.
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Shiel has been back and playing for 2 weeks, not 2 months. Prior to him returning our midfield was mostly Merrett, Durham and Caldwell, and only Merrett is small.
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Correct.
But the imbalance is there. And it’s greater now than it was before including Shiel.
And this is before we’ve integrated Parish into the team.
We’ve been able to have a relatively balanced named team because of injuries. But once they started returning and we tried to prioritise other players (getting Caddy games) we just shifted players into other positions and created imbalances.
It’s great that we’ve tried it. Hopefully we can train for those situations through the pre-season as it can be a weapon when things aren’t going our way. But you usually rely on that kind of point of difference when there are few other options. Not in combination with other points of differences from the start of the game.
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That trio are very, very good.
Whilst Durham & Caldwell are combative types, they’re not exactly big units comparative to most other midfields.
It’s why we’ve used Stringer for periods at CB, and had Perkins follow the ball.
Unfortunately Setterfield appears out of favour with the coaches, possibly because he is permanent mid or bench.
The guy is useless anywhere else on the ground.
I hope Perkins improves at the rate Caldwell/Durham have this year.
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Don’t mind the idea of Stringer as sub. Drop Goldy and bring in Hind.
I don’t buy that about a single ruckman. I think the influence of ruckmen is overrated, except for the very best, like Gawn. Plenty of clubs play a single ruckman, and many will often have a tall midfielder type chopping out around the ground. In our case, we have Cox who can help out and I’d like to see Jones get a go at it also.
And I don’t understand the logic of bringing in n Wright just because he can play ruck when he’s primary function is as forward - and our forward line was more functional without him.
I fully expect that Wright will be returned, for the reasons you’ve outlined, I just dont agree with it. Not yet, anyway.
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INS. Wright, Hind, Setterfield, Hobbs, Roberts, ADJ
OUTS. Goldy, Perkins, Menzie, Guelfi (inj.), Caldwell (inj/managed), Stringer (managed)
B…Laverde McKay Kelly
HB.Redman Ridley McGrath
C. Duursma Setterfield Jones
HF. Gresham Wright Martin
F… Langford Caddy Hind
Rucks. Draper Durham Merrett
Int. Hobbs, Roberts, Cox, ADJ
SUB. Shiel
- Kelly lucky because the Saints have Higgins & Butler.
If you have a great midfield, the ruck doesn’t matter so much because they’ll just hunt the footy / opponent and win the ball back. We don’t have that.
Across the league, the majority of first choice rucks take about 70 to 75% of hitouts.
I can only think of a few teams that don’t go with a player who didn’t play backup ruck last year or previously in their career.
Carlton is one team. They sometimes run McKay in there, but TDK can handle a higher percentage of contests. They’ve been toying with the TDK & Pittonet to allow McKay to be a full time forward.
Gold Coast is another. They’ve been putting Jed Walter in the ruck recently. before that it was Casboult.
Melbourne is another. They stick JVR in there.
St Kilda is another. They run Mitch Owens as the backup.
That’s pretty much 4 teams in the league who go closest to not having a capable backup ruck. The rest of the teams have a first ruck and a player who has either had multiple pre-seasons to build their body up or played ruck as a junior behind them.
We’re suggesting to play two players (Cox and Jones) who are playing their first full season and had their first full pre-season in two years in a position they have rarely played against players who are more physically ready for that style of footy. And neither of these two would be a preferred matchup for McKay, Walter, JVR or Mitch Owens let alone another tall who has some ruck experience in the past.
Overrate or underestimate their effectiveness, but the majority of teams do think about the backup ruck and how it’s used more than just ‘play our tall winger / forward’ there. When you’re looking for any kind of advantage, you don’t just want to give it away and put the onus on our midfield to make up for the shortfall in that 25% of the time that they are there affecting the contest. By all means, trialling it out when you have no other choice is fine. But starting with it can backfire badly.
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Melbourne v GWS?
You must really hate yourself.
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I totally agree with your ‘outs’. Enough is enough with these blokes.
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Out Goldy, Menzie, Perkins, Shiel, Guelfi
In Wright, J Davey, Hobbs, Parish, Roberts
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Team selection has been atrocious for a large part of this season, highlighted by the Melbourne game.
FFS, will you blokes quit saying “Draper cannot ruck alone” ?
Too verbose - just lose the last word, “alone.”
I agree , single ruck sides have too much dependence on 1 person . it’s good if you have synergy between a good ruck and your midfielders , but it’s not a bankable set play. rucks are very competitive . a good ruckman has more value like gawn and Grundy for what they do around the ground more than any advantage at tap work.
Goldy was fantastic at clearances for his taps and at second efforts at ground level but he’s fallen away badly since half way mark .
draper has been good with his marking around the ground and I think has been pretty good at times ob getting the ball out of the centre .
I just think it’s risky putting too much focus on 1 ruck. ideal scenario is a good ruck and backup ruck . if p wright wasn’t so out of touch as a forward , he does well as second ruck uaually
You won’t see too many rucks taking the ball out of the middle and drilling it 30 metres to K Langford
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