Ryder back, Fletcher in Ruck. should have been done along time ago.
Goodness me, its not easy sometimes to adhere to my own requirements for others !
Hi guys my name is Paul and I've followed Essendon all my life and this. Is my twentieth year as a member. Does anybody think along my thoughts of having Fletch play forward and put Carlisle at the back where clearly he plays his best football, it would be an awesome back line and fletch at full forward would be able to play another two years. I'm sure speedy used him in the forward line a few times and turned the games around for us. Hmm just a thought
welcome paul.
Ryder back, Fletcher in Ruck. should have been done along time ago.
Goodness me, its not easy sometimes to adhere to my own requirements for others !
get all "thailand" on the place, sal.
I'm completely in favour of Fletch starting in a forward pocket or forward flank, sending Carlisle back, and playing Daniher at CHF because it would make the opposition coach lose their ■■■■.
How's your medium tall defender looking now?
Fletch is also pretty decent (lol) defensively, so he could also shut down a rebounding defender.
You don't have to set this stuff in stone, but I think we're mad not to use the weapons we have.
Ryder back, Fletcher in Ruck. should have been done along time ago.
Goodness me, its not easy sometimes to adhere to my own requirements for others !
I thought it was a tongue in cheek comment. In any case I hope so.
Carlisle has taken two or three hard forearms to the head in the past few weeks. The umpires/opposition thugs would get much enjoyment if that was fletch taking hits without protection.
It’ll be the making of carlisle if fights through the bullshit and stands up in a couple of games. Fletch would get taken out and have his career ended and get blamed for not protecting his head in a marking contest.
Normally it’d be dumb to give away our ability to protect fletch from the monsters by choosing his opponent. This season we’d be handing him s broken jaw
He even played two, maybe three weeks forward in mid 2000. Stuffed him up for a few weeks when he switched back. Caused him to get six kicked on him by Nathan Thompson.
The moral is; switching rarely works.
How did he ever pick up enough votes to win the B & F then?
I think Paul has his years wrong.
I vote yes on proposition infinity.
BTW, this should be a poll.
I think Paul has his years wrong.
How did he ever pick up enough votes to win the B & F then?
He even played two, maybe three weeks forward in mid 2000. Stuffed him up for a few weeks when he switched back. Caused him to get six kicked on him by Nathan Thompson.
The moral is; switching rarely works.
No he hasn't.
We could really confuse Richmond by playing all our players out of position.
Fletcher forward, Daniher back, Hurley into the midfield, Hibberd into the ruck.
Couldn't hurt the way we're going. But seriously though folks, remember when Fletcher lined up on the shortest player in the opposition team, can't remember who it was but was another Sheedy moment a number of years back now..
We could really confuse Richmond by playing all our players out of position.
Fletcher forward, Daniher back, Hurley into the midfield, Hibberd into the ruck.
Couldn't hurt the way we're going. But seriously though folks, remember when Fletcher lined up on the shortest player in the opposition team, can't remember who it was but was another Sheedy moment a number of years back now..
Phillip Matera?
We could really confuse Richmond by playing all our players out of position.
Fletcher forward, Daniher back, Hurley into the midfield, Hibberd into the ruck.
Couldn't hurt the way we're going. But seriously though folks, remember when Fletcher lined up on the shortest player in the opposition team, can't remember who it was but was another Sheedy moment a number of years back now..
Phillip Matera?
Actually, you might be right. Looked a bit odd but another one of Sheeds' mad moments I guess.
We could really confuse Richmond by playing all our players out of position.
Fletcher forward, Daniher back, Hurley into the midfield, Hibberd into the ruck.
Couldn't hurt the way we're going. But seriously though folks, remember when Fletcher lined up on the shortest player in the opposition team, can't remember who it was but was another Sheedy moment a number of years back now..
It was Phil Matera at WCE
This doesn't seem to suggest he played forward in 2000 PP
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/01/1059480553019.html
Fletcher looks forward to staying back
By Greg Baum
August 02 2003
<img height="260" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1059480552539_2003/08/01/fletcher,0.jpg" width="200" alt="fletcher,0.jpg">
<p class="" style="font-size:12px;">In 200 games, Dustin Fletcher's telescopic reach has spoiled many a disbelieving full-forward. <br><i>Picture: MICHAEL CLAYTON-JONES</i></p>
<p style="font-size:13px;"> </p>
Any given season at Essendon will be only as smooth or disrupted as Dustin Fletcher's. He is not the biggest name at Essendon, but he is, with Matthew Lloyd and James Hird, the most important. Fletcher has played nine games this year and the Bombers have won nine, and although his games and their wins do not correspond exactly, a story emerges.
Fletcher, 28, is in his 11th season and today plays his 200th game; if not for persistent injuries, he would be at his peak. He is unusually tall for a full-back at 197 centimetres, but has a turn of pace that doubtlessly is a genetic legacy from his father, Ken, a one-time Essendon wingman and captain. He is so athletic that at school he formed, with 210cm basketballer Chris Anstey, a formidable doubles tennis combination that no opponent could pass or lob.
Fletcher also has telescopic reach, which means he can get an interfering hand into any marking duel, even when out-bodied or off balance. He would like to have more ballast, but after seasons of trying fruitlessly to put on weight has just about resigned from the effort. He tips the scales at 92 kilograms.
Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy thinks Fletcher has been weighed short in the football community. "Others haven't seen him the way we have over the last five years," he said. Sheedy believes there is a tendency to appreciate the value of great defenders only when they are not in the team. This was driven home last year when injury and suspension sidelined Fletcher at crucial times in the last third of the season. It has been reinforced several times this season.
Fletcher has only once been named an All-Australian - in 2000, Essendon's all-conquering year. Fletcher, every bit as phlegmatic in life as a full-back must be on the field, said it did not bother him. "I don't worry about things like that," he said. "As long as the team's going well and I'm doing my bit, I'm happy." Not much seems to bother him, not even the mercurial sleeping habits of his young children.
But it raises a question about whether a footballer can be his team's best if he is in the last line of defence. One fact stands tall in Fletcher's favour. In 2000, when the Dons lost one game, he won the club's champion player trophy. "He won the best-and-fairest in one of Essendon's greatest-ever years," said Sheedy. "The ball was up the other end of the ground."
As good as his 2000 was, he didn’t kick 14 goals from full back. And he didn’t kick 3 against Richmond from full back.
He certainly had two, maybe three games up forward.
Don’t forget who coached us back then.
In 2000 we'd be up by 60 points up at half time every week. Then Sheeds would rotate everybody. Must've been bored. Even did it against Carlton to rub salt into the wounds when we rolled them after '99 prelim.
As I recall, Lloyd missed half-a-game at full-forward in 2000: against Adelaide at Docklands, when we were in trouble and he was switched to centre half-back in the second half. He played well there, while Long went ballistic and kicked five goals (and set up a couple others, IIRC) in the last 35 minutes to create a runaway big win.
Fletcher kicked two that day so I assume he had been sent forward.
I‘d be more authoritative but I was at the National Boomerang Championships that day, and the game wasn‘t televised so I‘ve never seen it.
(I won Accuracy, in unusually strong winds for Albury, and came third overall, 13 months after I discovered there were comps. Mostly downhill since then!)
I'm completely in favour of Fletch starting in a forward pocket or forward flank, sending Carlisle back, and playing Daniher at CHF because it would make the opposition coach lose their ****.
How's your medium tall defender looking now?
Fletch is also pretty decent (lol) defensively, so he could also shut down a rebounding defender.
You don't have to set this stuff in stone, but I think we're mad not to use the weapons we have.
We all know what happened last time we used the "weapon" we had
Hi guys my name is Paul and I've followed Essendon all my life and this. Is my twentieth year as a member. Does anybody think along my thoughts of having Fletch play forward and put Carlisle at the back where clearly he plays his best football, it would be an awesome back line and fletch at full forward would be able to play another two years. I'm sure speedy used him in the forward line a few times and turned the games around for us. Hmm just a thought
Welcome Paul. I have always thought Fletcher forward is an option so I tend to agree with you. One of the reasons our back line has developed so well is that we have had Fletch down the back directing traffic. Putting him on the forward line would not only provide a forward target but might put some much needed direction into the forward line and provide the players down there with a mentor. Not as silly as it sounds.
Contrary to what was posted above he has played in the forward line and has been successful.
As I recall, Lloyd missed half-a-game at full-forward in 2000: against Adelaide at Docklands, when we were in trouble and he was switched to centre half-back in the second half. He played well there, while Long went ballistic and kicked five goals (and set up a couple others, IIRC) in the last 35 minutes to create a runaway big win.
Fletcher kicked two that day so I assume he had been sent forward.
I‘d be more authoritative but I was at the National Boomerang Championships that day, and the game wasn‘t televised so I‘ve never seen it.
(I won Accuracy, in unusually strong winds for Albury, and came third overall, 13 months after I discovered there were comps. Mostly downhill since then!)
The only thing I remember from that game was Long going crazy. Everything else didn't exist.