I hear Mrs Colonel loves BBB
How dare you bring her into this!!!
I just hear BBB somehow knows the secret herbs and spices.
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To say either is before the other after only one practise match seems silly to me, Francis was given more opportunity than Baldwin yesterday for a reason and thatâs because the coaches feel he is ahead of Baldwin and of course he should be with Baldwins history no coach would feel comfortable playing him around 1 over a player like Francis regardless of how both faired in one practise match.
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Too sensible.
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we need Baldwin to kick 4 goals in a half next week to press his round 1 claims.
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Momentum
I hate to break the 4th wall, but there are certain players on Blitz that posters enjoy pumping up, because itâs fun.
Baldwin is one of these players.
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Honestly, my praise of Baldwinâs game yesterday is separate to my desire to pump up the cult hero. (Which Iâm also doing simultaneously)
A project player with his history should have realistically been in the VFL squad. He had no right to show anything at all against senior opposition at this stage of his development.
But he did. Just a little, but it was there.
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100% agree.
I can see him getting senior games later this year. I donât think he will play round 1 though.
Why? Ruck isnât the most important position. We beat West Coast last year with Phillips and Wright winning just 11 hit outs each. Would they have beaten us if they had a second ruck? I dunno, we were pretty good that night but my point is we can just do it like the Bulldogs and Richmond, use a non-ruck player to ruck while the main ruck rests. And besides, Draper is fitter now. We need more goals, not hit outs.
Some interesting examples there.
Draper rucking one out against Gawn / Jackson or even Martin / English is a long way from ideal. Teams are going with two ruck options more and more these days.
The fact that Richmond rolled the dice and got away with Shaun Grigg as a second ruck one year, doesnât make it is a wise strategy. Especially when you donât need to do it.
But yes, we need goals. Wright is actually good for a few of those.
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Spot on, bringing the ball to ground can be as important as a highlight reel clunk - it just doesnât get the happy clappers going.
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Like I mentioned in the other thread, Wright kicked 19 goals against two bottom 2 teams and Bulldogs. He missed two games. So thatâs ten goals in 16 games. Francis can create more goals than Wright - hell, he even won a couple of hit outs yesterday - so I say blood Baldwin now at Wrightâs expanse, he can kick 15-20 goals this year and weâll be better for it in 2023 and propel us to premiership contention in 2024. Anyway, I think Iâve said enough. I do hope Wright proves me wrong big time, though.
Yeah, I donât see that at all.
And thatâs probably where we differ.
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With the 6-6-6 teams are not willing to go in with a short pinch hitting ruck unless desperate
An easy take away from CBâs means too much risk in being scored against
Wright does well in ruck contests as a pinch hitter (good HO to advantage also) and certainly offers plenty around the ground as well as drifting fwd to get on end of goals being hit up 40-50m out.
Francis 2nd ruck idea is fantasyland.
The player who may end up doing it in time based on some junior games is Reid
Based on??
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Lol
I just see him getting more disposals and that translates to more score involvements. Heâs a better kick too, but admittedly if he plays deep rather then up the ground then that might not be much of a difference between them. I just canât see Wright run in space and take uncontested marks like Francis (he averaged 4 to Wrightâs 2). The key is to play Francis as the third tall, Baldwin FF with Jones at CHF.
I donât think Wright is crap, heâs just a confidence player and I think itâd be more beneficial to invest in this forward line; Baldwin and Jones are the future, and Francis is good enough to be part of it.
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Wright is 25.
He is also the future.
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