How do we fix the forward line?

So what else would be new? Blitzperts miss the target almost always.

and the bloodstained savant reckons?

Now you know I prefer to just watch & enjoy, and leave it up to our coaches, because having been there, I know there is just so much I don’t & can’t know, but, seeing you asked, … so far back no one seems to remember, I said JD should play the Nick Reiwoldt role, and about 6 weeks ago, that he should have a run in the ruck. I had a gut feel on that, having played that possie, the issue was familiar.

Those two have happened, and Joe seems to like it, & function better, so you’d think/hope that’s one thing sorted.

Other than that, I’d say wait until Hookers back, and/or we hire a new KPF, and have our other top 6 players playing, & worry about it then, because presently, there is a fundamental breakdown between the FWD’s and those that kick it in there, (capt obvious), and I think they can work on it, but it won’t have much real chance of clicking until we’re complete, and the newby’s get a few under the belt, you can’t get experienced, without the experience eh?

Surely we all know the coaches are aware & will try to fix it, but that it’s difficult right now without the cattle??

And I don’t know about others here, but I am seeing incremental improvements each week with our entries, (although they don’t always come off), and reckon that’s as much as we can hope for with the stitched together band of Bombers they have to work with.

Edit:

I have had one recurring thought on our FWD line next year that won’t go away, and that is that we might well see Brown with Hurls in the rear, and Hooker & Joe joined by Hartley as the 3rd tall FWD …

The real ironic thing I see coming, especially if we do trade for another key Tall, is that we will have gone from a severe shortage of them, to being spoilt for choice, in the space of 2 years.

Interesting listening to Terry Wallace this afternoon in relation to Essendon and where the ball remains for the better portion of the game. The ball spends 21% more time in our backline than forward line statistically , allowing the backs to rack up ridiculous possession's. He then went onto to say that for someone looking at stats as an indicator of how well someone is going ignor Essendon at the moment. Irrespective of who you are , if the ball is not getting into the forward line consistently over a quarter and a game , the forwards are simply up against it. In the backline and its relative to where Essendon is at this year , the backs are looking to maintain possession to the point of making it boring for the opposition (hoping they will loose concentration) and to a degree us supporters.

Exactly right. But on the weekend to the team’s credit tried to move the ball quicker and use the corridor. Sure skill errors, and poor delivery into the fwd killed us, but I’m not to fussed about that atm. The team will be much better of in the long run if they continue this trend.

So what else would be new? Blitzperts miss the target almost always.

and the bloodstained savant reckons?

Now you know I prefer to just watch & enjoy, and leave it up to our coaches, because having been there, I know there is just so much I don’t & can’t know, but, seeing you asked, … so far back no one seems to remember, I said JD should play the Nick Reiwoldt role, and about 6 weeks ago, that he should have a run in the ruck. I had a gut feel on that, having played that possie, the issue was familiar.

Those two have happened, and Joe seems to like it, & function better, so you’d think/hope that’s one thing sorted.

Other than that, I’d say wait until Hookers back, and/or we hire a new KPF, and have our other top 6 players playing, & worry about it then, because presently, there is a fundamental breakdown between the FWD’s and those that kick it in there, (capt obvious), and I think they can work on it, but it won’t have much real chance of clicking until we’re complete, and the newby’s get a few under the belt, you can’t get experienced, without the experience eh?

Surely we all know the coaches are aware & will try to fix it, but that it’s difficult right now without the cattle??

And I don’t know about others here, but I am seeing incremental improvements each week with our entries, (although they don’t always come off), and reckon that’s as much as we can hope for with the stitched together band of Bombers they have to work with.

Edit:

I have had one recurring thought on our FWD line next year that won’t go away, and that is that we might well see Brown with Hurls in the rear, and Hooker & Joe joined by Hartley as the 3rd tall FWD …

The real ironic thing I see coming, especially if we do trade for another key Tall, is that we will have gone from a severe shortage of them, to being spoilt for choice, in the space of 2 years.

Surely if they were going to do this we’d see Brown back this year and Hartley forward.

I can see Hooker / Hurley back, and Brown / Hartley forward with JD resting ruck.

Of course we haven’t seen Hartley forward, so who knows what he’ll be like.

Ahhh, but we have Sam … we have … Looks for 65 metre goal gif

The focus needs to be on 2017, but the reality is that the midfield delivering it and the forwards trying to win it are likely to be different.

I think the structure could be not bad next year. Hooker playing forward gives us the deep marking forward we need, and takes pressure off JD and Brown. Hooker averaged 2 goals (plus change) a game for the last 10 matches last year. Not bad for his first ever stint up there. Since round 6 this year (i.e. the last 5 games) as Brown settled in and JD changed roles, they’ve averaged 1.8 and 1.4 goals each. With Hooker and a better midfield, I’d expect that to improve. So now you’ve got 6-7 goals from your talls, a pretty decent base, and I think that element is covered. Maybe with improvement they can push towards 7-8 goals between them.

We then need to teach our smalls, and our medium sized forwards to be at the fall of the ball and put pressure on. Currently, only Fantasia does this. But we really need a few of Colyer, Langford, Laverde, Eades, Redman to step into these roles, or recruit for it. Stop putting midfielders into these roles, like Jerrett. I know there is a lot of focus/desire for us to have medium guys marking all over the place ala Stringer or Crameri, but the reality is the focus needs to be on their ability to push both ways, put defensive pressure and crumb. The overhead marking should be icing, not the cake. Apart from Fantasia, we may not have the players who can do this - hopefully we do. But I’d be strongly tempted to target at least one small forward with our 2nd or 3rd round pick.

Of course, then the midfield has to win it and deliver it well. We will be better there next year, but not sure how much better. And finally we’ll all need to be patient, as even if we have the right people in 2017, it will take them time to learn being together.

In my view, the focus in the draft/trade period should be on small forwards and mids, not tall players. The development of Hartlett & Brown has mitigated that issue, especially if Ambrose establishes himself as a decent KP defender or Francis takes off.

Personally, I find the idea of slow older players like Goddard, Watson or Stanton who are not natural forwards up there to be a worry. I think the three talls is the better structure, and I can’t see those guys working well with them. Worsfold needs to be tough on those guys getting games on their midfield credentials only.

We score 60 points a game. We want 120 points a game Demand all players double their efforts.

8 quarters of footy each week may sound tough but whatever it takes. (Stants and paddy are good at running)


Where is Darth Vader and the Emperor when you need them?
So what else would be new? Blitzperts miss the target almost always.

and the bloodstained savant reckons?

Now you know I prefer to just watch & enjoy, and leave it up to our coaches, because having been there, I know there is just so much I don’t & can’t know, but, seeing you asked, … so far back no one seems to remember, I said JD should play the Nick Reiwoldt role, and about 6 weeks ago, that he should have a run in the ruck. I had a gut feel on that, having played that possie, the issue was familiar.

Those two have happened, and Joe seems to like it, & function better, so you’d think/hope that’s one thing sorted.

Other than that, I’d say wait until Hookers back, and/or we hire a new KPF, and have our other top 6 players playing, & worry about it then, because presently, there is a fundamental breakdown between the FWD’s and those that kick it in there, (capt obvious), and I think they can work on it, but it won’t have much real chance of clicking until we’re complete, and the newby’s get a few under the belt, you can’t get experienced, without the experience eh?

Surely we all know the coaches are aware & will try to fix it, but that it’s difficult right now without the cattle??

And I don’t know about others here, but I am seeing incremental improvements each week with our entries, (although they don’t always come off), and reckon that’s as much as we can hope for with the stitched together band of Bombers they have to work with.

Edit:

I have had one recurring thought on our FWD line next year that won’t go away, and that is that we might well see Brown with Hurls in the rear, and Hooker & Joe joined by Hartley as the 3rd tall FWD …

The real ironic thing I see coming, especially if we do trade for another key Tall, is that we will have gone from a severe shortage of them, to being spoilt for choice, in the space of 2 years.

Not too shabby a reply.
Longer than the three word one I’d have gone with, but better.

Interesting listening to Terry Wallace this afternoon

Stopped reading here

Imagine…Hooker & Francis clunking in the forward line till early morn…

We score 60 points a game. We want 120 points a game Demand all players double their efforts.

8 quarters of footy each week may sound tough but whatever it takes. (Stants and paddy are good at running)


Where is Darth Vader and the Emperor when you need them?

I think we go the Kim Jong Il form of inspiration. Hold the players’ families hostage until they reach 120 pts for the game.

Mitch Brown.

We might not need to play Hooker forward next year if Brown keeps going.

We score 60 points a game. We want 120 points a game Demand all players double their efforts.

8 quarters of footy each week may sound tough but whatever it takes. (Stants and paddy are good at running)


Where is Darth Vader and the Emperor when you need them?

shoot skipworth out of a cannon.

Listen to Parish’s last interview - towards the end, when he talks about what they train to do, with Skippy.

Or maybe you could just give us a summary?

Sacrificial running. Creating space for others in the fwd line dragging your defender out.

shoot skipworth out of a cannon.

Listen to Parish’s last interview - towards the end, when he talks about what they train to do, with Skippy.

Or maybe you could just give us a summary?

Yes please, I’ve just listened to his two last interviews and it’s not in them. FWIW I think he could be a brilliant small forward. Love him midfield but try visualising him hunting packs and stealing balls deep in the forward line; he could be as deadly as Bewick. P.S. If you think that sounds stupid you’re probably correct, I have a woeful track record this year. I predicted Grimley and Kommer’s preseason teamwork and chemistry to be the solution to our forward line structure :confused:

Grimley and kommer the saviours? YIKES

Grimley and kommer the saviours? YIKES

Yeah I know. It looked good at the time.

Sacrificial running. Creating space for others in the fwd line dragging your defender out.

Maybe we could try getting the opposition defenders to drag our forwards into our forward line.

Sacrificial running. Creating space for others in the fwd line dragging your defender out.

They do that well, problem is that they all drag their defenders out to the same spot

shoot skipworth out of a cannon.

Listen to Parish’s last interview - towards the end, when he talks about what they train to do, with Skippy.

Or maybe you could just give us a summary?

I could, if you feel adverse to going to our site and listening to the whole thing.
He says, Skippy has been trying to get the forwards to instinctively run to space when leading.
Kinda opposite of what happens.

edit: others beat me to it.