Hooker forward, Ambrose and Francis in defence. Take out Brown and Dea. Done.
Hooker’s going to be selected each week to play somewhere and he’ll contribute wherever that may be. The bigger issues at play are more like, the merits of McKernan in the forward line vs Hartley in the backline?
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I actually think the Hooker forward or back conundrum is more to do with Michael Hurley. If Hurley can get back to playing genuine key position this gives us a support cast of Ambrose, Hartley, Dea, Gleeson, Francis for the marking forwards and thats solid enough. Hooker can go forward and play alongside Daniher and a Stewart/Stringer/Langford. If Michael Hurley is a permanent flanker I think Hooker sees out his career in defence.
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There still seems to be a lot of people undervaluing Hooker’s work in defence, in order to make a case for him going forward.
As I’ve said elsewhere, this doesn’t need to be an either/or situation.
The reality is, if we bomb long to Brown and McKernan next week, McGovern will take 25 intercept marks and score 250 SC points.
The forward setup we had last week just isn’t going to be good enough. And even though West Coast do go tall up forward, and it would also be a good week to have Hooker in defence, we have ample cover for him. Like, lots and lots of cover. Including Brown.
In a perfect world he stays in defence imo, but in a perfect world, Joe Daniher is playing.
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Imagine what donuts and chips taste like in a perfect world where Daniher is leaping high over Jeremy Howe who is already perched on the shoulders of Alex Rance? As Joe reaches the highest point one hand controls the ball, the other ruffes the hair of his opponents and affixes awful fake mustaches to the Richmond and Magpie idols. “You’ve been Joey’d” he laughs as he lands and walks back on his mark to prepare for the unique back-heeled place kick that has sorted his goal kicking woes. The donut is now gone, but the chip bag remains full.
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In today’s game where body spoiling and blocking is a given Daniher can’t cope with it.
Spends the game playing for frees from contact from behind, looking to receive the ball over the back etc to avoid the contact.
Even if JD is back he can’t be the primary long target as he’s not suited. Needs to be the roaming CHF/2nd ruck.
We still need Hooker FF IMO. And JD’s best footy came when we had the two of them there, because he gets off the chain from the oppositions strongest / tallest defender.
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IMO Hartley and Brown are not good enough down back. Thus Hooker is needed.
We have a gun forward in Joe he’s just not playing. I’m happy to settle a defence around hooker and hurly for the next couple of years. Short term our forwards may be weaker but the experience of the backs playing together outweighs this.
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You know Daniher had a career before this year, yeah?
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Thanks. McGovern brought into team and made Captain.
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You’re not well, are you?
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Absolutely agree. Hooker is a natural back and an unnatural forward. Build the backline around him. Joe is out, too bad, play a small fwd line, or stop gaps until he returns. I don’t favour using your pillars as swingmen.
We need to produce some quality so that we don’t need to play Brown, Hartley or McKernan who I don’t believe are AFL standard. Ambrose is ok as a shut down but doesn’t provide any drive and is injury prone. I don’t mind Dea but ideally Ridley, Redman, Francis and Gleeson kick on. I’m not as bullish on the ability of Francis as most. Like others I would love to see him succeed, most of all for himself, but it would also be a massive boost for our set up.
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It’s a perfect world, AN, everyone is well.
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Maybe he’s not but whatever he’s on, let’s bottle it we’ll make a fortune. There are definitely times I might need some of that stuff.
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A career where he has constantly been beaten when getting into a physical contest with bigger kpd’rs. When he gets allowed a run and jump at it, or separation on the lead a different story.
And not surprisingly he played his best footy, and was All Australian when he was able to do that more often … brought about by being able to play higher up the ground with Hooker the deep target - who beats others in physical contests.
100 goals between them. Small forwards working off them beautifully. And all this when our midfield was pretty ordinary in terms of pressure & amount of inside 50’s.
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You should rewatch the back half of 2016.
Daniher was fourth in the league for contested marks that year. He had fark all help and a shambles midfield, too.
You’re undervaluing him to try and make your point stronger about Hooker.
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Might be time to give up the shrooms man … 
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Get Bert Van Marwijk
Donuts. Donuts.
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I’d like to see Joe, Stew. String/Lang with Raz, Walla and Bags working in combo.
Stringer has upset the balance. And Hooker is needed down back to sure up our defense. It has been the best move Worsfold has made.
If Hooker goes fwd, then Stewart doesn’t play. Can only afford 3 talls in JD, Stringer and…