Do you think Gleeson will move more into the Kelly style sweeper role and let the other two run up the wings? I noticed that it was Gleeson pushing forward a lot in the 2nd half of the season, but I think he is a better 1-1 defender than the other two…
That is true but it’s not like we don’t have quite a few talls and as i said they just aren’t as important as they used to be.
He is far better 1on1 than the other two. He may not have Hurl’s size, but I think he takes a similar position, and Hurls isn’t getting any younger, Francis shaky. We only need 1 tall & 1 medium & 1 short lockdown - I see those as being Hartley (not convinced yet), Ambrose and Bags (for now - will be Saad). The other 3 will be springboard types - Hurls, Gleeson, McKenna. I see us as still needing a mid-sized and shaped defender. Could be Redman, freeing up running backs Saad & McKenna.
Bags/Saad Hartley Hurley
Ambrose McKenna Gleeson/Goddard
Francis if he stays and comes on, would replace Hurls
Redman would be used as a utility alla BJ - because he looks likes him.
Both Saad & Oirish can be used on the wing at a pinch.
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Will they be as important in 5 years time?
That depends on whether the AFL makes any changes to the game to fix the congestion or not.
Depends if you count playing two bad halves as worse than playing one good and one bad.
I was majoryly into the talls for years. Then I said we had a set, and the focus should be smalls (after we got JD so from 2012 onish).
And I don’t think I over-value talls. The dominant sides in the competition for the last 4-5 years have been teams with strong 2-3 man tall setups. Hawthorn for their period of success, Sydney, WCE in their run, Adelaide throughout, Geelong when they were getting into Grand Finals. Sure, Bulldogs and Richmond won the last two years without this, but both were behind a plethora of other teams who had strong tall setups leading into finals. Exceptional finals series were their strength. And Richmond had arguably the best tall defender in the league at one end, and one of the best tall forwards at the other underpinning them.
Finally, you say we need to focus on midfield first. We have been. 2016 virtually every pick was a midfielder or potential midfielder. 2014 and 2015 also had a strong emphasis with early picks on midfielders. We’ll see how Langford, Begley, Mutch, McGrath, Laverde go next year and maybe the issue is entirely gone.
I think …
Ah, hell. Everyone knows what I think about Gleeson, so I’ll just zip it.
Interesting that you think Saad takes the baguley role… I would say the other way round… Gleeson takes the ‘lock down’ role and Saad takes the HB running role.
It will depend on form and gameplan I guess. Either way its pretty exciting imho.
Remember when we were having arguments over Ricky Dyson and Hank Slattery?
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I reckon we’ll be flexible in many areas, and that’s the plan anyway.
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Agreed.
It seems like we are trying to really make sure that we don’t have true HB or HF… but instead take a ‘midfield rotation group’ of about 14 into games.
Almost seems like if you aren’t a key position player… then you will spend time on the ball/wings… and our talls are also flexible… JD is fwd/ruck etc etc.
Interesting.
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Yep, exactly.
I apologize if i got that wrong. I certainly remember you going on about them, and me and Jbomber arguing with you that midfields are more important but it must have been much longer ago than i remember.
I started typing out a big reply but i’m going to cop out as i cbf’ed atm and might get back to you later.
Some of us rated Ricky Dyson…
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Oh yes, we had those arguments for years. From about 2005 to 2009ish. But my argument was always talls first. When we had Gumby, Hurley, Hooker, Carlisle, Pears, D. Daniher, Neagle, Ryder, Belly I was saying, “ok, we’ve got them, now lets get smalls”. Of course, didn’t realise several would become crocks, but when they did we had JD and Crameri come through anyway. I always argued that as we made the push up, we should recruit mids and/or trade for mids (good ones are generally cheaper than talls). We got Goddard, and if not for the saga have always thought we’d probably have traded out of the 2013 draft for midfielders.
I’ve had no problems with the focus on mids recently (and that we got Hartley, Ambrose, Brown and Stewart cheap has been great for tall depth), but we will need to refocus soon. Hopefully Mason Fletcher is a star.
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Ok.
Walla has finished top 10 in our Best&F the last 2 years.
I don’t believe Gleeson has ever finished top 10.
- I am a Gleeson fan from way back. But Walla is a special player.
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I don’t reckon there would be much point putting Gleeson on a little bloke.
His greatest strength is that he’s skinny but reads it very well in the air - so he can play on a medium or biggish marking player, break even or win overhead and that extra agility (compared to who he’s on) often lets him get to the drop first and get out on the rebound.
Put him on someone who’s smaller, quicker, and not trying to mark, and I don’t think he’s got all that much going his way.
His 2017 form turned around when they put him as a third tall, not a back pocket/flank.
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Not on your own - I think Deck will have plenty coming at him.
I was home from work today with a sick youngin who demanded lots of attention, so did the only sensible thing and queued up a bunch of bombers clips from YouTube on the telly and had them running in the background. Started with 2007, man we had some great wins that year! Something occurred to me I watched out of the corner of my eye (other than that Scott Lucas had an incredible year in 2007), was that the team had some pretty good names in it.
We are prone to overrating some pretty bog average footballers on Blitz, it’s part of the parcel really. But a lot of those young players in 2007 didn’t suck, though the interim period couldn’t have been more underwhelming. In fact, listing names like McVeigh, Watson, Lovett-Murray, Welsh, Monfries, Hille, Ryder, McPhee, Winderlich, Stanton, Alywyn Davey, Lovett, I’d say that most of them had above average careers, and if they didn’t, injury was a large part to blame. We aren’t totally crazy, most of those guys could play.
The problem, or at least a large non-saga related part of it, was that none of them peaked at the right time. Some peaked early in the Knights era, others in the squad of 2014, and Paddy Ryder is peaking now in 2017. We had the players, but not the sweet spot in terms of our age bracket and list management.
That is what is so damned exciting about the moves we have pulled in this trade period. We have for the first time since the 90s got a group that will grow together. We’ve got genuine star power, we’ve got role players, and while Hurley and Hooker have fewer days ahead than behind, we’ve got time for them to gel and have multiple tilts at the flag.
I’m seriously lid off about where we are at list wise. Exciting times are ahead!
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But I love Gleeks, and you smell of dirty toes.