Post-draft Best 22

They put Cognilio in as a borderline player and didn’t even mention Jeremy Cameron for GWS.

Yep, I would add him to the list also.

And Hooker

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SEN have no idea.

I know we can be biased as supporters but when you have Jon Patton named then surely Hooker has to be included.

Hooker is twice the footballer.

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Maybe not twice the forward, but their years this year were pretty much on par in most respects.

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Love this thoughtful post. Thanks for sharing your insightful comments.

You are correct, the stats suggest they were almost identical.

Hooker is an All Australian Defender learning to play as a forward though.

I know Patton has had injuries to deal with but the only thing that should be factored in is production and Hooker is well ahead.

Cale Hooker could… could win most improved at our club next year if played forward with an injury free run at it.

Just needs to straighten up that set shot kicking. Confidence will build from that. But then if his head kicks over to “beast mode” and he sets himself to really destroy an opposition side… well… won’t that be something special to watch.

Is just so strong when the ball is in the air, and more than adequate when it is on the ground.

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SEN have made some serious omissions . First assumption is by definition, elite players are within the top 10% of their statistical category. Second, that the AFL player ratings are used as the basis for this . Third, that the total number of players in each category includes those who have a score in the AFL Player ratings.

Thus our elite players are as follows:

Zach Merret 15th out of 154 mids in the comp.
Adam Saad 14th out of 147 small medium defenders in the comp.
Joe Daniher 5th out of 70 key forwards in the comp.
Tippa 8th out of 141 small medium forwards in the comp
Jake Stringer 10th out of 141 small medium forwards in the comp
Orazio 11th out of 141 small medium forwards in the comp

Thats 6, going strictly by the statistical definition.
Hurls, made All Australian, , surely that makes him elite?

Total would be 7

Sound bites at their worst. Nothing to see here.

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Look if this SEN thing is just some guys opinion, its like every other opinion. If it is backed up by some quantifiable data ( bearing in mind that even the data is not perfect) , Patton is not elite, he is an above average player who shwed a lot of improvement last year. So, what is the definition of an “A grader” anyway. Is it the same as the Player ratings “Elite” top 10% or is “A Grader” some arbitrary category invented for the purposes of one commentators opinion.

Please keep in mind that SEN employs Kevin Bartlett. So theyre not a good judge of anything.

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Thinking about Best 22’s that have been posted. including mine, and there’s a worrying similarity about most of them.
So I thought I’d get in early with a “Best 22 for 2019”
Given that these changes won’t happen all at once, it did throw up some interesting options for the course of 2018.
The Best 22, as of now, may morph into some interesting permutations as it heads toward 2019
Here goes.

B: Saad Ambrose Gleeson
HB: Mckenna, Hurley, Heppell
C: Zaharakis, Parish, McGrath
HF: Francis, Joe D, Fantasia
F: Tippa, Hooker, Smith
R: Draper, Stringer, Merret

I/C; Stewart, Langford, Colyer, Redman/Long

I’m trying to keep as much pace as possible in the side, as well as I/C relief for all areas.
Hepp to replace BJ at half back - not as strong overhead, but provides more run and overlap.
Draper’s tap work can address our clearance weaknesses, even if his around the ground work is still developing (He made the Twos mids look good at clearances this year)
A faster inside mid starting brigade - Langford is there to relieve Stringer as the big bodied mid.
Stewart as the relief ruck, and allowing Francis to play as a swing man during games.
Colyer, despite his flaws still provides pace and coverage. Gone for one of Redman or Long as back up, and ability to play back or forward (guessing they try Long as a half back this year, and I reckon he can do it)

Begley is the wild card - Mid?, Forward? - he belongs but I don’t know where

Couldn’t find a spot for Laverde - just not sure where he fits in without taking away pace, and the ability to play 5 minutes or so on ball.
Ridley and Mutch will be interesting developers - could steal a spot.

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VFL will be a key area for our young mids to learn because BIrd, Hocking, Stants and Bobcat are gone, so the likes of Mutch, Clarke, Begley and maybe even Lav will have to do lots of heavy lifting as mids with Myers in a mentoring role.

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Hurley, Hooker and Heppell are clearly top 100 talent saga withstanding so we have 8

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RETIRED Bomber champion Jobe Watson says Essendon has a better list than in any of his 15 seasons at the club.

Watson played 220 games for the Bombers from 2003-17 but won just one final, way back in 2004, his second season.

The 32-year-old, who retired at the end of the season, told Gary Ablett’s website Exclusive Insight he was excited about the Bombers list.

“They’ve done an incredible job,” Watson said.

“They’ve got the most talented list since I’ve been at the club.

“For them to be able to utilise that and capture that talent I think it’s a really exciting period for the footy club.”

The Dons will go into 2018 after a bumper trade period that yielded GWS gun mid-forward Devon Smith, mercurial Bulldog Jake Stringer and pacy running defender Adam Saad.

The son of club great Tim Watson, 2003 father-son pick Jobe Watson was the Essendon 34’s figurehead during the supplements saga that tore the club apart.

He made a triumphant return to the game in 2017 after a 12-month suspension that threatened to end his career.

He says he’s glad he did it.

“Footy has meant so much to my family and that’s one of those things that I really loved about coming back was being able to share those experiences with my nieces,” Watson said.

“That’s the thing I most enjoyed about coming back and playing these past 12 months.

“My niece came to the game and she could support me and come down to the rooms. When you’re young (as the son of a player) you sort of take that for granted because that’s all you had, that’s what you knew, but that’s not what everyone else was able to experience.

“So to be able to share that experience with someone else, I found it really fulfilling.”

Watson said the expectation of being the son of a club legend made his early years in the AFL system tough.

“I see father sons who come into the club and they’re probably a little bit underdeveloped to other guys because they feel like they don’t want to show people how much it meant to them (to make it in footy like their father) and that’s how I felt,” he said.

“Even though mum and dad were incredibly supportive, it was more about ‘if I really tell people how much I’d love to be a footy player and I don’t (make it) will I lose an identity because of that?”

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Not everybody will agree with this but I believe some very strong points are made here in relation to having a smaller forwardline.

I personally believed we looked far better with Green in the side this season as opposed to an extra tall in Laverde.

With the addition of Stringer I watch with great interest how we manage Joe, Stewart, Hooker, Stringer, Laverde and any other taller player in our forwardline.

I know there are rotations and even the interchange but both the Bulldogs and now Richmond have highlighted just how important it is to have numbers around the contest.

We have a lot of quality tall players and I just cant see how they can all play together in the same side.

Following an impressive and dominant finals series from Richmond, their coach Damien Hardwick spoke of the Tigers’ focus on a high pressure rating and speed (especially up forward) being the cornerstone of their turnaround as a team.

Richmond had comprehensively belted every team they faced in the finals including Geelong and Adelaide. They have become the pre-eminent finals team and a blueprint for the perfect modern AFL side.

You’d think then that all teams would realise speed, especially up forward, and small forward lines that pressure would be the way to go? Not so for Geelong and Adelaide who will enter 2018 as slow and tall as ever.

So let’s get to the crux of the issue, how do you apply the most pressure as a team? The most simple way is to have a very fast team that can close down space very quickly, change direction quickly, and harass with repeat efforts. Tall lumbering types and slow bulky mids just won’t get the job done in regards to pressure.

Both Adelaide and Geelong don’t seem to have realised this, losing speed during the trade period and not looking to replace or increase the speed of their respective sides at all.

Both also favour having two talls in their forward line the majority of the time with Adelaide having Taylor Walker and Jenkins, Geelong Tom Hawkins and Harry Taylor/Rhys Stanley. This outdated frankly archaic philosophy of how to construct a forward line cost both teams dearly when they faced the speedy Tigers on the wide expanses of the MCG in finals.

Their tall lumbering forwards were a huge liability being exposed on transition again and again by the Richmond wave of runners.

It’s not only their forward lines though that lack speed, Adelaide and Geelong are slow almost all over the ground. Geelong only have Pat Dangerfield, Sam Menegola, Zach Tuohy, and maybe Nakia Cockatoo (if he can get on the park) with any real breakaway pace and Adelaide only having Eddie Betts, Paul Seedsman, and Curtly Hampton providing any dynamic speed.

So where is their pressure going to come from?

Geelong will take solace in the fact that they play on by far the most narrow ground in the league for nine games in 2018 meaning they won’t have to shut down anywhere near the space they would on the MCG to apply pressure.

The Crows too play 12 games on a smallish ground in the Adelaide Oval, allowing them to apply pressure with more ease than they would be able to elsewhere.

Unlike Richmond who transition with dynamic pace, handball, or kicking to space both Adelaide and Geelong prefer to use a more measured kicking game with ball in hand rather than run and carry. Logic says they’ll now rely on such measured and at times predictable ball movement even more.

Strangely being able to play their respective home grounds so well and only having to shut down limited space is a real problem for both teams, deceiving their respective coaches (and many of their more misguided fans) in to feeling secure in set ups and a game plan that simply won’t cut it in September against quicker sides on the wide spaces of the MCG.

I also can’t help but feel Taylor Walker and Hawkins are forwards made for yesteryear far less athletic in the air and at ground level than a Jack Reiwoldt type they are becoming a liability and a point of weakness in their respective teams because of the way they draw the ball and hardly mark it.

Once it goes to ground they’re completely out of the contest and it’s swept up by nimble defenders who run it out of there to start yet another counter attack. On a side note it’s no coincidence GWS’s best and most dynamic performance of the year came without their lumbering forward in Jon Patton slowing down their forward line.

The advantages of a small quick forward line with only maybe one KPF marking target that’s incredibly athletic like Richmond’s are four fold.

First, they apply enormous pressure to the opposition inside forward 50 limiting the effectiveness of the oppositions ability to build up coherent attacking play from defence or forcing a turn-over to give the attacking team a chance to score again.

This is reflected in Richmond being ranked first in intercepts per game in 2017, and first in tackles inside 50 per game.

Second, on quick transition from defence they supply speed which can move together in unison using handball/run and carry down the ground to quickly create an outnumber and overwhelm slow tall traditional defences. This is reflected in the combined stat of Richmond finishing fourth in metres gained per game, and third in bounces per game in 2017.

Third, when a team like Richmond are looking for a target moving forward opposition defences find it incredibly difficult to go third man up with mosquito forwards leading every which way separating defenders and not making it obvious where the ball will go. Richmond finished second in marks inside 50 per game last year despite having a small forward line for this very reason

Fourth, small forwards with speed are lethal when the ball hits the ground, able to win more ground ball than tall defenders and being able to break with speed from the contest to create space and set up teammates to have shots on goal. The Tigers ranked equal fifth in goal assists in 2017.

Each area on its own may not lead to success but when it’s all combined it’s a lethal mix. It’s now the blueprint for success and unless Richmond get terrible injuries I think they’re a very good chance to go back to back given they’re a fair way in front of the rest of the comp when it comes to fully understanding the importance of speed and athleticism in modern footy.

Port Adelaide may have the speed to worry them, possibly GWS if they actually have the courage to play small, maybe even Essendon are an outside chance with their own mosquito fleet, Hawthorn can’t be counted out if Puopolo and Cyril stay fit.

Come September however one thing’s for sure the Tiges certainly won’t have to worry about Adelaide or Geelong troubling them, with the Cats and Crows forward set ups and lack of understanding of the importance of speed all over the park more closely resembling the structure of a perfect team from 1988 than 2018.

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I agree a small forwardline could work to our advantage. And Woosh tried this out in 17 a few times.

I’d go one step further and use Daniher as a Toby Nankervis style ruckman for a fair chunk of games.

Interested in others thoughts on this move.

I think Bellcho and Leuenberg are both liabilities at times and close to their potential whereas Daniher could have a higher ceiling as a ruck/forward hybrid in the ruck position (obviously he has them well covered as a forward) as he’s a great intercept mark / penetrating field kick all over the ground.

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A Bomber forward line of any 6 of Joey, Hooker, Stewart, Stringer, Fanta, Walla, Green and Smith will be almost impossible for opposition to match-up. In 2016 and 2017 Stringer usually had the best backman on him, and next year he may be get the third or fourth string. Try matching up our best defence on this forward line. Conor and Saad would have enough pace to handle Green, Smith, Walla and Fanta, but do they have enough smarts to beat them. Hurley, Hartley and Ambrose, would struggle on Joey, Hooker and Stewart, and cant pick who we would play on Stringer, as he would be too strong and quick for Gleeson and Bags.

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Extending the “logic” in that article to our team, we also have too many tall forwards , but its easy to replace either or both Hooker / Stewart and replace with Stringer and or Smith. We can go smaller and faster than Richmond or taller than Geelong and Adelaide.

However I dispute the idea that Geelong are too tall in the forward line. They have lost 2 tall defenders and seem likely to send Harry Taylor down back. However, Geelong dont appear to have blistering speed available in the forward line.