Not necessarily. That team has more players rotating through the middle (which I think our team needs), which means less overall time in the middle for those players and they have to spend more time somewhere. You could easily have McGrath and Goddard rotating through defence even Hepp too to a lesser extent.
I agree Bags will probably come in to the side in R1 as well, but that side is very plausible (apart from Hooker in defence).
Thought the write up as a whole was pretty close to the mark. Far better than Twomey who youâd think should know better.
Everybody points to the midfield getting thrashed in the Sydney game as the problem. At the time, for me it was more that we got out marked around the ground - especially in defence.
Yes, getting done over in the midfield was a problem, but no more problem that the rest of the season.
Sydney at the SCG is a tough proposition for any side let alone one with a lot of inexperience like we had.
Sydney and Geelong in particular have very different shaped grounds to what most sides play on and have a lot of experience in how to set up around the ground to take advantage of kicks coming out of defence.
We executed our plan early but as fatigue and pressure set in we started playing within ourselves and we got exposed.
We would have learnt a lot from it and as we get better hopefully we wont be playing finals interstate and then the advantage will be with us.
Itâs never great to lose a final that way but we are on a steep upward trajectory and I donât think we will get beaten like that again.
But it was our experienced guys that were the most rubbish in that game. The inexperienced guys gleeson, begley, fantasia etc. were actually alright considering.
Yeah, the experience guys were below the level all year in my opinion.
I think we had maybe a handful of guys that exceeded their usual output but most were down and that were young and old.
In a final you only need a handful down and you will get exposed.
I have no doubt that we will grow from that and I donât believe it to be good indicator of where we are at considering how many question marks were over our side this year.
Rtbc talks of the decline of Hurls as a one on one defender. Hurls is superb as an attacking defender in effect an extra forward playing behind the ball but it seems that Sydney worked him out and send tall mobile forwards to him when he zoned off and then exploited his weakness overhead.
Hurls was doing far better defensively as well as attacking through the middle part of the year. It wasnât until clubs worked out that you shut down our run from other avenues that you render us ineffective.
As great a year as McGrath had he offered little run, same can be said of Hartley and Ambrose. A lot is said about Gleeson but he is way off being a line breaker so that left all the attacking play to Hurley and McKenna who were simply being double teamed.
Saad will assist in that area and as I have said before I wouldnât have both Hartley and Ambrose in the same team together unless they can greatly improve their attacking skills.
I know people are in a panic about Francis at the moment and his form this season doesnât warrant it but I would have him in the side in a heartbeat.
He has a presence and can do things that others canât. He is and interceptor not only in the air as most on here think is the only way, but also he intercepts at ground level just like Hurley does. If heâs fit at the start of the season then for mine he is straight in.
This year hurls and marty topped our intercept possession count. Hurls is down on contested marks, but really good at ground intercepts. Bj often played the plus one and was a key linkman , while zaka and zac often ran back as mids to participate in chains from deep defence. Irish seemed to have license to run and break lines, while mcgrath seemed to prefer to minimise risk and not run; good sprinter but has yet to develop a tank. Ambrose is ahead of hartley as an interceptor, but behind on 1 percenters. I agree, we need to boost intercept marking but its hard to say who will lift their game in that area and take the spot in the best 22.
For mine intercepting in the air or on the ground is irrelevant. You need to be able to do both. Hurley I believe finished second behind Lever the year and he really needs assistance from one or two more.
Gleeson is very good at being the third man up and taking intercepts that way but lacks any physical presence either in the air or on the ground. This for mine is why I believe he is limited as a player. Heâs had incremental improvement over the entirety of his career but itâs highly unlikely that heâs going to make a leap to being elite.
For mine both Ambrose and Hartley are limited footballers with Hartley having the most scope for improvement and Ambrose currently being the more reliable defender. On that basis I prefer Ambrose because despite some saying Hartleys height is required he rarely uses it to any great advantage except to punch the ball which in the modern game and is just creating another 50/50 contest.
Francis over a four game period in the VFL was averaging 10 intercepts a game and that as we know is off a very poor base. What he has is great athletic ability both in the air and on the ground and he has a physicality that only Hurley could match in our backline. And on top of that Francis has a penetrating kick that can launch attacks or clear zones.
If we are to improve we need another defender to assist Hurley and I think only Francis has that talent to do so.
FOR mine he just needs to play. Providing of course that he can run out a game.
I stood on the Hangar balcony last year at the Blitz BBQ and looked at the way McGrath was moving in a match sim and it was clear even then he had what it takes to debut round 1. The rest is history.
Its getting harder and harder to get into the side, but my prediction is that Guelfi might be the only one good enough to debut in round 1 2018. ( leaving aside SSS ). Given that he is 20, and his body looks AFL ready , imo he is the one to watch. Mutch might not be far behind him.
Iâm a bit mystified by a few posts claiming Mitch Brown is anywhere near our best 22.
Handy depth, yes he can mark, and tries hard but has yet to eliminate the biggest flaw in his game - he takes too â â â â â â long to dispose of the ball.
Not since Gwilt have I seen a back who can do the right thing, then invariably trot back from the mark / free, look left, look right, look left again, decide heâs too close to the bloke on the mark, trot back a couple more steps âŚ
Absolutely butchers our transition out of defence.
And he even does it when released into space with a lateral pass.
