The thing I like about this...............................
Pressure to perform, pressure on spots.
2 young kids means we are not neglecting refreshing the list. Plus we know how some more depth and pressure on spots. Cooney, Gwilt and Kommer all provide pressure on spots.
Giles means TBell can't stink it up or 2015 will be a 2014 repeat,
Kids will get their chance through injuries and form. The way it should be.
These teams need more TIPPA!
Given what has happened this morning, here is a best 22 thread.
B: Baguley, Hooker, Fletcher
HB: Dempsey, Hurley, Hibberd
C: Colyer, Hocking, Cooney
HF: Zaharakis, Carlisle, Goddard
F: Chapman, Daniher, Ambrose
R: Bellchambers, Watson, Heppell
Int: Z. Merrett, Stanton, Myers, Giles
Emerg: Gwilt, Winderlich, Howlett, Gleeson
Left-overs: O'Brien, Ashby, Pears, Melksham, Edwards, J. Merrett, Browne, Steinberg, Kavanagh, Dell'Olio, Gleeson, Dalgleish, Gregory, Kommer, Hams, Aylett, Thurlow, Rayner, Fantasia plus draft picks and Long.
Not bad.. I bolded the changes, mostly positional..but the main one, Gwilt out, Demps back to half back flank as Colyer must play. His pace and incredible improvement must be utilised this year.
The great teams have players FIGHTING to get into the best 22 and stay there. This is starting to happen, in no small part because no one wants to play in the Essendon VFL team.
B: Baguley, Hooker, Fletcher
HB: Dempsey, Hurley, Hibberd
C: Colyer, Cooney, Z. Merrett
HF: Zaharakis, Carlisle, Goddard
F: Chapman, Daniher, Ambrose
R: Bellchambers, Watson, Heppell
Int: Stanton, Hocking, Myers, Giles
Emerg: Gwilt, Winderlich, Howlett
I found that very hard... Howlett as an emergency killed me, tried to fit him in but could not work out who to drop?
B: Baguley, Hooker, Fletcher
HB: Dempsey, Hurley, Hibberd
C: Colyer, Cooney, Z. Merrett
HF: Zaharakis, Carlisle, Goddard
F: Chapman, Daniher, Ambrose
R: Bellchambers, Watson, Heppell
Int: Stanton, Hocking, Myers, Giles
Emerg: Gwilt, Winderlich, Howlett
Subject to matchups. As regards Hocking, maybe its now a matter of "do we tag any player" instead of "who do we tag"
From the interchange, Hocking can be brought to to play as a "free inside midfielder" or tag a player who is out of control.
Against 50% of teams we should not bother to tag anyone as a predetermined plan.
Against the top teams, I guess its mandatory, but which player do we tag ?
What we have seen little of, is how good is Hocking as a straight midfield player, relieved of tagging duties?
Cooney is not ahead of Buddha or Myers. Maybe howlett but they are different players. All 3 recruits are depth players which is fine.
Cooney will rotate with chappy.
Cooney still has pace and skill. I’d love to see him as an opportunist forward rotating for bursts through the midfield
Cooney still has pace and skill. I'd love to see him as an opportunist forward rotating for bursts through the midfield
Posted Today, 06:50 PM
Cooney is not ahead of Buddha or Myers. Maybe howlett but they are different players. All 3 recruits are depth players which is fine.
Cooney will rotate with chappy.
I love the idea of the Cooney / Chappy rotation. Silky skills, goal sense both of them.
Trouble is going to be with them fighting each other to get game time.
Geez, that new high-altitude chamber looks dangerous.The thing I like about this...............................
Pressure to perform, pressure on spots.
We really should draft two young mids since that midfield group is getting old. Hird knows this and have said so already.
You are making a massive ■■■
What is really striking me is the age of the best 22, midfield particularly. Even assuming Gwilt doesn't play unless we have injuries, we've got Goddard, Watson, Winderlich, Stanton, Chapman, Baguley, Cooney, Dempsey all north of 27, and with our 22 so stuffed to bursting with old guys we've got basically no room at all to give kids a sustained run. Zerrett Heppell and Daniher get a go, sure, simply cos they've earned it, but how are guys like Browne, Kav, Gleeson, Jerrett, Hams, Orazio (plus this year's draftees, of course) supposed to get senior experience and earn their spot when every year we bring in another supperannuant to crowd the kids out of the 22? BJ and Watson aren't really as problem cos they're still in top form, and there's no big rush on Baguley or Dempsey either, but we could lose any or all of the others at any time and the guys we'll be wanting to replace them in the guts of the midfield rotation will be 10-20 gamers rather than 50 gamers.
And my god the tall depth looks awful. The first-choice spine is great, but after that there is quite literally nothing. Injuries to any two talls at any given time - you know, like we failed to cover during the elimination final and lost because of it - and we're in deep trouble.
W're gambling absolutely everything on having a massive year and going almost completely injury-free in 2015 or, at the most generous, 2016. After that we've got all sorts of problems.
You are making a massive assumption that all the old guys are on the park at once.
I'm sure they will be rotated.
Even if they are - so what? We rotate one of them out every single week it only means we get to squeeze one kid (or more likely, Melksham) in to the 22 per game. We have probably a dozen guys in need of senior experience, and they aren't going to get it. Some of them will probably look to leave the club because of it, under the new 'contracts mean nothing' AFL paradigm.
The club is betting everything on a pair of 5s. We're stocking up heavily on ageing recycled guys while our own midfield core is ageing too, and trying to cobble a flag together by topping up even though we have no tall depth and the whole push could be utterly miserably derailed by a couple of injuries to the wrong blokes (where would we be if Hooker did a knee, for instance? We have absolutely no cover for him worth the name). And while we shoot for this particular rainbow, we've got a generation of younger guys running around in the 2s not getting the senior experience they'll need if we're going to be a serious flag threat during the NEXT window, while Zaka/Hooker/Hurley/Belly are in their primes.
The structure of our list at the moment scares the crap out of me. House of cards.
As opposed to the structure of the Hawthorn list, which had 5 players over 30 when it won the grand final. The Hawks also had Cheney and Schoenmakers spending signficant time in key defensive posts.
And someone like Langford coming in from nowhere to take Sewell's spot. If our young players improve they will demand a spot in the team and will improve the performance of the club. I have no doubt that one or two of Ashby, Jerrett, Browne, Hams, Aylett, Edwards, Fantasia or O'Brien will have a break out season next year and become locks in the best 22.
I'm bullish.
So who will take which numbers?
1 Michael Hibberd
2 Tom Bellchambers
3 Paul Chapman
4 Jobe Watson (c)
5 Brent Stanton
6 Joe Daniher
9 Brendon Goddard
10 Nick O'Brien
11 David Zaharakis
12 Mark Baguley
14 Jason Ashby
15 Courtenay Dempsey
16 Tayte Pears
17 Jake Melksham
18 Michael Hurley
19 Shaun Edwards
20 Jackson Merrett
21 Dyson Heppell
22 Jake Carlisle
23 David Myers24 Alex BrowneCruz Roja.svg
26 Cale Hooker
27 Zach Merrett
28 Elliott Kavanagh
30 Paddy Ryder
31 Dustin Fletcher (vet)
32 Travis Colyer
33 Dylan Van Unen
34 Kyle Hardingham
35 Martin Gleeson
36 Lauchlan Dalgleish
37 Sean Gregory
38 Nick Kommer
39 Heath Hocking (vc)
40 Ben Howlett
41 Will Hams
43 Kurt Aylett
46 Orazio Fantasia29 Cory Dell'Olio
44 Fraser Thurlow
45 Johnny Rayner
47 Patrick AmbroseArrow-up.png
Winders to get 8 I reckon.
Bags Hooker Fletcher/Gwilt
Hibberd Hurley Gleeson
Zaka Jobe Cooney
Goddard Carlisle Colyer
Winders Joey D Kommer
T Bell Heps Zerrett
Chappy Myers Dempsey Stanton/Melksham
^ What I'd like to see rather than what is perhaps our best 22
Ideally would have the likes of Kav, Jackson Merrett, Alex Browne and one of our first 2 picks come through at the expense of some of the older and slower guys
Edit: see that I forgot Hocking and Howlett, very difficult to determine what our best side will be
Very worrying that we have such an ageing list, desperately need the youth to develop but hard to see where opportunities will come from
So who will take which numbers?
1 Michael Hibberd
2 Tom Bellchambers
3 Paul Chapman
4 Jobe Watson (c)
5 Brent Stanton
6 Joe Daniher
9 Brendon Goddard
10 Nick O'Brien
11 David Zaharakis
12 Mark Baguley
14 Jason Ashby
15 Courtenay Dempsey
16 Tayte Pears
17 Jake Melksham
18 Michael Hurley
19 Shaun Edwards
20 Jackson Merrett
21 Dyson Heppell
22 Jake Carlisle
23 David Myers24 Alex BrowneCruz Roja.svg
26 Cale Hooker
27 Zach Merrett
28 Elliott Kavanagh
30 Paddy Ryder
31 Dustin Fletcher (vet)
32 Travis Colyer
33 Dylan Van Unen
34 Kyle Hardingham
35 Martin Gleeson
36 Lauchlan Dalgleish
37 Sean Gregory
38 Nick Kommer
39 Heath Hocking (vc)
40 Ben Howlett
41 Will Hams
43 Kurt Aylett
46 Orazio Fantasia29 Cory Dell'Olio
44 Fraser Thurlow
45 Johnny Rayner
47 Patrick AmbroseArrow-up.png
Winders to get 8 I reckon.
Big call that. There‘s a better candidate for ranga #10.
bring in two of benfti picks and we are set
cockatoo plz
Lol at Myers on bench. He would get as much interest as ryder on the open market.
To become a grader next 2 years.
B: Baguley, Hooker, Fletcher
HB: Dempsey, Hurley, Hibberd
C: Colyer, Cooney, Z. Merrett
HF: Zaharakis, Carlisle, Goddard
F: Chapman, Daniher, Ambrose
R: Bellchambers, Watson, Heppell
Int: Stanton, Hocking, Myers, Giles
Emerg: Gwilt, Winderlich, Howlett
As much as he had an absolute barry crocker of a 2014 I have really high hopes that Jake Melksham can become the player we have seen in glimpses so far, especially in the second half of 2013. Hird can get the best out of him. Fingers crossed.
The final against North has excited me to follow Joey D's progress as a player too. It was a pretty decent performance for a 20 year old in his first final.
In an overall sense though, sadly I think we are treading water.