I’ll give you a moment to figure out the problem with your second premise.
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I’d never thought of it like that but you’re right. Likeable, love a laugh but serious minded when it counts. And permanent cheap wine 3 day growth look.
Well, you did say that you ‘hoped he would return to his previous capability/style/whatever’.
The opposing point, is that that no, that is not what the team needs/wants.
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You forgot to mention Modern Footy.
I still think the number one priority of a defender is actually being able to defend his opponent one on one. Hurley was pretty bad at that last year. Agree with Paul Peos on this one.
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It is the way he is instructed to play, it leaves him vulnerable at times as he is playing off his man a lot. He could bulk back up and play a more accountable role successfully as he has done in the past. But he wont get near as much of the ball, therefore the team wont be in as many attacking positions. When the ball is in his hands good things happen. His disposal is elite.
The game has changed like it or not, you either play team defense, or get left behind by the rest of the comp.
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Last year’s grand finalists:
Richmond Key Defenders:
- Astbury. Takes best forward, pure lockdown
- Rance. Takes 2nd best forward, has pretty hair, zone’s off opponent, intercepts. Still beats his opponent though, rarely exploited.
Adelaide
- Talia. Takes best forward, pure lockdown (one of the games best at it)
- Hartigan. Takes second best forward. Big, strong, dumb sh*ttruck. Pure lockdown.
- Lever. Intercept king. Struggles in 1v1.
Neither team went in with only one key defender who can lockdown, but still had Rance and Lever who led the league for intercepts.
The game isn’t now ‘just’ about zone defences / Intercepts / rebounds / rotations, it’s about balance.
Ambrose / Hurley / Gleeson, in a world where Hurley still can’t win a one-on-one against a training bag, isn’t balanced.
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P. S. I’m only going on about this because it’s my first real footy discussion of the pre season. I’m trying to tear up the track and go full match-sim, in preparation for a big year.
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I wouldn’t be surprised to see them push Francis through, early in the year.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your best skilled, smartest, most experiended defender playing intercept- as a rule.
But they still have to be good enough one-on-one, that forcing them to be accountable is not an instant win for the other side. (God, that’s a bad sentence)
Bar about 4-6 weeks in the middle third of the year, Hurley was that bad.
Everyone gets beaten and burned occasionally, it just happened a bit too much.
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Hartley and ambrose playing as the shut down defenders with Hurley intercepting and third man up is balance. Hurley also had a wrist and hip injury which I assume would have impacted his weights training to maintain/ increase muscle. He’ll bulk up if desired by the coaches.
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Has anybody forgotten that Hurley came back from the year off having done a fair bit of running and not a lot of muscle definition. Pretty fair chance he will be a lot stronger this year although has missed some pre-season after his 2 operations.
Hurley was able to keep Tredrea quiet in his first game and could out body Nick Riewoldt in his first season.
I don’t think Hurley would have lost his ability to play one on one when he needs to, but it would have been a function of some reduced strength and body on body fitness last year and he compensated by being a more attacking less physical player.
I think he will have more of that ability back in his game this year, and against a lot of sides a stronger Gleeson will be a viable option along with Ambrose, and as a back up, there is a fair chance we will be able to construct a threatening forward line without Hooker in it, between JD, JS, Stringer, Langers, Begley, Raz, Walla, Zerrett, Smith, BJ and Zacka.
FFS, Richmond managed a premiership with only one decent tall forward, if we can get our midfield working defence and attack will be boosted, and I think we can look forward to improvement in this area too.
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People overlook the fact that at certain stages both Hartley and Gleeson were dropped.
In Hartleys case he was only brought back in because Ambrose went down.
Just maybe the coaches have other plans.
Both of them got dropped to work on aspects of their game to bring back to the senior team. Both are definitely in the coaches plans
That wasn’t my point.
The point is that Woosha is quite happy to experiment with different line-ups to get the perfect balance.
It may contain 4 talls in the backline or it may only be 2.
Based on this season Hurley quite clearly excelled but the other three still have stuff to work on.
I find it strange that Hurley is the one getting questioned.
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Because his role has changed, his replacements aren’t quite as capable yet, so people want him back as he was.
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I don’t think that’s right.
Hartley got dropped for Brown, based on intercept/attacking ability. They wanted him to go back to 2’s to work on that, fly for his marks etc. When Brown went down he came back in.
Ambrose & Gleeson were the ones who were fighting for the one spot dependent on match ups … and at times they were able to both play.
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The thing people are not really getting is that he has not lost the ability to play one on one, but because he has been instructed to zone off he sometimes get caught out of position. Therefore if he slightly misreads the play his direct op gets the best position early.
If instructed to lock down I am sure he still could but we would loose a lot in attack.
Also Team defense does not mean all players in the back line zone. One or 2 lock down players can be afforded, but those same players still need to be able to effect the contest and help hurls out if there direct op is not involved in said contest.
This is why Hurls game is very much linked to how Abro and or Harts are playing there role.
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He averaged 21 possessions in 2015 and still locked down a lot better. Personally I think he had a better balance then. He was still providing lots of attack.
Personally I’d prefer that.
As stated in my post above team defense does not mean all backline players zone.
Rance plays a different game style to Hurls and is more accountable. While he does intercept a lot he is not nearly as effective as setting up the play as Hurls. His kicking and disposal in general is not near as good. In short Hurls gets a lot more of it and is much more dangerous with the ball. But Rance usually keeps his direct op quieter.
Both styles rely on other defenders playing there roles to different extents.
He also had Hooker for support for most of the season. That makes a massive difference, his role rely’s on the support from those around him.
I am not disagreeing with you however, and with the coaches talking about improving our defence all over the ground. I would not be surprised to see Hurlys role tweaked to be slightly more defensive.