From what we saw last Friday, our backline is too slow.
I know that we can fix that up with good ball users e.g. Ridley and Reid are also supposed to be a good ball user. But those guys are still not exactly quick.
Moving Lav out and into the forward line gives us flexibility to move him back when needed.
But it’s still too slow,
Redman Mackay Ridley
McGrath Reid Martin
Redman is solid and moves well. McKay has to play for the monster forwards, so both are locks.
McGrath is a panic merchant, and Martin won’t be playing a lockdown roll in the back line and will probably give us a bit of run out of the back.
We still have Kelly and Heppell waiting to get into that back line and I wouldnt let them near it unless they are playing that wing rotation with Martin.
In conclusion, and this won’t be a popular opinion but, I wouldn’t play both Reid and Ridley in the same time, especially like last Friday where the saints played a small forward line against us.
That’s why I think Hind or trialing one of the faster younger kids on the bench to play in the backline is the way to go. I.e Kelly and Heppell miss out.
Was worth a swing and when he kicked that bag against the cats we were all excited. But maybe not worth persisting with for two months where he didn’t kick a goal
Our forwardline is so lacking it’s not funny, I can’t see Hunter getting the chop at all, especially if Jones and Wied fail to fire which is more than likely.
We have enough talls. Whilst they are not great we have 2MP and Langford that plays tall and Caddy / Hunter in the pipeline.
Priority has to be on getting small forwards that kick goals and apply pressure. Most scoring comes from this. Roving at the feat of talls and pressuring on opposition when they are exiting defense. We don’t have anyone that fills this need.
And to balance out the midfield with good ball users. We don’t have enough mids that fill this either.
Draft and free agency. Hopefully we can achieve this with the draft and free agency this and next off season.
Your combination of words leads me to believe you are being sarcastic.
But I actually think small forwards are low on our priority. We have Gresham, Menzie, Guelfi, the Davey’s and a couple of mids we can trial.
Are we the worst in small forward stocks or people overreacting. I couldn’t really compare other teams small forwards with our.
Maybe list of small forwards their goals, goal assists and pressure acts etc.
Is that why GWS have specifically gone out and assembled a fleet of small forwards Nino? The Pies are pretty handy. How are their small forwards looking?
They are integral to the way the game is trending. Good ones that is. And if you’re not especially skilled you better be incredibly fast and be willing to put incessant pressure on.
But is it small forwards being good or the team structure in the forward line the issue. I’ve always said that our small forwards are playing too far up the ground. They are too tired to kick goais
It’s never one thing or the other but the teams with good small forwards are faster than ours, generally more skillful around goal and yeah of course a better system helps.
Incorrect. People mentioned, Brisbane and Collingwood as having good smalls. Have a look at Charlie Cameron and Jamie Elliott from Collingwood, they don’t leave the forward 50. Toby Green from GWS is the only exception but he is a freak.
