Is there a training on Monday?
I’m over here until Tuesday morning and I’ll be all shopped out by about 10 minutes from now lol
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Arrrggghh, … it’s Cap’n Redbeard, … no doubt.
Set to grab pieces of the eight?
If only we could find Mad Sheedy’s buried treasure map again.
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Castaway.
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Ugh. But yes, good question, and probably illustrates my point…
Hepp and (purely as a midfielder) Zerrett, pretty close
Then a fair bit of daylight
Zaha, Devon smith, Parish, in a bunch
Then a fair bit more daylight
Myers, Colyer, Goddard, Langford
After that, no-one really has any exposed form to speak of (and Langford doesn’t have much)
All of which really underlines this point:
As a club, we really need Parish and hopefully Smith to push into that top group; and Langford and hopefully McGrath to push into that second group; and Begley and Stringer push into that last group.
And it was obvious we needed that sort of injection last year. Giving so many damn games to Jobe and Myers and Leueney and Howlett last year was a real step backwards IMO.
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I was only being facetious about Smith being GWSs 7th best mid
At the start of 2016 I remember thinking we had a top 4 backline, a top 8 midfield and a terrible forward line.
Woosha and dodoro turned that forward line around in no time, turning Raz into an AA contender, recruiting Green, Walla and Stewart.
Coming into this season I feel like we’ve got a top four forward line and back line, and a rubbish midfield. I reckon that getting Smith and Stringer, the continued development of Parish and Merrett, the release of McGrath through the acquisition of Saad and (hopefully) the emergence of Laverde and Langford will mean that Woosh and Dodoro have fixed that part of the field pretty quickly as well.
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Theres training every day, people are always doing stuff during the week, some have days off.
I would have Goddard just below Merrett and Heppell.
No way is Parish above BJ
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As a midfielder? BJ basically didn’t see significant centre clearance time in the last two thirds of last year, which makes his case hard to argue. And (for whatever stock you put in stats) Parish has beaten BJ for contested possessions and clearances both 2016 and 2017.
He’s still got plenty to offer, he had a very good year, but it wasn’t playing predominantly midfield.
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Not all that far wrong though. Ward, Scully, Shiel, Josh Kelly - cut and dried.
Tight battle between Devon and Coniglio for 5th&6th. And they’ve also invested picks in guys like Taranto and co.
I don’t think we’ve got a top 4 backline. We’ve got one absolute star in Hurley plus Baguley who I think comfortably sits in the top 5 small/medium defensive backmen over the last 4 years. Saad is a fine addition but right now he is B grade at a stretch. The rest are honest triers (Hartley, Ambrose, Gleeson) or unproven players with potential (McKenna, Francis). A lot of these players have flaws that they’re still working on. The potential is there though.
We just need Hartley/Ambrose to become a bit more of an attacking intercepting threat plus 2 mediums like McKenna and Gleeson to really step it up and become regular 25+ possession rebounding players whilst still maintaining hard defensive standards. The blueprint of Francis’ potential ability is exactly what we need but I doubt he’ll get near that this year.
Sure, but sometimes they start at 10 am, less often at 2pm. Get there too early you have to go home or , kill 4 hours. Best to ring the club and find out I think
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BJ carried the midfield in the first third of the season until Jobe and Myers and got up to speed.
Parish had a promising season but in no way did he have more influence on games than BJ. Irrespective of the two stats you picked out.
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I agree with a lot of that but I think McKenna already went well past unproven potential last year
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The first half of that sentence almost had me going.
Add Whitfield to that list too and that gives you 6 midfielders that GWS at least rated above Smith because they played them there in preference to him.
Sydney didnt rate tom mitchell, used him as a tagger, because of all their gun midfielders, then let Mitchell go, and voila. Mitchell becomes the comps #1 ball magnet playing for Hawthorn.
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I agree, clubs all claiming they are looking forward to it and rolling out the kids for what is essentially a glorified training drill.
End to end footy with allot of easy nothing goals. I’m certainly not interested.
Marty Gleeson, for some reason, is very underrated here. I reckon he had a great year lat year and will go one better in 2018.
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