My impression was that Dea was brought into the side to replace Gleeson and it will be that position that Gleeson will resume. I don’t think he will be fighting Ambrose for a place.
Gleeson is good in the air and quick. Ambrose is probably weaker overhead and isn’t as fast but is far stronger and able to compete with larger opponents. Ambrose’s aerobic capacity allows him to run with forwards who’s endurance is their main weapon.
How many lockdowns ?
Hooker is a much better mark and more accomplished general defender than Ambrose, but he is seriously losing speed and agility. He is limited to around the goal square on 195 to 203 cm forwards who are slower and tend to stay at home .
By contrast locking down on faster mobile forwards in the 190-195cm class like Degoey, Jack Riewoldt and Gunston is a job made for Ambrose ( although he blew his hammy out trying to keep up with Jaidyn Stephenson ) smaller fast forwards in the 180-189 cm class are too agile and generally too fast for Ambrose.
At this point Marty is not and has not been a good lockdown player. He is more an interceptor who can zone off and distribute the ball coming out of defence. With Dea gone Marty and Franga would play similar roles in defence and I see them as competing for the same spot.
Marty is a great and consistent player. I think he’ll definitely be in our best side next year. Not sure who he bumps out though. The last game he played was the ■■■■ show of a final against Sydney and he was one of our only players who could handle the heat.
You are comparing a team that finished the year prior on top of the ladder and was looking at going through that season undefeated to a team that hasn’t won a final in over a decade. I don’t mind internal confidence and expectations but i just feel any time we have been hyped up, or in fact any team or player that gets over hyped going into a season, that 9 times out of 10 they end up under achieving. Supporters will be excited anyway with the players we have acquired the last few years i just don’t see the need to feed into it when it rarely if ever works for anyone. Just an easy learning from the past 2 seasons.
If I remember correctly they didn’t start that until sometime in the 2nd half of the season. But you’re right, it does build pressure.
Except here at Blitz, we are part of the whole hype phenomenon. We should all just settle down and watch every day of back to back 5 day test matches over summer and forget about footy.
What I get utterly sick of is idiots here carrying on as if we’ll win by 10 goals and then behaving like pork chops when we lose or scrape in.
And there are quite a few persistent offenders.
I’ve never minded shutting the ■■■■ up until the game is over.
For mine, at the moment, Ambrose has tank & strength over Gleeks, while losing out on marking & kicking - kinda important ones.
Absolutely. I see our defence morphing into every defender locking down when required, but transitioning into attack using superior vision, decision making and effective disposal. Can we play team defence without any full time lockdown players? Hopefully yes, if not, we might have multiple forwards kicking bags on us and go back to the 1 or 2 lockdown model.
I don’t really see what you finished the season prior has to do with it. Not singing the song put a huge target in their back and tonnes of pressure.
I actually think the players looked like they had belief in themselves last year and looked unplayable.
I would love for them to start putting the rest of the competition on notice.
They had that belief because they had the form to back it up
Absolutely agree. What the fark is the point of saying we’re going to kill this lot, they’re a bunch of hacks and we’ll win by 10 goals? Will saying it make it happen?
Shut up and say nothing, then go out and win. Then wait for others to pat you on the back and tell you you’re worth a million dollars.
Arrogance is what leads to the 99 prelim. We were so convinced we had it won that we forgot to win it.
We are going to need a new gym then
Wow!
Nice work Paddy.
Regarding the hype, Woosha has made it clear that we want to be a great side over the long term, and that we still have a long way to go.
Sure, we finished the year with 10 wins from 14 games so the expectation is that we should at least maintain that, but of course things can go wrong.
I think the expectations are fair, and if we fail to win a final with this list in 2019 then we have underperformed.
It is obvious we are on the way to addressing two key areas that have let us down.
1/ Midfield class - Shiel
2/ Not singing the song during home and away
Ambrose has always been a unit.
Didn’t Ambrose break a bunch of fitness records in his first preseason?
I can’t think of any scenario where Ambrose and Gleek are going for the same spot.
