Bold statement…
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I think all of our backmen looked like absolute spuds last year because our team defense was the worst in the league.
I’d prefer to judge Lav on 2021 form when I thought he was good compared to most key backs in the competition.
He went from a contested defensive loss rate of 23% which is pretty good down to 36% in 2022 because the ball was coming in without any pressure. Ridley went from 14.5% which is genuinely elite to 29%.
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I’m from south of the river - away strip.
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I disagree. He’s a born defender. Not a key defender; he’s too small for that; but a born mid-sized defender, tough and mean. He hates every touch his opponent gets.
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Another telling stat against Laverde is frees against, which was 29 in 2022. Given where he plays, that’s a lot of shots on goal.
Kelly 28 frees against as well.
That’s a lot of free shots
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But how many are actual free kicks, and how many are just the umps stiffing us.
Playing undersized Key defenders, they are more liekly to go for the body though IMO and force contact.
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Issue is Blitz expect defenders to win every contest. Dustin Fletcher had 10 goals kicked on him a few times because the game was one on one back then. The issue with Lav has been that he has been left one on one because our team defence has sucked. Saying that, he hasn’t conceded huge amounts of goals despite this.
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‘I’ll have to recruit more tall and skinny players… we’ve broken our last batch’
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Do you think it’ll be better if Reid or Nik Cox had those same matchups?
I don’t think Kelly or Laverde are long term answers. But we do not have a better alternative right now because they are all waiting to be ‘developed’ or injured.
It’s easy to look at the weekly games, spot the weak point and see ‘he goes out’. But the alternative is not a better solution and will bring short term pain and could also cause longer term pain. If we just throw a youngster in the deep end, his confidence could be totally shot Keplar Bradley style.
It would have been great to give VFL/SANFL tall defenders a go, but we do not have the list spots right now.
I hope we can find their replacements soon, because these two are the best of a very poor bunch at the moment.
Thurgood has entered the chat.
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Reid - “If the club won’t provide some farking seating for spectators, I’ll bring my own!”
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I’m confused already.
Do we call you Humbert or Humbert_Humbert?
If the latter, how do we pronounce the _ ?
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For the record, not trying to rip on Lav, just supporting the argument he is an interim kpd.
Champion data ranks his 2022 average on intercept marks and below average on spoils
He may be the same height as Steven May, but May ranks above average on those same measures
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I am surprised by that. Although I wonder if a punch in a contest counts as an intercept?
If he’s not on a heap then it is likely the offers from other clubs were not that great and we wouldn’t have gotten 2nd round compensation pick.
The “_” is pronounced by dropping a pen on the table. So it’s: Humbert drop a pen on the table Humbert.
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I dont think so, you have to take possession of the ball to get an intercept possession.
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Free kicks against is only a part of the story. Of equal importance is how many goals were kicked from those free kicks, and how many goals did he concede across the entire season.
Do we have those stats though? I couldn’t find goals conceded to direct opponent stats
I don’t feel like one free kick against per defender per game is a lot.
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