Thanks for the great report Bully.
Did Lavender train today?
Woosh said as much in discussion about our possible midfield options …
“Jayden Laverde is another one we believe we can start to put some midfield development into.”
Someone put up a stat in Zerrett thread that he’s been playing 90min generally. On 120mins that’s 75% game time.
Only the elite endurance runners were pushing up to more, think they had Isaac Smith at around 100min, which would be 83% game time!
You cant tell me a 23yr old Stringer won’t be fitter than Jobe in 2017 who was our main contested ball player. I’m not concerned about Stringers being able to play that role effectively.
He also has been in the midfield group all preseason, and hasn’t ever been noted as in the modified group getting managed for soreness etc so clearly coping with the much bigger workload.
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I reckon Jobe would still be twice as aerobically fit as Stringer even after 4 months on the beers and Cappuccinos over this Summer.
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No one has ever said he’ll be playing pure mid. He’ll be 40% at best to start the year. Relax, he’ll take time, but it’s not like he has no use for the remainder of the game time.
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Redman? Mutch?
Thanks for the report mate
Also I got 3 words for ya
L
A
V
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Even Jobe at his best was never an aerobic freak. He always played fewer minutes than others, he just could accumulate at will when he was on the field.
This is something that was notably improved from him last year though. Hopefully he keeps improving it again
Aside from his early years though, he was always super fit. I think his gametime was more about using his strength as an impact player at stoppages, than someone like Stanton who used their aerobic capacity to run up and down the wing all day long.
Stants was an aerobic freak, Stringer is never going to be a Stants and play on the wing. But did you ever see Stants see the ball, and get the ball in a highly contested situation, shrug off / ragdoll one opponent and fend off the next, then break out of the pack and kick the ball forward ? Play him to his strengths, even if its only 70% game time. Thats what rotations are for.
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Also what people don’t seem to realise when they say things like 'Stringer will play 70% mid 30% forward or vice versa" is that we have a tactical team of coaches that will likely play Stringer according to game scenario and opposition. If we are in the middle of a free flowing tackle free game it is incredibly unlikely Stringer will be played in the middle at all because he won’t be required and will likely be far more valuable for the team playing forward. If the game is hotly contested and stoppage after stoppage, he is very likely to be used in the middle to get the ball out as this is his strength.
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Heppell led the team last year for contested possessions, and was second only to Jobe in clearances. All while being scratchy as fark.
He’s the best inside mid that we have. (Although Parish is coming imo)
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Heppell has elite balance and lateral movement. Very little footy is played in straight lines
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Spot on.
People to seem to forget how good Heppell was at stoppages from 2013 to 2015.
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If Heppell has put on size as some have suggested from the training reports I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays more of a hardnosed role this year.
Agree which i think works best the defensive side of stoppages or across half back, the lateral movement when the tacklers are coming to the front of him is good but to the side and back he isn;t quick enough and when he gets tackled the ball spills out without being an effective disposal. So yeh i see his strengths as marking, reading the play coming towards him, lateral movement, endurance and use to be kicking, but again in congestion i don’t think this is as good as his early days off half back. I’d like to see him as a defensive midfielder reading the play, cutting off kicks and setting up, i don’t think he is as damaging playing a traditional inside mid/forward.
To answer all the other questions in one:
- I actually see Dylan Clarke as a Sammy Lonergan type of player. He pretty much neutralises all the contests he is in, without really being effective either way. So ball up, grabs the ball, gets tackled, locks it in. Or ball up, his opponent gets the ball, he tackles him, locks it in, thats about it really. I use to like Lonergan by the way, i just wish he could have gone the same intensity the whole game.
- Hepp doesn;t look bigger this year than last year to me.
- Myers and Laverde would be difficult to leave out of the side based upon what i saw yesterday. I don’t think they could justify not playing them if their whole pre-season has been like that. Laverde is a big unit, standing next to hurley he almost looked bigger. He even beat him in a one on one contest in the match sim, took a great mark.
- Lavender i didn’t see to be honest, but he may of been down the other end of the field and had a short session.
- Draper competed reasonably well in the ruck duels. Like most ruckmen, just nuetralised each other no clear winner. Same when luey and belly went against each other, basically just cancelled each other out.
- Draper seems to have good strength but at one point in match sim goddard asked for the handball, instead draper loped off like a giraffe and kicked the ball into goddards legs from about 1m away. Goddard turned and looked at everyone like ‘wtf was that??’
- Goddard seems above other guys in the leadership group, he was giving Hurley instructions about where to run in defence, Hurley nodding his head like a schoolkid.
- Stringer i wonder if he might be a bit of a Scotty no friends. He was trying to chat and laugh with Hurley but Hurley was barely giving him anything back. Also the Zac merret complaining to the coaches about his high fend off even 20 min later. Just my own speculation here, at the same time every time he dominated a stoppage all the players would shout out ‘yess jakey’ so read into that what you will.
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Agree, he would be wasted " in the middle" however free flowing “tackle free” games are a rare exception today compared with the turn of the century. This is the age of “team defence " and " defensive forwards” locking the ball in the forward half. So in 2017, there were about 36 hitouts per team per game, on average, and 23 clearances at stoppages and 13 at centre bounces,
We also need to make a distinction between the various “roles” played by the all embracing category of “midfielders” Stringer will be a forward / “stoppage specialist” rather than an “on baller”. Surely we all agree he does not have the tank to play the role of a centreman or winger.
I’m not sure what games you were watching in 2017 but I saw plenty of them. We played in many of them, we were last for stoppages and last for clearances. This doesn’t mean that we were terrible in these categories, we simply didn’t have as many opportunities for stoppages or clearances in our games due to our game style, hence high scoring and high scores against.