If Stewart ends up being decent this year I think he’ll give us some real flexibility for Hooker to go down back if he’s required there. I don’t like the idea of playing TBell and Luey in the same team. Too immobile and don’t add enough resting forward.
If Stewart ends up being decent this year I think he'll give us some real flexibility for Hooker to go down back if he's required there. I don't like the idea of playing TBell and Luey in the same team. Too immobile and don't add enough resting forward.
Tbell is a great option up forward. Leuenberger isnt though
If Stewart ends up being decent this year I think he'll give us some real flexibility for Hooker to go down back if he's required there. I don't like the idea of playing TBell and Luey in the same team. Too immobile and don't add enough resting forward.Tbell is a great option up forward. Leuenberger isnt though
Hope you are correct but I just think he’s a bit too immobile.
I thought it was a tough game to assess where JS is at.. missing 2/3 of the likely key position match ups and left isolated down forward for much of the first half. I was actually impressed that the kid kept working and by the end of the second half had contributed a couple of nice things.The bit of play in the last 2 minutes on the boundary line was the highlight for me… not just that fanta kicked the goal but it showed that the kid has some footy smarts and some great agility for his size…
I still worry that it will be too slow if we try to go with Hooker, JD and JS but it could work if we only take in one ruck. So then you have to weigh up whether JS is offering more than TBell. For me that is the consideration and spot that he is fighting for.
I agree. With Stewart likely to play all 3 preseason games, TBell is surely no chance for round 1, and will have to do a number of solid hit outs in the VFL practice games which he needs to dominate, with a view to selection round 3-4 or later..
TBell doesn’t need to dominate anything. He just needs to play good, solid football and hope the coaches want to go with two genuine rucks. I they do, he’s in. If they don’t, it’s probably Stewart (my personal preference) or Brown - Francis if he gets his fitness levels up sufficiently.
If Leuenberger is fit to playTBell needs to dominate in VFL practice matches imo, either as a forward, or a ruckman or both to push his way into the side after all this time off .
If Leuenberger is injured TBell has to play in the AFL pretty much come what may, because he is the only other genuine ruckman on the list.
The worst scenario is a short term injury to Leui before TBell is ready, with SMack stuck on the Rookie list.
I am not convinced about Stewart yet Boot. The jury is still out.
Showed enough as the only tall in the forward line from a pre season game. Contested all he could, and never was really beaten whilst always two on one. Will be a good second or third option. Walla needs to move up to a wing or hbf so keep him and hooks in close with joe roaming. Fanta and green will win everything that comes to ground. They both cover a heap of ground and get to the contests. Not a star but a good addition. Can kick it as well
I thought it was a tough game to assess where JS is at.. missing 2/3 of the likely key position match ups and left isolated down forward for much of the first half. I was actually impressed that the kid kept working and by the end of the second half had contributed a couple of nice things.The bit of play in the last 2 minutes on the boundary line was the highlight for me… not just that fanta kicked the goal but it showed that the kid has some footy smarts and some great agility for his size…
I still worry that it will be too slow if we try to go with Hooker, JD and JS but it could work if we only take in one ruck. So then you have to weigh up whether JS is offering more than TBell. For me that is the consideration and spot that he is fighting for.
I agree. With Stewart likely to play all 3 preseason games, TBell is surely no chance for round 1, and will have to do a number of solid hit outs in the VFL practice games which he needs to dominate, with a view to selection round 3-4 or later..
TBell doesn’t need to dominate anything. He just needs to play good, solid football and hope the coaches want to go with two genuine rucks. I they do, he’s in. If they don’t, it’s probably Stewart (my personal preference) or Brown - Francis if he gets his fitness levels up sufficiently.
If Leuenberger is fit to playTBell needs to dominate in VFL practice matches imo, either as a forward, or a ruckman or both to push his way into the side after all this time off .
If Leuenberger is injured TBell has to play in the AFL pretty much come what may, because he is the only other genuine ruckman on the list.The worst scenario is a short term injury to Leui before TBell is ready, with SMack stuck on the Rookie list.
I am not convinced about Stewart yet Boot. The jury is still out.
I’m not sure you read what I said. If they want to go with two genuine rucks, TBell is in, as long as he is playing decent football. When it comes to a second ruck, he is not an option, he is the option. We have no others.
And I’m not sold on Stewart either. Haven’t seen enough of him yet to know much at all. But I know I rate Brown as pretty much a depth player, so I’d rather try Stewart than him. I’d prefer to try Francis over either of them, but fitness wise he is not even in the relevant post code yet.
I think the idea of a "3rd tall" is becoming outdated. .
Because the supply of really good tall forwards is limited.
The competition needs a total of 36 top tall forwards on a 2 KPF system or 54 on a 3 KPF system and there are just not enough to go around, but there are plenty of good players in the 185 to 195 cm range so most clubs go that way.
If you are a GWS and can pick the best players year after year in the expansion startup phase and in 2016, you can set up a forward line of Cameron Patton and Lobb that no club can effectively match up on. Other clubs have to use one of the 2 KPF as a ruck chop out.
I think the idea of a "3rd tall" is becoming outdated. Three tall marking targets in the forward line is one too many in the modern game. You want 80%+ of your kicks inside 50 to be aimed at moving targets, hoping to be able to hit them in space. Whoever can do that well is more likely to be successful, regardless of their size, rather than someone tall who uses their height to advantage. There are so few contested marks in the game now that ability to use your height to take a contested mark is an over rated attribute, a hangover from the way teams used to aim to kick goals. Two talls up forward is plenty. Maybe a third helps for when you are resting either of the two, or using one to pinch hit in the ruck, but that third should be someone who is predominantly an agile and dangerous player when the ball is on the deck eg Langford or Laverde.
Have to agree with this in general. But there are times when 3 can and maybe have to make work. With the way rotations work these days you can’t have your backup ruckman full time on the bench.
2 talls is enough in the fwd line, 3 starts to become a liability.
So what do you do?
To me you can only play the 3rd tall there if they are mobile enough. Id hate to see a fwd line with TBell, Dana and Hooker in it. And even worse Leuy, Hooker and dana. They are both ruckman and not 3rd tall fwds, they simply cannot play in the same side.
Dana, and Hooksy should be permanent fwds and Dana not rucked. I think he plays his best footy as a roaming CHF. Leaving Hooker deep to bust open packs and at worse get ball to ground.
2 talls in enough in the fwd line 3 is starts to become a liability. (unless one of your talls is buddy Franklin like)
To me the ultimate is
2 talls, 2 medium, 2 smalls.
1 of the mediums can be a resting mid Jobe or Godard the other needs to have at least some pace a langford or Lav. But is this possible in reality when you need to have someone who can at least pinch hit in the ruck?
Does 3 talls plus 3 smalls work? Does it balance out? I am not convinced (unless one of the smalls is Jamie Elliot like) Not sure of having Tippa, Green and Fantasia in the same fwd line. Tippa is fantastic at HB, his run and creativity is more needed their.
I think you can only have to have 1 and a half ruckman in a side not 2. One of Stewart or Smack has to become a very good player for us to become a real threat. Pretty much one of Smack or Stewart has to play and spend time fwd. They only have to be competitive in the ruck, but be Josh Jenkins like as a fwd.
The only other option is that Hooker or Dana have to pinch in it the ruck when T-Bell or Luey need a rest.
What do you guys think?
The flexibility of having multiple FWD/DEF or FWD/RUC means we can cover all the key positions and have 1 resting on the bench. The a mix like 2 KPDs, 1 RUC, 2 KPF, 1 bench would allow you to rotate all the talls through the bench whilst keeping all spots on the ground covered. 5 on field talls for 1 bench spot isn’t overkill. The remaining 13 med/small players will rotate through 3 bench spots.
Players like Smack, Belly and Stewart can cover a resting forward or ruck. Brown, Hurley and Hooker can swap between forward or defence depending on which part of the field needs cover more.
I left the game being quite critical of him but as people have pointed out, it's a tough game to judge him. It will be better so see him with a JD and Chook roaming the forward 50 and taking some heat off of him, it might help.I kept an eye on him a bit cos i wanted to see how he'd go. if you judge his game on possessions then yeah prolly didn't do to well.
but when i was watching he never let anyone clearly mark the ball when he was in a marking contest, and he was in a few were he was outnumbered. he outmuscled brown or dunn was it in the 3rd, was a ■■■■ kick for goal. but coming from were we have, a team not known for it’s great delivery to forwards, let alone tall ones, he competed well IMO.
the only thing that didn’t make sense to me was why he wasn’t the relief ruckman in the first 3 qtrs. I don’t mine mckernan, but he isn’t going to be playing round one, or for the forseeable future, so why are you not giving in this case stewart time in there to see how he goes and may be able to develop ?
I think there’s definately alot there to work with, and think he could even become our permanant FF and allowing daniher to roam around up the ground, cos i think his body work will be better than danihers given more exposure to the afl environment.
The flexibility of having multiple FWD/DEF or FWD/RUC means we can cover all the key positions and have 1 resting on the bench. The a mix like 2 KPDs, 1 RUC, 2 KPF, 1 bench would allow you to rotate all the talls through the bench whilst keeping all spots on the ground covered. 5 on field talls for 1 bench spot isn't overkill. The remaining 13 med/small players will rotate through 3 bench spots.Players like Smack, Belly and Stewart can cover a resting forward or ruck. Brown, Hurley and Hooker can swap between forward or defence depending on which part of the field needs cover more.
I like it.
I think the witch doctor from Beetlejuice might have sprinkled some dust on the head of Stewart and Smack. #headtoosmallforbody
I think the concept of a third tall can work if he can supply the defensive pressure required to keep the ball in the attacking 50. Stewart is quick for his size. He was the primary tall on Thursday night. May be a different proposition if JoDan and Hooker are there too. With Fantasia, Walla and Green you will have good crumbers at the foot of the contest. Though Green doesn’t seem too bad on the lead.
I’m curious to see how Stewart develops, given he is our most likely key forward depth an is set for a reasonable amount of game time.
However, there is now a possibility that Smack could be promoted for Myers at least temporarily, and this would but him in front of at least TBC.
So while I am supportive of Stewart from a development point of view, I am curious about Smack from a last ditch effort point of view as a HFF who pinch hits in the ruck. This might let him play closer to the middle, like an oversize mid come HFF and otherwise he is being the back up ruck.
If Smack stays involved enough in the play, and rucking isn’t his main thing, maybe we might see the best of him. Not my first preference though. Other than the rucking part, I would prefer to see Lav or Begley doing the strong bodied mobile forward/mid thing, but if he could pull it off and be the pinch hitting ruck, it is the only niche I really see for him.
TBC would have to get some very good contested marking happening to be valuable enough in the forward line to be able push Hooker out of there (and back to the back line) to make it as a ruck forward I think. TBC and Hooker with JD there also I don’t think works in the forward line, and then we are looking more limited when TBC leaves the forward line swap with Leuey.
However if Stewart can develop a game that starts to approach a 2nd JD type, a very mobile CHF who can play like a mid, take high marks and pinch hit in the ruck, then we have struck gold.
I think we should be very, very measured in our expectations on JS. He is not an unknown quantity who could explode, or a wiry teen with huge development potential. He is a bloke that at 21, is skilled but lacked a bit of hardness in the contest and was virtually delisted. I’m not saying he can’t improve, even become excellent, but currently he can’t be considered much more than a punt (well worth it though since we got him for peanuts).
I think we should be very, very measured in our expectations on JS. He is not an unknown quantity who could explode, or a wiry teen with huge development potential. He is a bloke that at 21, is skilled but lacked a bit of hardness in the contest and was virtually delisted. I'm not saying he can't improve, even become excellent, but currently he can't be considered much more than a punt (well worth it though since we got him for peanuts).
Nup, GWS offered him another contract. He wanted out so he wasn’t behind Patton, Lobbe and Cameron for games.
Thought he did a reasonable job for us on Thursday, needs to work on his lead patterns, and his hands in the air looked a little stiff, but he brought the ball to ground in 2- on -1 contests and did well on the deck too.
If he’d dragged in a contested mark against the filth, reckon half of Blitz would’ve been saying “Joe who?” on Friday morning.
James “DoRight” Stewart.
Men of Chin.
I think we should be very, very measured in our expectations on JS. He is not an unknown quantity who could explode, or a wiry teen with huge development potential. He is a bloke that at 21, is skilled but lacked a bit of hardness in the contest and was virtually delisted. I'm not saying he can't improve, even become excellent, but currently he can't be considered much more than a punt (well worth it though since we got him for peanuts).Nup, GWS offered him another contract. He wanted out so he wasn’t behind Patton, Lobbe and Cameron for games.
Thought he did a reasonable job for us on Thursday, needs to work on his lead patterns, and his hands in the air looked a little stiff, but he brought the ball to ground in 2- on -1 contests and did well on the deck too.
If he’d dragged in a contested mark against the filth, reckon half of Blitz would’ve been saying “Joe who?” on Friday morning.
GWS traded him for pick Pluto. ie. No value to them. So I stand by my comment that he was virtually delisted. I also can’t find any reference to him being offered a new contract by GWS.
Not sold on him yet waiting to see how he goes with Hooker and Joe next to him where he won’t be getting the best defender.
Remember too that hes been playing in that joke of a league called the neafl for most of his career. I think considering the spike in difficulty from moving from that to AFL, he did pretty good.