Do we need a KPF ... or

[Demonic1964 0]

Honestly! Can our midfield provide enough goals to win a premiership in the next five years? Geelong did it without having to rely on mooney to get 80 goals! There midfield did the damage. I believe bails is giving time to our midfield and watts as he knows that he may be ready by the time the midfield is. Do u all think that we require a 100 goal forward or a classier midfield?

[rpfc 27,540]

You still need a solid fwd structure to kick goals.

You can do it with smaller players but the disposal from the midfield to them has to be immaculate.

It remains to be seen wether our midfield, and the midfield of our near term future, has that immaculate disposal.

I'm just happy to have Jack Watts in the stable for the future.

[Gorgoroth 12,331]

Our midfield do not even rate next to the cats though.

Mooney is a decent forward who competes well, then you have Chapman, had N. Ablett, his brother drops there for a few, ling goes forward at times and gets a few. They have people who consistently get them week in, week out. We don't, might soon, but at the moment we don't.

[H_T 2,941]

We need a classier midfield with many "strings to the bow" (ie goalkickers) and a prominent forward or two that will kick more than 50-60 goals a season. Doesn't necessarily have to be a 100-goals-a-season standout.

[rednblue2009 0]

A tall forward pivot will never go out of the game plan - Newton may well surprise until Jack comes along - or we may use Johnson resting there more often when the Jake show begins.

[dee-luded 2,958]

Honestly! Can our midfield provide enough goals to win a premiership in the next five years? Geelong did it without having to rely on mooney to get 80 goals! There midfield did the damage. I believe bails is giving time to our midfield and watts as he knows that he may be ready by the time the midfield is. Do u all think that we require a 100 goal forward or a classier midfield?

Watts this about a 100 goal forward? If this has anything to do with the possible recruitment of a 'Butcher', No one has said any forward will be "100 goals", nor would that be ideal for winning a flag, but having 2 talls with around 40 each + 1 or 2 smalls grabbing your 20 to 30 would be very dangerous forward line in finals games.

We really need to bolster both areas with Elite talent. - Butcher / Scully or similar.

[titan_uranus 22,521]

Compare the forward lines:

Melbourne: Miller, Sylvia, Wonna, Davey, Newton, Maric

Geelong: Mooney, Lonergan, Stokes, Chapman, Gamble, Byrnes

And obviously their midfield and ours are incomparable.

You can't say, well Geelong did so we can too, when clearly they're a team full of talent and multiple paths to goal and we've got a lot less talent and even fewer paths to goal.

[Gorgoroth 12,331]

And add in the likes of their half backs getting forward too,a nd hell Scarlett kicks a one or two a year and he is their full back! We have midfielders you get that many.

[Freak 100]

Compare the forward lines:

Melbourne: Miller, Sylvia, Wonna, Davey, Newton, Maric

Geelong: Mooney, Lonergan, Stokes, Chapman, Gamble, Byrnes

And obviously their midfield and ours are incomparable.

You can't say, well Geelong did so we can too, when clearly they're a team full of talent and multiple paths to goal and we've got a lot less talent and even fewer paths to goal.

i don't for the life of me know how you managed to miss stevie johnson from geelongs forwards. He is their best forward.

[1858 219]

i don't for the life of me know how you managed to miss stevie johnson from geelongs forwards. He is their best forward.

lol I was wondering that too.

To answer the question, yes we do need a KPF - in fact we really need 2 if we want a potent forwardline with redundancy. The 2nd doesn't necessarily have to be KP but height is important as an extra tall option so you would imagine they would be a KPF anyway.

[Little Goffy 12,670]

I really loved the way Geelong had such an even spread of goalkickers - in 2008 they had just one individual haul of seven and one of six, while in 2007 it was even more balanced - NOT ONE individual tally of more than five, and several games won without anyone kicking more than two individually. Perhaps the most impressive was round 19 - passed 100pts without having a player kick more than two.

I'd love to see a situation with a handful of guys kicking three or four week in week out, but I think with the accuracy of guys like Watts and Maric (and lets not forget Wonaeamirri also has a ridiculously high % for shots on goal!) I think we'll get to see the occassional game where one guy shoots thorugh seven or eight goals.

In any given week, any given quarter, we will have someone who looks like a 100 goal plus player. Opposition defenders will be dealing with an impossible game of 'whack-a-mole' to try to keep them all down.

Main goalscoring options circa 2010 -

Watts

Bate

Maric

Morton

Pettterd

Wonaeamirri

Davey

Sylvia

Dunn

Green

Johnson

One goal each, plus a few extras, and we're rioting.

[Sir Why You Little 34,615]

Always need a Good Forward line to win a Flag. Particularly a Center Half Forward. End of Story.

[Deestroy All 14,262]

Always need a Good Forward line to win a Flag. Particularly a Center Half Forward. End of Story.

Yeah, the Eagles are proof of that, hang on...

[Sir Why You Little 34,615]

Yeah, the Eagles are proof of that, hang on...

Still say a CHF is essential. Those 2 Flags in 2005-6 were won by under a goal. Pure Luck as to who was in front when the siren went (I was at Both) Great Games BTW but the result was luck. To win a Flag convincingly i would always have Lance Franklin rather than Gary Ablett Jnr.

The old Football Saying "Big Blokes in the forward line during the last Quarter don't get any shorter"

[Eastie Boyz 0]

Yeah, the Eagles are proof of that, hang on...

Didn't Hansen play second time round?

Not a great CHF but someone to kick it to none the less

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

Honestly! Can our midfield provide enough goals to win a premiership in the next five years? Geelong did it without having to rely on mooney to get 80 goals! There midfield did the damage. I believe bails is giving time to our midfield and watts as he knows that he may be ready by the time the midfield is. Do u all think that we require a 100 goal forward or a classier midfield?

It's not a question of one or the other.

Just because a forward doesn't kick 100 goals (or 80 these days) doesn't mean he's not good enough to win a premiership. Fev doesn't win flags for the Blues.

The point is the midfield still need a target that can offer a contest, bring the ball to ground, or simply clear out and give them space to run into. All these things take a combination of smart/lucky recruiting, time spent training the kids in the modern game... and then importantly a number of years where you can have a forward structure get used to one-another. One of the great things about Ooze, Robbo, Neita, Green etc etc in their heyday was that they knew each others' games inside out. So much so that when you inserted Davey, they all knew how to make room for him so that he could be damaging. During this time Neitz barely scraped into the top 10 KP forwards in the league, and yet we had one of the most damaging and respected forward lines while simultaneously running around with a B-grade midfield (at best). Some credit must also go to one Neale Daniher...

In short, I'd lean more towards the need for a class midfield, but you pretty much can't do without any one of the three major sections... you're kidding yourself if you think you're setting yourself up for success with just two of: defence, midfield, attack.

[titan_uranus 22,521]

i don't for the life of me know how you managed to miss stevie johnson from geelongs forwards. He is their best forward.

Oopsies. Yeah he's not exactly someone who blends in is he... well that just stengthens the argument.

[hoopla 418]

I've gone on record several times saying that our list is too heavily biased towards midfielders.

I think we lack depth in big-bodied players - and have too many eggs in the Jack Watts basket. Jack will cop his share of injuries - particularly if he's our sole tall target up forward.We often needed to play Ben Holland up forward to take the physical pressure off Neita - even when Robbo was there to contest.

In 2007, Geelong had Nablett, Mooney and Ottens - with King helping in the ruck and Hawkins in reserve; in 2008 Hawthorn had Buddy, Roughead and Dew's physical presence - with Boyle and Thorp in reseve.

I would like to see more big man depth

[Al`s DEMONS 0]

I've gone on record several times saying that our list is too heavily biased towards midfielders.

I think we lack depth in big-bodied players - and have too many eggs in the Jack Watts basket. Jack will cop his share of injuries - particularly if he's our sole tall target up forward.We often needed to play Ben Holland up forward to take the physical pressure off Neita - even when Robbo was there to contest.

In 2007, Geelong had Nablett, Mooney and Ottens - with King helping in the ruck and Hawkins in reserve; in 2008 Hawthorn had Buddy, Roughead and Dew's physical presence - with Boyle and Thorp in reseve.

I would like to see more big man depth

agree mate , need one more 194+ cm forward to Watts a chopout. add Bate , Aussie , Maric and Sylvia. theres a headache for opposition sides

[1858 219]

I've gone on record several times saying that our list is too heavily biased towards midfielders.

I think we lack depth in big-bodied players - and have too many eggs in the Jack Watts basket. Jack will cop his share of injuries - particularly if he's our sole tall target up forward.We often needed to play Ben Holland up forward to take the physical pressure off Neita - even when Robbo was there to contest.

In 2007, Geelong had Nablett, Mooney and Ottens - with King helping in the ruck and Hawkins in reserve; in 2008 Hawthorn had Buddy, Roughead and Dew's physical presence - with Boyle and Thorp in reseve.

I would like to see more big man depth

I agree with you here. We need to get another tall forward in our line up who is a genuine target. He doesn't necessarily have to be a superstar but has to be competent in marking and kicking and interact well with Watts. We got Jurrah in the PSD to be a handy forward but as much as we are excited about his ability we have to remember that he is a project player - sadly there are no guarantees here. IMO we have to establish a more concrete forward set up and treat Jurrah as the icing on the cake if/when he comes on board the way we hope. We seem to have redundancy in defence and the midfield is shaping up a little better so why not have options up forward as well? As you say we don't want all the pressure on just one youngster.

As for relying on the midfield to do the job week in week out that is just not going to happen. Obviously we want our midfielders to become damaging players by pushing forward (as has been stated by others) but even the best midfielders have off days. A class foward line can get you a win even if you are outplayed in the middle and creates headaches for the opposition.