22 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

For Melbourne or Casey?

You pick it....you're the expert

Interesting to see if young Fritta gets a game. Competing with Hannan, Kent, and others.For a skinny bloke he's not shy that's for sure.

I'm really looking forward to seeing our forward set up. Clearly TMac is going to be played predominantly as a forward, him partnering with Hogan could actually cause some headaches.

I really liked that Goodwin has put Hunt on the wing. Ideal spot for him as he's built for space and the rapid transition game.

Edited February 23, 20187 yr by PaulRB

Tyson will need to be improve his disposal on last season to maintain his spot in our midfield IMO. Oliver, Jones and Viney are all great or very good extractors and I feel they need to be balanced out with speed and skill on the outside. Players like Lewis, Vince, Salem, Petracca, Melksham and Neal-Bullen either have more speed or polish (or both) and better complement our inside strength. Brayshaw and Maynard could also possibly win a spot in our midfield. (All of these players are also capable on the inside.) The way I see it, picking Tyson boosts our midfield grunt marginally but it means that a faster, more skilled player like Harmes, Hannan, Fritch or Vince misses out. Given we also have Gawn giving our midfield the advantage (and Oliver is such a good clearance player) I would be going for the speed/skill option unless Tyson can take it up a level.

I like Dom, but his often lack of awareness and relatively inconsistent disposal skills downgrade him from potentially elite, to just being in the best 22.

Either way, to get to where we are aiming this year, we need all our talent to be as healthy as they can for as long as they can. 

On 18/02/2018 at 9:34 PM, DeeSpencer said:

3. Even if you were to play only one of Frost and Oscar you'd have to play both in this practice match given you've got 25 spots in the team and have them compete for the spot surely?
4. Geelong - until proven otherwise - probably go in with Hawkins, 2nd ruck (Blicavs/Smith), Menzel with Dangerfield (or Ablett) playing a fair bit inside 50. That combination means there's enough height to have 2 talls and Lever. 
5. After 1 key defender, Lever, Jetta, Hunt, Hibberd and probably Lewis you've got 6 defenders. 

3 - Clearly today proved that we have no plans right now to play all three of Frost McDonald and Lever. Which is what I suspected anyway. If not, why wouldn’t we have trialled it given how seriously we are taking these practice games?

4 - I’m pretty sure North Melbourne are a taller forward-line than Geelong and again, today proved that if you have a strong team defence and limit opposition opportunities, height is not an issue. Oscar and Lever are more than enough as tall defenders.

Which leads into your point number 5:

Today we defended exceptionally well as an entire side. Our Forwards right through to our midfield zoned space fantastically well, which resulted in North’s inefficiency going forward. Oscar and Lever really didn’t have to do too much thanks to this.

There’s no way we need Frost as well as those two in our side. It takes way too much away from our defence by playing those three talls.

Oscar was really solid today and I’d have him ahead of Frost as that second tall position due to his football specific skills over Frost’s athletic capabilities. As you can see with the way we play as a defensive unit, the “key” position backman that sits in the square has almost become non-existent. By playing three talls, you’d be taking away too much from our side.

Frost and McDonald battling for the same spot is just what we need. 

 

Edited February 24, 20187 yr by stevethemanjordan

On 22/02/2018 at 3:45 PM, ProDee said:

 He's rarely run down or rushed. 

One of Tyson's weaknesses is most definitely his refusal to give first option.

Maybe he's not "run-down" when on the fly, but in contests or congestion, he definitely gets caught holding the ball.

2 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

One of Tyson's weaknesses is most definitely his refusal to give first option.

Maybe he's not "run-down" when on the fly, but in contests or congestion, he definitely gets caught holding the ball.

Every player gets caught in congestion. 

If you don't see some of his quality releases in close then watch closer. 

And maybe wait until a game has been played in anger in 2018.

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

Every player gets caught in congestion. 

If you don't see some of his quality releases in close then watch closer. 

And maybe wait until a game has been played in anger in 2018.

I'll wait. I'm just pointing out a weakness.

He holds onto it for too long in tight and gets caught, more often than his team-mates. I imagine that'd be universally recognised. 

3 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

I'll wait. I'm just pointing out a weakness.

He holds onto it for too long in tight and gets caught, more often than his team-mates. I imagine that'd be universally recognised. 

Do me a favour. 

Rather than guess, it's your job to tally who gets caught and how often around stoppages in 2018.  

Thanks in advance. 

Edited February 24, 20187 yr by ProDee

On 18/02/2018 at 1:16 PM, DemonAndrew said:

 

if you can't experiment with this in the jlt, when can you?

Training?

2 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Do me a favour. 

Rather than guess, it's your job to tally who gets caught and how often around stoppages in 2018.  

Thanks in advance. 

No thanks.

It's been an easy observation over the last couple of years, no need to count.

Cheers.

26 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

3 - Clearly today proved that we have no plans right now to play all three of Frost McDonald and Lever. Which is what I suspected anyway. If not, why wouldn’t we have trialled it given how seriously we are taking these practice games?

4 - I’m pretty sure North Melbourne are a taller forward-line than Geelong and again, today proved that if you have a strong team defence and limit opposition opportunities, height is not an issue. Oscar and Lever are more than enough as tall defenders.

Which leads into your point number 5:

Today we defended exceptionally well as an entire side. Our Forwards right through to our midfield zoned space fantastically well, which resulted in North’s inefficiency going forward. Oscar and Lever really didn’t have to do too much thanks to this.

There’s no way we need Frost as well as those two in our side. It takes way too much away from our defence by playing those three talls.

Oscar was really solid today and I’d have him ahead of Frost as that second tall position due to his football specific skills over Frost’s athletic capabilities. As you can see with the way we play as a defensive unit, the “key” position backman that sits in the square has almost become non-existent. By playing three talls, you’d be taking away too much from our side.

Frost and McDonald battling for the same spot is just what we need. 

 

Today has me leaning towards just playing just one tall and Lever. But Oscar did a good job in a number of one on ones (or the modern equivalent that still has others in the area) on Ben Brown. Probably better than he could be expected to do most of the time, and Lever was able to play off Waite very well most of the time. Still, he was made to pay a couple of times and he really likes playing loose, which is fine, he's great at it. But he can be made to pay less and give more attack starting on an opponent with less ability. 

Lever also showed some really nice run and attack, which has to be factored in to 3rd tall argument. If he's attacking, if Oscar is using the ball well and if Frost is sprinting hard are we losing much in attack?

I'm still nervous about the Geelong match ups. North didn't have any mid size quality today - Wood and Garner were injured. So I'm not quite ready to concede just yet.