1 hour ago, BrisbaneDemon said:

I’d like them to throw Lewis forward, he’s a great kick for goal.

.....interesting

On 1/17/2019 at 3:39 PM, Moonshadow said:

I can't see us losing a game all year!

channelling your inner Nathan Buckley!

On 1/18/2019 at 12:41 PM, Smokey said:

I think saying "most teams would be jealous of our back line without lever or may" is a bit of a stretch when Omac and Frost are the two tall's. Talk about rose colored glasses lol ... Frost only learned how to hit a target in his last few games last year. And while Omac is serviceable, to say he is enviable is borderline insanity.

Agree we are in a good position now and that competition for spots will indeed be fierce. 

Also baffles me that some here think the answer to a struggling back line last year was to remove our leading and most accurate goal kicker from the forward line.

Smokey, the emphasis on this was really the 'most' and with respects to Oscar and Frosty the 'servicable' as previously applied to them (although Oscar's early season form and Frosty's back end were far more than just servicable).  Having monster key position backs is somewhat over rated these days.  Outside of Hawkins and perhaps one or two others like Kennedy and Brown (...and as you suggest these days T Mac), there are very few other dominant key position forwards going round that require an elite key position back to match them up, because due to the flooding of backlines they have become less effective.   You seem to have expectations that good teams only consist of players that are elite in every way sighting Frosty's previously erratic kicking - just look at Frawley's performance in the semi against us ...and Frawley is a premiership player.  Good sides rely on system more than individual brilliance and it's clear that under Goody that's what we have become.

If there were any two players that really held our backline together it was Nev and Hibbo and I don't think it's any surprise that we lost games when Hibbo (and Melksham) spent time on the sidelines 3/4 the way through the season.  It's these two and that we have pretty solid, settled backline around them capable of getting the job done (even less May and Lever) that I think most teams would have been envious of.  Having the old  head of Lewis to help steer the ship was pretty handy too.  BTW, Oscar is only fairly young in terms of key position backs, I think will keep getting better and would slot right into most sides in the comp going forward and the combination of defensive and offensive damage that Frosty can now do quite reliably will also make him a handful for opposition, so I'm not going to under rate their future potential either.

As for the backup option of moving T Mac to the backline, the context was last season and last season, we had J Hogan as well who was more than capable of holding together the forward line together if T Mac had been needed to hold the backline together  (which he wasn't).

9 hours ago, BrisbaneDemon said:

I’d like them to throw Lewis forward, he’s a great kick for goal.

He most certainly is a '...great kick for goal...' and a tremendous 'snap-shot' exponent, as proven for years at Whoreform. I just wonder if on the forward line whether or not he would get a kick?

11 hours ago, BrisbaneDemon said:

I’d like them to throw Lewis forward, he’s a great kick for goal.

It’d have the opposition licking their lips, putting a speedy attacking HBF on Lewis to exploit his lack of pace and agility. He’d get burnt repeatedly & be benched within 5 minutes.

Edited January 19, 20196 yr by Mach5

12 hours ago, Mach5 said:

Lever’s & May’s additions to the backline are the reason I think Jordan Lewis will play <10 games in 2019, maybe as few as 5.

He shifted into Lever’s role as an intercept defender, but if Lever is back to fill this role, where do we shift Lewis to?

He shuffled around like he was wearing gumboots as it was, but just can’t see him managing to perform in a role where he doesn’t zone off.

Tend to agree 'Mach'...

If Lewis plays more than 10 this year then he's either having a remarkable season or we're struggling.

More likely the later at this stage of his career.

I expect he will either be injured or play a lot of footy at Casey in 2019.

3 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Smokey, the emphasis on this was really the 'most' and with respects to Oscar and Frosty the 'servicable' as previously applied to them (although Oscar's early season form and Frosty's back end were far more than just servicable).  Having monster key position backs is somewhat over rated these days.  Outside of Hawkins and perhaps one or two others like Kennedy and Brown (...and as you suggest these days T Mac), there are very few other dominant key position forwards going round that require an elite key position back to match them up, because due to the flooding of backlines they have become less effective.   You seem to have expectations that good teams only consist of players that are elite in every way sighting Frosty's previously erratic kicking - just look at Frawley's performance in the semi against us ...and Frawley is a premiership player.  Good sides rely on system more than individual brilliance and it's clear that under Goody that's what we have become.

If there were any two players that really held our backline together it was Nev and Hibbo and I don't think it's any surprise that we lost games when Hibbo (and Melksham) spent time on the sidelines 3/4 the way through the season.  It's these two and that we have pretty solid, settled backline around them capable of getting the job done (even less May and Lever) that I think most teams would have been envious of.  Having the old  head of Lewis to help steer the ship was pretty handy too.  BTW, Oscar is only fairly young in terms of key position backs, I think will keep getting better and would slot right into most sides in the comp going forward and the combination of defensive and offensive damage that Frosty can now do quite reliably will also make him a handful for opposition, so I'm not going to under rate their future potential either.

As for the backup option of moving T Mac to the backline, the context was last season and last season, we had J Hogan as well who was more than capable of holding together the forward line together if T Mac had been needed to hold the backline together  (which he wasn't).

I tend to agree with a lot of this actually. Especially re: nev and hibbo. 

@Rodney (Balls) Grinter I will say this though - Omacs form early in the season can be attributed to jake lever covering the space omacs man was leading to. I thought omac got more exposed with lever gone and that’s where my original came comment came from. Hibbo and nev are wonderful but they can’t do it all. 

Other than that we’re basically singing from the same sheet of music I think. 

Great Video about Jake's recovery, showing some of the exercises just arrived on my phone - Melb App Access all Areas

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 3:17 PM, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Ribbish.  It would have been more remarkable if we had not have been injured and we went through the season practically major injury free.

It's not like our backline is total rubish without Lever and May.  More than enough capability to hold things together between Hibbo, Nev, Salem and even guys like Oscar and Frosty proved they can provide solid defensive options.  If we had got desperate, we could have thrown T Mac back there and as it was, I think Max Gawn provided any additional coverage in the air we might have needed.

Most teams in the comp would be pretty envious of our backline without Lever and May, but having them there gives us so much depth back there now it's not funny.  Competition for spots will be fierce and guys like Hore and Lewis will have there job cut out for them getting a game, but that's a great thing because players so often get injured and fall out of form.

sorry but that backline was all at sea in the preliminary final, both aerially and when we turned it over in the midfeild they strolled into goals. strolled. No way is it the envy of other teams without Lever ad May.

18 hours ago, Bay Riffin said:

sorry but that backline was all at sea in the preliminary final, both aerially and when we turned it over in the midfeild they strolled into goals. strolled. No way is it the envy of other teams without Lever ad May.

Ray,  a few things:

1.  I think you are misinterpreting what I am try to say with the statement that most teams would be envious of our defense even without Lever and May.  By most I meaning 'the majority', not all teams.  I think it's fair to say that our back six defensive personal (less the two mentioned) is better than pretty much all the teams that finished below us, with perhaps the exception of Essendon and perhaps Geelong but that's probably canceled by us having a better defense than a few of the teams that finished above us like Hawthorn and Collingwood.  That's also backed up to some degree by http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-12-29/who-has-the-best-defence-we-rank-every-club , depending on how much weight you want to put on their assessment and some interpretation for the changes since.

2.  Is it really reasonable to make an assessment of our backline based on that one game Vs WC in the prelim?  On a similar basis it could be stated that we are a 100 point better side without Lever based on the respective Hawthorn games last year.

The main point I was trying to make is that we had pretty decient backline depth last year and the guys that were left once Lever went down were still pretty solid options compared to what alot of other teams have thus why was making finals such a surprise.  Of course adding Lever and May back into the mix gives us a pretty elite backline that hopefully takes us from a side that made the finals and then put on a pretty good show, to one that is setup to be a genuine premiership contender.