Unlike Richmond and Collingwood (at full strength), our smalls are of little value at all.  They are easy to tackle, and have no capacity to keep the ball secure.  On the flipside, they exert no physical pressure.  Most damning of all, they ain’t super quick and can’t break a line.

Exception Lockhart, who is tough, fearless and good in air.

As for Spargo , Stretch, Wagner, and co... it is complete rebuild in relation to our ground ball smalls.

 

Spargo has the endeavor and heart of someone that's 6"6 120kg.

Pity he's the size and weight of a newborn.

Yep. It's something I'm hoping Burgess does for the club, not only get our players fit and strong but actually give the coaches and recruiters a good kick up the backside about the type of athlete it takes to play AFL football. You can't just be fit (ANB) or quick (Hunt), you need to have agility, strength and more than anything smarts.

Spargo's meant to have agility and aggression, 'the most competitive player in his draft'. He came in to the system with a big set of quads and wasn't afraid to use them. Hopefully he gets that back next year and can put it to work across half forward. I still have some hope for him and hope for Lockhart with a preseason. 

But I'm worried we need a small defender (Jetta's replacement in time), a half back flanker (replace Jones), two wingers (replace Vanders and KK - and Stretch etc) and a crumber (Hannan) who can chase, tackle and win the ball. The current group are a mile off it. 

It's hardly a surprise we can't handle pressure when we don't have good pressure players on the list!

 

 

 

12 minutes ago, praha said:

Spargo has the endeavor and heart of someone that's 6"6 120kg.

Pity he's the size and weight of a newborn.

Spargo plays like a grade 6 - 12 year old- type. Kicks go about 20 metres often resulting in turnovers. 

Give me an indigenous small forward x-factor type.  Not a turnover tiny ineffective type.