5 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Like others I'm a bit concerned by the 3 talls. 

Yesterday Goodwin said (paraphrasing) re the fwd line:  "...3 talls is something we have never looked...we may try it at some stage...never know you test and learn..."

Experimenting, again!  Vs Geelong and Richmond we experimented with a one-tall structure.  I was surprised as it was a high risk plan when it hadn't been trained and we hadn't banked many wins. 

This year the fwd structure has had:

• 2 talls for 2 games (with several months between games)
• 1 tall for 2 games
• 2 talls for 3 games
• 3 talls this week

That is a lot of chopping and changing. 

Generally settled line ups give teammates predictability and confidence in the i50 and going i50.  Our i50 understanding and fwd/midfield cohesion is improving but still embryonic and quite fragile.  Our midfield was just starting to find fwds in good positions.  To experiment with a never-tried-before 3tall structure without having trained it nor banked many wins is again a very high risk plan. 

I just hope each fwd understand their own role and each others roles and don't get in each others way.  And hope the unselfishness they have played with over recent weeks continues.

We may only go with 2 talls in the forwardline though, mate. We're only guessing that three talls will play forward at once. 

I think it's much more likely McDonald and Jackson will rotate through the wing and the ruck. Given McDonald's tank, I'd be trying him as a back up ruckman when not playing on the wing or forward.

We might just be able to maintain forward 50 cohesion if we're sensible. The three talls also provide us with more marking outlets from defence, which is handy. Being less predictable to the opposition would be welcome.

Let's see how it goes.

I can see T.Mac playing further up the ground around the wing and half back giving Gawn a chop out receiving the ball from a kick in. Jackson to play traditional CHF and Weid to play deep.

41 minutes ago, deanox said:

Yeah it's an interesting thought. How many 18yo 198cm ruckmen have the tank to do 11.5 kms and basically cover the same ground as Scully?

He attacks the ball in the air and brings it to ground but doesnt have the strength to put muscle kpds just yet. On the wing he could be a weapon if he doesn't get exposed for position and defensively. 

Do you have a feel for his positioning yet? Preseason he looked at sea to me but was adjusting on the fly and improving rapidly. Wing is a highly technical position though: attack too much at the wrong time and you get exposed very quickly. Defend too much and you're useless in attack. I think it would be a wonderful experiment because of its potential.

Positionally I'd describe him as a utility, but I think that's a compliment rather than a statement that he doesn't have elite traits.

He's surprised me in his ability to compete in the air despite his size and inexperience. I can't say for certain what the internal coaching philosophy is like, but I really liked reading that Richo had said RE: Weideman that his only KPI was just to get to as many contests as possible. As a coach myself, I find that to be a particularly strong philosophy and enables young players, particularly KPP players scope for confidence and improvement.

If Sam knows the base level is getting to contests and attempting to mark or bring the ball to ground, if he achieves this relatively simple KPI, he feels like he belongs at the level. Then if he can start to clunk some marks, as he has done, it only builds further confidence. He just needs to get his kicking boots back on this week.

As for Jackson, given the philosophy with Weideman, I think something similar, in terms of low level KPIs, would help his confidence too. Maybe it's because he hasn't been under the spotlight in the same way as Weideman (yet), but Luke exudes more confidence than Sam does. But I think very often this can be about the mental scarring a player has been through. 

What I like about the seeming coaching of our two young talls this year is that we're not expecting the world, we're expecting competitiveness, which should be base KPI at AFL level. That will go a long way to enabling Jackson (and Weideman) to settle at AFL level, particularly when forward craft can be overcomplicated in this day and age.

Jackson has that spacial awareness and quick decision making that could make him elite given his size (a bit Jack Watts actually). I don't want to go too early on this, but I always liked how Roughead played at Hawthorn in the shadow of Buddy. He would bring in the players around him and contribute when it was his turn to go. Jackson hasn't demonstrated he can find the ball on a lead inside the forwardline just yet, but if he can start to do this, he will be a weapon.

The more I think about the changes to the team, the more I'm convinced that we won't go with three permanent talls in our forwardline. We'll rotate them between wing and the ruck, and even midfield potentially. I could see Tom or Luke playing midfield minutes given their tanks.

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by A F

15 minutes ago, WERRIDEE said:

I can see T.Mac playing further up the ground around the wing and half back giving Gawn a chop out receiving the ball from a kick in. Jackson to play traditional CHF and Weid to play deep.

I want us to bring in Rivers to play Salem's role, so that Salem can play wing/onbal/forward because of his ability to kick the ball to advantage. He is wasted on HB. I'd prefer Jones out and Rivers in.

 

3 hours ago, A F said:

Positionally I'd describe him as a utility, but I think that's a compliment rather than a statement that he doesn't have elite traits.

He's surprised me in his ability to compete in the air despite his size and inexperience. I can't say for certain what the internal coaching philosophy is like, but I really liked reading that Richo had said RE: Weideman that his only KPI was just to get to as many contests as possible. As a coach myself, I find that to be a particularly strong philosophy and enables young players, particularly KPP players scope for confidence and improvement.

If Sam knows the base level is getting to contests and attempting to mark or bring the ball to ground, if he achieves this relatively simple KPI, he feels like he belongs at the level. Then if he can start to clunk some marks, as he has done, it only builds further confidence. He just needs to get his kicking boots back on this week.

As for Jackson, given the philosophy with Weideman, I think something similar, in terms of low level KPIs, would help his confidence too. Maybe it's because he hasn't been under the spotlight in the same way as Weideman (yet), but Luke exudes more confidence than Sam does. But I think very often this can be about the mental scarring a player has been through. 

What I like about the seeming coaching of our two young talls this year is that we're not expecting the world, we're expecting competitiveness, which should be base KPI at AFL level. That will go a long way to enabling Jackson (and Weideman) to settle at AFL level, particularly when forward craft can be overcomplicated in this day and age.

Jackson has that spacial awareness and quick decision making that could make him elite given his size (a bit Jack Watts actually). I don't want to go too early on this, but I always liked how Roughead played at Hawthorn in the shadow of Buddy. He would bring in the players around him and contribute when it was his turn to go. Jackson hasn't demonstrated he can find the ball on a lead inside the forwardline just yet, but if he can start to do this, he will be a weapon.

The more I think about the changes to the team, the more I'm convinced that we won't go with three permanent talls in our forwardline. We'll rotate them between wing and the ruck, and even midfield potentially. I could see Tom or Luke playing midfield minutes given their tanks.

Good analysis. 

I like that KPI too, because I think it's actually probably the most important. The role of a tall forward isn't to kick a bag of goals (although that would be nice) but it is to physically compete, hit aerial contests to prevent defensive intercept marks, and bring the small and medium forwards into the game. You do that and you'll create goals around you, and you'll clunk some on the way. That doeant excuse Weids kicking last week though!