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Gawn's forward postioning

Diamond_Jim
Diamond_Jim
in Melbourne Demons

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Against North, Max acted as a decoy forward by propping and stopping the run of the back thus allowing the likes of Brown and T Mac to fly from behind.

It seemed to work well.

Against Carlton the positioning was all wrong even without the intercept drop in the first quarter where Ben Brown was perfectly positioned for the grab.

I'm sure the brains trust will be looking closely at it this week but you have to wonder whether with 3 other talls plus Fritsch does Max have a role up forward.  Perhaps a true decoy forward that drags a backman away.

Just positioning him say 70 metres out for the rebound seems a waste given how well that role is played by Lever and other backmen

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    yes his forward role is redundant with the current set up

     

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    would be interesting to know if Gawn, Brown, Weid, T Mac and Fritsch were ever all on the ground at the same time on the weekend.

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    27 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

    would be interesting to know if Gawn, Brown, Weid, T Mac and Fritsch were ever all on the ground at the same time on the weekend.

    I can't recall whether Fritsch was too, but we definitely had Weid, Brown, TMac lining up in the forward line with Gawn in the ruck.

    Often Weid went off and played the around the ground ruck role and Gawn played forward half.

    TOG%

    Gawn 93%

    McDonald and Fritsch 79%

    Brown 77%

    Weid 72%

     

    Those stats equal exactly 400% TOG, indicating that on average exactly 4/5 were on the ground.

    But there could have been times with 3 and 5 to balance.

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    Gawn should play mainly behind the ball and only be used up forward as an impact player every now and then.

    he is much better at reading and positioning himself in the backline than the forward line.

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    I think our entire set up needs to be examined with all those tall players in the team. There needs to be clear positions and zones, unfortunately I think they were bees to a honeypot too many times making it nearly impossible to mark. Perhaps it was a tactic to allow our small players opportunities to get the ground ball. 

    If it’s a dry game in Adelaide I would really like to see us try to hit more leads and go for 2v2 contests, and yes Max should definitely defer to being a decoy. Let the goal kickers kick the goals!

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    Ben Brown did a nice job as both a step ladder for Tom who dropped it and a space blocker for Tom to fly in front of. Shame he was spoiled by Max who didn’t return the favour. 

    Otherwise I reckon Max played the kick behind perfectly and floated forward only when there’s a need or opportunity.

    One thing I’d like to improve on is our kick out zones. 

    If we’ve got the 3 tall forwards at least one of them should take the spot in the zone opposite what ever spot Max takes up. Other teams should be forced to pick their poison for long kicks out of the backline. It’s either long to Max or long to Sam/Brown/T Mc. 

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    Gawn shouldn't be played forward. He isn't a good kick for goal so it's an easy decision for me. The best thing about Mcdonald and Ben Brown is that they kick straight. 

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    9 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

    If we’ve got the 3 tall forwards at least one of them should take the spot in the zone opposite what ever spot Max takes up. Other teams should be forced to pick their poison for long kicks out of the backline. It’s either long to Max or long to Sam/Brown/T Mc

    and then occasionally we go fast straight up the middle with Hunt etc... 

    I like it

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    28 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

    Ben Brown did a nice job as both a step ladder for Tom who dropped it and a space blocker for Tom to fly in front of. Shame he was spoiled by Max who didn’t return the favour. 

    Otherwise I reckon Max played the kick behind perfectly and floated forward only when there’s a need or opportunity.

    One thing I’d like to improve on is our kick out zones. 

    If we’ve got the 3 tall forwards at least one of them should take the spot in the zone opposite what ever spot Max takes up. Other teams should be forced to pick their poison for long kicks out of the backline. It’s either long to Max or long to Sam/Brown/T Mc. 

    I wondered about why they don't do that. I reckon it is becuase they only want transition down one wing. If forced to go to the other wing they want it as open as possible with lost of space for players like Kozzie to run into.

    They rarely seem to switch, at least compared to other teams. And don't use the corridor very often either.

    I also reckon they like having two talls contesting for that long ball from defence. It means the outcome is very predictable - it is almost never marked by the opposition and if we don't mark it hits the ground and our flankers etc can sweep it way. 

    Like the kick to the pocket inside 50, these things suggest they are trying to be ultras predictable. Must help with disposal efficiency becuase they can be so confident where everyone is at any given time (eg the over the head handballs that go to dees player)

    Max said on RSN this morning that real benefit of having the three talls forward is that he doesn't have to take as many of those down the line, often bone jarring, contests as the other fellas give him a chop out and take some. 

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    I'm not sure of this decoy idea. Maxy went forward this year to cover for the absence of BB and Weid. He took marks but his conversion is very iffy. There are plenty of talls in our forward line now so I think he just gets in the way. Use him down back which is where we've always used up to this season. 

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    1 minute ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

    With our 3 tall forwards Gawn offers more one kick behind the ball and not getting in the way.  

    Oath. He shouldn't be going near the forwardline. 

    Would rather him floating between the wings and unless the oppo ruckmman pushes forward, Max shouldn't go into our D 50 when not needed. The last three weeks he's dropped more than he's taken back there and has regularly spoiled some of his team mates. 

    When he's on, he's impossible to stop. Some teams play into his hands. 

    But I think we can really conserve his energy as well as protect him from the unnecessary bash and crash for the next block of games. 

    We need him cherry ripe for the last month of the year which will be our toughest run of games pre finals. 

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    I think there is a time and a place for him to drift forward and take a grab while he has his opponent out on his feet. Key moments you could say, like when he kicked that terrific shot on 50 I think in the Richmond or Geelong game just before 3 quarter time. 

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    Just an opinion, but maybe we just had too many talls on the weekend.

    Just because you have lots of quality, doesn’t mean you have to play them all.  Sometimes less is more.

     

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    Why would you need a 'decoy' forward when you have 3 tall forwards and another medium marking forward already in the forward line?

     

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