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Hot Future Forwards

tallstuey
tallstuey
in Melbourne Demons

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I'd expect Verrall to improve with a preseason under his belt (his first). When he played in a practice match at the start of the year, I thought he had a future as a forward ruck (or vice versa). Then he had another long injury layoff. His lack of fitness was very apparent in the VFL, so fingers crossed he gets a decent run at it. I like his competitiveness (tick for Goodwin) and his follow-up on the ball. Not a bad kick either.

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    Anyone know Petty's timeline to return to training? Still in a moonboot and feet injuries can be particularly nasty at best and career ending at worst. 

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    3 hours ago, tallstuey said:

    Forwards- done to death I know.

    BBB and T Mac great fellas (and thank-you) but their time is done. Gun forwards hard to draft

    1) Could Petty, Joel Smith, JVR, Fritsch, Chandler and Kozzy combined form the basis of a successful forward line?

    2) I have watched closeley when Bowey drifts forward. Great shot at goal, good crumbing, defensive forward skills excellent.  Is he worth trialling over pre-season as a forward pocket?

    I also called for this earlier this season.

    However, after asking Bowsa he said he would need to train for it as it's a specialist role.

    Personally i think he would be the best of the lot (Kozzy, Spargo, Chandler & AMW) if Simon & Co. saw this as an option and trained him for it in the off.

    I would pull the trigger on this over the off season and bring Deakyn Smith into Bowsa's role.  Deakyn's a competitive animal/beast and now has two full season's and a permiership under his belt at Casey.

    Albeit he'll make a few rookie mistakes as they all do, he's ready to go in 2024.

    Come on Simon...be daring.  Bowsa has all the attributes and will kill it in this position if given the chance imv.

    Edited by Demon Dynasty

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    18 hours ago, tallstuey said:

    Forwards- done to death I know.

    BBB and T Mac great fellas (and thank-you) but their time is done. Gun forwards hard to draft

    1) Could Petty, Joel Smith, JVR, Fritsch, Chandler and Kozzy combined form the basis of a successful forward line?

    2) I have watched closeley when Bowey drifts forward. Great shot at goal, good crumbing, defensive forward skills excellent.  Is he worth trialling over pre-season as a forward pocket?

    It’s not necessarily the forwards problem.

     

    it’s our forwards coach Greg Stafford for not having constant leading, blocking, creating space.

     

    get rid of him. And our delivery into f50

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    16 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

    I also called for this earlier this season.

    However, after asking Bowsa he said he would need to train for it as it's a specialist role.

    Personally i think he would be the best of the lot (Kozzy, Spargo, Chandler & AMW) if Simon & Co. saw this as an option and trained him for it in the off.

    I would pull the trigger on this over the off season and bring Deakyn Smith into Bowsa's role.  Deakyn's a competitive animal/beast and now has two full season's and a permiership under his belt at Casey.

    Albeit he'll make a few rookie mistakes as they all do, he's ready to go in 2024.

    Come on Simon...be daring.  Bowsa has all the attributes and will kill it in this position if given the chance imv.

    Well there goes that idea 😄

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    18 hours ago, stinga said:

    Does anybody else think Verrall can play the petty role down back so Petty can become permanent forward.

    Verrall is 199cm, athletic and can take a mark.   I don't think he'll ever be tall enough for a ruck, other than as a secondary.

    I was wondering if Verrall could be useful at the other end.  He is listed at being Ruck/forward in draft comments so I assume he has played there.  I havent seen too much of him but I thought he looked competitve in a natural footballer way when he has played. Im not sure he is tall enough to be a fulltime senior ruckman but could develop into a key forward ? 

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    21 hours ago, tallstuey said:

    Forwards- done to death I know.

    BBB and T Mac great fellas (and thank-you) but their time is done. Gun forwards hard to draft

    1) Could Petty, Joel Smith, JVR, Fritsch, Chandler and Kozzy combined form the basis of a successful forward line?

    2) I have watched closeley when Bowey drifts forward. Great shot at goal, good crumbing, defensive forward skills excellent.  Is he worth trialling over pre-season as a forward pocket?

    T-Mac stays on just as depth and to help develop the new lot IMO.

    Petty will have to go fwd but i think his best position is a Key defender and when May retires i think that is where he will be.

    Smith unfortunately doesn't have the footy smarts, he has the athleticism but we have seen once he half cements his spot in the side and teams actually but some time into him he isn't good enough to work through it.  Great Sub though!

    I think our Fwd for the future is:

    Fritsch, JVR, Kozzy

    ANB, Jefferson, Chandler,  Bench - (Spargo)

    We also have Moniz-Wakefield in the reserves.  The only think is Jefferson is still 18 months away from AFL standard, so we need something in the meantime to help out which could be where Petty comes in, and a big reason they are telling Tommo he is required (to allow Petty to play forward)

    We also have McAdam coming in which im not happy about but some more depth in that area.

    Bowie stays as a back for mine, i think we will see rivers move into the midfield next year which means Salem will get his role back which Rivers took over this year and Bowie is surprisingly good 1v1.  If Rivers leaves the backline we need that class in Bowie back there.

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    On 9/18/2023 at 12:50 PM, Young Angus said:

    No forwards leading out, just look at Hogan with the Giants, would love to still have him playing the way he's playing now.  Got to lead, and most importantly need to kick more accurately, can't win games without kicking goals.

    Petty can play a role very similar to Hogan, Big H was  effective as a leading forward when available this year. 

    We'd still need to find a big forward/back up ruck though. There are enough around to suggest we'll land one this year, the question is how much of an influence they can have on our outcomes in 2024. 

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    On 9/18/2023 at 1:02 PM, demon3165 said:

    Well how did BBB get a majority of his goals at the roos from, that's right leading we don't play that way and tried to make him a pack mark, Jesus would have struggled to get a kick in our forward line the way it was delivered. 

    BBB had lost more than a yard of pace once he arrived at Melbourne. Though I do agree that to suit our gamestyle we did change his role to be more focussed on creating a contest and bringing the ball to ground. 

    It became a little bit evident last year and moreso this year that even bringing the ball to ground was becoming a struggle for Ben. Which is a real shame because he was moving well and showed good form in the first few rounds this year. Eventually age and injury get's them all. 

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    On 9/18/2023 at 1:41 PM, Demon Dynasty said:

    I also called for this earlier this season.

    However, after asking Bowsa he said he would need to train for it as it's a specialist role.

    Personally i think he would be the best of the lot (Kozzy, Spargo, Chandler & AMW) if Simon & Co. saw this as an option and trained him for it in the off.

    I would pull the trigger on this over the off season and bring Deakyn Smith into Bowsa's role.  Deakyn's a competitive animal/beast and now has two full season's and a permiership under his belt at Casey.

    Albeit he'll make a few rookie mistakes as they all do, he's ready to go in 2024.

    Come on Simon...be daring.  Bowsa has all the attributes and will kill it in this position if given the chance imv.

    Agree 100 on Bowey. 

    Bowey and Taj sharing a wing with Bowey spending some time on ball and Taj as a high half forward will improve our I50 delivery, if they can get the pill. 

    I love Lachie Hunter but his kicking is a major impediment & Ed just wasn't himself most of this season unfortunately

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    For mine, 

    The forward line should be: 

    Fritsch, Petty, Pickett 

    ANB, JVR, Spargo 

    With support from: to be acquired forward/ruck, Chandler, Smith, Petracca, Woewodin

    Brayshaw should move back into defense to cover the loss of Hibberd and to allow Bowey to move up the ground.   

    We should retain the three tall defender model but it doesn't have to be Tomlinson, we should be able to attract a player from another club or have a young one on the list to mould into it. They really only have to have some ability and fall into the system that's run by a very experienced backline. 

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    Just find the best KPP available to kick goals.  Petty will be good but can he stay on the park? 

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    On 9/18/2023 at 10:16 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

    Bowey is worth trialling as a midfielder for some class and dash.

    Has traits similar to Zak Butters.

    Bowey is good but he stuffed up big time in key moments against Carlton. He wasn't alone.

    Why can't we find more decent kickers?

     

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    8 hours ago, Melbournepotter said:

    I was wondering if Verrall could be useful at the other end.  He is listed at being Ruck/forward in draft comments so I assume he has played there.  I havent seen too much of him but I thought he looked competitve in a natural footballer way when he has played. Im not sure he is tall enough to be a fulltime senior ruckman but could develop into a key forward ? 

    Will Verrall is the same size as Luke Jackson so he is tall enough for a ruck/forward, he and Jed Adams need big pre-seasons so we can see how good they are, when fit and healthy both came to us with injuries. !!

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    I’m all for some new forwards, but the game plan will need to be tweaked, it amazes me how hard we have to work for a single goal, then the opposition gets two easy ones out the back (against our biggest weapon our defence).  I could count on one hand the amount of easy goals we got in the second half of the season. I don’t think we got one out the back in the finals, Pickett, Chandler all have speed, we must push back so hard to cover defence that we lose that options, which means we lose finals by single digits…..

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    1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

    Bowey is good but he stuffed up big time in key moments against Carlton. He wasn't alone.

    Why can't we find more decent kickers?

     

    Makes me nervous as a defender Bowey. Rather have him away from goals. 

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    19 minutes ago, SPC said:

    Makes me nervous as a defender Bowey. Rather have him away from goals. 

    ive always been the opposite and love the ball in his hands.

     

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    16 minutes ago, Tracca said:

    ive always been the opposite and love the ball in his hands.

     

    Good by foot, but dump handballs and runs into trouble. Often gives up the ball under moderate pressure. Prefer him to move up the field

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    2 hours ago, Dee*ceiving said:

    For mine, 

    The forward line should be: 

    Fritsch, Petty, Pickett 

    ANB, JVR, Spargo 

    With support from: to be acquired forward/ruck, Chandler, Smith, Petracca, Woewodin

    Brayshaw should move back into defense to cover the loss of Hibberd and to allow Bowey to move up the ground.   

    We should retain the three tall defender model but it doesn't have to be Tomlinson, we should be able to attract a player from another club or have a young one on the list to mould into it. They really only have to have some ability and fall into the system that's run by a very experienced backline. 

    Disco is a real chance in 2024

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    I hope the coaching group use the next 3 months to analyse every game this year - we had across our 25 games:

    14 wins where we had more scoring shots than our opposition

    6 losses where we had more scoring shots than our opposition

    2 wins where we had less scoring shots than our opposition

    3 losses where we had less scoring shots than our opposition

    Despite the fact we're the most frustrating team to support, there really is some low hanging fruit there. The style of game in our early season wins was quite emphatic. More of that please. 

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    On 9/18/2023 at 10:16 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

    Bowey is worth trialling as a midfielder for some class and dash.

    Has traits similar to Zak Butters.

    Yep, exactly. Agreed mate.

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    9 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

    Yep, exactly. Agreed mate.

    would be keen to see it, hes quite quick and his lateral movement is excellent

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    He's a very solid ground ball player too.

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