7 minutes ago, dice said:

44 goals in his first full season suggests otherwise. At age 22 in the most difficult position on the ground, mind you.

Oh and we drafted Bailey Laurie before him

It doesn't make him brilliant...just promising.

...and drafting Laurie before him doesn't make him one.

You either get this or you don't.

Forward craft is about SPACE .... height is quite secondary.

It's space and position.

Quite simply the 'opposite' of how we've gone about it for (too many) years !!

It will be addressed.... I sense this now.

Also... just being a capable forward isn't sufficient in guaranteeing hurt upon the scoreboard. It requires a well drilled, intelligent feed ( supply ) coming towards the sticks.

A gifted player can sometimes truly make a silk purse out of a sows ear but thats really hard yakka and far from reliable.

You need a system. Actually ...you need paths... that's plural !! You need options

Forward footy is about disassembling the ability of the opposition's defence to crowd and deny you your SPACE

Forward footy ( in a good team ) is never about ONE person. It's about choreography...about team-think.

There's a whole "book" on playing up front. Im not sure we've had it in our library for years tbh. I think Kingy has brought along his own copy.

Im looking forward (npi) to a much more dynamic and fluid forward arc.

Think we have more holes to fill than just a key forward spot these days.

No longer the missing jigsaw piece that many thought it was.

Good on the Demonland community for turning this into a proper discussion, but yeesh I hate it when people start these threads with a tone of 'the club is so dumb and I am so smat'.

We've invested heavily in young talls in recent drafts and it is unfortunate we're currently in a wait and see position on the progress of Jefferson and Van Rooyen. Especially frustrating with JVR because early on he was really looking like exactly what we were hoping for.

The 'if' scenario is a good one, though. If JVR and Jefferson can just become solid role-players in their respective styles, that's actually a really nicely matched pair of talls, which can complement throwing in an extra whether that third is a bullocking beast close to goal or something more mobile.

The likelihood of Max Heath spending a lot of time forward will give us a bit of genuine height which we haven't had since.... um... wow have we ever actually had a notably tall tall forward? Ben Brown for a couple of seasons and then?

Isn't Ben King a free agent next year? So there's a potentual solution if things really don't improve.

Heh, if we have Gold Coast's first pick next year, does that mean we also get the compensation pick?

I'm joking of course; we'll obviously be trading the death ride pick back to Gold Coast for Bailey Humphrey.

1 hour ago, Demons11 said:

You just need blokes who can kick goals, who cares if they are 200cm or 188cm

Blokes who can kick goals and physically compete a bit I'd be happy with.

10 minutes ago, layzie said:

Think we have more holes to fill than just a key forward spot these days.

No longer the missing jigsaw piece that many thought it was.

It's not the piece we've been missing.... lt was the picture

Love the passion but this is a bit silly! We should be elated with Taylor, Pickett & Mathew’s whom I think all as unique skills and strengths to a strong young list! We added Checkers, Berry is a project big — we may actually have too many tall fwds if you inc mid-sized McAdam, Fritta & Melky!

let’s hope we somehow can rookie Greeves or Noah Hibbins..

Edited 26 minutes ago26 min by Tolstoys Nudge

1 hour ago, rjay said:

I'll give you Cameron but Neale is hardly a brilliant key forward...

Can we have his 44 2025 goals? Wasted on him, it seems? 😉

Edited 19 minutes ago19 min by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew
Sorry rjay - I overlooked the 'brilliant'

16 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

It's not the piece we've been missing.... lt was the picture

We're missing the box lid.

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

JVR, Jefferson, Mihocek, Johnson, Kentfield, White, Heath, Melksham, Fritsch.

How many more tall forwards do you want?

It seems his thinking is back in the 70s. " kick it to snake!"

1 hour ago, beelzebub said:

Also... just being a capable forward isn't sufficient in guaranteeing hurt upon the scoreboard. It requires a well drilled, intelligent feed ( supply ) coming towards the sticks.

A gifted player can sometimes truly make a silk purse out of a sows ear but thats really hard yakka and far from reliable.

You need a system. Actually ...you need paths... that's plural !! You need options

Forward footy is about disassembling the ability of the opposition's defence to crowd and deny you your SPACE

Forward footy ( in a good team ) is never about ONE person. It's about choreography...about team-think.

There's a whole "book" on playing up front. Im not sure we've had it in our library for years tbh. I think Kingy has brought along his own copy.

Im looking forward (npi) to a much more dynamic and fluid forward arc.

Jeff whites recent video explains it very nicely

King has all the IP needed to implement a better structured forward half game.

And 2 of the biggest butchers in the middle have left the building

1 hour ago, dice said:

And here is last year's output from the tall forwards we do have:

Petty - 20 goals from 19 games

JVR - 16 goals from 16 games

Jeffo - 4 goals from 7 games

Johnson - 3 goals from 5 games

Heath - 3 goals from 4 games

Kentfield, White - 0 goals from 0 games

Only Mihocek had a decent return last year of 36 goals from 22 games. But he will be 33 in Feb.

So @Ugottobekidding has a point. We need a key forward that can take a mark and kick goals!

JVR had 29 and 30 in his first two seasons. Fritch normally around the 40 mark. The reason for the lower totals was simply due to bad entry into 50, shocking leading patterns, and the kick it to the top o the square game plan that sucked!

If gorilla key forwards with a turning circle similar to a cruise ship were still in vogue, then Steven May would still have a place in our backline

JVR will be fine, especially when we arent bombing it onto his head in the pocket as a "game plan"