Where is Col at his most dangerous? If he gets a bigger engine over the pre-season I think Bails would be wise to stick him in the guts from round 1 and leave him there. That said, he has got sticky hands and a golden right boot...HFF might be the spot for him. In any case I think he'll be much better off after a full pre-season under his belt. 2008 is the time to deliver for Col.

he`s long over due to produce something rather than the odd cameo, i think in the guts, forward line might be a touch crowded next year. Bate, Newton, Neitz, Robbo, Davey and ?

  Al`s DEMONS said:

he`s long over due to produce something rather than the odd cameo, i think in the guts, forward line might be a touch crowded next year. Bate, Newton, Neitz, Robbo, Davey and ?

a tad crowded you only named 5 players! lol

  deanox said:

a tad crowded you only named 5 players! lol

Neitz and Robbo as much as i love them are slowly breaking down, Davey should only leave the forward 50 when executing a chase down tackle. Bate and Juice have got a bit of go about them and can push up ground if required. Throw in a Brad Green or give Addam Magic the final gig. Id love to see that

  Al`s DEMONS said:

Neitz and Robbo as much as i love them are slowly breaking down, Davey should only leave the forward 50 when executing a chase down tackle. Bate and Juice have got a bit of go about them and can push up ground if required. Throw in a Brad Green or give Addam Magic the final gig. Id love to see that

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing in regards to Green. Remember in his early days as a HFF he was labelled 'Dead Eye Dick', because he was one of the most accurate set shots for goal ever. Why did we take him out of the forward line? He's deadly.

my thinking is that sylvia should be used at HF pocket. I would love to see names like McLean, Jones, Sylvia, Moloney etc run around in the midfield but i dont think his body can handle it atm.

HF: Sylvia ???(possibly Dunn or Miller) Bate

F: Davey Neitz Robbo

with newton coming on when davey moves to the midfield

I'd prefer to see Newton at CHF. He won't develop in a pocket and Miller/Dunn option doesn't appeal at all at CHF.

Newton or Bate at CHF.

Sylvia should be looking at a flank, I wonder whether his engine will allow him to move into the midfield.

Maybe with a pre-season he might be able to, although I just don't see him capable of holding a spot in the midfield.

If he has the engine then he should and must be played through the guts.

  condemned 84 said:

If he has the engine then he should and must be played through the guts.

i agree. If col has a solid preseason he has to play on the ball. He has the hardness to go in and get the ball as well as the foot skills to match, which few of our current midfield possess

  condemned 84 said:

If he has the engine then he should and must be played through the guts.

Agree. Its his 5th year I hope he steps up and actually takes hold of a game. He is due now.

I hope with DB being a teaching coach that he will benefit players like Sylvia who werent coached properly in the U17s and played on natural instinct rather than coached nous.

Surely we didn't recruit Col with pick 3 to play as a HFF. If he has recovered from his injury and fitness problems, then he should play in the midfield. However, I have no qualms about him playing in the forward line on the odd occasion because he has a good set of hands and is a reasonable kick.

By the way Deemissioner, I love your collage at the foot of your posts.

Get him into the midfield! It's about time we did that, we can play him at HFF if he's not getting into the game, but otherwise he should be in the guts.

Needs to play like Ricciuto did when he was 24, 25, 26 as an attacking no-holds barred mildfielder.

If you log on to youtube there is a highlight paclake of the game this season when we beat Collingwood and there is footage of Sylvia chasing the pill to boundary with a Collingwood player right him. Sylvs takes the ball and the player behind him tackles him immediatley and you think he's gone but Col just shrugs him of instantly, turns and moves it forward, not unlike a certain Lethal Leigh Matthews

  condemned 84 said:

If he has the engine then he should and must be played through the guts.

Agreed.

It's an if for sure on the fitness, but the HF line is basically where he's been put because he has been perpetually coming back from injury and underdone. He should be a mdifielder.

The forward line is very crowded, but with the plus that a lot of the players up there can contribute further up the ground, especially on the wing.

Neitz, Robertson, and if all goes to plan Miller - stay at home forwards.

Newton, Bate, Morton, Green - running around from HF line.

Yze, Davey and presumably Maric - crumbers/small forwards, with at least two of them able to rove further. Maybe Bode as well, we'll see how he's going next year.

Bruce, Sylvia and Dunn are all good options for rotating forward from a wing/midfield role.

Sporadic options would be Petterd and Wheatley (the supergoal specialist!) and we may see Moloney doing some forward line hunting while we continue to ease him back after the OP. After, it's gonna be after at last, I insist.

He just needs to play... consistently, uninjured, and with complete focus.

We do not have the luxury of arguing what position best suits Sylvia, because we haven't seen the best of him yet.

Baby steps people, baby steps.

needs a good whack around the ears and a sit down talk about how things "really are" This is his litmus year me thinks.

  belzebub59 said:

needs a good whack around the ears and a sit down talk about how things "really are" This is his litmus year me thinks.

Colin Sylvia is a nothing player to be perfectly honest, plays about 8 good quarters a year and IMO should have been traded.

Mark my words, you'll all be agreeing with me at seasons end.

As for the question of this thread, midfield.

if he doesnt step up Im sure Bails will have his plane tickets ready!!!

oftr//HFF

for those that have him in the midfiled. at whose expense ?

  belzebub59 said:

for those that have him in the midfiled. at whose expense ?

Well with Godfrey, TJ and Byron gone, there are 3 spots in the rotation.

One thing he does have..is superb marking skills, this is dead handy bringing the ball down the lines. I'd keep him at a contest. The middle is run...id have him at HFF

I like seeing Sylvia in the middle, he uses his body very well, definitely a good impact style player who has the ability to cause the opposition headaches with match up because of his marking abilities when drifting forward however I fear that Sleeve may end up being correct.

I'm not so sure a fixed position is the answer, but then I wouldn't call him a genuine utility in the Cam Bruce mould either...

So how about this?

I have problems with the idea of Bate as a stay-at-home CHF. I think he has some prodigious strengths (sticky hands, huge pace, strong over the ball, boooooooming left boot) but then he has some weaknesses that any experienced coach and defender will be able to exploit on a day the ball doesn't bounce his way (slow turning circle, not a big leap, is at times a touch lazy when he doesn't have it, gets crowded easily by team-mates on the lead)...

Likewise with Miller there are positives (Strong lead and mark, big engine, works hard, is agressive, body is strong) and some easily exploited negatives (NO turning circle, horribly weak handball and below-par kick, gets spoiled easily, is predictable)... So he's not the answer either...

Col is a tiny little bloke, but is a prodigious talent with very few weaknesses, if any. Now I'm not saying he's tall enough to play CHF, far from it, but the games he played well in this year were basically the games where the coach tried him in a few different positions, and the one he had the most room in, he stayed in.

The more I think about it the more I see this as a good idea. One of the things that makes me happiest when considering a player's designation is how much it must drive opposition coaches nuts when trying to predict them. When I think of Goodes and try to think of a match-up in our list, I tear my hear out and in the end just give up and assume he's going to kick 3 and get 30+ touches because there's no-one in any position that can cover all of the different ways he can monster a game. Holland could spoil him, but wouldn't be able to keep up. Bruce could wear him like a glove, but he'd be out-marked and out-sprinted, Godfrey was the only recourse this year because at least he could annoy him...

I like to think Sylvia, with his skill set, could start a game on the flank... By halfway through the second quarter, if he hasn't kicked 3 and set up a few more, you can move him deep into the pocket and tell him to take pack marks... If that doesn't work have him float around CHF and move Miller/Bate/Newton/Holland deeper forward or maybe into defence... if that doesn't work tell him to roam more in his flank position, go up the wing, pick up the loose ball and put his foot on the gas and try to out-run his man. Even if he can't out-run the league's best wingers his 60-metre kick will do the rest. If that doesn't work there's always playing centre if his body is up to it... he doesn't have to play a whole game there a la Jones/McLean/Moloney types... He could just play a quarter there, and if disaster strikes move him out onto a genuine wing position for a bit, swapping with Bruce/Wheatley...

I would worry about him the most on a wing because he's a heavy-set bloke, and I'm not sure his legs will carry him the distance at high pace that Green/Bruce/Wheatleys' legs can...

This last season he didn't play as much footy as we would have liked, spent lots of time on the bench, and when he was on the ground they tried him everywhere... And in many cases even while being changed twice a quarter he would still find ways to dominate. It's this nature he has to thrive despite not being settled that we can exploit, not necessarily to our advantage so much as to the oppositions DISadvantage... And the other thing is that if his groin goes bad again, mid-match or even more severely mid-season it's not like he's our full-time CHF/HFF/FP that we rely on.

So in short, why restrict him to one position? In Yze's heyday if he stagnated for a few weeks in a pocket, he'd be moved into defence or onto a wing with great effect. I reckon this is the way to go with Col. I'd hate to see him own a position like a flank only to be tagged out of games later in the season when the opposition coaches find him out. Flexibility is the key...

somethig I think we often fall into as a trap is this notion nowadays about players in "positions" its not hard and fast now. eons ago in a century far far away , players did indeed pretty much stick to an assigned position. That ws the nature of the game.. more regimented. Todaysd games bears about as much semblance to this as say todya's cars compared to an ol' EH ! Yes..both cars .. vastly different machines.

Today a player is naamed as X position. In some ways they might as well just say .."you're up the front...and youre up the back !!" With tagging and close marking tactics, together with players dragging this bloke or that away from the play its not cut and dried.

few may agree with this but if I were setting up the forwards I wouldnt give them the tradiional positions any more.. Id give them ROLES !! You.. primary goal kicker.. you scrounger.. you ..create merry hell .. you , run intercepts acoss the backmen... you ..do this etc. etc. At th end of the day the Roles have to follow the play of the ball as best as they are charged to do.. This will cause them to play out of 'position' far more than they are in it.

Id fit up the blokes with relevant skillsetsand team plays. Then really let them ebb and flow with the game. Bailey has said that to set targets is by defintion imposing limits...I say in a similar vogue that to assign 'specific ' positions these days ( especially in attack) is to limit the opportunites by constricting thinking.

One ploy i often liked wa the way the Dees would line up in a line., thus denying the defenders any real idea f what was going on until the ball was in play. Id go back to somethng along this..maybe not as visually dramatic..but from a conceptual thing.Assign tasks..and let them go where the ball dictates. Would be a defenders nightmare !!

the thing with sylvia is that back in unders 18s he was averaging nearly 33 possesions a game! he was a monster! now i think its about time he steps up and showed us why he was picked up number 3. the kid can play for sure but if injurys keep taking its toll it could be stephan tingay all over again