Bop Bop....Bopping the Blues.....
( a little long...perhaps get a red, a beer or a panadol.... )
There's an old adage; If it aint broke ...don't fix it. Agruably conversely if it is BROKEN....you amy well want to FIX it !!
Our predicament is we enter all games currently as a game of two halves... Not quarters per se....but a Front Half and a back half. Our Defence work's pretty good most of the time and certainly isn't the prime concern. Our front half is....let's be polite....broken.
It bumbled along quite ok until recently whilst we had Petty , who finally found his straps and it started working. Alas poor Petty...we knew him well.. Enter stage left.... Melksham. A more than handy replacement as it turned out.....and then....well....
Since then...quite frankly it's a shambles. No coherence, no connect. Now there's a word..and indeed the crux of the dilemma ( imho )...CONNECTION. From the back half to the front hald there is bugger all. And that's where it all comes apart.
Strangley you win games by scoring. Defending is good but that as such doesn't go up on the scoreboard.
What to do ??
Now some might have a good chuckle ( or just a chuck ) at what follows. We move the magnets.
A role that Milky played was tobe the link between the two halves...as it came out of the half back through the wing or ,l occasionally the guts he was often there to mark and keep the bal lgoing to a forward...and a forward in a good scoring position ( very VERY important )
Back in the day this was pretty much what Tommy Mac would also do...Float fairly high as a HF and collect and deliver.
This is where we fall down. We need that High Half Forward type todraw the ball and in turn spot up a goal kicker
Where oh where tofind such a beast. Strangley enough he's right in front of us..A co-member of the 'failed' forward experiment. None other than Maxxy Max. If he wasnt a ruck an independent unbiased observer might be mistaken for thinking he'd make an excellent CHF ( but not too close to goal ) In fact if we take the Dee-Goggles off for a tic and watch, he actually does this role anyway.. He slots in somewhere on that half forward line...and marks.
Thats exactly what you want roaming along that territory...someone who 1) Knows where to be 2) Can take a mark ( oftern in a pack ) 3) has some idea what to do with it afterwards. Indeed if close enough have a crack....and hes been kinownto slot a few in a final...Handy !!
But ....but....but........
But what ??
You can't take Max out of the ruck......
Why Not ???... if only we had someone who could take that Role....if only we had..... oh wait !!!
The bleedingly obvious solution is of course Grundy.... yeah... I know...only an AA Ruck...in pretty good nick ...
That's , imho , what you do..Let Brodie ruck most of the ground . If the ball falls forward either Tommy or Max can take it whatever seems a better idea a that ( particular) moment
Forward structure.. the previously mentioned hot zone. Thats gunna be Tommy's new home for the most part. He doesnt have to roamnearly as far as is HF... He knows how to mark, knows how to kick. The other forwards.. let Frita off the leash..let him roam.. Cancel Kozzi's pilot licence...ground him... intruct to lead and crumb...and be Johnny on the spot in the forward arc creatinig mayhem..He IS very good at that. He needs a reset, a refocssing.
We need the ball to come back towards the corridor going forward. We need someone to direct,organise thiings a bit... Someone who CAN NOT be disregarded..someone who's leads and presence MUST be heeded...Again this is MAX ...burn him at your peril.
Keep the entries more central... The reporting of some 'coaching' ( and that must be a very loose interpretation) of 'clump" techniques in the pocket ....I mean wtf !! someone has absolutley NFI if thats the case. Have we become so 'defensive' orientatated that we have forgotten how to attack...to play forward... i.e be brave enough to score ??
A caveat to all of this is not to crowd each other ...divide the defenders. This idea of british bulldog forward footy...give it away...it's rubbish. ( and more the point well worked out rubbish now )
It will be hard to keep Trac forward now I guess.. But we need to find someone(s) with flair who can rotate through the middle and let Christian be dangerous
Do you entertain bringing Woey back and have some limited time in the guts as well as forward ... in a fashion that's the second tier element to the problem...but any number of possibilities there.
The main one...the BIG FIX is to rejig the forward game....and it really wouldn't take that much. Thery're all kinda there...thereabouts... just the set up is WRONG
Let Grundy do what he is very capable of doing...and release the Max
The pairing in a fashion of Max and Brodie is , for mine...still full of potential..... just not how it's been done to date.
We have nothing to lose.. If we keep repeating what hasnt worked....well guess what !!!
likelihood of happening.... nada
thanks for humouring me by reading.....that's my say... now off you all go to snicker...sneeze...guffaw...
Go Dees