Mad_Melbourne

From watching the match against hawthorn, and the preseason matches which we have lost, i have developed a pretty strong opinion about the issues that i think we are lacking at the moment, and where when we do get beaten, the areas that really do stand out to me. Firstly: My biggest worry at the moment is the speed in our backline. When i think of our players with burst of speed, i think of Bartram, Bennell, Sylvia, Bail, Blease, Davey, Scully, Wonna, Maric, and arguably Garland, Martin and Watts. Now with that said, Garland and Bartram are the two players on the weekend who spent a considerable amount of time down back, yet they were both more worried about their opponents not getting the ball, than running it out, which for most of the posters on here is a blessing, as seeing Bartram gallop out of defense could be painful to most, and if Garland was to run off his opponent (buddy and goodes) and a turnover happened, a goal would be a likely result. Bennell and Bail are the two other players who can play in the backline, yet this season are both having a bit more of a run around the ball, with Bail being used as a tagger (and a very good one, i reckon) and Bennell playing forward flank/wing roles. With this being said, Blease is the only other player being groomed as a defender, and i doubt he will play this season in our defense. This speed in the back line is an issue when the opponents implement a smaller forward line, also seen with the hawks twice, the essendon and brisbane matches, in the preseason when the hawks removed Roughead and played a small forward line we were killed, when they removed Renouf, thus playing hale and Roughead in the ruck and having a smaller forward line, we were beaten, brisbane had clark as the only tall target we were beaten and essendon used many smaller forwards and we were beaten, this could be explained by frawley not playing as he can play on both a tall and a small, but i think it is more to do with the speed of our back line, with grimes and Tapscott going to be the defender who are taking the small/medium quicker forwards and neither really have blistering foot speed. Our lack of foot speed out of defense is also an issue with the modern day football, and the full press zones. Speed is almost a necessity out of the back line, as this will break the lines, and push the zones further back, leading to play opening up and zones being broken, and with a back line of Rivers, Frawley, Grimes, Tapscott, Garland and Bartram, the speed to break the lines is not so much there, so instead we attempt to kick the ball out of defense, which when it works, works really well, and often leads to a full field transition, but when it doesn't often leads to an immediate turnover and scoring shot, or immense pressure back on our defenders. It looks like it is something we shall stick with, the disposal out of the back line, and when it works we will play really good footy, think 10 minutes of the second quarter with hawthorn, but when it doesn't we shall struggle, think first 5 minutes of the hawthorn match, and then the third quarter. The fix that i see is hard running by davey, sylvia bennell and bail, to try and push back into our 50, get the handball receive and break the line, which we have been trying to do and it worked against sydney but not so much against hawks, so really the only thing we can do is wait, and wait, and wait for it to be almost perfected, and work a treat. Secondly: We are missing that extra big body, that enforcer in the forward line, which i have no doubt that in a few seasons could be Watts when he stacks on a few more kilos, this is a problem as both Lynden Dunn and Jack Watts can't outbody a big defender and will often get taken out of games due to it, but it is also a problem as when we boot it long we can only really kick it to Jamar or Martin, leading to predictability out of our defensive 50, and thus the ball is often returned quickly. i say this because when we look to boot it long out of 50, to a 1 on 1 or a 2 on 2 we often lose it and have been beaten to the ground ball on most occasions leading to a quick turnover and immediate pressure on our back line again. This is something we can only really wait for or poach a bodied player, but with gws and gold coast with lots of cash it will be hard. So again, we have to wait, and wait, until Watts comes of age, and becomes the player we know he can be. Thirdly: Clearances and hardball, we did it pretty well against sydney, but in most other preseason, and against hawthorn we were annihilated, which to me doesnt make sense as Jamar killed it out of the ruck, and dominated the hit outs. So this means we wither do not know where he is going to hit it, or we are in poor position, or the opposition just wants it more than us. With that being said obviously not every hit out is going to be to advantage, but with sundays result out of the middle, it looked like we could not get a sniff of the ball, and as we almost doubled the hit outs, it is hard to believe. In my opinion the difference is clear, no McKenzie, he is often the person with his hands on the ball first from hit outs or the person who is tackling one of their midfielders as they break, beamer played this role superbly against sydney, but dropped away against the hawks, nathan jones needs to be harder at the ball, because if we lose the hardball and the clearances, and we cannot work it out of our backline, then i guess we are in strife. So the fix is players like nathan jones and beamer having competition for their spots, they need to work harder and perform consistently, and they need to know that if they have a string of poor games that players like Gysberts and McKenzie will jump straight into the starting line up. Scully playing aswell will make a difference. They are my key issues, where we come into strife, and all of these issues are fixable, i do not see any problems with our forward line and competition for forward line positions is deep, and really our defense is probably in the top 5 in players ability in the afl, we just need to be patient, i am confident that everything will eventually come together, sorry this post is long, and is my opinion from what i have seen so i am sure people will disagree, but none the less i thought id post it and see where people are on the issue. What does everyone else think? Where do we need to work on? Is there any quick fix to stop a quarter like our third quarter on sunday, (having said that hawthorn did just play some really good football aswell, and i dont think that we are in a position with our team to be controlling for four quarters of an afl match, but we should not have a 70 odd point turn around ever again)

it was not our forwardline that was poor, they couldnt do anything with the amount of i50s they got, ridiculous, but rather our midfield, no one was first to the ball, and thus we need a shake up in our midfield. but there will not be many changes, Garland for Macdonald maybe Jetta or Maric for Wonna but if maric gets dropped id be a little disappointed, he wasnt too far off it, just a very poor choice of sub in my opinion.

our defensive match ups chippa to roughie garland to franklin, rivers to hale, but he will have to make a mennace of himself backing back to take marks and help with spoils grimes to shiels bartram to cyril bail to burgoyne midfield hodge to be tagged by jones. let the rest of the midfield play one on ones, but not really worry, as you cant be tagging a whole team, and really we need to have aggressive play aswell. the sub the substitute will be interesting to see as bailey said alot about how it is good for substitutes to have flexibility, this leads me to believe, jetta and petterd are the two likely sub options, but based on form it should be one of jetta or maric, i hope jetta, as i would like to see maric get some more good game time, he was our most dangerous forward over the pre season and hopefully he can continue this.

difference between pace and acceleration, or turn of pace is really important, so it is hard to classify. for example bennell, has a quick change of pace, which gets him a few metres of room, but maybe his top speed isnt as quick, if you get me? but bennell, davey, scully, sylvia, bartram, bail, jurrah, all have a really good burst of pace, watts runs 20m quickest at the club, and addam maric runs the hundred m in around 11 seconds so he is quick too, they just look slower in matches. oh and jetta is quick, looks slow due to his running style but he gets a few ks going when he is at top speed i think

to be honest somewhat ridiculous to suggest no room for our best small defender in the side. mckenzie, scully, wona, morton all who you mentioned do not play his role. i am a big fan of bartram despite his poor disposal, even still i think his disposal has improved, and although it is still not his weapon, his strength for his size, speed and endurance are all weapons. if he wasnt playing this week who would you put on cyril?

the main reason they got away from us last year was the weather turned and it started raining, and thus their bigger bodies pushed us off the ball, if it doesnt rain and the weather stays good, ill back us in, i think our fitness is exceptional and our ability to run out the match could put us in good stead

whiteboard wednesday 24, bailey goes over the rpfc measurement of 2010 haha his difference is quarters won as opposed to i50 and %

i think watts had a good game last year, 27 or 28 disposals against the lions, but this isnt a watts thread tappy is going to be a gun, his kicking is lethal, and i feel much safer with him kicking out than most. and his rig is ridiculous, the kid is a monster, i cant wait to see him lay a full blown tackle!

anyone questioning his discipline is well off the mark. his kicking is a slight issue, but i think its just he rushes himself, and leans away from the ball when he kicks it... having said that i think some posters here are a tad ridiculous, there is going to be flaws in every player, and especially a player who is below 30 games, its just whether the flaws outweigh the good and for jack they definately do not

to be honest, getting games into dunn, jurrah, watts, take priority on bate. petterd is ahead of him and then really id rather see howe getting a gig than bate chalk him up as done and dusted id say, end of season see ya later, if only he could pack mark, and use his speed to chase opponents

i like it, it is pretty similar to what dean bailey said on a whiteboard wednesday i think, but the idea is definately good 1st edit oh and i agree, i can see us functioning and playing in a grandfinal without gysberts, i see dunn of more importance, hopefully he can kill it this season, as i reckon he is vital to our forward set up 2nd edit its obviously different opinions have different views so im not to worried about the core player thing as people will argue different players will be core 3rd edit this potential grandfinal core players would have to have either spencer, gawn or martin in it surely, as in 3-4 years jamar 31 or 32, spencer and/or gawn will need to stand up

im intimidated coming up against dappa dan, with sandilands in the ruck and mcevoy as his utilities, hit outs is a lost cause :|

that is true, but none the less if tappy continues with first up form then he is a good chance although i think josh toy will be the highlight for gold coast

mckernan? but would love to see tappy get it, im contemplating a cheeky bet on him to win it, once he is nominated of course

true, but i would rather grimes on shiels than burgoyne

bartram

yeh i wasnt refering so much to grimes turning it over, but rather he is a lynch pin in our set up and attack and is not very accountable for his man, and as burgoyne needs close attention this would not be ideal, i would rather bail does a job much like he did on josh kennedy today, and follows him all over the field and runs hard to negate him. ohhhh tapscott, tappy on burgoyne!!!!

hurts to look at, think that wouldnt be too gooder idea, possibly bail.. i would like to see grimes on the worst forward so that he can run off and not be as accountable, not someone who will punish us on the turn over or punish grimes if he was 2-3 m away from him!

mainly to play through zones, need lots of options up the field so that there are options to play through, you couldnt bank on mids and defenders only to be enough players to push throug a zone and therefore you try to get as many players up the field to spread their zone as much as possible. another reason that it could be done is to do with confidence in our fitness, we would run the defenders up and down the field and in the last quarter they were nackered, and thus we got the run on.

nearly the most awkward kicking style ever, other than pencil spencer obviously, but he killed it, id have him in my top 5 today

agreed, but i still dont think his game was that poor, davey, jones, rivers, macdonald, bartram, were all definately worse, none the less, i would say that he didnt have as much impact as he did in the pre season matches, he may come back as the sub, but i again dont think he had too badder game, one or two times he did butcher the ball, but grimes butchered it 7-8 times resulting in goals... this is somewhat comparable as the good things maric did gave us three goals, and the good things grimes did saved our defence several times.. i just think everyone is being harsh on his performance.

people calling for maric to be dropped i feel are harsh, didnt have the best games, but had 3 direct goal assists?

positives today, watts made several good contests, 3 good spoils in the last half that were helpful and i think one or two resulted in us scoring a point or goal, he lead hard into space leaving space behind him which the balls was to be kicked into (obviously set leads), his kicking was pretty darn good aswell. negatuves today, didnt get enough of it, pushed off the pill abit too easy, and at times looked like he didnt want to be playing, didnt have that anger or want in his eyes. an okay performance, not too bad i dont think

his disposal was appaling today, too often kicking it to the opposition, or a team mate in a worse position, it is not always like this and it is just more noticeable because he gets the ball so much. today he was defensively poor too with his opponents in the first half killing it. another problem today, was with him backing into the pack and leaving his opponent on the ground, he did this a few times spoiling rivers or macdonald and leading to his opponent getting the ball on the crumbs. but this is obviously due to his overhead marking being so good and more often than not he takes the grab, but when he doesnt it leads to a direct turnover and usually a scoring shot. having said that he is going to be a freak, and no doubting he will kill it, but today he was noticeably poor. i also think that as supporters we have a pretty high expectation of him and he still hasnt played 50 games so we have to expect a few not up to par performances.

likely that there will be two of petterd, jetta and trengove, one of warnock or strauss and one of spencer and martin due to rotations etc, if we went in with a bench of petterd, jetta and trengove, with martin as the super sub, i think we would lose a bit of rotation through the backline, although bail could play down there. but i think it will line up with the bench of petterd, jetta, strauss and martin as i dont see a match up for warnock and i think we will implement the idea that trengove is a bit sore, so survive w.o him for week one and have him fully fit for the rest of the year other possibility, petterd or jetta, strauss, martin and trengove as the super sub, this would be as it is seen that trengove is unable to run out a full match, but to get game time into him so play him for a quarter and a half to two quarters.