2003 v now

[barry]

The reason we were able to take a young inexperienced team to within a quarter of a premiership in 2003, to now where we get thrashed by the crows at home is:

Goodes in the ruck. Not the greatest tap ruckman, but gave us a big body in the midfield who could stand up in a tackle.

Compare us to the crows last week. Our small midfielders are all going for the ball, and trying to get a quick pass away. Usually to someone standing next to them. They cant take a tackle, so they have to get rid of it any way they can.
The crows on the other hand would stand off the pack, confident that if their bloke in there got tackled, he'd at least stand up long enough to sent a handball out clear of the pack, and then they are off.

For this reason, Spriggs, fosdike, and current McVeigh arent the answer. We need bigger bodies in there. Ablett, Goodes, O'keefe. Two of those should be in every pack.

[Schneiderman]

Better yet Davis and Schneider. One has flair and imagination, skill and a quick footy intelligence, the other has creativity and speed.

Be interesting to see how Moore develops. If he can only be half (seven-eighths if you are greedy like me) of what Kelly could do...

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Schneiderman
Better yet Davis and Schneider. One has flair and imagination

If we needed style as well we could recruit The Nanny!

[Nico]

One problem Barry. Our centre bounce players don't go for the footy. They are usually blocking or holding their opponents.

Our centre break skills are deplorable.

We get so many clean goals against us from centre breaks it is not funny.

[Vivien]

Re: 2003 v now

Originally posted by barry
The reason we were able to take a young inexperienced team to within a quarter of a premiership in 2003, to now where we get thrashed by the crows at home is:

Goodes in the ruck. Not the greatest tap ruckman, but gave us a big body in the midfield who could stand up in a tackle.

I don't know if that's entirely true. I think 2003 success had a lot to do with the fresh attitude within the club due to the presence of a new, young coach. Also had a lot to do with the fact that we raised our game against tough opponents and had 10 players who played all 22 regular season matches.

I agree with the point you make about Goodes. He has to go back into the ruck, we need stronger, taller midfielders a la Brisbane and Port. Besides, Goodes is wasted as a defender.