Changes for R8 v North

[grarmy]

I met Plugger and he was friendly, if not a bit quiet and it took a while to get him going. But once he opened up he was quite friendly. He is a very reserved person, a quiet type. My brother is the same. He was reading a book one day and I said to h'how's it going', his reply 'I'm reading @@@@ off'. Very quiet but at other times really friendly.

So let's drop Tippo and play your brother.

[Mug Punter]

If Melican continues to hold down his spot, then there isn't one for AA unless they play 3 talls. And even less chance once Rampe comes back next week.

I can't see them replacing Marsh with Rohan. Think Marsh will keep his spot until Rampe comes back so I reckon Sinclair, Florent, Newman go out

You could be right there.

I also like the development of Marsh. I don't think he'll ever be a superstar and he may well go through his entire career never being a genuine first teamer but he has worked hard and he comes in the side and doesn't let us down. You need 4-6 players like that in your squad around the 24-28 list mark. Newman gets a lot of kudos here but I see Marsh as his model, if he can get 20-25 games under his belt this and next year and make a slightly greater impact on the games he does play then he will have done well. Foote will do well to get to that level and I think BJ and Rose will not.

Others I think we need to look at in this light right now are Cunningham, Robinson and Sinclair and hopefully Towers too. Hopefully Fox will also get there. I see all our draftees from last year as being better than that.

[Mug Punter]

I met Plugger and he was friendly, if not a bit quiet and it took a while to get him going. But once he opened up he was quite friendly. He is a very reserved person, a quiet type. My brother is the same. He was reading a book one day and I said to h'how's it going', his reply 'I'm reading @@@@ off'. Very quiet but at other times really friendly.

Pure Gold

[Ludwig]

If Rohan does come in, I think it will be for Hayward. NM have a big physical defence and it might be the game to give him a rest. It's been a tremendous start from the kid, but he finds the physical matchups difficult at times.

I can't see Marsh going out without someone like Rampe or Aliir coming in. Marsh has played very well so far this year, so if it happens, it should be for someone who is clearly more deserving, and only a fit Rampe would come into that category at this time. With Waite suspended I would suspect that Sam Durdin will take his place and will be the matchup for Melican. Reg will take Brown and Marsh will have to take Mason Wood.

Eventually the need to move the ball as quickly as possible out of defence will see Reg yield his spot, probably to Aliir. It's not a know on Reg, but just a recognition of where the game is going and what has to be done to be competitive.

*I hear that Harry's brother Jonathon, who quit the Pies, is doing very well as a midfielder in the WAFL. Maybe he wouldn't mind playing at the same club as his brother. Worth a look-in at year end.

[Markwebbos]

If Rohan does come in, I think it will be for Hayward. NM have a big physical defence and it might be the game to give him a rest. It's been a tremendous start from the kid, but he finds the physical matchups difficult at times.

Eventually the need to move the ball as quickly as possible out of defence will see Reg yield his spot, probably to Aliir. It's not a know on Reg, but just a recognition of where the game is going and what has to be done to be competitive.

I can see Rohan taking Haywards place if the kid needs a rest, but otherwise they'll keep him in. He keeps kicking goals.

AA is going to take Regs place when Reg moves into the ruck.

Assuming Maibaum makes it we do appear to have an excess of tall defenders.

[Ludwig]

AA is going to take Regs place when Reg moves into the ruck.

A career saving move for Reg. Along with Dean Towers, we'd have the best, or at least the most imaginative ruck combo in the league.

[MattW]

I also have a sneaking suspicion Hayward will drop out for Rohan, which makes some sense but would be a bummer as I love watching the kid play.

[RogueSwan]

I also have a sneaking suspicion Hayward will drop out for Rohan, which makes some sense but would be a bummer as I love watching the kid play.

Yeah, the kid is a natural forward.


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[bloodspirit]

wolftone, nice post about Hewett. I'm glad to know you have confidence in him because I think he's a keeper too but you have given a brief but encouraging and persuasive explanation about why we should keep the faith. Also, great post about your brother. ;-)

MP, I agree with you about Swampy. (Incidentally, did anyone notice on the Swans site's 'Pocket Profile' his nickname is listed as 'Stan'? Odd. Swampy is much better and I'm sticking with that for now.) Harry C about the same. Dan Robinson about the same but I have hopes he can be even a smidge better - best case scenario follows more in Lloyd's footsteps but perhaps without the same running power. I also agree Foote should aspire to be in the same category. BJ and Rose don't look like they're quite gonna get there. Rose has the talent but doesn't seem to work quite hard enough. BJ works hard enough but doesn't quite seem to have the talent.

I can't ever see AA replacing Reg. Their roles are too different. AA is a rebounding halfbacker. Reg is a man on beast defensive fullback. I think we look among Melican, Talia, Maibaum maybe even AJ to take Reg's role. If and when AJ does make it back it's hard to know how he will have changed. At least he should have a bigger harder body 5 years on which might make him more fullback material. I say this even allowing for the fact that more is expected offensively from defenders these days.

Finally, back to the focus of the thread: the only change I would be happy to see is Newman in for, most likely, Florent out. But what I expect to see is Rohan in for Florent and quite probably Tippo in for Sinclair. The match committee are a bit conservative (is that the word?) and predictable in their selections some times. It's almost as if with our more senior/established players provided they haven't done anything too far wrong they will be selected when fit. They are seldom forced to return via the 2s unless they are actually dropped from the first team (like Pebbles or Laids). I suppose given we have a young team at the moment that has been struggling without our senior players this makes some sense. But, in the cases of Tippo and Rohan, they have been in poor form before their injury (enough people thought we should drop them) and now they are returning from injury I think they should be forced to via the 2s and show their form and value. Perhaps the view is taken that once you've made it at AFL level, the 2s will do nothing to assist your return to the seniors so it's kind of pointless? But Goodsey decided it was good enough for him.

[swansrob]

MP, I agree with you about Swampy. (Incidentally, did anyone notice on the Swans site's 'Pocket Profile' his nickname is listed as 'Stan'? Odd. Swampy is much better and I'm sticking with that for now.)

It's not that odd
stan.jpg

[chuckie]

Newman can play through the mids and did for a considerable time in the reserves last week. He is a mature age recruit so has a mature body. His disposal, while it was the worst I've seen from him last week, is still better than about 50% of the Senior team. Florent was almost non existent last week though I don't think the role Horse has him playing is suited to him.

It is interesting that people who have never watched a reserves game at all ask for this player or that to come in (not talking about you Bloodspirit but there are people here & on Big Footy). If people want to know what happened in the reserves so they can have an informed opinion, as to who deserves to be elevated or brought into the seniors, then watch the NEAFL or NEAFL replays. Research is always better than speculation. That is the trouble with our media, they speculate and get things wrong.

I think there are several players knocking on the door; Newman, Dawson, Murray (Rookie), Cameron, Maibaum & Aliir. Dawson could play a similar role to Ollie if that is what you want. He is mobile, takes a pretty good mark and kicks pretty well. He could also play mids as he is a big bodied player who is 191cm and of course mobile. I have been impressed with Jack Maibaum over the last few weeks. He is gonna be more than ok. Strong, reliable, a very good kick and that rarest of creatures a FB that can actually kick in.

Living in Victoria I don't get to see many reserves games so you have to rely on peoples opinions.
The only problem with that is there are a lot of people that either rate a player or dislike a player because they believe if others rate or don't rate a player they are right and I am just going to agree with them.
I am very old school with my views on players, they need to be able to dispose of the ball on both sides of their body, defend tightly when we don't have the ball and the forwards need to no how to lead and make space.
I was able to see the game against the NT Thunder on telly the other day and there was some promising players but I also saw some that I don't think will make it. I was once told by a high profile recruiter in the 80's that you should never recruit to many left footed players as they are in his words "they are f@*@ing hopeless when under pressure or forced to go to their right side" and I think we have to many of them. I remember writing before and after the 2012 grand final that to beat hawthorn you need to force them to defend to the right as a lot of their backmen were left footers and if you watch the game you will see that when we had control that is what was happening and when they had control they did the same to us, the classic example was one of the last plays when hawthorn got out and had the loose man all Birchell had to do was kick the ball forward on his right leg to the free man but what did he do he had to turn back onto his left and that gave Mattner time to tackle him and force the ball out. Back to the game against Thunder Leonardis, Dawson looked good when they had space but didn't have a clue when forced on their right side, Pink as a forward looked pretty good he seem to lead at the right time and position his leads well he wasn't strong enough all the time to get it but he made the right moves, the good forwards like Lockett would lead from the goal square 10 metres forward and if they hadn't kicked it he would lead to the side then backwards towards the goals when he eventually got it he was never more than 30 metres out and that is what Pink seem to be doing. This is my opinion and it was from only watching one game on telly which is not really a good guide so I hope i am wrong and that they all turn out to be superstars but I do wish we wouldn't recruit so many left footers.

[YvonneH]

Chuckie, left footers seemed to work out OK for Hawthorn.

[O'Reilly Boy]

Hopefully tipper just plants in goal square and plays as a forward. That way 4 kicks - 4 goals is a good return. One out he's a beast....in the air.
Hewitt I agree himand Cunningham are my worry. Hewitt plays better as a fwd , Ritchie got lucky last week with 2 goals.Newman has to play and kick out. No more sideways . Long and running please.

Harsh on Cunningham. If he was lucky it was because he ran hard all day. I don't know whether you were at the game, but you would have seen on screen his three big runs down the wing (none of which he finished off as well as we might have hoped); what you wouldn't have seen was that he spread wide, quickly, all day to make that link option, which was not always taken up (partly because Zac Jones had set himself up well to run through the corridor from half-back). I don't want to buy into the 'Cunningham is soft' argument (looking at you Nico), but I don't mind his game and his contribution of perceived pressure in the attacking pockets. Doesn't always nail the tackle, but corrals and closes down options.

[O'Reilly Boy]

I for one find Rohan to be an enormously frustrating player, a bit like Jetta. Clearly he has buckets of potential and looks like the kind of player who could be one of the greats of the game. But he never seems to put it together. He goes missing in too many games, and hasn't had too many (if any) standout games where he was best on ground, let alone a standout year like like Jetta's 2012.

Was it the prelim final against North at Homebush in 2014 that Rohan played what (I think) Duck referred to as one of the best games off half-back that he'd ever seen? True that he has rarely produced a game like that. However, I don't think that the raw stats capture his ability to produce perceived pressure, and he adds an X Factor. He has to play between the 50s, though, not as a leading forward.

[barry]

I for one find Rohan to be an enormously frustrating player, a bit like Jetta. Clearly he has buckets of potential and looks like the kind of player who could be one of the greats of the game. But he never seems to put it together. He goes missing in too many games, and hasn't had too many (if any) standout games where he was best on ground, let alone a standout year like like Jetta's 2012.

Was it the prelim final against North at Homebush in 2014 that Rohan played what (I think) Duck referred to as one of the best games off half-back that he'd ever seen? True that he has rarely produced a game like that. However, I don't think that the raw stats capture his ability to produce perceived pressure, and he adds an X Factor. He has to play between the 50s, though, not as a leading forward.

I agree he needs to get out of the forward line. I thought he only went there as a transition as he overcame his broken leg. He seems to have been stayed there and hes neither strong enough in the air, or strong enough on the ground to be a good forward. Flooding has effectively killed the quick, light leading forward position.