- Jun 3, 2012
- 1,593
- 1,199
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Leicester, Wizards, Man. United
Reid will definitely play forward, and Seedsman will play every game after he is back from injury. O'Brien now plays on the wing, and Lynch would be woeful as a defender.
I agree that our backline isn't great, but apart from Maxwell they are all capable of playing good football, but the problem is getting enough experience in them playing as a unit to reach that level.
B: Fasolo - Brown - Toovey
HB: Maxwell - Keefe – Sinclair
In Round 1, due to the absence of Williams and Seedsman we will bring in Sinclair and Fasolo who are both capable defenders.
Fasolo has only been tested in the backline minimally, but his skills really transitioned well, which will hopefully come in handy against Fremantle's small forwards.
Sinclair took a massive step in his career transitioning from forwardline to backline last season, but in the end it really paid off, and he took over a massive role as a running half-back in the latter half of the season.
We will also have Langdon our new recruit. He has played in both of the NAB Challenge games and has demonstrated great skills and footy smarts for a 19 year old, so he will probably be starting on the bench or as a sub.
After Maxwell reaches 200 games in Round 2 (Unless he suddenly gets good) he will be dropped permanently for one of those I've just mentioned, and Seedsman should be back from injury and be slotted straight into the side.
Barring injury, our lineup should remain the same until Round 6. If Marley doesn't get jail time he will be back in for Anzac Day unless Sinclair/Fas get better than him in that time, if that is the case he will play VFL until the selection panel deem fit to put him back in.
All in all, our backline isn't terrible, but inexperienced, and somewhat underrated. It is still capable of holding up it's own against quite a few teams and I wouldn't be surprised if some of our predicted smashing are quite a lot closer than many would suggest.
Even with those positives, our team isn't perfect. Grundy will struggle to ruck out the entire season, which will probably bring us to promote Hudson or give Witts a go, which I'm not sure he is ready for.
Our kicking accuracy is still a problem, but from what we've seen in the NAB Challenge we have made steps to fix that. Cloke and Reid kicked 8.1 between them against Richmond, and until the flood of Richmond goals came we were 1.10.2.
To what you have said about us trading away our talent, I (And most of the Collingwood board) believe that 2013/14 are our rebuilding years, so if we expect to be challenging for the flag after that trading away any more good players would be stupid. And even though we consider 2014 to be a rebuild year we still expect to finish top 6, which I believe is a definite.
tl;dr: Backline not as bad as it seems, Collingwood will be top 8 while retaining good players.
Oh, silly me I called Mr Lumumba O'Brien. Either way, there is no need to be so aggressive. Harry played midfield to an outstanding effect in 2013, including many times when Reid played forward, so I don't see why you think it is a terrible idea.If Bucks is going to play Reid forward and O'Brien in the midfield then he is one ******* idiot.
Backs: Toovey - Brown - Seedsman
Half-Backs: O'Brien - Reid - Maxwell
Centre: Adams - Ball - Beams
Half-Forward: Sidebottom - Cloke - Goldsack
Forward: Blair - White - Elliott
Ruck/Followers: Grundy - Swan - Pendlebury
Interchange: Fasolo - Keefe - Young - Kennedy
That should be your best 22 in 2014. Not too sure about Dwyer or Clarke, whether they will make it.
Also, why do you have Seedsman back pocket and Maxwell half back? Seedsman provides great run and carry, while Maxwell only seems to be effective playing in the pocket. If Goldsack plays he won't play forward, we have White Cloke and our swingman Reid in our tall forward rotation, there isn't room for a sub-par one in goldsack. Oh, and Dwyer is good enough to make it, it's just a matter of if he gets gametime.