Strategy Best Foot Forward

[Persevering Saint]

So, our backline is pretty well sorted: Fisher, Delaney, Geary, Dempster, Savage, and then a combination of Webster, Shenton, and Wright. Not much to really debate there.

Similarly, the midfielders is pretty settled: Montagna, Steven, Armitage, Dunstan, Newnes, and then a bunch of others filling in the last few spots there.

But where things are REALLY interesting, is the forward line.

First there's the structural questions. In terms of talls: do we play a forward/ruck like Bruce is meant to be? Do we play a dedicated 2nd ruckman and hope for the best, like Longer or Pierce? Do we play an out-and-out forward and get him to pretend he can ruck for five minutes here and there, like Lee or White? In terms of smalls: Do we play a dedicated small forward like Lonie or Saad? Or do we put in rotating small mids like Eli and Billings? How many of each? And then there's the value of a "true" medium tall like Markworth or Membrey, or a third tall like Lee? We could have a structure like this:

mid ~ Riewoldt ~ mid
small ~ ruck/forward ~ medium

Or any other combination.

Once you've figured out your combo, then you have to fill it: Lee, Bruce, White, McCartin? Lonie or Saad? etc.

What's your take on the forward line? Oh, and do you think it has the potential to be any good this year?!

 

[felsty]

HF: Templeton, Riewoldt, Billings
FF: Saad, Lee, White

Provided we can create enough forward pressure, which to be fair doesnt seem likely, but I think this is our most dangerous forward line, throwing McCartin and Membrey in to the mix as well.

 

[crasha301]

HF: membry, roo, billings
FF: saad, white, bruce

I think white should start round 1 and continue on from last year, bring lee in when form drops. Bruce to play the 3rd tall/ruck.

Membry will give us that solid aggressive type that could turn into the 3rd tall when roo pushes up the ground.

Billings to play that resting mid role, obviously will play a lot more mid time this year but when his fwd loves a goal and his i50 are amazing. I think we will see lots of players swapping from this possies eli, armo, joey, steven ect.

Saad, welcome back. Hopefully starts off the same way he first started. Provides good pressure and knows how to find the chocolates

I personally think with this fwd line we could be a 4-5 goal better team. If roo pushes up alot as we expect our fwd line comes unpredictable in which bruce, white and membry should become main targets.

 

[SK_MD_#7]

HF: Membrey, Riewoldt, Billings
FF: Saad/Small forward, White/Bruce, Lee.

That'd probably be my set up and hoping Membrey also spends a bit of time in the middle.

 

[Phoenix_9]

HF: Billings, Roo, Membrey
FF: Saad, Bruce, Lee

Billings for silky skills into the f50/midfield rotation position.
Roo = CHF = legend. (possibly pushing up to the wings even more to have less predictable entries)
Saad to primarily crumb and pressure. (but probably excels more as a mark/set shot player rather than a goal sneak)
Membrey to get the 4th defender as a medium fwd and cause a mess.
Bruce to play FF and chop out in the Ruck when required (should definitely be able to keep the 2nd defender busy by providing a target and and apply pressure on the rebound).
Lee to play as the 3rd tall, and provide a target (looks to have improved his tank and defensive efforts).

Surely that forward line can kick winning scores!?!

McCartin/White to keep the pressure on Bruce-Lee.
Membrey as that medium fwd needs to perform, otherwise it seems Richo might play a fwd defensive tagger, eg. Curren.
Saad's spot could easily be taken by another mid/small fwd(Curren/Saunders/Lonie etc) if he isn't in form and elevated come round 1.

 

[hayes]

HF: Billings Lee Murdoch

FF: Saad Bruce White

Riewoldt to play up the ground. He can line up in the forward line but I think it's time we started getting used to life without him.

Not sure what I'd like the setup to be long term whether it be 3 talls and a medium (including the ruck/forward) or just the ruck/forward and two talls of any kind. Think I'd prefer the latter and go with the extra midfielder.

One thing we definitely need eventually is an elite HF/mid like Gray/Bruest. Whether they're on the list yet who knows.

 

[ike2112]

Realistically I don't think we will play 6 actual forwards. We will play 5, with either a mid or tagger named as starting at HF/FP.

Interestingly I think there is a chance Savage goes back up onto a wing again. And that Templeton moves into Wing more than his forward role from last year. So midfield isn't all that settled. A lot depends on whether they let Weller be an on-baller or a tagger; he's clearly expected to be best-22, but its not 100% clear what as.

I think it'll be more like:


Bruce / White / Saad
Billings / Riewoldt / Weller

Templeton / Armitage / Steven
Hickey / Dunstan / Montagna

Savage / Fisher / Newnes
Dempster / Delaney / Geary

Int: Ray, Membrey, Ross Sub: Wright
(Bruce being ruck/fwd)

(EDIT: this is due to Webster being out, assuming he won't play round 1, so Newnes will fill in at HB).


Another option I think they have, is to go with Bruce as fwd/ruck and start Membrey instead of White, having White as the Sub. Bruce will run around like a madman giving both fwd pressure and ruck relief.
Then in the 3rd Qtr bring White on for Bruce; White can pinch-hit in the ruck if required, but most importantly would be fresh (since his tank is questionable) and is an impact-type.
It's risky having a tall as your sub though, for example if Dunstan gets injured in first 5 minutes then your rotations are badly affected.

 

[TheLastEmperor]

You forgot Steven Ike.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ike2112]

You forgot Steven Ike.

Oh shoot aye.

That's cos I just read about Webster's injury; if he isn't fit Round 1 I think they'll keep Newnes at HB (Steven in MF) until Webster is ok to play.
I think Webster is a step ahead of Shenton, Wright and Roberton.

 

[Kilroy]

HF: Dunstan - Riewoldt - Billings
FF: Saad - White - Lee

Of the mids, Montagna, Steven, Armitage and/or Ross to rotate through the forward line with Dunstan and Billings.
Membrey, whilst not a KPF, may rotate with Riewoldt, Lee and/or White - two of which would be in the key positions.
Lee or White to relieve in the ruck.
On the edge but in contention - Bruce, Templeton, Curren and Markworth.

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

Winmar, Loewe, Hamill

Burke, Lockett, Harvey

 

[SpannaMan]

I don't know as much about footy as some of the people on here but I like the idea of playing a 5 man forward line to help out defense.

I would suggest a structure including: 2 talls, 1 ruck, 1 relief ruck, 1 medium and 1 goal sneak so that the structure kind of looks like this:

Resting Mid ~ Riewoldt ~ Medium
Goal Sneak ~ Tall

With the ruck starting on the field and the relief ruck starting on the bench. The relief ruck would play in the full forward role if the medium has a spell in the midfield or the main ruck or one of the talls has break. This would lead to a bit of shuffling in the forward line but I think it would work, especially if someone like Membrey and/or Markworth can play in the middle/wing for periods of the game.

So if one of the talls goes off it would like this:

Resting Mid ~ Tall ~ Medium
Goal Sneak ~ Relief Ruck

and if the medium goes off or goes up the ground it would look like this:

Resting Mid ~ Riewoldt ~ Tall
Goal Sneak ~ Relief Ruck

I think that Hickey would be the main ruck but considering his body hasn't been holding up Longer might be able to take it from him.
For the relief ruck either Longer or Bruce with Bruce probably being favorite to start initially but in the long term I hope Longer can take it.
Riewoldt has one of the tall positions for as long as he wants it so one of McCartin/Lee/White would be fighting it out for the second spot. At the moment I think Lee is in front at the moment, he also has the ability to play more of a 3rd forward which I think would work well with this set up.
For the Medium forward position Membrey should have it for now though I would hope Markworth gets a call up sometime during the season. I think it would be great if both of them can develop into strong burst midfielders so that both could play but that is still some time off anyway.

So assuming everyone being fit and healthy I would predict the forward line to start like this:

Resting Mid ~ Riewoldt ~ Membrey
Goal Sneak ~ Lee

With Hickey in the ruck and Bruce on the bench.

 

[ike2112]

They did play that way last year, with effectively 5 playing forward, one of them a mid, so effectively playing only 4 actual forwards.

But I think this year Richo will be letting them off the leash a bit more, he's asked them to take the game on a bit more so I don't see us flooding quite so much. So I think we'll probably still name a midfielder in the forward line for the purposes of a starting 18, but expect us to have 5 people actually playing forward. When Billings drops into midfield for a run, Armitage for example will move forward.

 

[saintbill]

Great thread.

I have thought long and hard about our forward line set up. Unfortunately we still don't have the legs to run out games. Long term I see one of Saad or Lonie locking down a FP position, but a full time FP is a luxury we can't really afford right now. We are going to need a lot of midfield rotations.

Based on that I would go for this

Murdoch Riewoldt Billings

Templeton White Lee/Membrey

If Murdoch, Billings, & Templeton can push up the ground that we will have significant additional running power. This would enable us to play 2 ruckman but limit their game time. For example, look to play Hickey and Longer 60% & 50% game time respectively, with one of them being the sub wherever possible. This would ensure we wouldn't need them to rest forward for very long it at all.

Many will disagree with Murdoch, he is somewhat forgotten, whoever I am placing a massive bias towards foot skills and flexibility to rotate through the middle. He could also play that defensive forward role to great effect.

I would have Lee and Membrey competing for the same spot with Lee slightly in front unless Membrey proves he is flexible enough to effectively rotate through the middle. If so, I would give him the nod. If Spencer is struggling, I would just move Lee to FF and Membrey to come in the forward pocket.

 

[MordySaint]

Loving this thread and seeing our new options in the Forward line

HF - Lee - Roo - Membrey
FF - White - McCartin - Saad

After seeing Membrey on the weekend, I hope he turns into a more of a small/medium forward with defensive skills and hold the enforcers role.

Billings, Templeton are now our silk midfielders - they are the ones with the foot skills who will pass it down the throats of our guns! Who will then start kicking us scores that will win us games.

 

[STK2020]

Membrey Riewoldt Templeton
Curran White Saad

Thinking smallish forward line , lots of tackle pressure and feed off poor delivery to Spencer .
Lots of leg speed to chase down rebounding half backs.

 

[Periphery]

HF: Curren ~ Roo ~ mid/fwd
FF: Bruce ~ Lee ~ Saad

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

Well whatever they do they need to change it up. It was too one dimensional last year. Kick it Roo is not a good nor effective forward strategy.

I'm sure Richo and the Brains trust will have come up with Plan B, (which becomes Plan A I guess)

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Attacking Mid - Roo - resting Mid
Saad - Membery - Bruce

I would prefer the Attacking Mid to be one who is High Skilled so Acres, Billings and Markworth
The Resting mid needs to be a stronger tackler and a focus on defense.

 

[sammm]

Well whatever they do they need to change it up. It was too one dimensional last year. Kick it Roo is not a good nor effective forward strategy.

I'm sure Richo and the Brains trust will have come up with Plan B, (which becomes Plan A I guess)

I doubt that plan A last year was kick it to Roo. Probably for many players (not the coaching staff) thats the easy thing to do, the simplest thing do and the more trustworthy thing to do. yet it does not do a thing for strategy or anything like that.

 

[#gosaintas]

I doubt that plan A last year was kick it to Roo. Probably for many players (not the coaching staff) thats the easy thing to do, the simplest thing do and the more trustworthy thing to do. yet it does not do a thing for strategy or anything like that.

The strategy last year seemed to be more kick it AT Roo, rather than to him.

 

[Persevering Saint]

The strategy last year seemed to be more kick it AT Roo, rather than to him.

Don't you mean OVER Roo?

 

[hayes]

Don't you mean OVER Roo?

Just in his general direction. Somewhere in the vicinity was good enough.

 

[Smoke_Me_AKipper]

Ah I love it!! Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, however it is the most effective!

 

[okeydoke7]

Billings, Riewoldt, Rotating mid
Saad, Lee, Membrey

as a starting point for mine.