The Backline - What will happen??

Hawthorn didn't really play lock down negators. Ran more with quality players that can win contests and create. Birchall, Burgoyne, suckling, Stratton.

I can see beveridge playing guys like Darley and Biggs on dangerous smalls like Breust, Ballantyne, betts etc and just backing them in defensively.
 
Sep 27, 2011
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I'm leaning more and more towards the drink moving roughead forward.

I think Talia, Morris and Roberts all start round 1.

Picken back into the midfield. Murphy into the midfield as well. I think he'll put a lot of time into trying to develop Biggs, Darley and wood.

Fb: wood Roberts Morris
Hb: Biggs Talia Darley
I like this Fronky, I think we need to start moving away from the Murphy dependency across half back... I'd like to see Murph play the Coons role on a wing and half forward... I wonder if Fuller gets more of a look in now... Could play a Guerra (sorry about the spelling) type role??
 

igloo dweller

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I like this Fronky, I think we need to start moving away from the Murphy dependency across half back... I'd like to see Murph play the Coons role on a wing and half forward... I wonder if Fuller gets more of a look in now... Could play a Guerra (sorry about the spelling) type role??

fuller needs to work on getting a kick for Footscray first. even if bob moves upfield, he's behind JJ, darley, biggs and pearce (even as a rookie) for mine.

christian howard was ahead of fuller last year...just ponder that for a second
 
I'm rooting for fuller. But my god he made James mulligan look like a rockstar last year. Worst player I've seen on our list. Ever.

He can't be that bad so im hoping for a massive, massive improvement this season, but he has a LONG way to go to be in the frame for selection. Hope he gets there
 

BRG93

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I'm rooting for fuller. But my god he made James mulligan look like a rockstar last year. Worst player I've seen on our list. Ever.

He can't be that bad so im hoping for a massive, massive improvement this season, but he has a LONG way to go to be in the frame for selection. Hope he gets there
I've got faith in him, Ended up having a double shoulder reconstruction at the end of this season so clearly he has hampered.

On the subject of Shoulders the reason why Fletch Roberts and Rough didn't play in the same side with year was because both had bad shoulders Sids one being really bad. Match Commitee didn't want to play them both in the seniors for fear of both going down in the same game and having no Key Defenders at all

Strange Logic but that was what I was told directly from "He who shall not be named" ex Senior Coach
 

TempleKelvington

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Talia's criminally underrated on this board. He won't just establish himself, he's actually be a very good AFL-standed key defender.
Our key defender issues won't be as significant if he can take that number 1 key defender spot which I'm confident he will this very season with a new coach.

One of our defensive issues is that we don't take a lot of intercept marks. Obviously Lake was a gun at that for us. One thing Talia can do is mark the footy and once he gets established I expect him to back himself to intercept mark and not just defend. He's not a great user, but if he could come in an do his role and bring his marking to the fore it will make a massive difference to our team.
 

TempleKelvington

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I think our defense will line up dependent on who we play and the match ups. I can see us lining up with Talia, Roughead and Roberts, with one of Roberts or Roughead playing forward for whole or parts of games. Flexibility is the key.

I think there will be times when Roughy will play back when there is the correct match up for him.....Tippett, Cloke, resting ruck/forward and so on. Same with Picken. I can't see him not in the team at this stage. His ball use is not good so you don't want him a permanent defender, but there will be times when we need to lock down on a small. There will be times when he may need to lock down on a mid.

I can't see any reason to play Murphy anywhere but half back. Sure at times for a different look we might swing him onto a wing or half forward, but we need his dare, dash and skill off half back. Biggs/Darley/Fuller/Picken all possibilities for that small defender role.

Form will dictate if Roberts and Talia come in an boost the structure. Hope they can.

FB:Morris Talia Biggs
HB: Murphy Roberts Wood

But it could easily be

FB:Morris Roughead Picken
HB: Murphy Talia Wood
 
Talia's criminally underrated on this board. He won't just establish himself, he's actually be a very good AFL-standed key defender.
Our key defender issues won't be as significant if he can take that number 1 key defender spot which I'm confident he will this very season with a new coach.
I'm on my lonesome here, but I don't think he's a key defender.
He scrapes in at 193cm and apparently has quite sort arms for his height - his best defensive work is cutting off opposition kicks and positioning without the tight body work that is required of a genuine key defender (hence B-Mac wanting him to develop another side of his game prior to a senior recall).

He has a position with us as most teams have 4 190+cm forwards these days and he's quick enough to play on mid-sized forwards. his kicking will never be a feature but has improved.
The main problem is the talls we have that are decent enough kicks (Roberts better than decent) are slow and will get killed by fast leading forwards, and looking at McDonald in the draft accounts may not fix that problem.
 

footyfan000001

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Very happy we got Biggs - looks cool under pressure and can hit a target. Must keep Murph down back too for experience. Cannot have Roberts and Talia as our only back talls - sides like Swans will murder that. Must keep JJ on a wing/HF IMO - that's where he played his best footy in 2014.

Picken rotating as tagger/back pocket. Wallis to give chop out if need as a run with player.

B: Biggs Roughead Wood
HB: Murphy Talia/Roberts Darley

I don't mind that backline! Lonergan would have been amazing!

That's my opinion!
 

igloo dweller

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I'm on my lonesome here, but I don't think he's a key defender.

you're not alone on Talia. he's going to get the chance to prove us wrong though, because the cupboard is bare...

i've got doubts on talia's ability full stop. this is a guy who played in the VFL all year and reportedly didn't poll top 10 in his side's B&F. he's not skinny or underdeveloped. he's not late to the sport. he hasn't been battling OP or any other some such. it just says to me that he ain't that great.

he's fit, and when he's at the contest, he defends well. he's a good reader of the ball in the air. but he's slower than a wet week. he can't kick. but most of all, he doesn't seem to have a fire in him to overcome his deficits (like morris has, like picken has).

i appreciate i'm in the minority on talia, and would love to be proven wrong. we're waifer thin down back in key posts - we need him to stand up.

appreciate that most feel talia is still a long term CHB - i'm far from convinced. he does have some impressive traits. happy to be proven wrong....
 
Aug 24, 2012
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I'm on my lonesome here, but I don't think he's a key defender.
He scrapes in at 193cm and apparently has quite sort arms for his height - his best defensive work is cutting off opposition kicks and positioning without the tight body work that is required of a genuine key defender (hence B-Mac wanting him to develop another side of his game prior to a senior recall).

He has a position with us as most teams have 4 190+cm forwards these days and he's quick enough to play on mid-sized forwards. his kicking will never be a feature but has improved.
The main problem is the talls we have that are decent enough kicks (Roberts better than decent) are slow and will get killed by fast leading forwards, and looking at McDonald in the draft accounts may not fix that problem.
Mofra, do you remember who he was playing on in the Port game in 2013? It was his best game for us and if memory serves correctly he predominantly played smaller. I'm of the opinion that he plays his best footy when he's running relatively free and racking up 15-20 touches and that's certainly what he did against Port.
 

igloo dweller

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Mofra, do you remember who he was playing on in the Port game in 2013? It was his best game for us and if memory serves correctly he predominantly played smaller. I'm of the opinion that he plays his best footy when he's running relatively free and racking up 15-20 touches and that's certainly what he did against Port.

agreed it's his best role. he's great at stemming attacks, but he doesn't hurt the opposition in this role (consistently) - he can't kick well enough.
 
Mofra, do you remember who he was playing on in the Port game in 2013? It was his best game for us and if memory serves correctly he predominantly played smaller. I'm of the opinion that he plays his best footy when he's running relatively free and racking up 15-20 touches and that's certainly what he did against Port.
He also played very well against GWS a few weeks later, got a RS nomination off 32 touches, forgot his opponent though?
 
Mofra, do you remember who he was playing on in the Port game in 2013? It was his best game for us and if memory serves correctly he predominantly played smaller. I'm of the opinion that he plays his best footy when he's running relatively free and racking up 15-20 touches and that's certainly what he did against Port.
Can't remember unfortunately, but it was certainly no gorilla.
He may well be in the Hargrave basket who played better on players shorter than his 190cm height suggested (although eh did break Riewoldt one game early in his career at the MCG).

If Talia ends up with half the career of Shaggy I'd be happy, there is a lot of work to do to get there though.
 
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Against GWS was Talia's best game IMO. He was on Tomlinson who barely got a touch and Talia ended up getting over 30 possessions. Won a rising star nomination that day.
 
Mofra, do you remember who he was playing on in the Port game in 2013? It was his best game for us and if memory serves correctly he predominantly played smaller. I'm of the opinion that he plays his best footy when he's running relatively free and racking up 15-20 touches and that's certainly what he did against Port.

I'm pretty sure it was John Butcher.
 
Aug 24, 2012
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I always use the Hawthorn forward line as an example. What match ups would we go for??:

Roughie - Talia
Hale - Roughead
Gunston - Morris
Breust - Wood
Rioli - Darley
Puopolo - Biggs
Honestly, I would go relatively tall against that setup.
Roughead - Roberts
Hale - Roughead
Gunston - Talia
Breust - Morris
Rioli - Picken
Puopolo - Biggs
 
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