What questions do our team still need to answer ahead of finals?

[76woodenspooners]

With six games remaining, what questions still need answering ahead of finals?

A few to kick it off …

(1) Our best forward / ruck tall combination?:
- Mihocek and Cox are now locks (if fit), but which two of Johnson, McStay, Cameron and Frampton would be our first choice in finals?

(2) Who is our best 27th player? We’ve experimented with Ginni, Reef, Harrison and Bianco. I thought Harrison had an impressive first few games. Ginni has struggled to find his 2022 form. Reef and Bianco struggled on the big stage. We’re still yet to see Fin in 2023.

(3) What are our best centre clearance combos? I know Fly said Nick would work with DeGoey, but that’s still yet to be a proven success at dominating the centre clearances.

(4) Who is our best tactical sub?

Any others?

 

[Chameleon75]

Wouldn’t say cox is a lock

 

[manicpie]

It's really hard to answer this question. The only thing I would say is that Cox isn't a lock. He spends the least amount of time on the ground and we will go with AJ, McStay, Checkers up forward. Frampton will be in the side purely because of the flexibility he provides

 

[jmac70]

With six games remaining, what questions still need answering ahead of finals?

A few to kick it off …

(1) Our best forward / ruck tall combination?:
- Mihocek and Cox are now locks (if fit), but which two of Johnson, Cameron and Frampton would be our first choice in finals?

(2) Who is our best 27th player? We’ve experimented with Ginni, Reef, Harrison and Bianco. I thought Harrison had an impressive first few games. Ginni has struggled to find his 2022 form. Reef and Bianco struggled on the big stage. We’re still yet to see Fin in 2023.

(3) What are our best centre clearance combos? I know Fly said Nick would work with DeGoey, but that’s still yet to be a proven success at dominating the centre clearances.

(4) Who is our best tactical sub?

Any others?

You left out McStay. He and Checkers are the locks. I’d also say that Cameron will be the preferred ruck. AJ, Frampton and Cox playing for one spot.
I reckon they will go with Cox in the finals, or at least give him first crack in the QF.

 

[76woodenspooners]

You left out McStay. He and Checkers are the locks. I’d also say that Cameron will be the preferred ruck. AJ, Frampton and Cox playing for one spot.
I reckon they will go with Cox in the finals, or at least give him first crack in the QF.

Re: McStay, oops, thanks, have fixed.

I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s a lock for finals though given the amount of footy he’s missed and still needs to build chemistry with mids and fellow forwards.

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

With six games remaining, what questions still need answering ahead of finals?

A few to kick it off …

(1) Our best forward / ruck tall combination?:
- Mihocek and Cox are now locks (if fit), but which two of Johnson, Cameron and Frampton would be our first choice in finals?

(2) Who is our best 27th player? We’ve experimented with Ginni, Reef, Harrison and Bianco. I thought Harrison had an impressive first few games. Ginni has struggled to find his 2022 form. Reef and Bianco struggled on the big stage. We’re still yet to see Fin in 2023.

(3) What are our best centre clearance combos? I know Fly said Nick would work with DeGoey, but that’s still yet to be a proven success at dominating the centre clearances.

(4) Who is our best tactical sub?

Any others?

Our best ruck/fwd combo I think is Cameron, Cox with Mihoceck and McStay forward. Ash Johnson can bust his way in but has to step up against good teams.

27th player? WHE, then probably Reef.

I think we keep it rotating through N Daicos, DeGoey, Pendles, Mitchell and Adams, with J Daicos and Crisp as options if its not working.

I think the best sub could end up being someone like Taylor Adams, just because he plays only one way and would get involved as soon as coming on. But he is in our best 15 players. I'd like to see Hill have a go at it as he has the tools to be impactful.

 

[adammania9]

What’s the go with our third winger? Does Hoskin-Elliott’s spread and marking which helps us control and set up mean he comes back in at someone’s expense? Or can we back in Hill, Adams, Crisp and McCreery to help out?

 

[jmac70]

Re: McStay, oops, thanks, have fixed.

I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s a lock for finals though given the amount of footy he’s missed and still needs to build chemistry with mids and fellow forwards.

AJ is the interesting one for me. He’s mobile and skilful. Would love them to fit him in somehow.

 

[manicpie]

What’s the go with our third winger? Does Hoskin-Elliott’s spread and marking which helps us control and set up mean he comes back in at someone’s expense? Or can we back in Hill, Adams, Crisp and McCreery to help out?

Pretty sure we can cope without WHE, yesterday probed that. I would prefer Adams to play that role

 

[adammania9]

Pretty sure we can cope without WHE, yesterday probed that. I would prefer Adams to play that role

I think it will be answered better when we play better sides than 15th away from home, but I tend to agree I think others can chop him out.

 

[76woodenspooners]

27th player? WHE, then probably Reef.

I’d consider best 26 to be yesterday’s team + Mihocek, Cameron and WHE.

Some might say Ginni would be in best 27, but others have clearly been getting games ahead of him.

 

[manicpie]

I think it will be answered better when we play better sides than 15th away from home, but I tend to agree I think others can chop him out.

The question is, who does he replace and we did very well without him against the dogs also

 

[Finnishpie]

Looks likely the forward line will look like this:

Talls: McStay, Mihocek, resting ruckman. Johnson plays but as a mobile flanker moving up the ground as he has a bit lately.

Rucks: Cameron 1st, Cox relief/forward.

This means unless Frampton plays in defence he'll miss out. WHE might be the unlucky one to be standing during musical chairs. Markov has earned his place, Adams is a sold, heart-and-soul player who has got better in recent weeks. Ginnivan, McInnies, Harrison, etc are all strictly depth at this stage.

 

[76woodenspooners]

Wouldn’t say cox is a lock

What makes me say he’s a lock:

• He’s proven in finals
• He’s proven to step up when games are on the line
• His season to-date is quite decent. I know stats aren’t everything, and players have been playing different roles, but as a very rough indicator:

2023 up to the Bulldogs game:

Cox: 11 games, 14 goals, 46 marks (17 contested), 145 HO’s
Cameron: 10 games, 38 marks (17 contested), 1 goal, 254 HO’s
Johnson: 13 games, 47 marks (17 contested), 18 goals, 15 HO’s
McStay: 5 games, 15 marks (4 contested), 3 goals, 19 HO’s
Frampton: 11 games, 39 marks (10 contested), 6 goals, 123 HO’s

 

[frizzle]

When will we play close to 4 quarters of footy again? Instead of getting by on a quarter or 2?
When will we hit our top form on the approach to finals?
Despite having the best percentage in the competition, would you guys agree that we still rarely go for the jugular when we can dominate opposition teams?
We lack killer instinct at times in my opinion.
I'm not as concerned as others with regards to our best 23 setup. It's our team getting into gear that concerns me the most.
We aren't there yet, but we have time.

 

[windchimes]

1) If fully fit, Cameron, Mihocek and McStay are the locks, with Cox, Johnson, Kreuger and Frampton vying for the other spot. We haven't had them all fully fit until now, so it'll be interesting to see what we settle on in the next few weeks.

3) With our current centre clearance rotations, we now appear to be looking to combine De Goey and Nick Daicos with usually one Mitchell and Pendles where avaliable, and Crisp and Adams still called upon for a chop out but mostly look to have found themselves homes on the flanks.

 

[Chameleon75]

What makes me say he’s a lock:

• He’s proven in finals
• He’s proven to step up when games are on the line
• His season to-date is quite decent. I know stats aren’t everything, and players have been playing different roles, but as a very rough indicator:

2023 up to the Bulldogs game:

Cox: 11 games, 14 goals, 46 marks (17 contested), 145 HO’s
Cameron: 10 games, 38 marks (17 contested), 1 goal, 254 HO’s
Johnson: 13 games, 47 marks (17 contested), 18 goals, 15 HO’s
McStay: 5 games, 15 marks (4 contested), 3 goals, 19 HO’s
Frampton: 11 games, 39 marks (10 contested), 6 goals, 123 HO’s

it’s about the sum of our parts. Cox doesn’t cover much ground, and if we are going with an undersized defense, and looks that way, you need a ruck that can drop back and help your defence on the transition, Cameron is better suited to that, and id say a reason why our coaches have favoured him as first ruck on every occasion he’s been available, attached is his heat map from yesterday to illustrate the point.

So I’d say if available Cameron is lock for ruck and if you listen to fly over the year he really wants checkers and mcstay working together, so I’d say they are locks at this point.

So comes down to if you want a 2 tall or 3 tall forward line, if you’re going 2 then cox gets the nod, if you’re going 3 then AJ.

So yea I’m not of the opinion that cox is a lock.

 

[Vicky Park]

I’m interested to see how the club handles the finals and the increased attention and stressors. Brownlow night will also be massive for us this year.

Hard to believe we could get more attention, but I recall Daisy talking about the ‘craziness’ at Collingwood in the lead up to the GF in 2010. Some distractions may be needed.

Also think Fly may have some tricks up his sleeve with our play and game plan? Nothing too radical but I think David King has been flagging this - that the Pies are by no means a finished product, and September could surprise.

 

[manicpie]

I’m interested to see how the club handles the finals and the increased attention and stressors. Brownlow night will also be massive for us this year.

Hard to believe we could get more attention, but I recall Daisy talking about the ‘craziness’ at Collingwood in the lead up to the GF in 2010. Some distractions may be needed.

Also think Fly may have some tricks up his sleeve with our play and game plan? Nothing too radical but I think David King has been flagging this - that the Pies are by no means a finished product, and September could surprise.

I can see us dominating the finals like Richmond in 2017. We have much more improvement coming and at the right time

 

[doofdoof]

Totally agree with the 4 quarters of footy being a real question.

We've let a number of teams back into games when we've switched off. Can't do it in finals

 

[manicpie]

Totally agree with the 4 quarters of footy being a real question.

We've let a number of teams back into games when we've switched off. Can't do it in finals

And we won't doof , you never show your full hand before finals, especially if you are still winning

 

[eyeroller]

I’m interested to see how the club handles the finals and the increased attention and stressors. Brownlow night will also be massive for us this year.

Hard to believe we could get more attention, but I recall Daisy talking about the ‘craziness’ at Collingwood in the lead up to the GF in 2010. Some distractions may be needed.

Also think Fly may have some tricks up his sleeve with our play and game plan? Nothing too radical but I think David King has been flagging this - that the Pies are by no means a finished product, and September could surprise.

I have no idea why, nor do I have any evidence, but I have had this same feeling. Maybe wishful thinking...but hopefully not!

 

[The Plowking]

I'm not convinced about pies.

We never even looked like winning against Brisbane or Melbourne (though nearly pinched it)
The Adelaide game was questionable too.
I'm not convinced. Still wide open, top 4. Not necessarily ladder position but potential to win gf.

 

[barrackers]

I’d add

Can we continue to play without a big bodied defender or does Frampton squeeze into our backline?

 

[No SPIN]

I'm not convinced about pies.

We never even looked like winning against Brisbane or Melbourne (though nearly pinched it)
The Adelaide game was questionable too.
I'm not convinced. Still wide open, top 4. Not necessarily ladder position but potential to win gf.

I think you need to look at players missing in those games. No Rucks against BNE and at the Gabba. MCG will be a different story.
Melb we’re at full strength and just missing Oliver - we had JDG, McStay and Howe out.