Team Mgmt. 2018 Best 22

[Vindicater]

Based only on current list so 1 or 2 could be replaced with free agents or ready to play draft picks.

By the end of the season I would hope to see something like.

FB: McKenna, Hartley, Baguley

HB: Gleeson, Hurley, Heppell

C: Goddard, Merrett, Zaharakis

HF: Fantasia, Daniher, Stewart

FF: Tippa, Hooker, Begley

R: Bellchambers, Parish, McGrath

IC: Langford, Laverde, Myers, Francis

 

[Bombers_95]

B: Baugley Hurley Gleeson
HB:McKenna Hartley/Ambrose/Brown Francis
C: McGrath Heppell Parish
HF: Fantasia Daniher Begley
F:Stewart Hooker Walla
Foll:Bellchambers Merrett Langford
Bench: Laverde, Zaharakis, Goddard, Myers

Changes from the finals:
Ins: Hooker, Laverde, Langford, Francis
Outs: Watson, Kelly, Ambrose, Colyer

Got to play the young kids. If Howlett and Bird get games over Laverde and Langford we are in strife. this is still a great team on paper

 

[Red Black and Blue]

FB: Gleeson, Ambrose, Ridley
HB: Redman, Hurley, Francis, McKenna
C: Zaharakis, Parish, McGrath
Foll: Draper, Merrett, Langford
HF: Stewart, Hooker, Tippa
FF: Fantasia, Daniher
Inter: Laverde, Begley, Mutch, Goddard

 

[JT_the_Man]

Hoping to see us looking something like this in round 1.

B Ambrose - Hartley/Francis - Baguley
HB McKenna - Hurley - Gleeson
C Zaharakis - Heppell - Mutch
HF Fantasia - Daniher - Begley
F Stewart - Hooker - McDonald-Tipungwuti
R Bellchambers - Parish - Merrett
Int. McGrath - Langford - Laverde - Goddard

Emg. Green - Colyer - Myers

Francis needs a big offseason to get his fitness up.

 

[Godzke]

I have at least 6 spots up for grabs in round 1 2018. 2 in defence and 4 on the bench.

__ Hurley Ambrose
Gleeson __ McKenna
Parish Heppell McGrath
Tippa Daniher Fantasia
Begley Hooker Stewart

Foll: Zerrett Goddard Zaharakis Bellchambers

Bench: ? ? ? ?

We probably need another smaller defender (Bags on a 1 year deal?) and another tall defender (Hartley not up to it)

Pick 4 players for the bench who apply the most pressure and actually want to defend up the ground.

No more Green, Colyer, Myers and guys like this. They will not take the club forward so whats the point of giving them games?

Having 23 players will help lol (you selected 4 followers)

On SM-G920I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

Having 23 players will help lol (you selected 4 followers)

On SM-G920I using BigFooty.com mobile app

We will need every advantage we can get at this rate.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Hopefully Francis, Langford and Laverde turn into players that can actually contribute. Especially the last two. Time to step up honeymoons over. We need you

 

[Seb78]

B: P Ambrose C Hooker M Gleeson
HB: B Goddard M Hurley C McKenna
C: D Parish D Heppell A McGrath
HF: J Laverde J Daniher O Fantasia
F: A Mc Tippa A Boyse J Stewart
R: T Bellchambers K Mutch Z Merrett
INT: K Langford A Francis D Zaharakis T Colyer

Now my wishfull thinking side

B: J Lever C Hooker M Gleeson
HB: B Goddard M Hurley C McKenna
C: A McGrath D Heppell J Kelly
HF: J Laverde J Daniher O Fantasia
F: J Begley J Stringer J Stewart
R: T Bellchambers D Parish Z Merrett
INT: A Francis D Zaharakis A Mc Tippa K Mutch

 

[eth-dog]

Redman - Hartley - Ambrose
McKenna - Hurley - Gleeson
McGrath - Parish - Merrett
Walla - Daniher - Begley
Fantasia - Hooker - Stewart
Bellchambers - Heppell - Zaharakis
Myers - Goddard - Langford - Laverde

Obviously hoping that the likes of Redman, Mutch etc will overtake the likes of Myers, Bags etc

 

[Stengle26]

I dunno, I hear that Langford chap is the next Nat Fyfe..

I love hearing how big laverdea and langford have got each year.

 

[Howard Moon]

I love hearing how big laverdea and langford have got each year.

I usually love hearing the sound of tiger hearts breaking every year too

Reckon they are on the old school third year break out development that used to be the norm...

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Assuming we don't pick up a trade target:

B: Ambrose, Francis, Gleeson
HB: McGrath, Hurley, Goddard
C: Merrett, Langford, Zaharakis
HF: Laverde, Daniher, Fantasia
FF: Stewart, Hooker, Begley
Foll: Bellchambers, Heppell, Parish
INT: Myers, McKenna, Tippa, Mutch

Feel stiff leaving Colyer out but hopefully Laverde, Langford, Mutch and Begley go up a gear next year.

 

[pazza]

Had a discussion today, after I umpired, with the "Phantom" and his Dad and we might need to see if Ambrose or even Francis can develop into a midfield bull instead of just being KPPs. Might be worth a shot.

B: Baguley, Ambrose, Gleeson
HB: McGrath, Hurley, Goddard
C: Z. Merrett, Francis, McKenna
HF: Zaharakis, Daniher, Fantasia
F: Hooker, Stewart, McDonald-Tipungwuti
R: Bellchambers, Heppell, Parish
Int: Myers, Howlett, Hartley, Langford

 

[Howard Moon]

Yep, I reckon the Ambrose inside bull has been a constant theme over the years but just having a tank and being big doseht get you there. Does he have smarts? Can he read the tap? Get lost in traffic?

Could only be run with surely.

 

[JayJ20]

To be blunt, I don't see how our midfield will improve next year unless we trade for ready made big bodied inside mids. That midfield is not going to stand up against the bigger contested sides.

I have Langford in my side, but he has all the signs of the typical lethargic Essendon midfielder. I was a bit bullish on Laverde, but I'm getting a little concerned that he floats in and out of the game too often. Both have only ever shown us glimpses. They are very crucial to our side. We desperately need them to come on. Huge preseason ahead.

My major concern is that we'll be way too small in the midfield next year. Sides like Sydney, Richmond and Adelaide will bully our midfield out of the contest.

 

[calyam]

Yep, I reckon the Ambrose inside bull has been a constant theme over the years but just having a tank and being big doseht get you there. Does he have smarts? Can he read the tap? Get lost in traffic?

Could only be run with surely.

There is no evidence that he can read the play while being in the centre of it. He also isn't creative or quick thinking with ball in hand. There is a reason why he has only had success as a lock-down defender type.

So while I think he could do a pretty good job as a purely defensive tagger, maybe with some blocking for our better midfielders, he would offer almost nothing offensively.

To be blunt, I don't see how our midfield will improve next year unless we trade for ready made big bodied inside mids. That midfield is not going to stand up against the bigger contested sides.

I have Langford in my side, but he has all the signs of the typical lethargic Essendon midfielder. I was a bit bullish on Laverde, but I'm getting a little concerned that he floats in and out of the game too often. Both have only ever shown us glimpses. They are very crucial to our side. We desperately need them to come on. Huge preseason ahead.

My major concern is that we'll be way too small in the midfield next year. Sides like Sydney, Richmond and Adelaide will bully our midfield out of the contest.

There are a number of inside-midfielders that could be available at a discount (Miles, Liberatore and Rockliff being three examples). I think we should absolutely pursue at least one of them.

That said guys like Langford, Parish and Laverde will continue to improve. Langford made significant steps as an inside midfielder in the VFL. Langford is still only 20 years old and there is only a few that excel as inside midfielders at that age (Cripps and Oliver being two of the very rare exceptions). There will be growth from within.

 

[DapperJong]

To be blunt, I don't see how our midfield will improve next year unless we trade for ready made big bodied inside mids. That midfield is not going to stand up against the bigger contested sides.

I have Langford in my side, but he has all the signs of the typical lethargic Essendon midfielder. I was a bit bullish on Laverde, but I'm getting a little concerned that he floats in and out of the game too often. Both have only ever shown us glimpses. They are very crucial to our side. We desperately need them to come on. Huge preseason ahead.

My major concern is that we'll be way too small in the midfield next year. Sides like Sydney, Richmond and Adelaide will bully our midfield out of the contest.

There's a bit of contradiction in this post.

You've said that we aren't capable of improvement unless we trade yet you mention the importance of Langford and Laverde having big preseasons. If those two do have big preseasons, it will equate to improvement, no? And that's just two players. All of our younger players are all going to improve next year.

We won't be the benchmark of inside mid size but there will be improvement, you'd think.

 

[Yoda_]

To be blunt, I don't see how our midfield will improve next year unless we trade for ready made big bodied inside mids. That midfield is not going to stand up against the bigger contested sides.

I have Langford in my side, but he has all the signs of the typical lethargic Essendon midfielder. I was a bit bullish on Laverde, but I'm getting a little concerned that he floats in and out of the game too often. Both have only ever shown us glimpses. They are very crucial to our side. We desperately need them to come on. Huge preseason ahead.

The progression we need is to come from within. Get a feeling we are going to see one of Howlett OR Bird in the seniors most weeks next year until one of Langford, Laverde, McGrath, McKenna moves into a permanent midfield rotation.

 

[Godzke]

Hopefully Francis, Langford and Laverde turn into players that can actually contribute. Especially the last two. Time to step up honeymoons over. We need you

More so the first two.
Laverde needs to improve but injury plagued him this year. The other two have no excuses.

 

[JayJ20]

There's a bit of contradiction in this post.

You've said that we aren't capable of improvement unless we trade yet you mention the importance of Langford and Laverde having big preseasons. If those two do have big preseasons, it will equate to improvement, no? And that's just two players. All of our younger players are all going to improve next year.

We won't be the benchmark of inside mid size but there will be improvement, you'd think.

If we are looking for improvement within our current list, then yes, they are very important to our prospects for success. However, we have only ever seen glimpses from them so we cannot rely on them to improve our midfield. My point was that we definitely need to trade in players to improve our midfield because relying on 2 players that haven't exactly dominated at AFL level isn't the smartest thing to do. Xavier himself said that they will aggressively approach the trade and free agency period so I'm intrigued to see who we are targeting. Perhaps Rockliff.

The progression we need is to come from within. Get a feeling we are going to see one of Howlett OR Bird in the seniors most weeks next year until one of Langford, Laverde, McGrath, McKenna moves into a permanent midfield rotation.

Sure progression has to come from within, but that alone won't get us to where the club is aiming to be this time next year. It's going to be an interesting off season.

 

[Howard Moon]

Agree with yoda, I reckon we see a lot of Bird next year in the 22 and I don't see it as a bad thing.

He may not be everybody's cup of tea but he does what needs doing at the coal face.

 

[MarkG]

Agree with yoda, I reckon we see a lot of Bird next year in the 22 and I don't see it as a bad thing.

He may not be everybody's cup of tea but he does what needs doing at the coal face.

Disappointed that he and or Howlett were not considered for elimination final. Both would have been right at home in the trenches and would have helped stop their rampaging 2nd quarter. We were way too soft.

 

[BrunoV]

As it stands, there should be no such thing as a 'best 22' as the phrase is commonly understood.

Players like Colyer and Baguley who are just average players at best should be forced to play their way into the side. I doubt Colyer could do it. Myers' form does not support his being a certainty for round 1.

It doesn't really make any sense to be starting again in Worsfold's third year but that ship sailed over a year ago.

If done well it will be exciting if we're chasing results like we did this year we'll be in a fair bit of trouble.

Based on what we have, the team I'm looking forward to is:

Redman Hartley Ambrose*
McKenna Hurley Gleeson

Bellchambers Merrett Heppell
Parish Zaharakis McGrath

Laverde Daniher Begley
Fantasia Hooker Tippa

Goddard Langford Myers Mutch

I'd be hoping to turn Ambrose and Myers into Francis and Ridley.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

B Gleeson - Hurley - Francis
HB McGrath - Hartley - McKenna
C Zaharakis - Parish - Colyer
HF Begley - Daniher - Tipungwuti
F Fantasia - Hooker - Stewart
R Bellchambers - Heppell - Merrett
I Goddard - Langford - Laverde - Mutch

 

[eth-dog]

B Gleeson - Hurley - Francis
HB McGrath - Hartley - McKenna
C Zaharakis - Parish - Colyer
HF Begley - Daniher - Tipungwuti
F Fantasia - Hooker - Stewart
R Bellchambers - Heppell - Merrett
I Goddard - Langford - Laverde - Mutch

Uh, Ambrose?