Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Updates:
1. Crozier is nice. Excellent overhead, athletic and great by foot. Anyone who’s had an MCL will tell you it takes time to get back from. Finally looks fit and coming into his own the last 2 weeks.
2. Schache starting to show real promise as a CHF. He’s reasonably weak in the air (not what I expected), but his wheels and his ball use (both hand and foot) are very good. We want him kicking it inside 50, not kicking it to him inside 50.
3. Gowers moves on to the “maybes” list.
FB: Williams Cordy. _________
HB: JJ. Naughton Crozier
C: Richards. Macrae. Hunter
Hf: Mclean. Schache. __________
FF: __________ __________. ___________
R: English. Bont. Libba
IC: _________. _________ __________ ___________
Maybes - Boyd, Daniel, west, Dunkley, wood (body), Adams (body), gowers, lipinski.
Updates:
1. Crozier is nice. Excellent overhead, athletic and great by foot. Anyone who’s had an MCL will tell you it takes time to get back from. Finally looks fit and coming into his own the last 2 weeks.
2. Schache starting to show real promise as a CHF. He’s reasonably weak in the air (not what I expected), but his wheels and his ball use (both hand and foot) are very good. We want him kicking it inside 50, not kicking it to him inside 50.
3. Gowers moves on to the “maybes” list.
FB: Williams Cordy. _________
HB: JJ. Naughton Crozier
C: Richards. Macrae. Hunter
Hf: Mclean. Schache. __________
FF: __________ __________. ___________
R: English. Bont. Libba
IC: _________. _________ __________ ___________
Maybes - Boyd, Daniel, west, Dunkley, wood (body), Adams (body), gowers, lipinski.
Can just about add Naughton to that list tooIs it too early to declare that we may have another potential ‘A Grader’ in the ranks? Ed Richards looks pretty f**king special to me as a 18 year old. He has the sort of confidence as an 18 year old that I have only seen in Grant, Cooney and Bontempelli in my time.
Any thoughts on Young? Personally I think you have jumped a bit early on Schache. Very poor defensively. The modern game requires this attribute.
Fronk, where do you have Bailey Dale at? He was arguably our most improved last year.
I’m real pleased at the quality of our spine going forward. Realistically we could fit all of English, Boyd, Schache, Naughton, Adams and Cordy in the same team, as well as keep an experienced head such as Morris/Trengrove in as well for the short term. Khamis can be the long term replacement for one of those 2.
The middle still projects to be pretty good. Despite losing one of Wallis/Dahlhaus (I predict we lose one out of the two) we still have 4 good inside mids (Bont, Macrae, Libba, McLean) Throw in Dahl/Wallis, West and hopefully our first round pick and our depth should remain solid. The problem is that guys that aren’t up to such as Honey, Webb etc are getting far too much game time (irrespective of how many injuries we have). A cheap mature option such as Anthony Miles should be targeted to play 15-20 games a season to fill the 6th inside mid role.
The flankers/wingers also looks pretty decent. Hunter, JJ, Williams, Crozier, Richards, Daniel, Dale have all at times proven they are up to it.
Small/medium forwards is an issue. Gowers and Dickson are the only two AFL capable players who fit the bill and too often we reward VFL standard mids (Webb, Honey, Dunkley) who play well in the VFL, only for them to spend way to much time up forward at AFL level.
I think 8 or so players should get pretty harsh reviews at the midpoint of the season. They include Trengrove, Roughead, Dahlhaus, Wallis, Johannisen, Dale, Daniel and Wood. Some of this can be directly attributed to injuries, others to poor coaching (Wood and JJ shouldn’t have been pushed forward) and others such as Trengrove, Daniel, Roughead etc need a long hard look in the mirror. We are 4 - 9 not just because of our horrendous injury list but because of the complete drop off of experienced players that I have just listed.
Overall though our list is not bad as some. In 3 years time we still project to have a good team, these are the guys who will be around in 3 years time and where the holes are.
FB: Adams, Trengrove, Crozier
HB: Williams, Cordy, JJ
C: Richards, McLean, Hunter
HF: Bont, Schache, Gowers
FF: Boyd, Naughton, ****
R: English, Macrae, Liberatore
Int: West, Pick 5 (Smith/Rankine) Daniel, Dale, Miles/experienced mid trade, Khamis, Dahl/Wallis,
Edit: if you want to go smaller then obviously Trengrove gets the punt and Naughton can swing forward to back when required.
My projected side in 3 years is very similar:
FF: XXX Boyd Gowers
HF: XXX Naughton Scache
R: English Jacko Bont
C: Richards Libba Toby
HB: JJ XXX Williams
FB: Wood Adams Cordy
Int candidates: Hunter Lipinski Daniel West Dunks Dale Young Khamis
As you said we are a couple of small/medium Mids short - represented as XXX.
Unlike you though I don’t have confidence in naming Trengrove on evidence to date. This leaves a KPP up in the air - either CHF or CHB, which depends on where Naughton settles and the fact that I think Scache is not a KPP and is more of a third high half forward type.
I’m not a Trengrove fan in the slightest. Just named him because we signed him to a long term deal for decent money.
I’d rather Roberts if I’m honest.
Schache showed more again last nite. The running and kicking is nice. His ground ball gets and hand passing are also good.
Needs another summer or 2 in the gym, but he’s firming as our CHF.
Lipinski is on track too. Great skills and decision making. Just can’t make or break a tackle yet.
XXX King Gowers
Richards Scache Bont
Boyd Libba Williams
Toby Macrae Lipinski
JJ Adams Suckling
Wood Naughton Cordy
Dunks Crozier English Hunter Dahl Daniel Wallis West
I think a King would slot in beautifully Midfield runs deep.. I’m betting on Williams having a massive year in the guts next year.
Can both Kings play key forward? With naughton, Adams, cordy and Young, I’m happy with our key defensive stocks.
If King (whichever one.....) is clearly the best available at our pick and can play forward, we take him.
Can both Kings play key forward? With naughton, Adams, cordy and Young, I’m happy with our key defensive stocks.
If King (whichever one.....) is clearly the best available at our pick and can play forward, we take him.
Schache with 7-8 tackles this past weekend. He is working hard. Is consistently running 10+ kms a game. I'm torn between recruiting/drafting a key forward to go beside him or midfield class, both are which what we need badly.
I think something we lack is a small/mid defender that can lock down on their opponent, Bruest got way off the leash two weeks ago. Biggs was good 1v1 and knew when to rebound but has turned downwards dramatically in 18 months.
Just media scuttlebutt and will not happen but a few were talking about the possibility of Jarryd Roughead being let go by Hawthorn to accommodate Lynch. I'd be ALLLLLLL over him for a few years to give our forward line some stability.
Schache with 7-8 tackles this past weekend. He is working hard. Is consistently running 10+ kms a game. I'm torn between recruiting/drafting a key forward to go beside him or midfield class, both are which what we need badly.
I think something we lack is a small/mid defender that can lock down on their opponent, Bruest got way off the leash two weeks ago. Biggs was good 1v1 and knew when to rebound but has turned downwards dramatically in 18 months.
Just media scuttlebutt and will not happen but a few were talking about the possibility of Jarryd Roughead being let go by Hawthorn to accommodate Lynch. I'd be ALLLLLLL over him for a few years to give our forward line some stability.
Our biggest killer - even in 2016 - is/was a reliable ruckA contested marking KPF would benefit Schache amazingly. Then you could just make Schache even more of a dedicated link-up player who's more of a goal assist than a goal kicking guy. But yeah, we also have some other needs. This is the sucky thing about the English injury; we really need a good look at how the English-Boyd-Schache dynamic actually works. Maybe Boyd spending less time in the ruck and more time up forward allows him to improve his marking and compliment Schache well. But we just haven't been able to see.
Updates:
1. Crozier is nice. Excellent overhead, athletic and great by foot. Anyone who’s had an MCL will tell you it takes time to get back from. Finally looks fit and coming into his own the last 2 weeks.
2. Schache starting to show real promise as a CHF. He’s reasonably weak in the air (not what I expected), but his wheels and his ball use (both hand and foot) are very good. We want him kicking it inside 50, not kicking it to him inside 50.
3. Gowers moves on to the “maybes” list.
FB: Williams Cordy. _________
HB: JJ. Naughton Crozier
C: Richards. Macrae. Hunter
Hf: Mclean. Schache. __________
FF: __________ __________. ___________
R: English. Bont. Libba
IC: _________. _________ __________ ___________
Maybes - Boyd, Daniel, west, Dunkley, wood (body), Adams (body), gowers, lipinski.