Team Mgmt. Best 22 - 2019 edition

[DapperJong]

You guys are discussing Baguley being surpassed as though he's not a guy that played 12 games forward because we were out of options unable to get Fantasia and the any then any tall forwards on the park.

He did well and was an incumbent to finish the year but he's also been demoted to the rookie list.

While he can play from round 1 are we really demoting best 22 players? With Dea and potentially Leuenberger retiring? Seems strange to me.

lol triggered

 

[owen87]

I think Baguely is that benchmark player that the young guys will be told to surpass if they want games. He's no star, but you know every week he'll play with 100% effort and commitment to every contest.

Begley, Laverde, whoever is competing for that spot will be told they need to show the same level of effort and commitment if they want a spot.

I don't think it'll be hard for a young player to overtake him; they're talented, quicker, bigger and have a lot more upside, but they must show that they're going to give that level of effort and fill the role the team needs them to play.

I think Baguely will mostly come in as a depth player for injuries, with those younger guys given the task of keeping their spot(s) in the team or going back to the VFL if the effort isn't there.

I also personally think Long should stay, and that we need to find a way to give him 3 - 5 games at AFL level in a very defined role. By the end of 2019 we should know if he's going to make it or not, he does a lot of good things and looks to have many AFL qualities, but hasn't been really given a clear role or run at AFL level for us to see.

 

[Phat Toni]

Going against the grain a little on some of this but i feel the way we become better again is to continue to tweak our defensive structure and balance.

For me Guelfi becomes our lock down small/med defender, his job is to not break the lines but to get the oppositions best forward and stop them.

I'm also not sure about Zaha's long term viability, he is a liability defensively and with the development of Redman, McGrath, Parish and co i think he could find himself on the outside looking in from time to time over the next coupe of years.

Same goes for Myers, bringing Shiel in along with Lanford's development could mean this is the last go around for Myers.

B: Guelfi, Hurley, Saad
HB: McKenna, Hooker, Francis
C: Merrett, Heppell, Smith
HF: AMT, Daniher, Stringer
F: Baguely, McKernan, Fantasia
FOLL: Bellchambers, Shiel, Langford

IC: McGrath, Redman, Myers, Parish

EMG: Zaharakis, Ridley, Brown

Various depth (not in order): Draper, Begley, Laverde, Stewart, Mutch, Zerk-Thatcher, Long, Hartley, Gleeson

 

[hurlygurdy]

Going against the grain a little on some of this but i feel the way we become better again is to continue to tweak our defensive structure and balance.

For me Guelfi becomes our lock down small/med defender, his job is to not break the lines but to get the oppositions best forward and stop them.

I'm also not sure about Zaha's long term viability, he is a liability defensively and with the development of Redman, McGrath, Parish and co i think he could find himself on the outside looking in from time to time over the next coupe of years.

Same goes for Myers, bringing Shiel in along with Lanford's development could mean this is the last go around for Myers.

B: Guelfi, Hurley, Saad
HB: McKenna, Hooker, Francis
C: Merrett, Heppell, Smith
HF: AMT, Daniher, Stringer
F: Baguely, McKernan, Fantasia
FOLL: Bellchambers, Shiel, Langford

IC: McGrath, Redman, Myers, Parish

EMG: Zaharakis, Ridley, Brown

Various depth (not in order): Draper, Begley, Laverde, Stewart, Mutch, Zerk-Thatcher, Long, Hartley, Gleeson

No Zaka cleaned up his defensive efforts this year. I think the message got through to him loud and clear that he needed to win his own ball and run defensively. He looked top 5 in the team before injury, it's madness to suggest he is not a lock. I do worry a little bit that he will be pushed back to the outside because of Shiel though and could fall back into old habits.

 

[Duckworth]

AFL Media reporter Cal Twomey D_P_S has selected what he thinks is Essendon’s best 22 for 2019.

BEST 22

B: Conor McKenna, Michael Hurley, Marty Gleeson
HB: Aaron Francis, Cale Hooker, Adam Saad
C: David Zaharakis, Dyson Heppell, Andrew McGrath
HF: Orazio Fantasia, Shaun McKernan, Devon Smith
F: Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Joe Daniher, Jake Stringer
FOLL: Tom Bellchambers, Zach Merrett, Dylan Shiel
I/C: Darcy Parish, Kyle Langford, Patrick Ambrose, David Myers

 

[eDPS]

AFL Media reporter Cal Twomey D_P_S has selected what he thinks is Essendon’s best 22 for 2019.

BEST 22

B: Conor McKenna, Michael Hurley, Marty Gleeson
HB: Aaron Francis, Cale Hooker, Adam Saad
C: David Zaharakis, Dyson Heppell, Andrew McGrath
HF: Orazio Fantasia, Shaun McKernan, Devon Smith
F: Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Joe Daniher, Jake Stringer
FOLL: Tom Bellchambers, Zach Merrett, Dylan Shiel
I/C: Darcy Parish, Kyle Langford, Patrick Ambrose, David Myers

I threw this one in to put you all of the trail

 

[deeplivid]

Francis Hooker Gleeson
McKenna Hurley Saad
Zaharakis Heppell McGrath
Smith Stringer Fantasia
AMT Daniher McKernan
TBC Shiel Merrett

Redman Parish Langford Laverde

 

[Mootsy]

Franco is the perfect replacement for Goddo

 

[Bjchan13]

Francis Hooker Gleeson
McKenna Hurley Saad
Smith Heppell McGrath
Zaharakis Stringer Fantasia
AMT Daniher McKernan
TBC Shiel Merrett

Redman Zaharakis Parish Langford

Zaharakis twice

 

[akiva]

McKernan vs Stewart

This is an interesting one. Looks like people are split on it. Personally, I think McKernan gets the nod. Tried to break it down the key points of the argument:

Playing as the main KPF - McKernan. Had that impressive patch this year before getting injured, while Stewart struggled in this position when Daniher went down.

Playing as second/third KPF - Stewart. Agile for his size so naturally a nice fit. Was good along side Daniher and Hooker through 2017 and first couple of games in 2018. I don't think we've seen McKernan enough in this position. With the hopeful return of a fit and firing Daniher, would be interesting to see how McKernan would go with this role.

Second Ruck - McKernan. Based on the finals series, the need for second ruck could be a lot more crucial next season.

Younger - Stewart. 25 < 28

X factor - McKernan. Looks to have the ability to rip a game apart but I guess that's been the tease throughout his career.

 

[eth-dog]

AFL Media reporter Cal Twomey D_P_S has selected what he thinks is Essendon’s best 22 for 2019.

BEST 22

B: Conor McKenna, Michael Hurley, Marty Gleeson
HB: Aaron Francis, Cale Hooker, Adam Saad
C: David Zaharakis, Dyson Heppell, Andrew McGrath
HF: Orazio Fantasia, Shaun McKernan, Devon Smith
F: Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Joe Daniher, Jake Stringer
FOLL: Tom Bellchambers, Zach Merrett, Dylan Shiel
I/C: Darcy Parish, Kyle Langford, Patrick Ambrose, David Myers

Seems pretty in line with most Best 22's other than Ambrose in ahead of Redman or Ridley

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

Was discussing this with brother in law who is a fellow tragic yesterday.

Wrote the team out on a bit of paper and was trying to explain that even in a perfect world I doubt that there is anything I would change.

SD-1: Saad KD-1: Hurley KD-3: Francis
HB-1: McKenna KD-2: Hooker HB-2: Redman (M)

R: Bellchambers M-1: Shield M-2: Myers
M-3: Merrett W-1: Smith W-2/HB-3: Heppel

KF-3: Stringer KF-1: Daniher MF2: Laverde (M)
SF-1: Fantasia KF-2: Stewart (R) SF-2: McDonald-Tipungwuti

I-1: McGrath (M/D) I-2: Zaharakis (M/F) I-3: Ridley (D/W) I-4: Langford (M/F)

Now we need to get it on the park.

Nice
No Parish though ?
Also see Gleeson ahead of Redman if he is fit

 

[fairbump_playon]

I threw this one in to put you all of the trail

love the apparently casual typo to further throw us off the trail because cal twomey would never write "of the trail" when he meant "off the trail".

you're so good at this i think you might actually be cal twomey.

 

[Bombers1234]

Nice
No Parish though ?
Also see Gleeson ahead of Redman if he is fit

Redman to me would be more suited to playing on the oppositions best small forward as compared with Gleeson. Quicker and a stronger one on one player, whereas Marty's strength is his intercept marking, so he'd be competing with Francis for his spot i'd say.

 

[Bjchan13]

Redman to me would be more suited to playing on the oppositions best small forward as compared with Gleeson. Quicker and a stronger one on one player, whereas Marty's strength is his intercept marking, so he'd be competing with Francis for his spot i'd say.

Fair call, i think saad or mcgrath would take an oppo best small forward but i think you could be right in that if hurls, hooker, frang, saad and mckenna are all playing back then redman might be a better balance than gleeson. More lockdown role rather than intercept which gleeson seems to do.

 

[eth-dog]

Gleeson, Redman, Francis, Saad and McKenna can coexist in one back line

 

[Godzke]

With two of them rotating between the wing and bench, yeah probably.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[BrunoV]

Gleeson, Redman, Francis, Saad and McKenna can coexist in one back line

Probably not with Ridley who would be the player to be swapped out of my team for Gleeson.

 

[Bjchan13]

Nice bit of depth in the area anyway. Going to be tough to get in the 22 next year if we have a good run with injuries.

 

[eth-dog]

Probably not with Ridley who would be the player to be swapped out of my team for Gleeson.

Gleeson is better than Ridley. And Redman. And Francis (who is a little bit different, mind). I get you don't rate him but he 100% starts AFL next year if fit.

 

[BrunoV]

Gleeson is better than Ridley. And Redman. And Francis (who is a little bit different, mind). I get you don't rate him but he 100% starts AFL next year if fit.

I never said I don't rate Gleeson.

Gleeson played half a year of good football. There is virtually nothing in the 5 years before that to justify the reputation that he now has. For Gleeson to be discussed the way he is being discussed has him on par with a player like Hurley who has no serious challenge to his spot in the side.

Would you say that of his three games Ridley probably played at the same standard of Gleeson's second half of 2017 twice? Is there a quota of games that he needs to play at the standard of Gleeson's 12 games? Can we give him a pass on 8 or 9 or does he need to play 13?

At the same time I was having the argument, Francis was also included as part of it with Redman. Have two standout games already placed him in front of Gleeson? It seems to me that they have (at least judging by popular sentiment here).

Ridley is a more physically capable man. I don't see the controversy there. I would say that there are numerous parts of his game that are well advanced on Gleeson's at the same time of Gleeson's career. Gleeson may be ahead as we are having this discussion but how long does it last.

I would make all of the same arguments in support of Redman over Gleeson too albeit that it relates to the merit of having the running players who can rotate into the middle.

 

[Mootsy]

people forgot begley

 

[eth-dog]

I never said I don't rate Gleeson.

Gleeson played half a year of good football. There is virtually nothing in the 5 years before that to justify the reputation that he now has. For Gleeson to be discussed the way he is being discussed has him on par with a player like Hurley who has no serious challenge to his spot in the side.

Would you say that of his three games Ridley probably played at the same standard of Gleeson's second half of 2017 twice? Is there a quota of games that he needs to play at the standard of Gleeson's 12 games? Can we give him a pass on 8 or 9 or does he need to play 13?

At the same time I was having the argument, Francis was also included as part of it with Redman. Have two standout games already placed him in front of Gleeson? It seems to me that they have (at least judging by popular sentiment here).

Ridley is a more physically capable man. I don't see the controversy there. I would say that there are numerous parts of his game that are well advanced on Gleeson's at the same time of Gleeson's career. Gleeson may be ahead as we are having this discussion but how long does it last.

I would make all of the same arguments in support of Redman over Gleeson too albeit that it relates to the merit of having the running players who can rotate into the middle.

None of them produced what Gleeson did in the second half of 17. Ridley had 2 promising games and one that was average. Francis had a couple of very exciting games but overall wasn't of the same quality. Redman had two good games. You overrate what they produced, which was very exciting, but not to the level or consistency that Gleeson did.

Gleeson will play 22 games next year if fit. He's still only 24 and there's the possibility of Redman or McKenna moving further afield as well.

 

[Bjchan13]

people forgot begley

Forgot Begley in the back six conversation? He's a forward and can pinchhit in the midfield at the moment. He did his knee in the first half of the year but was a regular before that. When he's fit he'll play plenty next year, forward with stints in the midfield.

 

[TheGrizz]

I never said I don't rate Gleeson.

Gleeson played half a year of good football. There is virtually nothing in the 5 years before that to justify the reputation that he now has. For Gleeson to be discussed the way he is being discussed has him on par with a player like Hurley who has no serious challenge to his spot in the side.

Would you say that of his three games Ridley probably played at the same standard of Gleeson's second half of 2017 twice? Is there a quota of games that he needs to play at the standard of Gleeson's 12 games? Can we give him a pass on 8 or 9 or does he need to play 13?

At the same time I was having the argument, Francis was also included as part of it with Redman. Have two standout games already placed him in front of Gleeson? It seems to me that they have (at least judging by popular sentiment here).

Ridley is a more physically capable man. I don't see the controversy there. I would say that there are numerous parts of his game that are well advanced on Gleeson's at the same time of Gleeson's career. Gleeson may be ahead as we are having this discussion but how long does it last.

I would make all of the same arguments in support of Redman over Gleeson too albeit that it relates to the merit of having the running players who can rotate into the middle.

So let me get this straight.

Your logic is that 12 good games from Gleeson isnt enough to establish himself in the 22 in his position.

However only 3 or 4 good games from Francis (who like Gleeson has shown little in the previous 2 years to this at AFL level to bestow the messianic reputation he enjoys) and what in reality was 1.5 good games from Ridley is enough to convince you they should start in the 22 and above Gleeson?

Oh boy.