Preview Changes vs Gold Coast, Sat 12 April, Barossa (Gather Round) - SWING THE AXE

[Horizons_00]

Here's where Clarkson confuses me.

He played a shitmen like Howe ostensibly as a "role player".

He played a clearly declining Shiels as a "role player".

He plays Tucker as a "role player" (I don't mind Tucker fwiw).

But he has guys like Teakle, Pink, Maley who have either performed their support roles dutifully in the past and/or give every sign of fighting tooth and claw for their opportunity to do so.

Instead he drops a fit and functional Pink for an unsurprisingly sloppy Logue.

Teakle has the height, marking and skill to create a genuine 3rd tall forward or be a legitimate relief ruck.

Instead he shifts the 192cm Darling to ruck against blokes 5 inches taller and simultaneously robs Larkey of a foil.

It's utterly bizarre.

Don't start me on why you'd play Whitlock at this stage of development over the aforementioned three. He produced about what you'd expect out a 3 VFL game 18yo beanpole.

If you didn't know Clarkson's resume you'd think you were watching the selections and gameplan of Mark Neeld.

Phew you didn't mention "always plays his favourites"

*insert Bard Scott hands in pocket meme"

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

We won’t drop more than 4 players. Just won’t happen. Even 4 is fanciful.

So if I can only bring in 4

Archer for Whitlock
Philips for RHJ
Wardlaw for Tucker
FOS for Scott.

At least those 4 will tackle and hunt.

 

[Chadwiko]

Yeh I did actually. As a half forward he was actually better than good. As a mid, not so. At least he takes marks and hits the goal, plus he can hit a target inside 50. Kind of the player we are screaming out for.

Look, I don't want this to turn into just me shitting on Zane because I'm hoping he comes good and becomes a solid AFL contributor.

But talking exclusively about his game in the VFL this week that you reckon warrants an AFL call up...

He took a total of two marks for the game. That's fewer than Wardlaw, who played exclusively midfield and didn't play the 4th quarter at all. One of those marks came in junktime against a Swans unit who was out on their feet, and resulted in the second of his two goals.

His first goal though is a perfect encapsulation of why I don't think Zane is likely to get a call up;





The kick to him was slightly off target, and instead of chasing it hard and applying pressure, Duursma just jogs around and doesn't work overly hard to impact the play defensively at all. Then his team-mates do apply that pressure and force the turnover, and suddenly Duursma wants to get involved again. And admittedly, his flush on the kick is very nice.

And that about summed up his day. Honestly didn't look like he ever got out of second gear all game, and jogged around from start to finish.

 

[Harvey Manfrenjensenden]

Bringing in Teakle or Maley for anyone other than Darling is a double edged sword. I get that having Darling in the ruck isn't ideal but having a third tall will only make exiting our forward line easier for the opposition. Whilst having Darling ruck has not been effective in the ruck the work he has done off the ball has allowed Larkey to find ore room up forward (not last week obviously) and also created more chances for Larkey to find a mark. Up until the Swans game I would have called it a net positive overall.

Teakle would halve the ruck contest (at best) but we lose up forward.

Maley seems to me the only viable option to replace Darling but he is a risk. He could be a better ruck than Darling but that is no certainty. He cant provide the same level of footy IQ up forward to allow Larkey to get off the chain and he can't kick so any advantage we gain form contested marking is offset by inaccurate goal kicking.

 

[tazaa]

IN: Archer FOS Wardlaw Phillips
OUT: Stephens Whitlock Scott HansenJr

Logue, Zurhaar, Powell would all want to play well.

B: Corr Logue Archer
HB: Sheezel Comben Daniel
C: McKercher Davies-Uniacke FOS
HF: Simpkin Darling Parker
F: Curtis Larkey Zurhaar
R: Xerri Wardlaw Powell
I: Kostanty Phillips McDonald Hardeman
S: Tucker

Clarko will keep Stephens and Scott in and probably not pick Wardlaw and Phillips.
So expect Bobby and Whitlock out and FOS and Archer in. Gutless

 

[zoomba23]

Bringing in Teakle or Maley for anyone other than Darling is a double edged sword. I get that having Darling in the ruck isn't ideal but having a third tall will only make exiting our forward line easier for the opposition. Whilst having Darling ruck has not been effective in the ruck the work he has done off the ball has allowed Larkey to find ore room up forward (not last week obviously) and also created more chances for Larkey to find a mark. Up until the Swans game I would have called it a net positive overall.

Teakle would halve the ruck contest (at best) but we lose up forward.

Maley seems to me the only viable option to replace Darling but he is a risk. He could be a better ruck than Darling but that is no certainty. He cant provide the same level of footy IQ up forward to allow Larkey to get off the chain and he can't kick so any advantage we gain form contested marking is offset by inaccurate goal kicking.

Drop Larkey then.

I'm only quarter-joking. Our entries primarily consist of long bombs. Long bombs to a bloke standing at 198cm who plays more like a flanker than a key forward. Give the best contested mark on the list some room to move and salvage something from those bombs, tell Darling to keep doing whatever bodywork he's doing, and Finnbar can be the back-up ruck if need be.

This might sound batshit, because it is, but I'm sick of the constant flaws in the team. Constant flaws that we can't fix include Jy and LDU's kicking styles. Constant flaws we can fix include dropping campaigners who refuse to ****ing lead at the ****ing bloke with the ball.

I'm sure by tomorrow I'll be rethinking this, but Larkey and Zurhaar in particular are really pissing me off right now. Larkey gets extra pissed-off points because of his media street crap

 

[Colby2Sheez]

From Clarkson presser no axe will be swinging.....

On VFL, Wardlaw will likely come in.

Archer, FOS straight back.

In:
Wardlaw Archer FOS

Out: Hansen Whitlock Tucker/Stephens

 

[chubbspeterson]

We won’t drop more than 4 players. Just won’t happen. Even 4 is fanciful.

So if I can only bring in 4

Archer for Whitlock
Philips for RHJ
Wardlaw for Tucker
FOS for Scott.

At least those 4 will tackle and hunt.

Yeah you can't make more than 3-4 changes to team chemistry and hope to perform.
I just hope there's one big name to shake the group up.
But we also don't know on LDU and Simpkin getting up for the game, so some players might get a reprieve.

 

[north_lad]

Yeah you can't make more than 3-4 changes to team chemistry and hope to perform.
I just hope there's one big name to shake the group up.
But we also don't know on LDU and Simpkin getting up for the game, so some players might get a reprieve.

Dunno what the team had on Saturday but chemistry is not how I would describe it

 

[shinboner spiggs]

Sheez has to go back to the full time middle role after getting some touch, yes his output was great but we missed him in there.

 

[Luke72]

Is anyone going to this?

 

[kool kangas]

Look, I don't want this to turn into just me shitting on Zane because I'm hoping he comes good and becomes a solid AFL contributor.

But talking exclusively about his game in the VFL this week that you reckon warrants an AFL call up...

He took a total of two marks for the game. That's fewer than Wardlaw, who played exclusively midfield and didn't play the 4th quarter at all. One of those marks came in junktime against a Swans unit who was out on their feet, and resulted in the second of his two goals.

His first goal though is a perfect encapsulation of why I don't think Zane is likely to get a call up;





The kick to him was slightly off target, and instead of chasing it hard and applying pressure, Duursma just jogs around and doesn't work overly hard to impact the play defensively at all. Then his team-mates do apply that pressure and force the turnover, and suddenly Duursma wants to get involved again. And admittedly, his flush on the kick is very nice.

And that about summed up his day. Honestly didn't look like he ever got out of second gear all game, and jogged around from start to finish.

No video Chadwiko its been removed..

 

[Chadwiko]

No video Chadwiko its been removed..

Tell Chief to up the size limit in videos that can be directly uploaded in a post then so I don't need to rely on third party sites like Streamable!

 

[danj]

Dunno what the team had on Saturday but chemistry is not how I would describe it

Depends on what they were all drinking in the gateraid

 

[giantroo]

 

[Horizons_00]

Dunno what the team had on Saturday but chemistry is not how I would describe it

We had chemistry in round 2 and 3

 

[Gasometer]

I look at the Suns Ruck and think how did we let Preuss go to them; this is the kind of situation where we need a back up for Xerri

Then I realise it’s Witt

 

[The Nostradamus]

Is anyone going to this?

yep will be my first gather round

keen to see the first ever game played in barossa

will be up close and personal

 

[backtothedraft]

B: Corr, Logue, McDonald
HB: O'Sullivan, Comben, Daniel
C: McKercher, Sheezel, Tucker
HF: Simpkin, Darling, Zurhaar
F: Curtis, Larkey, Konstanty
R: Xerri, Davies-Uniacke, Powell

I: Parker, Phillips, Archer, Hardeman
Sub: Scott

In: Phillips, Hardeman, O'Sullivan, Archer
Out: Scott, Stephens, Hansen Jr., Whitlock

 

[HongKongRoo]

Dunno what the team had on Saturday but chemistry is not how I would describe it

Fecal matter is chemical

 

[DuckYeah]

Whitlock should never have been selected because now if he is dropped, what kind of message does that send? That is a massive selection blunder.

 

[amaz199]

Very North Melbourne of us to go to extremes when it comes to deficiencies.

We had KPD issues the last few years, lets play 4 KPDs against a Swans outfit that didn't have any threatening talls lol.

 

[ChopChopDigDig]

Very North Melbourne of us to go to extremes when it comes to deficiencies.

We had KPD issues the last few years, lets play 4 KPDs against a Swans outfit that didn't have any threatening talls lol.

Even with 4 KPD's and their non-threatening talls, their talls absolutely killed us. That's how bad we were.

 

[danj]

Strategy and experience are less important than execution, please just select those players capable of executing skills with 80%+ efficiency. That is all.

 

[kool kangas]

Is anyone going to this?

Not this year but Ms KK has said she wants to go next year but not for the football just all the other activities.