Strategy 2019 - Best 22 & Player Discussion

[Johnny Dalmas]

When it comes to our round 1 teams in the last couple of years is it really a case of "experience over youth"? Or is it more a case of "best pre-season performances get first crack in round 1"?

You see if you reward actual pre-season performances (when there is an emphasis on fitness and lots of running) then that favours the experienced guys: it was always easier for the D.Pearces, Ballantynes, Sutcliffes and Sheridans of the world to do well in the preseason over, say, the Crowdens, Giros, Delucas, Balics, etc because they have completed so many more preseasons and are good runners.

When new guys come into the squad who have the fitness base to compete with the experienced players in the pre-season fitness work they inevitably seem to get a go early: Banfield last year and so far it looks like Bewley this year.

I think it will be great for the club if a younger player can work their way in front of Ballas over the pre-season. I think, however, it means some guy like Switta or Schulz or Giro or Matera is going to have to out-run Ballas over the summer though.

 

[Jezzitizle]

When it comes to our round 1 teams in the last couple of years is it really a case of "experience over youth"? Or is it more a case of "best pre-season performances get first crack in round 1"?

You see if you reward actual pre-season performances (when there is an emphasis on fitness and lots of running) then that favours the experienced guys: it was always easier for the D.Pearces, Ballantynes, Sutcliffes and Sheridans of the world to do well in the preseason over, say, the Crowdens, Giros, Delucas, Balics, etc because they have completed so many more preseasons and are good runners.

When new guys come into the squad who have the fitness base to compete with the experienced players in the pre-season fitness work they inevitably seem to get a go early: Banfield last year and so far it looks like Bewley this year.

I think it will be great for the club if a younger player can work their way in front of Ballas over the pre-season. I think, however, it means some guy like Switta or Schulz or Giro or Matera is going to have to out-run Ballas over the summer though.

Good post, agree.

I don’t think Ballas will play round one unless he is good in the pre season games.

 

[eastfreo75]

When it comes to our round 1 teams in the last couple of years is it really a case of "experience over youth"? Or is it more a case of "best pre-season performances get first crack in round 1"?

You see if you reward actual pre-season performances (when there is an emphasis on fitness and lots of running) then that favours the experienced guys: it was always easier for the D.Pearces, Ballantynes, Sutcliffes and Sheridans of the world to do well in the preseason over, say, the Crowdens, Giros, Delucas, Balics, etc because they have completed so many more preseasons and are good runners.

When new guys come into the squad who have the fitness base to compete with the experienced players in the pre-season fitness work they inevitably seem to get a go early: Banfield last year and so far it looks like Bewley this year.

I think it will be great for the club if a younger player can work their way in front of Ballas over the pre-season. I think, however, it means some guy like Switta or Schulz or Giro or Matera is going to have to out-run Ballas over the summer though.

Performance is more than just kms in the leg.

Last year, when went experienced in round 1 and was smashed. Then Lyon pick some young guys and then we actually win 2 games in a row.

Two years, our "experienced" team got smashed in the first two rounds. Then Lyon play some young guys and then we won 3 games in a row.

This year is a different year due to our depth being restored but even still Lyon needs to play "some youth".

 

[theGav56]

I think our list has turned a corner.

You can see it when you try to put together a best 22, and end up with several players who you would like to have "in" rather than several players you would like to have "out".

A difference I would like to see this year is teams being selected to win games rather than simply for development. We should push for finals, especially early in the season.

 

[Johnny Dalmas]

Performance is more than just kms in the leg.

Last year, when went experienced in round 1 and was smashed. Then Lyon pick some young guys and then we actually win 2 games in a row.

Two years, our "experienced" team got smashed in the first two rounds. Then Lyon play some young guys and then we won 3 games in a row.

This year is a different year due to our depth being restored but even still Lyon needs to play "some youth".

I agree with you, but I think that until players can demonstrate some match form our MC looks at training track performance when picking teams.

For instance, I reckon if Giro does well in the post-Xmas time trials that he will get game time in the pre-season games. He might not stay there for Round 1 but he will get some kind of "reward"/acknowledgement for good running on the training track.

 

[DaveLister]

I thought of making the most aggressive team I could and this is where I came to

HB: Wilson Hamling Duman
FF: Logue Pearce Ryan
C: Langdon Blakely B Hill
HF: McCarthy Hogan Bennell
FF: Cox Lobb Walters
R: Sandilands Fyfe Mundy
IC: S Hill Brayshaw Cerra Bewley

It seems to me with our new marking talls and the new rules, along with reports we are training the long kick a lot at practice, that we want the ball in as quickly as possible.

Stretching the defense of most clubs should be pretty easy with 3 genuinely great grabs forward if centre add in McCarthy taking the 4th defender and playing a game where he can deliver into our new markers. With the change to the push in the back rule could heavily favour having a taller forward line, height mismatches often forces body work that would could now be interpreted as a push in the back.

Long kickers of last year; Wilson and Ryan get to play along side Bewley, a returning Logue maybe even a returning Bennell. This offeres a lot more options to kick long with to the talls. Once again with the rule change and how a kick out is now played out acting fast and long out of defense is going to be much stronger next year. One of our better kick out set plays in 2018 was to go long down the middle to Fyfe, now we have more options to kick to and more options to kick with.

It's pretty obvious that we are going to play Lobb next year but I wanted to add that his position may be one of the advantages we will have this year. With the ability to take the ball out of the ruck mismatches I'm the ruck are now significantly more damaging, Lobb rucking against Grigg would be a free clearance. That's an extreme example but there are plenty of not very good or tall players playing as the relieving ruck.

Walters getting more opportunities to crumb when forward due to the additional long ball contests. There's just a lot of fire power in this 22, something we're not used to and I think Ross is going to play us to our advantages. Our lists advantages are very different to those of our 2013 through 2015 era and I doutb Ross will be playing the same game style regardless of how many times you see it posted or hear it said.

That said there is a lot to be made of the advantages of have a more defensive 22 or maybe just more balanced 22. There are some talented defensive options we can use for certain match ups, as depth or just for team balance.
Nyhuis as a small lockdown defender, possibly comes in for Duman when playing against a Bruest.
Conca as a defensive midfielder, blocks for Fyfe, prevents opposition spread with tackles and can rotate halfback.
Banfield as a tagger.
Switkowski as a small defensive forward, although smaller defensive forwards might less valuable next year.

That was a proper ramble

 

[theGav56]

I thought of making the most aggressive team I could and this is where I came to

HB: Wilson Hamling Duman
FF: Logue Pearce Ryan
C: Langdon Blakely B Hill
HF: McCarthy Hogan Bennell
FF: Cox Lobb Walters
R: Sandilands Fyfe Mundy
IC: S Hill Brayshaw Cerra Bewley

It seems to me with our new marking talls and the new rules, along with reports we are training the long kick a lot at practice, that we want the ball in as quickly as possible.

Stretching the defense of most clubs should be pretty easy with 3 genuinely great grabs forward if centre add in McCarthy taking the 4th defender and playing a game where he can deliver into our new markers. With the change to the push in the back rule could heavily favour having a taller forward line, height mismatches often forces body work that would could now be interpreted as a push in the back.

Long kickers of last year; Wilson and Ryan get to play along side Bewley, a returning Logue maybe even a returning Bennell. This offeres a lot more options to kick long with to the talls. Once again with the rule change and how a kick out is now played out acting fast and long out of defense is going to be much stronger next year. One of our better kick out set plays in 2018 was to go long down the middle to Fyfe, now we have more options to kick to and more options to kick with.

It's pretty obvious that we are going to play Lobb next year but I wanted to add that his position may be one of the advantages we will have this year. With the ability to take the ball out of the ruck mismatches I'm the ruck are now significantly more damaging, Lobb rucking against Grigg would be a free clearance. That's an extreme example but there are plenty of not very good or tall players playing as the relieving ruck.

Walters getting more opportunities to crumb when forward due to the additional long ball contests. There's just a lot of fire power in this 22, something we're not used to and I think Ross is going to play us to our advantages. Our lists advantages are very different to those of our 2013 through 2015 era and I doutb Ross will be playing the same game style regardless of how many times you see it posted or hear it said.

That said there is a lot to be made of the advantages of have a more defensive 22 or maybe just more balanced 22. There are some talented defensive options we can use for certain match ups, as depth or just for team balance.
Nyhuis as a small lockdown defender, possibly comes in for Duman when playing against a Bruest.
Conca as a defensive midfielder, blocks for Fyfe, prevents opposition spread with tackles and can rotate halfback.
Banfield as a tagger.
Switkowski as a small defensive forward, although smaller defensive forwards might less valuable next year.

That was a proper ramble

The only controversial decisions are McCarthy and Conca. And there are reasons to prefer others. I would prefer Conca to McCarthy, and would still see it as fitting with your aggressive selection mandate. I see him as more than a negating midfielder.

 

[Scham]

I’d have a small forward in place of McCarthy myself. I think Lobb, Cox and Hogan is enough height in the forward line and we need a fleet of smalls feeding off them.

 

[DaveLister]

I’d have a small forward in place of McCarthy myself. I think Lobb, Cox and Hogan is enough height in the forward line and we need a fleet of smalls feeding off them.

Yeah 5050 call for mine, McCarthy is still much more talented than all our smalls bar Walters and Bennell, if you consider him one.
Increased running capacity and finally getting a height advantage could really allow McCarthy to dominate.
All of the talls I have listed are mobile, agile, good field kicks and good below their knees for their respective heights so I don't think we're losing much in terms of ground level ability. Our pressure would be a touch lower than if we had switta running around but trying to keep the ball inside 50 should be much more challenging with the new kick out rules anyway.

Cox averaged 1.2 tackles inside 50 this year on par with Daniel Rioli and 0.1 behind Jason Castagna, McCarthy averaged 0.8 but that could easily improve with better running and a more suited role.

The added advantage of being extra tall up forward is in the 6-6-6 rule, any sort of quick centre clearance gives us a huge chance to take a mark or at least create a contest. Sandilands, Fyfe, Mundy and Blakely are still a very strong centre clearance group and even if they can't dish off to a Hill, Bewley or Langdon a long hack kick could still be particularly dangerous. Intercepting tall backs have been the bane of our existence for the past few years and that is just as much about having talls to contest as it is having good kicks forward.

 

[theGav56]

I would have thought the next "ins" for the position of small forward would be from Colyer, Matera and Ballantyne, not Switkowski (or Schultz). If you add in Sturt it just seems weird for us to have so many options. So un-Freo.

 

[DaveLister]

And interesting question to consider is what is optimal number of left footers to have in a best 22.

Now in a perfect hypothetical you'd have 22 ambidextrous players but that's not particularly realistic so I'll consider just pure lefties and righties.

When attacking, from the right side of the ground you want a right footer to do the kicking as it opens up the field because the 45 degree cross kick is much easier to execute. Likewise on the left side of the ground you want left footers. So ideally a best 22 would have 6 left footers on the left side and 6 right footers on the right side.

When attacking from the middle you want an even ability to transition to the left or right side of the field to open as many potential avenues to goal. hitting a 45 degree kick from centre line once again favours right footers cutting across the body to the left side of the field and left footers kicking to the right side. That said with more space and more options to kick to from the middle it's less important than when kicking inboard from the side of a field.

Seems obvious you want and close to a 50/50 split between left and right footers with as many dual sided. Also seems obvious that you don't drop a gun right footer for an average leftie, and the difference between having 10 lefties or 11 isn't going to make a huge difference.

So who are Fremantle's lefties?
S Hill, Logue, Bewley, Tabs, Sturt, Tucker, Darcy and Valente is dual sided. Who have I missed?

 

[DaveLister]

I would have thought the next "ins" for the position of small forward would be from Colyer, Matera and Ballantyne, not Switkowski (or Schultz). If you add in Sturt it just seems weird for us to have so many options. So un-Freo.

Ballas is so far past it, seems he is this year's Dawson or d Pearce, there to help galvanise and teach the peel lads lots of whom are young forwards.

Colyer isn't a small forward, offers maturity but he's more of a small outside mid like giro, don't see him carving out any sort of success as a pressure forward.

Matera for all his former glory and increased running had a shocking 2018, people say he was played out of position but I don't buy it. His use was poor, he was fumbly, was worse at ground level than Cox who is 20cm taller and 6 year younger and less effective defensively than him too, his 2018 was worse than Kersten's 2017. Love him to prove me wrong but not holding my breath.

Switkowski coming off of huge injury interruption from the previous 18 months showed more in his 2 games than any of the other 3 did last year. Now he's been uninjured for months, getting a full preseason and ran top 5 in one of the time trials. First in line for small pressure forward for mine.

Shultz has a way to go with his running but he's one people are sleeping on, we picked him before Bewley and possess overheard skills like none of our other smalls. At later debut for sure but I'd hope he gets more games than Ballas or Matera.

 

[blue shark]

The two top teams for debutants were Freo and WC with eight, pretty much highlights the necessity of depth required
wether rebuilding or competing for a flag.

 

[Dale147]

Yeah 5050 call for mine, McCarthy is still much more talented than all our smalls bar Walters and Bennell, if you consider him one.
Increased running capacity and finally getting a height advantage could really allow McCarthy to dominate.
All of the talls I have listed are mobile, agile, good field kicks and good below their knees for their respective heights so I don't think we're losing much in terms of ground level ability. Our pressure would be a touch lower than if we had switta running around but trying to keep the ball inside 50 should be much more challenging with the new kick out rules anyway.

Cox averaged 1.2 tackles inside 50 this year on par with Daniel Rioli and 0.1 behind Jason Castagna, McCarthy averaged 0.8 but that could easily improve with better running and a more suited role.

The added advantage of being extra tall up forward is in the 6-6-6 rule, any sort of quick centre clearance gives us a huge chance to take a mark or at least create a contest. Sandilands, Fyfe, Mundy and Blakely are still a very strong centre clearance group and even if they can't dish off to a Hill, Bewley or Langdon a long hack kick could still be particularly dangerous. Intercepting tall backs have been the bane of our existence for the past few years and that is just as much about having talls to contest as it is having good kicks forward.

In the past couple of seasons, we’ve made some really piss poor defenders look like superstars.

 

[tonygeeks]

In the past couple of seasons, we’ve made some really piss poor defenders look like superstars.

Never played dream team or any of those but if I did pick the intercepting defender playing against Freo would be one of my iron clad locks


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[Galapagoose]

Never played dream team or any of those but if I did pick the intercepting defender playing against Freo would be one of my iron clad locks


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

Not just intercepting defenders. Half backs also dominate us and usually get season high scores. This was happening when we were winning games too.

 

[BigKep]

Ballas is so far past it, seems he is this year's Dawson or d Pearce, there to help galvanise and teach the peel lads lots of whom are young forwards.

Colyer isn't a small forward, offers maturity but he's more of a small outside mid like giro, don't see him carving out any sort of success as a pressure forward.

Matera for all his former glory and increased running had a shocking 2018, people say he was played out of position but I don't buy it. His use was poor, he was fumbly, was worse at ground level than Cox who is 20cm taller and 6 year younger and less effective defensively than him too, his 2018 was worse than Kersten's 2017. Love him to prove me wrong but not holding my breath.

Switkowski coming off of huge injury interruption from the previous 18 months showed more in his 2 games than any of the other 3 did last year. Now he's been uninjured for months, getting a full preseason and ran top 5 in one of the time trials. First in line for small pressure forward for mine.

Shultz has a way to go with his running but he's one people are sleeping on, we picked him before Bewley and possess overheard skills like none of our other smalls. At later debut for sure but I'd hope he gets more games than Ballas or Matera.

Yep I agree on Switto. Almost a lock for round one in my opinion. Really like what he shows. Matera I did feel was played out of position last season. If we can play him close to goal and have the big fellas bringing the ball to ground he could really find his mojo again. Ballas despite always giving great effort is cooked.

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[Snuffaluphagus]

I also think the way Switta came as soon as injuries (and a game or two of Peel match fitness) allowed, he is pretty highly rated internally. Barring Bennel miraculously getting to the season with form and fitness behind him, i think he’ll be in for round 1

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Green = best 22 locks (might be in a slightly diff position

Red = Spots up for grabs



Thoughts behind red positions

Logue (Alt b22: Duman/Nyhuis): I think he showed enough in the debut season to suggest he'll be a good player, how much is up to him. Duman showed glimpses but his defensive work honestly needs a lot work tbh and while I think Nyhuis could play a role as our best small defender, I think Logue will be prioritised due to his potential and physical attributes

Benell & Switta (Alt: McCarthy/Ballas/Matera/Colyer): Heavily contested spots that could depend on how tall we want to be. Fit Bennell is still best 22 without a doubt imo but a fit Bennell is pretty much a unicorn at this stage. I like the pressure Switta brings and since there is a lot of firepower in the other 5, I think there is a good enough reason to sacrifice MAYBE (even this is debateable) a bit of scoring potential that the other 4 alternatives bring in favor of tackles.

Cox (Alt: Tabs/McCarthy): Honestly, as Cox's buddy this is non-negotiable imo: Cox has been spectacular as a KPF in the worst i50 side in the comp as an 18/19 year old. He has shown so much more than Tabs already and I'd argue will already be a better player come round 1. Tabs does one thing, take a mark. Cox does that as well as tackle and field kick. He also has a football brain.

Sandi (Alt: Darcy) Would have asked/let him retire last year tbh. Darcy needs games, games and more games however its likely it will be 50/50 this year anyway. Can not play Sandi/Darcy/Lobb in the same team.

Banfield (Alt: Valente/Tucker/Colyer/Ballas/Matera/Duman/Bewly). Last spot on the team is obviously the most heavily contested and depends on team line-up as much as anything. Banfield deserves the nod imo, got better most games last year and should contine to improve. Will face stiff competition in Bewley and Tucker (if he pulls his finger out). Valente could be ready to go very early in the year.

 

[SHill Shall]

Nice team and logic. Sight unseen but Bewley in for Switta.

 

[dropbear101]

I still think we should promote youth.
This year isn't our year, next year and the year after is.
So no sandi as much as I love the old guy, play sturt, logues a lock and I reckon banfield will face stiff competition from bewely, valente, switta and duman.
FB ryan hamling logue
HB Wilson Pearce SHill
C BHill brayshaw langdon
HF sturt Hogan bennell
FF walters cox lobb

ruck darcy fyfe blakely
bench cerra conca mundy banfield

 

[arsesmart]

I still think we should promote youth.
This year isn't our year, next year and the year after is.
So no sandi as much as I love the old guy, play sturt, logues a lock and I reckon banfield will face stiff competition from bewely, valente, switta and duman.
FB ryan hamling logue
HB Wilson Pearce SHill
C BHill brayshaw langdon
HF sturt Hogan bennell
FF walters cox lobb

ruck darcy fyfe blakely
bench cerra conca mundy banfield

This year is a year they are best pushing for finals. Sure balance out with plenty of youth, but there's still a role for Sandilands. Darcy is tracking way ahead for a big fella but isn't there yet and there's plenty to be gained from having development time at WAFL level still. You could bank Sandi not playing out the whole year, so playing him early with Darcy getting more time in the back half might just be the natural progression.

 

[SHill Shall]

I still think we should promote youth.
This year isn't our year, next year and the year after is.
So no sandi as much as I love the old guy, play sturt, logues a lock and I reckon banfield will face stiff competition from bewely, valente, switta and duman.
FB ryan hamling logue
HB Wilson Pearce SHill
C BHill brayshaw langdon
HF sturt Hogan bennell
FF walters cox lobb

ruck darcy fyfe blakely
bench cerra conca mundy banfield

Like this 22, although Sandi/Bewley in for Darcy/Sturt is more likely.

 

[Ysaye]

Green = best 22 locks (might be in a slightly diff position

Red = Spots up for grabs

View attachment 601015

Thoughts behind red positions

Logue (Alt b22: Duman/Nyhuis): I think he showed enough in the debut season to suggest he'll be a good player, how much is up to him. Duman showed glimpses but his defensive work honestly needs a lot work tbh and while I think Nyhuis could play a role as our best small defender, I think Logue will be prioritised due to his potential and physical attributes

Benell & Switta (Alt: McCarthy/Ballas/Matera/Colyer): Heavily contested spots that could depend on how tall we want to be. Fit Bennell is still best 22 without a doubt imo but a fit Bennell is pretty much a unicorn at this stage. I like the pressure Switta brings and since there is a lot of firepower in the other 5, I think there is a good enough reason to sacrifice MAYBE (even this is debateable) a bit of scoring potential that the other 4 alternatives bring in favor of tackles.

Cox (Alt: Tabs/McCarthy): Honestly, as Cox's buddy this is non-negotiable imo: Cox has been spectacular as a KPF in the worst i50 side in the comp as an 18/19 year old. He has shown so much more than Tabs already and I'd argue will already be a better player come round 1. Tabs does one thing, take a mark. Cox does that as well as tackle and field kick. He also has a football brain.

Sandi (Alt: Darcy) Would have asked/let him retire last year tbh. Darcy needs games, games and more games however its likely it will be 50/50 this year anyway. Can not play Sandi/Darcy/Lobb in the same team.

Banfield (Alt: Valente/Tucker/Colyer/Ballas/Matera/Duman/Bewly). Last spot on the team is obviously the most heavily contested and depends on team line-up as much as anything. Banfield deserves the nod imo, got better most games last year and should contine to improve. Will face stiff competition in Bewley and Tucker (if he pulls his finger out). Valente could be ready to go very early in the year.

Good analysis - agree would have Bewley in for Switkowski and Bennell would be right on the edge.

I still think we should promote youth.
This year isn't our year, next year and the year after is.
So no sandi as much as I love the old guy, play sturt, logues a lock and I reckon banfield will face stiff competition from bewely, valente, switta and duman.
FB ryan hamling logue
HB Wilson Pearce SHill
C BHill brayshaw langdon
HF sturt Hogan bennell
FF walters cox lobb

ruck darcy fyfe blakely
bench cerra conca mundy banfield

Whilst I agree we should still look to develop, I would disagree on the approach to the development. I am a big fan of Sturt and Valente but they will benefit from dominating at WAFL level first. If we are going to throw young players to the wolves I would much rather that be Cerra and Brayshaw.

 

[theGav56]

I am hoping to shift from pure development "play the youth" mode to development by developing a winning culture mode. I think there will be plenty of opportunities for older heads and their understudies to share the load (Sandilands and Darcy obviously). Going hard for finals can be one of the best development strategies for an emerging side, especially with building self belief and confidence in a game plan.

Almost all of the preferred and the alternatives that Snuff has seem fine by me, and would be surprised if all don't play a role in the coming season.