Strategy 2019 Gameplan

[Lsta062]

Hi guys, I was just wondering what your thoughts were on what the 2019 gameplan should be.

Our midfield may still be one of the better ones in the competition with the likes of Dusty and Cotchin in it, but our depth looks set to decrease in there, meaning that we cannot cover injuries to our midfielders as well as this year. Hence, I think we need a bit of a gamestyle change to a more traditional set up. My reasoning is that our forward line needs to be able to capitalise on forward 50 entries more since we may see less of the ball being delivered there by our midfield.

I'd like us to go with Riewoldt, Lynch and then introduce a 3rd tall in Balta. Balta is physically strong and I believe will be able to play mid/forward to give us a tall marking target in our forward half. I was impressed with how hard he attacks the contests, so I believe returning to a more traditional set up will go a long way in rectifying our midfield issues. Dusty and Caddy can then play more time in the midfield, where they can help out giving us more clearances at contests. Not sure how Caddy will go with more midfield time, but I am confident Dusty will help us out a lot with more midfield time.

Thoughts?

 

[Vassp]

We need some ball winners.....we are going to be exposed by height as well. Great marking teams ‘when there on’ like Collingwood in the final and WC early this year are going to trouble us.

Bring in Garth for Grigg or Houli at some point mid next year, get him primed and ready for finals should we make them.

 

[Tiges1229]

Hi guys, I was just wondering what your thoughts were on what the 2019 gameplan should be.

Our midfield may still be one of the better ones in the competition with the likes of Dusty and Cotchin in it, but our depth looks set to decrease in there, meaning that we cannot cover injuries to our midfielders as well as this year. Hence, I think we need a bit of a gamestyle change to a more traditional set up. My reasoning is that our forward line needs to be able to capitalise on forward 50 entries more since we may see less of the ball being delivered there by our midfield.

I'd like us to go with Riewoldt, Lynch and then introduce a 3rd tall in Balta. Balta is physically strong and I believe will be able to play mid/forward to give us a tall marking target in our forward half. I was impressed with how hard he attacks the contests, so I believe returning to a more traditional set up will go a long way in rectifying our midfield issues. Dusty and Caddy can then play more time in the midfield, where they can help out giving us more clearances at contests. Not sure how Caddy will go with more midfield time, but I am confident Dusty will help us out a lot with more midfield time.

Thoughts?

I would put Balta in the Midfield .

 

[sante]

I reckon towards the end of 2018 we staged to bomb it forward and rush our entries too much. We became too kamikaze. Hopefully with Lynch that changes

 

[Roachy8]

I would put Balta in the Midfield .

I keep reading this but has he ever played there?
You need to really learn how to hunt the footy in this role.
If it is a plan of ours then he should have been playing there every week in the VFL.
Certainly has the size to kill it though.

 

[Tiges1229]

I keep reading this but has he ever played there?
You need to really learn how to hunt the footy in this role.
If it is a plan of ours then he should have been playing there every week in the VFL.
Certainly has the size to kill it though.

I thi k he has played Ruck before but not mid , they should just try him as a mid and see if he has a natural ability at it , Yiu never know he could take to it easily and end up a gun at it . Have to keep try new stuff I rekon , if it doesent work out then no loss play him down back again

 

[Lsta062]

We need some ball winners.....we are going to be exposed by height as well. Great marking teams ‘when there on’ like Collingwood in the final and WC early this year are going to trouble us.

Bring in Garth for Grigg or Houli at some point mid next year, get him primed and ready for finals should we make them.

We do need ball winners, but in the event that we cannot get them, we need to change our gameplan a little. Lack height in the forward line and Balta is reportedly ~195cm so he'll go a long way in rectifying that.

I reckon towards the end of 2018 we staged to bomb it forward and rush our entries too much. We became too kamikaze. Hopefully with Lynch that changes

Yeah that is true. Our inside 50 entries were too inefficient to win a Premiership so I think that we need one more tall in our best 22 playing in our forward half along with Lynch. We can source this player from within though as we have Moore and Balta among others on the list.

I think Balta can be that huge linking option through our midfield and inside our forward 50 that all these other clubs have. We usually struggle stopping the taller teams because they can mark with ease in our forward half and midfield. Bringing him in along with Lynch will give us more contests in the air that we can battle in rather than having to wait until the last line of defence for someone to be able to compete in the air with their opponent.

Our defence is great, but when that is the only part of the ground that is good in aerial contests, then the floodgates will open from time to time when they are defeated like what happened in the PF against Collingwood. They simply need more support in the air.

 

[Michaels]

I'm not sure if we will change our process too much given how well it has worked for us (prelim was a 1 off shit one)

The main thing I think we need to change with Riewoldt and Lynch in the 1 forward line is when we mark / get a free kick 70 - 80m out from goal we need to start wheeling around and getting it inside 50 asap when we have 1 v 1 contests

I think we waited too long to pull the trigger this year but it was largely cause it would have been jack vs 2 or 3.

But with lynch and jack down there we need to get it in quick and have our smalls hitting the contest at pace.


I'm keen to see Balta play a few games too. From what I saw in the VFL he Is a hybrid with great athletic traits.

Could be a beast on the wing linking us up between the arcs

 

[Defibrillate]

I’ve asked before and no one could really answer. How do we fix the Nankervis backup situation? We’ve been found out with Grigg in the ruck pretty badly. Can Balta ruck? Do we need a second specialist ruckman and then where else do you play him? I’m more concerned by this problem than much else tbh. Will go a fair way to help fix our clearance problems and other teams seem to do it successfully.

 

[sante]

I’ve asked before and no one could really answer. How do we fix the Nankervis backup situation? We’ve been found out with Grigg in the ruck pretty badly. Can Balta ruck? Do we need a second specialist ruckman and then where else do you play him? I’m more concerned by this problem than much else tbh. Will go a fair way to help fix our clearance problems and other teams seem to do it successfully.

Lynch surely

 

[_RT_]

Mentioned in the trade thread, but ideally I would be playing Caddy back through the middle rotating with Dusty up forward. In the F50 alon with then obviously I'd have Jack and Lynch but then I'd have Rioli Butler and Bolton as the 3 small forwards. IMO it gives us the best mix up forward as we'd have the 3 marking targets in Jack Lynch and Caddy/Dusty and then the smalls to create havoc once the ball hits the ground.

In the middle as I said Caddy gets added to the mix as the big bodied midfielder that we need. The midfield becomes Martin Cotchin Caddy Prestia Lambert Edwards Grigg & KMac with cameos from Rioli. As the year progresses I'd like to see Markov or Menadue replacing Grigg on the wing. As for the second ruck option, the logical option is to ruck Lynch or Jack in relief, but that's not a great way to look after your key forwards. The second option is to play an extra tall in Moore or Chol who are both quite mobile and have them pinch hit for when Nank needs a break. Thirdly we can have Nank take any ruck contests from the edge of the square to full back and have Jack/Lynch take the forward stoppages. This allows Nank to have a rest while staying on the ground, which is similar to what the Dees do with Gawn when he needs a breather. If he does need a spell on the bench then we can utilise the Grigg option, not necessarily with Grigg though.

 

[TJASTA]

i reckon if our boys kick the ball off their foot and through the central uprights sicks more than our opponents, we should win.

 

[Defibrillate]

Lynch surely

I don’t think they’ll be keen to throw a bloke with PCL issues into the ruck. Would be flirting with disaster I suspect.

 

[Tango67]

bringing lynch in means we immediately increase our height inside 50 dont need another there, caddy moves to 3rd tall as he is useless as a mid.

what we lack is a big bodied mid, I think we need to try Townsend but he lacks the skills and running power but adds hardness or we try and get kmac in there who has the tools but not the footy smarts, another option is getting Vlastuin in there and replacing him with Garth at HB....

Rioli can move into a mid but he us more outside along with Lambert

the other option is Balta on a wing, who drifts infield and allows a HFF like riolu to drift to the wing that gives a tall marking option and an extra mid at the expense of a fwd inside 50, doesn't help winning a clearance though.

the one missing link we have is a ball magnet who hunts the pill and can extract it out of a contest

 

[Ralll]

I wouldn't imagine it will change much.

We lost the midfield battle comprehensively at times this season, which surprised me considering our midfield strength of Dusty, Cotch, Sheds, Prestia, Caddy, Lambert and others. Perhaps they will look to change the way we go about things there.

The backline wont change much and is mostly settled, although we could use a good tall aerial player to counter tall forwards that can get on top from time to time.

And up forward I'd imagine the system wont change other than to accommodate Lynch, who imo will simply take over from some of the smaller players having to contest in the air, and do it alot better.

 

[Vassp]

We’ve lost so many players so far, who apart from Lynch are we getting? Any rumours?

 

[HTT]

I’ve asked before and no one could really answer. How do we fix the Nankervis backup situation? We’ve been found out with Grigg in the ruck pretty badly. Can Balta ruck? Do we need a second specialist ruckman and then where else do you play him? I’m more concerned by this problem than much else tbh. Will go a fair way to help fix our clearance problems and other teams seem to do it successfully.

I’m intrigued by the use of Balta. A bit on the short side for a ruck at 195cm but top 10 in both the standing and running vertical leaps at last year’s combine. Has he done much ruck work in the VFL?

 

[Football Tragic]

In my humble opinion, I think we will only go with the two talls and the medium tall (ie Caddy, Martin or Edwards). As good as Balta may be, I think it would be too much of a shift to go from one tall to three. I've mentioned it elsewhere but I also think its unlikely Lynch will play early in the season. The club will be very conservative with him given his knee issues and probable lack of conditioning. They did the same thing with Prestia two years running. It would be a mistake to introduce him to the football world, as a highly rated & payed tiger star, only to start under done and disappoint. It would sap his confidence and the confidence the other players and our supporters would have in him if he bombed out because he was not ready. As a result, Balta may get the opportunity early as our second tall.

I think there will be minor tweaks across the ground due to the new rules. The extended goal square will force our set up further up the ground and create more holes closer to goal. It will be interesting if our defenders take advantage of this and run it out of defense more. Short is an ideal person to kick it in given the penetration and accuracy of his kicking. Many defenders will go the big bomb at the start of the year but those who target players on the F50 arch or closer to goal and then quickly move it on, are more likely to exploit the new rule. Lynch will again help us here, giving us another tall option to target from kick ins rather than just Nank, Jack and occasionally Dusty when he was one out.

The 6-6-6 rule will have less of an impact for us. I think teams will just push a 'midfielder' immediately back and a 'forward' straight into the midfield after the bounce. I think this rule will be a bust.

 

[Achilles Heel]

Kick it long to Royce

 

[Dr Tigris]

Kick it long to Royce

Smartest thing I have heard for a long time - since the 70's really. But I wouldn't rely on Hart anymore, few issue have cropped up in the last 40 years.

 

[Dr Tigris]

If we don't change the game plan much we'll probably still be no. 1. So no need for wholescale changes.

Lynch changes our game up forward though. We become much more difficult to stop and we can play a more profitable game going forward. Just improve our % of goals form our forward entries an that transforms our game in itself.

And Lynch frees up Caddy/Dusty to play more midfield. Which is almost like a free big bodies mid in itself.

That's the change for 2019. Kick it to Jack, or Tom, or Cadds, or Dusty, or Dan, or George. In the midfield we play more talent more often. Defense stays as is.

Jack G improves in his third year, of course. Snags improves again in his second year. Bolton starts to become a genuine AFL quality mid/forward. And Dan steps up to be a genuine high quality AFL mid/forward.

 

[RunningBounce]

I’m intrigued by the use of Balta. A bit on the short side for a ruck at 195cm but top 10 in both the standing and running vertical leaps at last year’s combine. Has he done much ruck work in the VFL?

Balta has done some VFL rucking, but mostly what you'd call "pinch hitting". Don't think he had the #1 ruck duties all season. Could conceivably play wing / 2nd ruck, like Grigg.

His development will be intriguing. Does he need settling into one position, or will he keep thriving being bounced around? Will he be quick for a tall, or tall for a runner? IMO, just needs an older head on his shoulders before we see much of him at AFL level.

 

[RunningBounce]

Kick it long to Royce

I reckon the current day gameplan is actually pretty close to that, except it's grubber kick it to a pocket and unleash the Yellow and Black tsunami.

And I wouldn't change it wholesale, either. But I would change it. There was too much sitting still and letting the opposition come at us in 2018, I reckon.

 

[RunningBounce]

Perhaps more personnel than gameplan, but I reckon our current back 6 are closer to the end of their phenomenal run than most of us like to admit. And that back 6 is the foundation of the gameplan.

Hard to see any of them improving much from here - except perhaps Shorty's defensive efforts - and the form slide is never far away when there isn't some reasonable expectation of natural improvement.

So, I want to see Garthwaite play plenty of games. His strengths will be different to the others. I don't think he can cover as much ground as Broad but his stronger overhead, for example. That will change the way they set up and zone, and it will need game time to work it out properly.

 

[kozi]

Plan A:

Win ball
Kick it to Jack or Lynch
Mark
Goal

Plan B:

Win ball
Kick it to Jack or Lynch
Crumb
Goal