Past #4: Shaun Higgins - Higgo traded to Geelong for 2020 #30 - 2x Syds/108 NM gms/96 NM gls - thx Higgo

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shintemaster said:
We do, massively. If I'm being brutally honest though a team structure that relies on a defensive mid that has played 50% of games in 3 years and another that has shown one good season of form isn't the most reliable of structures. Other players (and the setups) simply must be able to cope with not having these guys available every now and again.

FWIW I would have tasked Aaron Hall with that defensive mid role once we knew both weren't available. Has the pace and a mature body and could attack if opportunity was there. Just give him the task as an initiation into the club and release him later on. Could do with some defensive encouragement anyway.
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Hall and Tyson both had 5 tackles each to lead the tackle count for us.

That's a great sign for Hall whose career average is 3.35 tackles per game. Its a third more tackles than his career average which is a good way to start his time with us.
 
brettman135 said:
Yeah I completely agree with you there. There were periods of the game where our mids should have gone complete lock down and forced some repeat stoppages, literally anything to try and stop the momentum.
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Momentum has been a big problem throughout Bards tenure.

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I know I will be shot down and I love Shaun but IMHO he hasn’t been great in disposal so far this year. Effort is there but bad execution with his disposal. Not the silk we were accustomed to in the last few year. Maybe being a new dad has made him lose some sleep. BBB also a new father making mistakes he wouldn’t normally. I assume Lmac has 4-5 kids under 3 given his performances
 

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Snake_Baker said:
I don't give a **** how many disposals he got. His disposal was poor.
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Yep - got heaps of the ball but created bugger all. Ordinary game from Higgo.
 
Was one of those games where you try your guts out but just can't make anything click.
 
We have the luxury of a powerful midfield with the skills to make it fine enough with him at half forward.

The addition of Jed back into the team simply MUST make this happen. This makes us more balanced on ball and more dangerous up forward.
 
Dingster said:
Could Higgo have a run through half back? He knows how to read the play and we have next to no creativity in transition. We can't expect to keep doing the same thing and get a different result.
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This would have been a great idea prior to 666. Higgins defence is shocking, like, don't even care shocking. Given that he has to play on someone due to this rule it would be a reckless move.
 
shinboner spiggs said:
This would have been a great idea prior to 666. Higgins defence is shocking, like, don't even care shocking. Given that he has to play on someone due to this rule it would be a reckless move.
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I get that he would need to adapt. As a midfielder he kind of gets a away with the lack of accountability. Taking the less damaging of the two half forwards could work. Lets face it the likes of Pittard and J-Mac running the transition isn't striking fear into anyone. It may not work but think of the impact if it does.
 
Dingster said:
I get that he would need to adapt. As a midfielder he kind of gets a away with the lack of accountability. Taking the less damaging of the two half forwards could work. Lets face it the likes of Pittard and J-Mac running the transition isn't striking fear into anyone. It may not work but think of the impact if it does.
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You're on the right track. Essentially our half backs are awfully skilled players. Pittard is the best defensively, Mcdonald second and Mcmillan last. McMillan is the most skilled but currently is playing the worst. McDonald and Pittard battle each other to grim death over who has worse skills. Yuck.

Right now I have Pittard 1, McMillan and Mcdonald equal 3rd. If theres an able option id love us to have a crack at trialling them in this spot sans either of the Mcduds.
 

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I'm wondering if Higgo is carrying something. Normally he kicks and kicks beautifully but today he kept going for handballs rather than kinking.
 
A lot of players hit the wall around 30 or so years of age, he is still quite capable but we should expect a significant decline. Towards the end, Boomer who used to never miss a target going inside the forward 50 at close range started to really struggle to hit targets.

We should take pressure off him and put Ahern into the middle and play Higgins at half-forward (with licence to roam aggressively like Boomer used to) for his remaining years, we have midfield options now that we do not need to shove him in the furnace and he will likely give our forward line some more goal scoring potency which we are lacking.
 
Roo Beauty said:
Really? I thought he was excellent yesterday. Didn’t have many mates in the middle. either
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He had a crack and got a lot of the ball but he just didn't do a lot of damage with it which has been the story of our midfield in general this year, some of his decision making was poor at times, going to bad options or executing poorly, he has carried the JLT form through to the early rounds and he is a long way off where he was last year. I think he will get better but he is being sucked into the back half a lot more due to us struggling to move the ball out of our defensive 50.

You expect a lot of handballs from contested ball players because they are usually in heavy traffic, Cunnington had 33 disposals with 27 of them being handballs but 23 of his 33 possessions were contested. Higgins only had 7 contested possessions so he had a lot more opportunity to go by foot, when he pushed back and got possession in the back half he obviously was following our game plan of over-possessing and over-handballing the ball.

He was also guilty of bombing it into our forward 50 too much, had 9 inside 50s for no goal assists and the goal he did get was with a handoff from someone (forgot who it was) who was lining up for goal from around the 50m mark. He has had zero goal assists from 3 games so far, LDU is on 5 (equal 3rd in the league) from a total of 9 inside 50s despite Brad holding him back (only 66% ToG). LDU is just being a lot cleaner and a lot smarter with the use of the footy going forward, Shaun is kind of spraying it from longer range. LDU might only be gaining 230m per game instead of 518m, but he is doing damage with those meters gained.

I'm not blaming Higgo, he is having a crack and he is far from our worst player, but he doesn't really have that AA kind of polish atm and it will get harder for him as he gets older, especially if we are relying on him to clear the ball out of our defensive 50 a lot more than he used to.
 
Tas said:
He had a crack and got a lot of the ball but he just didn't do a lot of damage with it which has been the story of our midfield in general this year, some of his decision making was poor at times, going to bad options or executing poorly, he has carried the JLT form through to the early rounds and he is a long way off where he was last year. I think he will get better but he is being sucked into the back half a lot more due to us struggling to move the ball out of our defensive 50.

You expect a lot of handballs from contested ball players because they are usually in heavy traffic, Cunnington had 33 disposals with 27 of them being handballs but 23 of his 33 possessions were contested. Higgins only had 7 contested possessions so he had a lot more opportunity to go by foot, when he pushed back and got possession in the back half he obviously was following our game plan of over-possessing and over-handballing the ball.

He was also guilty of bombing it into our forward 50 too much, had 9 inside 50s for no goal assists and the goal he did get was with a handoff from someone (forgot who it was) who was lining up for goal from around the 50m mark. He has had zero goal assists from 3 games so far, LDU is on 5 (equal 3rd in the league) from a total of 9 inside 50s despite Brad holding him back (only 66% ToG). LDU is just being a lot cleaner and a lot smarter with the use of the footy going forward, Shaun is kind of spraying it from longer range. LDU might only be gaining 230m per game instead of 518m, but he is doing damage with those meters gained.

I'm not blaming Higgo, he is having a crack and he is far from our worst player, but he doesn't really have that AA kind of polish atm and it will get harder for him as he gets older, especially if we are relying on him to clear the ball out of our defensive 50 a lot more than he used to.
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1st for disposals
1st for metres gained
1st for centre clearances
3rd for score involvements
2nd for total clearances

Changed his role slightly due to the player additions and also players missing. Team form and coaching game style are also contributing to what people perceive as a drop off, but he’s going ok.

Least of our worries.
 
hilly said:
Turn it up Tas he was about 60m out, hardly a tap-in.
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Just saying the nature of the type of kick he had, it wasn't like he created the scoring opportunity with creative flair, it was an opportunistic goal given to him from someone who was lining up. It was in context that most of his inside 50s didn't create much real opportunity, unlike LDU's excellent decision making and ability to hit targets in the corridor.
 
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