Opinion Best team 2021

[Pure_Ownage]

You can’t lol All Day long, he butchers the ball. He has been a shadow of the player he was last year, and I reckon if he doesn’t lift, he’ll find himself out when danger etc are available.

I am very confident the match committee dont think the same as you..he is very very little chance of being dropped.

 

[Catsmaninamerica]

I am very confident the match committee dont think the same as you..he is very very little chance of being dropped.

I’m hoping he starts playing like the Menegola of last year and that he stays in and contributes. Re watching the Suns game, his ball use was putrid. If he continues like that - making s**t decisions and missing targets he should hit, he’ll be out.

 

[DanA]

FB: Bews Henderson Touhy
HB: Stewart Henry Atkins
C: Menegola Duncan Smith
HF: Higgins Cameron Miers
FF: Rohan Hawkins Close
R: Ratugolea Guthrie Selwood
I/C: Blicavs Dangerfield O’Connor Parfitt

Simpson seriously pushes Higgins whose been kinda disappointing but I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt that he will find form. He’s well in my bad books after that half arsed shepherd though.

 

[DanA]

I’m hoping he starts playing like the Menegola of last year and that he stays in and contributes. Re watching the Suns game, his ball use was putrid. If he continues like that - making sh*t decisions and missing targets he should hit, he’ll be out.

This hasn’t really been my observation. He can miss a target from time to time but IMO he’s an above average ball user and has an elite work rate.

I kinda think Atkins gets a bad rap too that’s a bit over the top. He wins a lot of contested ball down back, does a great job shutting down play with his tackling. He’s cutting back on the free kicks as he develops defender instincts and really becoming a good player IMO.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I’m hoping he starts playing like the Menegola of last year and that he stays in and contributes. Re watching the Suns game, his ball use was putrid. If he continues like that - making sh*t decisions and missing targets he should hit, he’ll be out.

Personally i think because menegola takes more risks with most of his kicks people remember the 2 terrible turnovers per game rather than the 6 attacking kicks that create goals for us. Regardless the reality is he is not picked due to disposal he is picked for his workrate, versatility and willingness and tank to push back to support our defence. The last one is critical to our gameplan and we dont have an obvious replacement for this in the vfl so he wont get dropped. Youre entitled to your opinion but youre posting what you want to happen which is the opposite of what will happen imo.

 

[Seeds]

Personally i think because menegola takes more risks with most of his kicks people remember the 2 terrible turnovers per game rather than the 6 attacking kicks that create goals for us. Regardless the reality is he is not picked due to disposal he is picked for his workrate, versatility and willingness and tank to push back to support our defence. The last one is critical to our gameplan and we dont have an obvious replacement for this in the vfl so he wont get dropped. Youre entitled to your opinion but youre posting what you want to happen which is the opposite of what will happen imo.

I would pick menegola for his disposal. As you say he takes risks and has an excellent penetrating drop punt most of the time that opens the play and creates scoring opportunities. He occasionally shanks them but more often then not he is a terrific kick. Knows how to find the goals too.

 

[year of the cat]

B: Bews, Henderson, Tuohy
HB: Stewart, Henry, Atkins
C: I.Smith, Duncan, Menegola
HF: Narkle, Cameron, Dangerfield
F: Close, Hawkins, Rohan

Foll: Stanley, C.Guthrie, Parfitt

Int: J.Selwood, Blicavs, Miers, O’Connor

Emerg: Higgins, Dahlhaus, Kolojashnij, Clark

 

[foxdog50]

If one of the last spots came down to play in the finals be Narkle or Higgins I would choose Narkle... but I beat the MC would pick Higgins

 

[Seeds]

B bews, blicavs, henry,
hb Stewart, Henderson, touhy
c Duncan, selwood, guthrie
hf parfit, Cameron, menegola
f Rohan, hawkins, miers
ruck stanley, Dangerfield, narkle
inter. Oconnor, Higgins, smith, atkins
emerg. Clark, kolo, esava, close.


could easily swap atkins for kolo depending on thé opponent.

 

[Gogeelong]

Should the team be healthy some good players will miss out.

Do we play Miers or Close
I think Esava will miss as Stanley will play
OConnor must play
hard to fit them in

 

[standupand]

Interesting how Blicavs still hasn't cemented his role in the side by the looks of things. I like the look of our backline this year playing a little shorter and more mobile tbh. For me Blicavs best position is as a defensive midfielder. I'd love to see him shut down the oppos best mids if he's capable (Bont, dusty, petracca) influencing aerial contests through the middle, and running free late in games with his endurance. It's just odd that he isn't a "first picked" anywhere in this year's preferred set-up.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Interesting how Blicavs still hasn't cemented his role in the side by the looks of things. I like the look of our backline this year playing a little shorter and more mobile tbh. For me Blicavs best position is as a defensive midfielder. I'd love to see him shut down the oppos best mids if he's capable (Bont, dusty, petracca) influencing aerial contests through the middle, and running free late in games with his endurance. It's just odd that he isn't a "first picked" anywhere in this year's preferred set-up.

Except in the MC's Selection Meetings

 

[standupand]

Except in the MC's Selection Meetings

Yeah, although he was out with a mysterious calf injury last game, which says to me that he's seen as just one of a big group of relatively fit and serviceable ruckmen this year, rather than a key to either our backline or midfield?

 

[FredLeDeux]

Yeah, although he was out with a mysterious calf injury last game, which says to me that he's seen as just one of a big group of relatively fit and serviceable ruckmen this year, rather than a key to either our backline or midfield?

Didn't look to be anything "mysterious" about it when the television cameras showed him going through - and clearly failing - the detailed pre-game fitness test.

 

[cats_09]

Interesting how Blicavs still hasn't cemented his role in the side by the looks of things. I like the look of our backline this year playing a little shorter and more mobile tbh. For me Blicavs best position is as a defensive midfielder. I'd love to see him shut down the oppos best mids if he's capable (Bont, dusty, petracca) influencing aerial contests through the middle, and running free late in games with his endurance. It's just odd that he isn't a "first picked" anywhere in this year's preferred set-up.

Blicavs looks to be pretty comfortable within the best 22 & even more so that he's cemented within the starting line-up

And not so sure that his change of role across the season is actually a knock on him cement himself in terms of a preferred role or unit within the team, but rather a credit to him for his versatility in being able to cover other roles where there's a deficiency

It's clear that at the start of the season that he was a lock in defence & playing as a KPD - would easily have been one of the first defenders to have their name added to the whiteboard ahead of team selection

An issue then arose when Stanley spudded it up against Sydney which saw Blicavs thrown into the ruck in the last quarter as the coaches had had enough of Stanley by that stage. We also saw that when Ratugolea came into the team that he wasn't going to be rucking solo to the same extent as Stanley had been, so it was a return to utility Blicavs

The fact he's played across a few roles this year isn't a knock on him or a sign that he hasn't locked down a role within the team, but rather acknowledgment of his versatility and probably more so a sign that the MC would be happy if they had access to 2 of him

 

[cats_09]

Yeah, although he was out with a mysterious calf injury last game, which says to me that he's seen as just one of a big group of relatively fit and serviceable ruckmen this year, rather than a key to either our backline or midfield?

What mysterious calf issue?

It's been publicised that he was battling a tight calf late in the week, and that without time to get scans the club was pretty much working blind to determine the seriousness of the injury.

He was given until the latest possible opportunity to prove his fitness, and who's to say that if it was a do or die match that he wouldn't have actually played?

Other than though injury I'm not sure he's missed too many games since debut, so with 189 games under his belt I'm going with him being safely in our best side

 

[strauchnyy]

Fb. Bews. Blicavs. Stewart
HB. Henry. Henderson. Atkins
C. Duncan. Guthrie. Smith
HF. Menagola. Cameron. Rohan
FF. Dangerfield. Hawkins. Close
Fol. Stanley. Parfitt. Selwood
Int. Miers. Narkle. O’Connor. Touhy

sub. Clark

emerg. Sav. Dahl. Simpson

 

[standupand]

What mysterious calf issue?

It's been publicised that he was battling a tight calf late in the week, and that without time to get scans the club was pretty much working blind to determine the seriousness of the injury.

He was given until the latest possible opportunity to prove his fitness, and who's to say that if it was a do or die match that he wouldn't have actually played?

Other than though injury I'm not sure he's missed too many games since debut, so with 189 games under his belt I'm going with him being safely in our best side

Cool. And yeah-i couldn't agree more re him being a key part to our best 22. I guess my point was: where? His flexibility is an asset, but isn't the fact that that flexibility is always called upon to plug holes also a symptom of the inflexibility of the system/ gameplan that hasn't necessarily evolved organically for the best players to "own" their best positions. I'm hoping we get to see him excel in his preferred position, wherever that happens to be.

 

[BIGANT]

More for the game day threads coming up vs PA. What does the match comittee need to fine tune leading into this game. Obviously there could be some decent ins and unlucky outs but where do we need to butter up for Port ?

 

[DanA]

Interesting how Blicavs still hasn't cemented his role in the side by the looks of things. I like the look of our backline this year playing a little shorter and more mobile tbh. For me Blicavs best position is as a defensive midfielder. I'd love to see him shut down the oppos best mids if he's capable (Bont, dusty, petracca) influencing aerial contests through the middle, and running free late in games with his endurance. It's just odd that he isn't a "first picked" anywhere in this year's preferred set-up.

He's really only played two roles the last two to three years. KPD and as a ruck coming in after centre bounces and it looks like the ruck role is what the coaches have settled on. This role is custom designed for Blicavs to take advantage of what he's good at without the punishment of centre bounces. He is first picked in this role.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

Blicavs looks to be pretty comfortable within the best 22 & even more so that he's cemented within the starting line-up

And not so sure that his change of role across the season is actually a knock on him cement himself in terms of a preferred role or unit within the team, but rather a credit to him for his versatility in being able to cover other roles where there's a deficiency

It's clear that at the start of the season that he was a lock in defence & playing as a KPD - would easily have been one of the first defenders to have their name added to the whiteboard ahead of team selection

An issue then arose when Stanley spudded it up against Sydney which saw Blicavs thrown into the ruck in the last quarter as the coaches had had enough of Stanley by that stage. We also saw that when Ratugolea came into the team that he wasn't going to be rucking solo to the same extent as Stanley had been, so it was a return to utility Blicavs

The fact he's played across a few roles this year isn't a knock on him or a sign that he hasn't locked down a role within the team, but rather acknowledgment of his versatility and probably more so a sign that the MC would be happy if they had access to 2 of him

Hes in the best 8-10

 

[standupand]

He's really only played two roles the last two to three years. KPD and as a ruck coming in after centre bounces and it looks like the ruck role is what the coaches have settled on. This role is custom designed for Blicavs to take advantage of what he's good at without the punishment of centre bounces. He is first picked in this role.

There was also the role on the wing he played last year. The last game I saw live was the 2020 gf and the one thing that struck me was - out of everyone on the park - how lost he looked out there at times. No real fault of his own I would say. The week prior against Brisbane he looked dominant, controlling the area between d50 and f50. But it's a reminder that the difference between winning and losing a gf can just be one player not quite sure of how they fit into a structure. Also, I recall pretty much everybody saying before the start of this season that it was a no-brainer that he'd just slot back in defence with the retirement of Taylor and the addition of Smith on a wing. I give the coaches some credit for going a different way with that. I like the defensive mix of a reliable lock-down tall defender in Henderson and a pretty reliable lock-down small defender in Atkins - and the others (Stewart, Henry, Bews, Tuohy) are all good defensively as well as being naturally attacking minded players. Most scores are started from defence. You need attacking players there. However I also want to believe that the coaches have a firm plan for Blicavs that we haven't fully seen yet and that he's not just being squeezed into the ruck role again or "wherever else" he might help the team purely as a kind of band-aid.

 

[DanA]

There was also the role on the wing he played last year. The last game I saw live was the 2020 gf and the one thing that struck me was - out of everyone on the park - how lost he looked out there at times. No real fault of his own I would say. The week prior against Brisbane he looked dominant, controlling the area between d50 and f50. But it's a reminder that the difference between winning and losing a gf can just be one player not quite sure of how they fit into a structure. Also, I recall pretty much everybody saying before the start of this season that it was a no-brainer that he'd just slot back in defence with the retirement of Taylor and the addition of Smith on a wing. I give the coaches some credit for going a different way with that. I like the defensive mix of a reliable lock-down tall defender in Henderson and a pretty reliable lock-down small defender in Atkins - and the others (Stewart, Henry, Bews, Tuohy) are all good defensively as well as being naturally attacking minded players. Most scores are started from defence. You need attacking players there. However I also want to believe that the coaches have a firm plan for Blicavs that we haven't fully seen yet and that he's not just being squeezed into the ruck role again or "wherever else" he might help the team purely as a kind of band-aid.

I think his ruck role is really an evolution of the wing roll. I don't see it as that different. He was still taking a fair bit of the ruck around the ground and still playing a kick behind the play with the ruckmen pushing forward into the forwardline. The issues in the grand final were IMO more than just Blicav's roll and IMO a fair bit of it revolved around our stagnant backline 9all year), Stanley's poor play, and some guys that had been contributing well all season having really quiet days.

 

[foxdog50]

It's amazing that 2 names people say who aren't in the 22..
Higgins and Kolo
1... Which I believe with you all, but1 thing is Kolo is a love child of Chris Scott.
2 Chris Scott will play Higgins no mater what as he doesn't want Higgins look bad in not picking him to play in our best team

 

[winty]

My choice at the halfway mark of the year for our best 22:

B: Atkins Blicavs Henry
HB: Stewart Henderson O'Connor
C: Smith C.Guthrie Duncan
HF: Parfitt Hawkins Menegola
F: Rohan Cameron Close
Foll: Stanley Dangerfield Selwood
Int: Bews Narkle Tuohy Miers
Sub: Clark