- Mar 1, 2005
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2020. The year the blues began their resurgence in earnest. The year that SOS finally put the finishing touches onto the list he had been building for 4 years. The year that another tough former Blues player took the reigns as coach and hustled them into the finals. The year that the outside world stood up and started to take notice of the awakened Giant. The year that old disenfranchised supporters started to believe again, the year that the faithful started to nod wisely with a smugness in their smile that had been missing for years. Yes this can all happen in 2020, an more- but not without a fully functioning forward line!
To say this has been our main priority at the end of 2019 , going into the trade period is putting it lightly. Both SOS and teague both know this was our Achilles heel in 2019 and both are on the same page as to how to fix it. And what better combination to have leading our forward rebuild than the fullback of the century, who knows intimately the strengths and weaknesses of a great forward, and DT who was in charge of the most potent forward line of the last decade the crows of 2017.
So how will it work? What can we expect from our forwards in 2020? Firstly who will feature in our forward line 2020? There are some locks and some unknowns.
Who are our locks? - most pick themselves, starting with our 2 tall forwards Harry and Charlie. They both are forwards every day of the week there is no hybrid about them like TDK (ruck/forward) Levi (ruck/forward/back) Mitch (forward/back).
Despite what I have just said, I believe Mitch should play as our third forward, such is his mercurial unpredictability .
Talls:
Harry
Charlie
Mitch
Our small forwards in Betts and Papley also pick themselves. Betts needs to play very close to goal in order to take advantage of his great strength- that as the the smart goal sneak. Papley on the other hand has greater strength and speed and so should play further up the ground. Both are near league best at performing these roles. This leaves one more small forward spot and there could be a number of options: Cuningham, Martin, JSOS, kennedy, DeLuca, lang, Owies. It will be interesting to see what everyone thinks as to who should fill the final spot. My but feeling is that with Betts(174cm) and Papley(177cm) we have 2 very good but quite small players and that to look at owies , lang, deluca might be going too small.
Smalls:
Betts
Papley
??
How will DT want our forwards to play? DT seems to be much keener than BB to keep things simple and so I dont expect him to try to reinvent the wheel. Therefore looking at how the crows played with their forward line in 2017 could be a great predictor of how DT will try to run his forward line in 2020. This is especially so when you consider that Betts and Mitch are common key parts of the 2 forward lines .
I found a very interesting analysis done in 2017 by Robert Younger who now works for Port in their analytics. There is a very interesting analysis about how the Crows got their goals in 2014-2017 http://figuringfooty.com/2017/04/18/the-secret-weapon-of-the-afls-best-forward-line/#comments Below are 2 extracts from the article that discuss specifically the advantage of being able to take shots from outside 50m . Walker and Buddy were huge in this area in 2017. But the stats show that it was not just Walker who had that advantage. Mitch is mentioned as having this ability as well. Both Charlie and Harry can kick long goals, so that makes three long goal kickers that we already have. Could this be the way that DT wants us to play in 2020? I know that game has changed a bit since 2017, but certain basics dont necessarily change. DT likes to keep things relatively uncomplicated. Perhaps he will go back to the 2017 crows for inspiration. Interested in other peoples ideas on this.
To say this has been our main priority at the end of 2019 , going into the trade period is putting it lightly. Both SOS and teague both know this was our Achilles heel in 2019 and both are on the same page as to how to fix it. And what better combination to have leading our forward rebuild than the fullback of the century, who knows intimately the strengths and weaknesses of a great forward, and DT who was in charge of the most potent forward line of the last decade the crows of 2017.
So how will it work? What can we expect from our forwards in 2020? Firstly who will feature in our forward line 2020? There are some locks and some unknowns.
Who are our locks? - most pick themselves, starting with our 2 tall forwards Harry and Charlie. They both are forwards every day of the week there is no hybrid about them like TDK (ruck/forward) Levi (ruck/forward/back) Mitch (forward/back).
Despite what I have just said, I believe Mitch should play as our third forward, such is his mercurial unpredictability .
Talls:
Harry
Charlie
Mitch
Our small forwards in Betts and Papley also pick themselves. Betts needs to play very close to goal in order to take advantage of his great strength- that as the the smart goal sneak. Papley on the other hand has greater strength and speed and so should play further up the ground. Both are near league best at performing these roles. This leaves one more small forward spot and there could be a number of options: Cuningham, Martin, JSOS, kennedy, DeLuca, lang, Owies. It will be interesting to see what everyone thinks as to who should fill the final spot. My but feeling is that with Betts(174cm) and Papley(177cm) we have 2 very good but quite small players and that to look at owies , lang, deluca might be going too small.
Smalls:
Betts
Papley
??
How will DT want our forwards to play? DT seems to be much keener than BB to keep things simple and so I dont expect him to try to reinvent the wheel. Therefore looking at how the crows played with their forward line in 2017 could be a great predictor of how DT will try to run his forward line in 2020. This is especially so when you consider that Betts and Mitch are common key parts of the 2 forward lines .
I found a very interesting analysis done in 2017 by Robert Younger who now works for Port in their analytics. There is a very interesting analysis about how the Crows got their goals in 2014-2017 http://figuringfooty.com/2017/04/18/the-secret-weapon-of-the-afls-best-forward-line/#comments Below are 2 extracts from the article that discuss specifically the advantage of being able to take shots from outside 50m . Walker and Buddy were huge in this area in 2017. But the stats show that it was not just Walker who had that advantage. Mitch is mentioned as having this ability as well. Both Charlie and Harry can kick long goals, so that makes three long goal kickers that we already have. Could this be the way that DT wants us to play in 2020? I know that game has changed a bit since 2017, but certain basics dont necessarily change. DT likes to keep things relatively uncomplicated. Perhaps he will go back to the 2017 crows for inspiration. Interested in other peoples ideas on this.
