Buckley at Centre half back....

[the ranter]

Buckley at Centre Half Back....

The guy is a general. How long is Buck's going to be dominant in the mid-field? (his impact would be greater from CHB).

How many 'potential' mid fielders do we have?

We are always chasing mid fielders....

Blockhead moved Cornes down to CHB with Wanganeen and they look a different team.
Not only has the move created what appears to be a rock solid wall across CHB, they now have a tremendous springboard out of defence into attack.

Rather then second stringers running the ball out of defence, have buckley at CHB as an awesomely powerful defensive spring board...the creative source of co-ordinated attack out of defence.

One thrusting kick from CHB to CHF after foiling the opposition.
I know everbody will say "but Wakes is brilliant he can do that".

He's a great defender, I love his work but he is NOT (at this stage) a top shelf centre half back, whereas bucks has the potential to be one.

With the mid field pillowing when faced with concerted pressure, now is the time to set up a bucks wall across CHB.... IT WILL MAKE US MORE COMPETITIVE.

And bucks isn't getting any younger.....

 

[Lestat]

Robbing Peter to pay Paul...

No doubt Buckley would perform in the backline, but I would prefer to see Buckley as a damaging goal kicking midfielder.

How bout Andrew Williams as a defender??

It would release Lonie to play on the wing where he would be much more damaging. Williams is good overhead, and it would perhaps result in him growing some balls.

Thoughts? (Sorry Ranter...for hijacking your thread )

 

[CFE]

It's in the midfield where Buckley is needed ATM. Even though we are getting smashed down back, Bucks at CHB is not the answer.

We need his penetrating kicks in the midfield & so he can set up from anywhere on the ground.

I agree with Lestat, Williams at HBF letting Lonie play on a wing, his raking left footers could pay dividends if it came off...

 

[Tim56]

Surely you already have Clement, Lonie, Burns and Johnson giving run out of the back half. The problem must be elsewhere.

 

[Lestat]

Originally posted by Tim56
Surely you already have Clement, Lonie, Burns and Johnson giving run out of the back half. The problem must be elsewhere.

Burns is a midfielder, and Lonie is wasted down back.

I do agree though that Buckley in the backline is not the answer.

 

[the ranter]

CHB would mean he could attack....

He's aging and needs a role where he commands and directs rather than having to run all over the ground and do everything himself as everybody else is feeling to mediocre to be first to the ball.

Pointless him running himself into the ground at this point in his careers.

Playing him at CHB is playing him in an attacking role, in that he'll create the attack we need off the half back line and build the mound across CHB that the opposition will have to surmount after they easily get the ball out of the middle.

We are being beaten in the centre contests and the opposition is whipping the ball into our defensive zone, so having bucks in the centre is giving him lots of touches BUT NOT STOPPING THE heamorraging.

So put him at Centre half back to try to repel the fast opposition take outs. He will let down their tyres before they make the delivery......

 

[the ranter]

Defence isn't about 'just stopping goals', not in this day and age.
Defence is what creates and allows your side to kick goals.

Great attack starts at and on the half back line.

"we don't need a champion CHB, we just need our forward to kick lots of goals".

A ceaseless, merciless and fast rebounding drive out of defence doesn't come from simplistically negating and stopping a few goals. You need somebody that is both creative and a commander at CHB. We don't have that. Nobody thinks it is important.
You can go all the way without a rock solid defence you just need flashy forwards.

We don't have a Manassa, Ireland, Picken, Magro, styled combination.
That would give us the grunt to be ultra competitive every game throughout the season.
Instead we have Cole, Lonie, lokan, Clemmo.

Brisvain and Portaloo have the priority of the concrete trampoline half back line.

WE are fixated on finding forwards who will kick us enough goals to win.
They won't and can't if we have the 'only need a bunch of stoppers down back' to be a good defence and go all the way..


Buckley as CHB would not be as a stopping role.
It would be a Paul roos styled role of creating attack off the half back line.

Yes he's been an excellent mid fielder but the in and under work without the youthful enthusiasm to be bounced and battered in the centre is just as damaging to his body.

Having him standing around on the forward line waiting for the ball to come his way isn't maximising his unique talents.

He could be a dynamo driving the ball off the half back line ceaselessly into the forward line.

How much bigger is Cornes or wanganeen when compared to Buck's?

Getting crunched from behind on the forward line?

Or doing the crunching from behind as a Centre half back?

 

[shuveradda]

We need Buckley pumping the ball into the Midfield, The Game against richmond we were getting smashed and we put himn down there, sure he stopped goals but we then had no penetration.

I've always said that lone should play on a wing, his kicks are huge and that would help us greatly, sure Buckly isnt getting any younger but we need him in the midfield coz optherwise we'll get smashed there too.

 

[the ranter]

Okay. If we need him in the centre at centre clearances and stoppages.
A question. How many hard ball gets he get out of the centre against the Brisvain?

 

[shuveradda]

Dunno, but even if he did go bad against brisbane, he is alot better than the rest of our team at That area.

 

[guess_who]

Why on earth would you take your best Midfielder, and posibly THE BEST in the game out of his pet position and put him at CHB?
The difference with the Cornes one is that Port have Tredrae to fill the position at CHF. While Collingwood have some quality on ballers, none even compare to Buckley, next in line would be Burns.. then a very very distant second would be woey and then Lica, and not much after that...therefore we can not afford to put Buckley at CHB. I rate Lockyer very high but his gone, O'bree is good but not close to the best.

 

[Murray]

I notice Bucks has had a couple of stints at CHF this year.

Not sure about CHB but knowing Bucks he would probably do it well.

Like others have said we would miss his drive out of the middle.

 

[MarkT]

Bucks could play CHB depending on the opponent and the just as importantly the midfield match ups. I would be more inclined to move Bucks from the middle if we had a better 4th midfielder than O'Bree though. IMO we have 3 fantastic midfielders and then we struggle to get near that quality. When Tarks gets back his disposal quality may allow us to move Buckley but right now we can;t afford the drop off in disposal going into the forward line we would get by replacing Buckley with O'Bree, McGough, Nixon etc. If we could get a small forward and leave Didak in the midfield or if brayden or Heath shaw could somehow become 3rd year players it could work.

If we want to re invent players from existimng stacks I'd much rather play Cameron Cloke up forward and Tarrant on a wing allowing much more flexibility and a bigish body to help with our skinny ruckmen.

 

[the ranter]

Can anybody tell me how many hard ball centre take outs bucks got in the last game?

People keep saying that Brisvains dominance would make any back line look stupid.

I think that it makes ANY average half back line look stupid.

I keep hearing the suggestion that there would be "No mid field pressure without bucks?" or "he keep's pumping it into our forward line" or "our mid –field is crap without him"

But when bucks is there and there is no mid field pressure how do you explain that?

Mid field can apply pressure without bucks (and there have been games he wasn't there which we won) and if the mid field has lapses (like port's mid field will do this year) a solid rebounding half back line will cover for its mistakes.

To have a solid HB line you need a pavlich, Cornses, leppitsch, blah blah blah. And we haven't had one in that position for a long time (if at all) and it would be nice to try one who would also act as an attacking general across the HB line.

Keep rotating all these mid size players we have with the instruction 'crash in, put your body on the line and get the ball out a la Sam Mitchell at Hawthorn"

bugger the finesse. Buck's is full of it, that is why he is wasted bashing and crashing at the centre bounces.

His long kicking finesse and organization, command ability across the HB line means he could create powerful attacking moves out of defence rather than scrambly kicks out of the mid field because its so bloody congested.

Somebody should count, genuine hard ball take aways from mid field for bucks….

Hasn't anyone watched games where a team is getting killed in the centre but the opposition struggles to pierce their HB line which rebounds the ball over the congestion in the centre, like a slingshot.....

 

[the ranter]

Originally posted by Lestat
Robbing Peter to pay Paul...

but I would prefer to see Buckley as a damaging goal kicking midfielder.

But he's not kicking goals. If that is the reason for playing him forward then its a poor one at this point in time.

Having Buckley forward may give us a few more goals but it doesn't make us competitve....

Your defence makes you competitive thoughout the season and finals and your forwards win games.

You can have the best forward line in the competition and play all out attacking football, but 9 out of 10 grand finals see the team with the best defence winning.

It is rare in any sport for a team with a mediocre defence to go all the way.

If we want to be competitive for the entire season and into the finals we need that desperate cohesive defence of 2002.

It ain't there at the moment.

Portaloo learnt from last season, having one of the best attacks with a mediocre defence won't take you all the way.

They've moved Cornes as CHB. Already its paid dividends. There half back line is looking impenetrable.

How will our defence go against the 'aints unpredictable all out attacke style , where for us to beat them (if our defence is mediocre) we'll have to play all out attack and out score them.. Our forward line isn't good enough to do that.....

 

[the ranter]

1997 Buckley CHB took out Carey in his prime.

Some say he hasn't a big enough body to play CHB these days but Silvagni played on big bodies and effectively nullified them.
Buckley could play on and beat tredrea, Brown and Hall if he played at CHF.

Great CHB aren't built like Mick Martyn's they are built like a Jamie Turner or a Christain, or a Peter dean (the size of bucks) or an andy mackay.

He would be dangerous at CHB, yes we have options, we can chuck just about anyone at CHB, but none of them are creative enough, potent enough or top shelf enough to make that position deadly in the way cornes has been recreating the potency of that position at portaloo....

we stumbled along with great stoppers at CHB now we need a quality creator and commander in that role......

when the ball comes bulleting down field toward our HB line we need to fire it back instantly 10 times out of 10 FOR 4 QUARTERS.... not the occasional blinding run where we fire it down and they fire it back twice as fast catching us out....