Changes Round 5 vs Hawks

[threenewpadlocks]

Bramble's role might be interesting. The same 8 defenders we've named all season (including him) has resulted in him having to play a wing/half forward role, which he's had a very good start to the year despite playing this slightly different role, and in the absence of Vandermeer (and McNeil) in the team he's taken on the defensive forward and structure forward responsibility that they've historically taken on. For example, against Adelaide he made Milera accountable in one direction and sort of forward tagged him the other direction, and Milera had a very poor game against us after being BOG against the Pies just the week before.

With Jaques resting, Hynes coming in to play mid/forward, Richards coming in pushing Freijah again to be a mid/forward, one of Bramble or Gallagher will have to play off half-back again.

Bramble's already been listed at half-back, so lets assume it's him.

Does he do a defensive tagging (in the old days, we used to call that just tagging!) role on Watson? Or does he just slot into Jaques' rotation spot.

I also think Gallagher might do a role on Watson - he has the athleticism and work rate to go with him. He did a very simliar job on Daicos and did well as a very, very hard tag on him back a couple of years ago when Daicos was more of a stoppage player and clearance ball winner. Watson is playing a similar role now to what Daicos did back then.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

He hasn't played a senior game in 11 months,

These are our other options

• McNeil
• another debutant in Carmichael, leaving Bramble as a forward/wing
• another debutant in Luke Kennedy

Assuming we keep the same team balance, people hating on Gallagher should suggest one of the other three lol

 

[3rdgenbulldog]

gags is much maligned in a fair bit of this thread. I reckon hes showed a bit as a hard in and under athlete. Sure his disposal is suspect at times but I reckon he’s a step up (or five) from the likes of vandermeer and mcneil

 

[bresker]

These are our other options

• McNeil
• another debutant in Carmichael, leaving Bramble as a forward/wing
• another debutant in Luke Kennedy

Assuming we keep the same team balance, people hating on Gallagher should suggest one of the other three lol

What i meant was, it's hard to judge him when he hasn't played !

He played 20 games in 2024 & had some very good ones. I'm happy to give him a chance . He's ready to go.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

What i meant was, it's hard to judge him when he hasn't played !

He played 20 games in 2024 & had some very good ones. I'm happy to give him a chance . He's ready to go.

Agreed yep.

I'm also not going to complain about bringing in speed to throw different tactics at the Hawks. They've won their games this year by using speed across the ground

 

[Optimistic Dog]

He’s looked ok in a few games. I think a few shocking turnovers are emblazoned in some people’s brains.

He’s not a star but some of his games have been quite good.

He has some speed but never looks composed with footy in hand.

 

[Angak]

I don't understand the Gallagher hate? And trust me, I've got a great record for bashing our own players.

You can tell he's worked on his short 20m kick if you watch him play vfl. Big step up though.

 

[Astro_]

Prove them wrong Gags!

 

[iambrilliant]

I think Gallagher try’s to do too much when he’s played. Trying to take players on shrug tackles etc and it’s gotten him into trouble. Needs to really nail the basics first and own he’s role and then build from there. Happy to give him another go

 

[Wizard17]

What i meant was, it's hard to judge him when he hasn't played !

He played 20 games in 2024 & had some very good ones. I'm happy to give him a chance . He's ready to go.

He was one of our best AFL listed players against Essendons VFL. His defensive work on the wing helped us close down their switches so many times it wasn't even funny.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Gags' value is much more when he uses athleticism (ironically, despite being short), and being able to read the play, read space, and fill coaches instructions to a tee.

He was also statistically the worst ball user and one of the least accumulative ball winners from anyone who champion data defined as a 'midfielder' (as opposed do defender, or forward) in the 2024 season.

Given his past performances at AFL level, I genuienly think that tagging Nick Watson, which he has the athletic and game sense capability to match his speed, agility and ability to read the play is the go here, while we almost want him nowhere near where the ball might actually be when we as a team have possesion.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

He was one of our best AFL listed players against Essendons VFL. His defensive work on the wing helped us close down their switches so many times it wasn't even funny.

Did he do it with repeat sprints?

 

[Wizard17]

Did he do it with repeat sprints?

Pretty much closed down a few times they tried to switch with getting a pretty decisive fist in and even intercept marked a few. Didn't really notice his bad ball use as much as in prior years so I'm hopeful he has cleaned that up a bit

 

[NthBondiDoggies]

Ed back is great surprise and makes an huge difference to our prospects. Lachy Jacques our unexpected but I like the idea of protecting developing players he looked off in the last game.

I also like the selection integrity - Emmett, Hynes and Gags were the best in the VFL and come in.

Emmett is special but I would like to see Darcy start in the ruck and get Lobb to do defensive taps and then rotate Croft and Emmett as chop outs. This puts us in the best place to start the game on the right foot and gives Darcy a challenge to get him into the game. Naughton, Emmett, Croft and rotations from Kennedy and Bont with Dkaon and West is still a great threat - particularly if Darcy drifts forwards.

Gaga has speed and power but would like him to get a job as a defensive on baller. He has done well before. And/or use his speed in wing rotation.

Hynes probably didn’t do enough in VFL but we get the benefit of further development of a future star but again would give home the job to harass Sicily - we can’t allow him to get free so play off him, block him and beat him. He is a smart player and this will be good for him.

Great comments earlier re. Coffield. When he game i saw him as potentially a poor man’s Morris. He is a good Mark and good defender - is a couple of centimetres taller (and same as Wilkie) - has genuine muscle - he is a big unit - but he doesn’t look quick enough in mind or legs and his kicking lacks so much penetration that it gets intercepted too easily. Now I think he can only stand if Khamis is out - not tall enough for Chol or Lewis - and last year Cleary was preferred as the medium - so doesn’t look good. But I guess there is always hope - either speed up or muscle up but right now not quite either.

 

[Doggies7]

Yeah i'm still a bit of a Gags fan. Love his strength, speed and hardness and has done some good things at VFL level. He's a guy that Bevo has looked to get in to the team pretty quickly when healthy dating back to 2024, so obviously rates him. I think he can do a few roles around the ground without us needing him to get a heap of the ball or anything. Weakness has been decision making and kicking previously but he was only 19-20 when we remember a lot of those mistakes, so hopefully he has continued to improve there.

Hynes I love, but knowing he will probably be playing that tough HFF role makes me a bit more iffy on his selection. I think he is a natural mid but going to be behind a few here early on like Sanders was, and will be forced to play that less natural role for him. Saying that, without Cody, Arty and even Vanders, we are done any other real options there so I understand his selection completely and he will have a few big games in him this season I think.

 

[Doggies7]

Bramble's role might be interesting. The same 8 defenders we've named all season (including him) has resulted in him having to play a wing/half forward role, which he's had a very good start to the year despite playing this slightly different role, and in the absence of Vandermeer (and McNeil) in the team he's taken on the defensive forward and structure forward responsibility that they've historically taken on. For example, against Adelaide he made Milera accountable in one direction and sort of forward tagged him the other direction, and Milera had a very poor game against us after being BOG against the Pies just the week before.

With Jaques resting, Hynes coming in to play mid/forward, Richards coming in pushing Freijah again to be a mid/forward, one of Bramble or Gallagher will have to play off half-back again.

Bramble's already been listed at half-back, so lets assume it's him.

Does he do a defensive tagging (in the old days, we used to call that just tagging!) role on Watson? Or does he just slot into Jaques' rotation spot.

I think Bramble down back against his old team is a smart move this week without Jaques. I like him matched up against Moore who is a hell of a player and he can follow him up the ground as Moore tends to present quite high up.

Budarick might be the match up for Watson and then Sellwood with Ginni.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Yeah i'm still a bit of a Gags fan. Love his strength, speed and hardness and has done some good things at VFL level. He's a guy that Bevo has looked to get in to the team pretty quickly when healthy dating back to 2024, so obviously rates him. I think he can do a few roles around the ground without us needing him to get a heap of the ball or anything. Weakness has been decision making and kicking previously but he was only 19-20 when we remember a lot of those mistakes, so hopefully he has continued to improve there.

Hynes I love, but knowing he will probably be playing that tough HFF role makes me a bit more iffy on his selection. I think he is a natural mid but going to be behind a few here early on like Sanders was, and will be forced to play that less natural role for him. Saying that, without Cody, Arty and even Vanders, we are done any other real options there so I understand his selection completely and he will have a few big games in him this season I think.

The Hynes situation is a bit like the Richards one. For years we had Ed running around in the forward line racking up <10 touches and barely hitting the scoreboard because he was too good not to play but there wasn’t a spot in his best position (which turned out to be his second best position).

I think as long as Hynes bides his time opportunities will emerge. Bont, Treloar, Libba and Kennedy are all 10-15 years older than him and we’ll need young blood soon enough.

 

[doggiesin08]

These are our other options

• McNeil
• another debutant in Carmichael, leaving Bramble as a forward/wing
• another debutant in Luke Kennedy

Assuming we keep the same team balance, people hating on Gallagher should suggest one of the other three lol

What’s the go on Luke Cleary? I’d prefer Bramble keep his current role and Cleary has replaced Jacques.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

The Hynes situation is a bit like the Richards one. For years we had Ed running around in the forward line racking up <10 touches and barely hitting the scoreboard because he was too good not to play but there wasn’t a spot in his best position (which turned out to be his second best position).

I think as long as Hynes bides his time opportunities will emerge. Bont, Treloar, Libba and Kennedy are all 10-15 years older than him and we’ll need young blood soon enough.

There were a couple of moments especially in the Brisbane game with F50 stoppages where Hynes won the ball, battered through tackles and physical pressure and did a perfect handball despite this traffic to a teammate in an awkward angle, that he shouldn't have had the vision to see in traffic. Those are the moments that make you go, "wow". And like you say, it makes you think he could be a very good player in a different position in the future - because he is simply not using his ability in stoppage traffic (his size and vision and clean hands and strength) when he's just shuttling between the flanks and wing in general transition play. He will have to this week though, because he's still presumably better value for us at that role than Luke Kennedy at this stage, even if it's out of position for him.

 

[bresker]

Would have preferred a mature body like McComb this week

Still think about Steven May he would crash and bash

 

[threenewpadlocks]

What’s the go on Luke Cleary? I’d prefer Bramble keep his current role and Cleary has replaced Jacques.

I have Cleary more as a third tall that can only play in defence, rather than a utility outside speedy small.

We would be both too tall in defence, and not speedy enough off half-back and in the wing/half forward roles with Cleary in the team.

 

[doggiesin08]

I have Cleary more as a third tall that can only play in defence, rather than a utility outside speedy small.

We would be both too tall in defence, and not speedy enough off half-back and in the wing/half forward roles with Cleary in the team.

Fair enough. I think he has the agility to play small in the backline and then would have Bramble playing the wing / HFF position.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Fair enough. I think he has the agility to play small in the backline and then would have Bramble playing the wing / HFF position.

I think our rejigged defensive systems has our third tall playing deeper to goal, and that third tall needs to be fast (Khamis). This allows O'Donnell to man-mark their tall that follows the ball in open space, while Lobb can zone off his man, have Khamis cover for him from behind, and Lobb can push forward out of deep defence to attack contests. With our complete 180 turn in how we press up the ground, this system seems to be working. I also think we've made these changes to how oppositions now use their 2nd ruck with 5 on the bench - more likely to be on the bench than playing as a key forward. Meek/Reeves are now never on the ground at the same time, for example, so neither of then are resting deep forward, so Khamis can play deeper as he won't be on a ruckman-sized key forward, rather than having Lobb/O'Donnell do that.

Last year Lobb and O'Donnell would play a bit more of a deeper, but defensive zonal system against the opposition talls, because they had to, because we were pressing so high up the ground we didn't want an opposition key forward slipping out the back in space, and outmarking Jason Johannisen or Taylor Duryea in the back pocket (they did a lot of this anyway, if they managed to beat our press, or win the occasional clearance despite our rank 1 clearance differential). There was a role for a slower running, less athletic Luke Cleary in this system - he would play ahead of Lobb/O'Donnell and be a two-way player both in being an outlet for Lobb/O'Donnell's ball movement, but also man up against the oppositon 3rd tall forward that played in front of the opposition main key forward/deep resting ruck.

All of this is to say that there really isn't a role for Cleary in our systems anymore - his place in the team is now replaced by Budarick and Sellwood, who is a different types of players to each other and to Cleary, for two different roles to Cleary's from last year. It also makes the decision to retain Coffield on our list, who was OOC and behind Cleary for that role, a bit perplexing. Perhaps we weren't expecting Sellwood to be best 23 before the pre-season, I suppose, so Cleary/Coffield were initially considered to be the placeholders there.

As an aside, if we want to be rigid to this new defensive system, and Buku gets injured, I think Ryan Gardner comes in. He matches, if anything, exceeds Buku for leaping and closing speed athleticism. Busslinger, Coffield, Cleary don't. Buss comes in if either Lobb or O'Donnell are injured. I think Emmett started training in pre-season as a key defender, but must have changed to training as a ruck/forward once it became clear that we had a best 23 Buku on our hands (and that Emmett himself was exceeding expectations in training in his tapwork, forward nous, marking, goalkicking accuracy, etc). I'm very excited to see Emmett play this weekend, btw.

 

[dogwatch]

There were a couple of moments especially in the Brisbane game with F50 stoppages where Hynes won the ball, battered through tackles and physical pressure and did a perfect handball despite this traffic to a teammate in an awkward angle, that he shouldn't have had the vision to see in traffic. Those are the moments that make you go, "wow". And like you say, it makes you think he could be a very good player in a different position in the future - because he is simply not using his ability in stoppage traffic (his size and vision and clean hands and strength) when he's just shuttling between the flanks and wing in general transition play. He will have to this week though, because he's still presumably better value for us at that role than Luke Kennedy at this stage, even if it's out of position for him.

The question only just occurred to me because I have been watching some of the Adelaide-Carlton game:
Is Hynes as a 20yo a bit like a young Patrick Cripps? Big bodied, good in close but not especially quick.

If his trajectory followed that of Cripps we'd have a pretty decent player. I doubt he'd ever be as good as Cripps (or win even one Brownlow lol) but he seems to have some of the same physical and playing characteristics.


EDIT: Just noticed Cripps is 195cm! That's 5cm taller than Hynes. Quite a difference.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

The question only just occurred to me because I have been watching some of the Adelaide-Carlton game:
Is Hynes as a 20yo a bit like a young Patrick Cripps? Big bodied, good in close but not especially quick.

If his trajectory followed that of Cripps we'd have a pretty decent player. I doubt he'd ever be as good as Cripps (or win even one Brownlow lol) but he seems to have some of the same physical and playing characteristics.

Season two Patty Cripps was already a gun, so starting a little behind, but yeah that does feel like the mould he is in. Seemed to be some talk pre-draft was that he was quite powerful but he doesn't seem to have that burst, at least from the small sample size we've seen of him thus far

Think Matt Kennedy is ideally the player you'd love him to develop into. Strong one on one player that you can play forward of centre as well as through the midfield. Obviously the Cripps' and Tom Green's and that really high calibre are going to be handy in any era but it feels currently that there probably isn't room for more than one of this type in your midfield. Think unless you are the very top of the league, you need to have extra strings to your bow