Dunkley and the other players

Does he have a lack of forward nous? His leading patterns are fine, Bruce has been playing forward for years and Naughty already has him covered for forward nous by a mile. What does he not do that he should as a forward?

Some combo of Bruce/Schache/JUH/English/Martin is not a good combo at all. Bruce would be the worst number one forward in the comp by a mile. Martin is no good forward, English would be a good third tall but has never played significant time forward and would probably struggle badly if he had to play a proper key forward post, JUH would get the number one defender in his first game and get bullied.

it would be negligent to the development of JUH to go in round 1 without Naughty beside him
I think he does lack forward nous, definitely. Not surprising as he's only played 1.5 seasons there his whole life. Takes a long time to get that knack.
He's caught out of position often, it's only really his elite athleticism that allows him to overcome that. It's why you see him flying from so far back to take marks all the time. Secondly, when defenders take away his run and jump at the ball I don't think he has much else in his arsenal to get the ball. That's why he has so many games with little possessions. From his 12 games this year he had 5 games with 5 or less disposals. Only had 3 games with more than 10 disposals. He often runs into congestion. I don't think his patterns are all that good, he doesn't get much separation. Generally his defender is fairly close to him, Naughton just beats them 1v1.

With Martin's inclusion English will be playing forward a whole lot. There is no way JUH gets the number one defender with Bruce and English/Martin and possibly Schache there. To say JUH would be exposed if Naughton goes back is a bit overboard IMO. Teams aren't going to play their 3rd defender on English/Martin. They'd get annihilated.
 
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I think he does lack forward nous, definitely. Not surprising as he's only played 1.5 seasons there his whole life. Takes a long time to get that knack.
He's caught out of position often, it's only really his elite athleticism that allows him to overcome that. It's why you see him flying from so far back to take marks all the time. Secondly, when defenders take away his run and jump at the ball I don't think he has much else in his arsenal to get the ball. That's why he has so many games with little possessions. From his 12 games this year he had 5 games with 5 or less disposals. Only had 3 games with more than 10 disposals. He often runs into congestion. I don't think his patterns are all that good, he doesn't get much separation. Generally his defender is fairly close to him, Naughton just beats them 1v1.

With Martin's inclusion English will be playing forward a whole lot. There is no way JUH gets the number one defender with Bruce and English/Martin and possibly Schache there. To say JUH would be exposed if Naughton goes back is a bit overboard IMO. Teams aren't going to play their 3rd defender on English/Martin. They'd get annihilated.
Well we’re on completely different pages in regards to Naughton, I strongly disagree with literally everything you’ve said haha so let’s just leave it at that.

One thing I’ll say though, Bruce is widely considered one of the best contested marks in the league. Do you know how many contested marks he took this year in our forward line? 18. Our delivery to our key forwards is hopeless, it’s not that Naughty gets out of position. He makes great position but gets burnt. He took 53 contested marks last year despite this.

a forward line of 3 of Bruce, Schache, English and JUH will fail miserably
 
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So, given the tennis balls = pubic hair revelation on here, was Bucks actually playing tennis, and Sanderson claimed to be playing tennis with him, but apparently wasn't? Or is the tennis ball reference an analogy for pubic hair in that story too? And if so, the question becomes - whose pubic hair is it referring to - Bucks, Sanderson or a female? Or all three?! I am going to be mighty suspicious if AFL players and coaches start referencing tennis balls in interviews.

(On a side note, given discussion on another thread about winning our first game in 1980 after 11 straight losses, I notice our wins starting flowing that year after a certain Bairnsdale wingman made his debut. ;))

I believe the female is Alicia Molik, no?

I hope so. Balances the 22 perfectly. Providing of course there's no other left field selections.

We really need Lewis Young to come on this year to play Naughton forward.

So much this. We BADLY need Young to find his spot so we can have the luxury of Naughton forward.
 

Glaeken Oracle

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I believe the female is Alicia Molik, no?



So much this. We BADLY need Young to find his spot so we can have the luxury of Naughton forward.

She's married, with at least one child. I haven't seen any suggestion she is involved in Buckley's separation. Is the "tennis" match and Sanderson lie related to some sort of extra-marital affair/cover-up, or is that just BF putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with a pineapple?
 
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So much this. We BADLY need Young to find his spot so we can have the luxury of Naughton forward.
No key forward kicked more than two goals on the Keath and Cordy combo last year except McKay with 3 against Carlton when peak Scarlett and Lake would have struggled that day in that team. That’s despite us playing a high risk game which doesn’t exactly protect our defenders. Is our backline really that bad? I think when we went to 3 talls + Wood we lost the strongest part of our game which was our drive from half back. A big reason we lost the final imo
 

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No key forward kicked more than two goals on the Keath and Cordy combo last year except McKay with 3 against Carlton when peak Scarlett and Lake would have struggled that day in that team. That’s despite us playing a high risk game which doesn’t exactly protect our defenders. Is our backline really that bad? I think when we went to 3 talls + Wood we lost the strongest part of our game which was our drive from half back. A big reason we lost the final imo

Without looking at the stats. Our 1on1 defending would be up there with the worst in the league.
 

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Without looking at the stats. Our 1on1 defending would be up there with the worst in the league.
Thats because we don't have a 1on1 defence. When it gets out the back quickly our defence is caught off guard and a mismatch is formed in defence equalling an easy goal. If we defend better higher up the ground our defence gets in place and we're fine
 
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No key forward kicked more than two goals on the Keath and Cordy combo last year except McKay with 3 against Carlton when peak Scarlett and Lake would have struggled that day in that team. That’s despite us playing a high risk game which doesn’t exactly protect our defenders. Is our backline really that bad? I think when we went to 3 talls + Wood we lost the strongest part of our game which was our drive from half back. A big reason we lost the final imo
Gardner refusing to mark the ball does invite pressure though so offers the other opposition forwards plenty of chances.
 
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Gardner refusing to mark the ball does invite pressure though so offers the other opposition forwards plenty of chances.
Yeah I’m not including the games Gardener played, I’ve made my view on him quite clear and he has no place being close to best 22 for mine. I’m all in on a 2KPD set up with as many quick, elite aerial mediums and as much run as possible. Like we played early season when our defence was quite strong
 
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Or being under instructions to punch it at every opportunity?

We are the 2nd best ground ball team and concede the 4th least amount of ground ball in defence, so it does make a certain amount of sense to play to that strength. I still would prefer to mark it more often.
 

Virgin Dog

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Have been told the players have been told naughton will play down back next year.
Love it. Calling it now - Bruce will thrive next year. Also opens it up to Schache playing instead of Dale. Really think it will be great for our overall structure (particularly the set up of our spine) with Naughton back
 
From a notoriously offensive coach? I doubt that’s by instruction, goes against everything Bev has done with the backline from day 1
Except that he was trying to mark or wrestle with his opponent early in the season when he gave away those horrendous free kicks (Hipwood wasn't it?) Ever since then he's been punching the aerial ball if there's any hint of a contest.

Looks like a clear instruction to me.
 
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Except that he was trying to mark or wrestle with his opponent early in the season when he gave away those horrendous free kicks (Hipwood wasn't it?) Ever since then he's been punching the aerial ball if there's any hint of a contest.

Looks like a clear instruction to me.
Possibly, it doesn’t say much about his ability or place in the team if he’s been instructed to only spoil because he can’t do anything else reasonably well
 
Possibly, it doesn’t say much about his ability or place in the team if he’s been instructed to only spoil because he can’t do anything else reasonably well
That's the puzzle. They persevere with him despite his limitations.

They must see something they like.
 
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That's the puzzle. They persevere with him despite his limitations.

They must see something they like.
Stranger things have happened I guess and I’m probably wrong more often than right but we looked a hell of a lot better when we had an extra small in defence. Happy to have him on the list anyway
 

Glaeken Oracle

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That's the puzzle. They persevere with him despite his limitations.

They must see something they like.

I like how he looks a little like Joel Hamling. Beyond that, not so much. I believe that he has a very limited career with us, but more than happy for Ryan to prove me wrong (hopefully very wrong).
 

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She's married, with at least one child. I haven't seen any suggestion she is involved in Buckley's separation. Is the "tennis" match and Sanderson lie related to some sort of extra-marital affair/cover-up, or is that just BF putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with a pineapple?

Who seriously cares? Take it to the New Idea thread
 
Well we’re on completely different pages in regards to Naughton, I strongly disagree with literally everything you’ve said haha so let’s just leave it at that.

One thing I’ll say though, Bruce is widely considered one of the best contested marks in the league. Do you know how many contested marks he took this year in our forward line? 18. Our delivery to our key forwards is hopeless, it’s not that Naughty gets out of position. He makes great position but gets burnt. He took 53 contested marks last year despite this.

a forward line of 3 of Bruce, Schache, English and JUH will fail miserably
Fair enough, but you can't really argue with his low disposal output in games? 5, 4, 13, 4, 9, 10, 8, 6, 4, 9, 10, 2. He just doesn't get the ball enough and that worries me about him playing forward. Having said that, his output was higher in 2019 so hopefully he could get back to that level.



 
I've spent the last couple of days deep sea diving in the Marianas trench so may have missed the news. Did Essendon end up taking Kyle Dunkley in either the main or rookie drafts?
 
I've spent the last couple of days deep sea diving in the Marianas trench so may have missed the news. Did Essendon end up taking Kyle Dunkley in either the main or rookie drafts?
Took him with their first pick
 

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Gonna be f*n ropable if we send Naughty to defence. I can’t wait til round 5 when we realise Bruce is hopeless and JUH is getting absolutely ruined by the number one defender and we send him forward again after wasting the whole preseason. Leave him ******* forward ffs, any other coach in the league would
Relax it’s not happening
 

Freshwater

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I've spent the last couple of days deep sea diving in the Marianas trench so may have missed the news. Did Essendon end up taking Kyle Dunkley in either the main or rookie drafts?
How this isn’t called out by the main stream media is not surprising but disappointing. I wonder what Andrew and his wife think about Essendon now? First they promised Josh and Kyle everything and made Josh publicly speak out about his own club then weren’t willing to give up anything for that to happen. And have now dudded Kyle.
 
How this isn’t called out by the main stream media is not surprising but disappointing. I wonder what Andrew and his wife think about Essendon now? First they promised Josh and Kyle everything and made Josh publicly speak out about his own club then weren’t willing to give up anything for that to happen. And have now dudded Kyle.
Dons supporters who have been pointed out exactly this now saying "show me where we PROMISED to draft Kyle...."
 
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