Fractured cheekbone yesterday. Go to the gym for a few months and see you next year
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Analysis English on a wing 2022
- Thread starter ScragCity
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Nasty head clash, it does make you wonder whether the
powers that be can call off a game if the conditions are
that bad. There were a lot of collision injuries during
the game as it was impossible to read where the ball was
going to land. Tim English was injured on the wing which
is sad irony in a way.
- Jul 4, 2016
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- #53
You're taking the urine of course? When has there ever been a 205cm wingman? Just ludicrous
Igloo
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But... English did play on the wing when he got a game. Bevo even mentioned it.
- Sep 7, 2015
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- #55
So given English will have another preseason under his belt he should be ready to take his spot on the wing in our AFL side. Does this mean we play Macrae forward in 2018?
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No, Macrae to the ruck.
We really shouldn't be so small minded. Why should Tim "Wingspan" English only play on one wing, when he could be the first player in history to play on both wings at once?
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Wouldn't be the first. There was a bloke called Albert Ross who played a few games on both wings. Back in the 30s I think it was,
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- Sep 7, 2015
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- #60
The English ruck experiment has failed. It's time for him to resume his natural position on the wing and hand over the ruck work to Dunks and Nator permanently. 200 supercoach points would become his average.
How about HFF, with Lachie / Daniel playing defensive wing in front of him.
Knightmare the draft watcher likes him on a wing too. Thinks he would be a major point of difference.
- Sep 7, 2015
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- #63
I can see some merit to the idea of playing Sweet as the primary ruck. I have to concede that he was really impressive against Witts last weekend. But I don't really like English playing forward because he's a very mediocre forward, in my opinion. English is at his best when he's floating around the ground, marking everything and using his skills to play as a 207cm midfielder. So is there a way in which we can utilise his strengths without him playing as a ruck? That's really a question for Bevo. What would that role be? English on a wing? I've joked about it for years but I seriously think it could be the answer.
- Aug 15, 2014
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I mentioned this earlier in the year and it has some merit. I wouldn’t mind English taking the centre bounces and then just becoming a floating type of player around the ground with Sweet moving into the ruck from there.
Basically English has a free license to cover the ground however he sees fit. He could run around as a midfielder, push back as an extra in defence if we’re under the pump or push deep forward to expose the defenders. It would be a really unique role that opposition coaches would have to consider throughout the entire game.
- Sep 7, 2015
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- #65
The potential problem with just creating a new role is that it would have massive flow-on effects. We would have to make significant changes to our overall gameplan to cater for it. And the problems associated with designing a gameplan around one player should be obvious.
You can’t have 207cm Tim English (who can kick) on one wing and 181cm Rob McComb (who can’t kick) on the other wing because we’d need different game plans for each side of the ground and we know Bevo doesn’t have a Plan B at the best of times. If we drop McComb for Sam Darcy then we’re in business.
- Sep 7, 2015
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- #67
We already do.
- Sep 22, 2008
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- #68
You were ahead of your time DW
- Sep 22, 2008
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- #69
I don’t want Timmy sitting at full forward all day either as like you said his strength is in what he does around the ground, mostly I’d like to see him play very high half forward - get right up to half back as the bail out, always provide a marking target down the line and then push back deep to be a marking target inside 50.
That gets him involved around the ground to use his ball use, it means we always have a better marking target in front of us (rather than having him taking the ruck, Naughty pushing up as the marking target and then no one inside 50 like we find so often)
He’ll still ruck 50% of the game and from there he can push back and sit in the hole in defence still.
When the ball goes inside 50 when he’s rucking either Sweet/Naughty take it and he sits at the 50 and helps lock it in
Opens up a whole lot of possibilities, as you said we may have to change our gameplan a bit but is that the worst thing?
- Sep 7, 2015
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- #70
Why would you want English to ruck 50% of the game? I thought it was your belief that he's not very good at rucking and that using him in that way is not making the best use of him (which I don't disagree with)? If Sweet is only rucking for half the game then what is he doing for the other half? Just standing around giving us "structure"? Surely you let Sweet, the guy who is okay at rucking and useless at everything else, ruck as often as possible.
- Sep 22, 2008
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- #71
I still like him around the ground and don’t want to cramp him into a forward position for most of the day I don’t think that suits him at all.
My problem has never been English rucking it’s been him rucking alone. I think he’s a brilliant ruck this year, although his stoppage work still leaves a lot to be desired - more than happy with his CB work for the most part and obviously his play outside of the ruck contest.
He’d be brilliant rucking half of the game with genuine support, he’d get more time up against the oppos 2nd ruck who he should monster, he wouldn’t be a battering ram getting grinded down by two rucks for 4 qtrs (see Carlton game in which he was dismantled) at his best he is a good ruckman but he tires - this keeps him fresher for longer.
Sweet plays 50% ruck and hides in a forward pocket for 15-20% of the game to allow others some bench time - Cordys only playing 65-70% TOG too
Whether it’s 45/55, 60/40 whatever, I see them as a partnership I’m not looking for a 90/10 ruck split either way
- Sep 22, 2008
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- #72
To add to that, obviously this changes week to week too I don’t believe we should be going into a game aiming to split the ruck 50/50. Sometimes Sweet will be on top and should ruck more, English might be needed more forward, English may need to ruck more against a mobile ruckman Sweet can’t keep up with. There’s so many variables of course.
It’s a partnership but having two rucks in the 22 is key, how it works I don’t *ing know I don’t get paid for this s**t - make it work
It’s a partnership but having two rucks in the 22 is key, how it works I don’t *ing know I don’t get paid for this s**t - make it work
- Sep 7, 2015
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- #73
Cordy sucks. I wouldn't use Cordy as a benchmark for what Sweet should be doing. Talking about "hiding" Sweet in a pocket makes it sound like you're conceding that we effectively have 17 players on field when Sweet is there but not rucking. We'd be better off letting Sweet spend 50% of the game on the bench, in your 50/50 split scenario. I think we are getting at the problem with Sweet here. If you just want a player who can take 50% of the ruck time, they absolutely have to be reasonably good at another role too. Saying "but Cordy..." isn't a good argument for Sweet. Whatever we go with needs to be much better than whatever the hell Cordy was doing.
My plan would be to try an 80/20 split between Sweet and English, with English playing more of a wing role for most of the game. When Sweet isn't rucking, get him off the ground.
In a perfect world, Darcy will come along quickly and could be that viable 50/50 partner with English.
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- Sep 7, 2015
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- #74
I'm going to remember that you said this.
- Sep 22, 2008
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- #75
Yeah but I don’t think we have any other options this year, I really don’t think Sweet is great at all he’s definitely surprised me last week. But just on this year alone I think there’s two viable options, Sweet & Cordy - I don’t think it’s a good idea to be using Bruce in the ruck coming back off an ACL tbh but he’d be the other option
The reason Sweet needs to be on the ground is we need to allow rotations for other midfielders on the bench you can’t bench sweet for 50% of the game. But 25-35 is fine. Hide probably wasn’t the best word but all he needs to focus on inside 50 is laying a few blocks for Naughty, and if he gets the chance aggressively smash some packs and bring ball to ground - I think he’s capable of that.
I’m willing to take that as the downside to the positives he brings, compared to an extra “runner” in the team as we’ve preferred a lot of the time.
I’m also open to your suggestion of Sweet 80/20 with Timmy, not sure English likes that though whereas I feel we could sell a 50/50 split a lot better to him - not that that should be our concern but anyway.
I don’t know what the best set up is but I’m sure we’ll tinker with it and work it out and I’m sure the partnership will change and develop week to week if we allow it - but we have to try something to get more out of the team then we have been and this is a good start imo
