Forward Line

[Kirk Hinrich #12]

I think some of the bloke have hit the nail on the head. GAME PLAN. Malthouse has this arrogance of not being willing enough to change his game plan. He drops Dawes who although is not the worlds best forward at least straightened up the team, he also provided relief for our hardest working forward Travis Cloke. Jack Anthony is not having the best season but he if he can work hard is another that can provide a target.
What Malthouse essentially is doing is asking the small players to be big targets and then blaming them for our failures. Example is Medhurst who is playing out of position.
If Cloke leads to half forward or wing (which he will need to do and should do) he wheels onto the left and spots nobody inside 50 to provide a contest and bring the ball to ground for Davis, Didak, Dick, Medhurst. Dawes and Anthony provide that. You certainly need that on the MCG. You can get away with it a bit on the smaller grounds like Docklands because the game flows quicker and the ball carries further indoors but MCG you need those big long leads and you need more than one bloke to kick to.
Look at the Demons today, they at least had targets in Watts, Dunn, Bate, Miller, Green. We had Cloke.
Malthouse arrogance at selection and how he thinks he is a football god will kill our season. STOP PICKING L BROWN. Stop picking blokes who cant kick like Barham. I like Brent Macaffer but he is not a regular 22 player, he is the bloke we need filling gaps if needed not a walk in best 22 type player.
In the end we need a forward line that has structure and has more than Travis Cloke by himself.
HF: Didak, Cloke, Medhurst
F: Davis, Dawes, Dick
When we see this forward line you will see goals kicked.

 

[Syphoncom]

I think some of the bloke have hit the nail on the head. GAME PLAN. Malthouse has this arrogance of not being willing enough to change his game plan. He drops Dawes who although is not the worlds best forward at least straightened up the team, he also provided relief for our hardest working forward Travis Cloke. Jack Anthony is not having the best season but he if he can work hard is another that can provide a target.
What Malthouse essentially is doing is asking the small players to be big targets and then blaming them for our failures. Example is Medhurst who is playing out of position.
If Cloke leads to half forward or wing (which he will need to do and should do) he wheels onto the left and spots nobody inside 50 to provide a contest and bring the ball to ground for Davis, Didak, Dick, Medhurst. Dawes and Anthony provide that. You certainly need that on the MCG. You can get away with it a bit on the smaller grounds like Docklands because the game flows quicker and the ball carries further indoors but MCG you need those big long leads and you need more than one bloke to kick to.
Look at the Demons today, they at least had targets in Watts, Dunn, Bate, Miller, Green. We had Cloke.
Malthouse arrogance at selection and how he thinks he is a football god will kill our season. STOP PICKING L BROWN. Stop picking blokes who cant kick like Barham. I like Brent Macaffer but he is not a regular 22 player, he is the bloke we need filling gaps if needed not a walk in best 22 type player.
In the end we need a forward line that has structure and has more than Travis Cloke by himself.
HF: Didak, Cloke, Medhurst
F: Davis, Dawes, Dick
When we see this forward line you will see goals kicked.

Just on that, I haven't seen MM fault our smaller players. In fact even when everyone was having a crack at Davis he defended him and seems as though he always would.

As with JA, I agree that he has solid potential (I mean come on he's so young, as is Dawes) but his last game saw everyone wanting him dropped as well, I don't think it came out of left field.

 

[Forgotten Legend]

Our defence and mids run the ball to forward only to find nothing there. We seriously have to re-structure our forwards much better. Buckley and MM are experimenting WAY to much with our forward line when they know they have a good set up waiting for them. I think Number 10's structure seems like the best option:

-Davis, Cloke, Didak
-Medhurst, Anthony, Dick

-I/C Dawes

I seriously hope MM and Buckley can stop screwing around with the forward structure and let us get back into our best form.

 

[danielnajdek]

HF: Didak, Cloke, Medhurst
F: Davis, Dawes, Dick
When we see this forward line you will see goals kicked.

This would be a perfect forward line for us. Just don't think it will ever happen while MM is the boss.

 

[Syphoncom]

So at least we can agree we have the potential for a great forward line (easily eclipsing that of say Carlton, which unfortunately has enough to beat some top teams).

I guess the good thing is we have another 3 months to work out how to perfect this, hopefully get Dick in to some form and head in to the finals with Cloke playing at his best with either JA or Dawes in good form as the second tall forward. Good if Dawes got his drop right too.

And backing that up, we should finish top4 (certainty for top8) so as long as we don't **** around like we did yesterday, a bit of playing around until rounds 18-22 won't bother me too much.

 

[Tarkyn_24]

Idiotic statement, he was our best key forward against the Lions. Against the Cats, he was insipid.

One of which was an early roving goal - bar the first 10 minutes, he was as ordinary as Anthony.

People on this board just seem to view him through rose coloured glasses.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

And he was still better than Cloke on the night too, which made him our best key forward for the game. Not sure why rose coloured glasses are required to accept that a simple statement is in fact true.

 

[shawthing09]

And he was still better than Cloke on the night too, which made him our best key forward for the game. Not sure why rose coloured glasses are required to accept that a simple statement is in fact true.

I think he is possibly mistaking you saying he was our best for you saying he played well. He certainly was our best on a night where all our key fowards failed. That said it was another case of the ball movement really not doing any favours. I still wonder how much the fowards contribute to that though.

 

[Unknown Identity]

Personally i believe we should play an open forward line.

John Anthony in the square, and Medhurst as a lead up forward.

Leon Davis as the other forward pocket, but up the ground, moving through half forward and half back..

There aren't too many defenders that can stop Medhurst on a lead, he's quick, he's smart, he knows when to lead..

and based on our kicking the this year, Medhurst and Anthony would be our most reliable set shots and we need the ball in their hands. 9 goals 22 behinds is just not good enough.

If we can move the ball a little faster into our forward line and not let oppostion flood back and zone off, we should score more easily.

Just seems much too congested once we get the ball inside 50.

But Mick's game plan doesn't really allow for quick transitional football from defense to attack, so we're screwed against well drilled defences.

I honestly don't think we can win a flag with the style of footy we currently play.