In low intensity games it worked alright, not in big games.
We were crying out for a CHF and a bit more defensive pressure at ground level.
Strategy Geelong 2017 Midfield
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In low intensity games it worked alright, not in big games.
We were crying out for a CHF and a bit more defensive pressure at ground level.
Good call.
Was far more obvious in our losses (weren't many admittedly) that we appeared to be bombing and hoping that someone would take a big contested grab.
This also played into the opposition's hands, similarly to us in our premiership run, where we'd get numbers to the contest and then run the ball out.
I have not scoured every page.. but the last few seem to focus on the Dynamic duo and the gap to the rest , especially when looking how we performed in the finals. Reasonably fair to my mind. The rest.
The finals performance for me crystallised my feeling that wins thru the season are only valuable in the sense that they place us in the finals and looking good or better thru the year has less relevance than finals performance , not only in importance but as a true indicator. Too often an opposition can go just short of all or nothing thru the season , players are rested , game plans are altered or finessed. Weakness is exposed. Status is defined.
Question. Have we looked at all the players in the mid group.ie the rucks. It would seem to me that for most of the year we did reasonable well but bit by bit our rucks performance seem to be less influence , and my memory of the Swans game was we really had little to no influence. It was a long year for Smith , it was a big step in spotlight and a lot of games prepared to what he had played in recent years. Stanley seems to have the template that most players would die for height speed leap etc yet there is a chink there somewhere as well. To me , any assessment of how our mid group will perform in 2017 must consider how the rucks as well. Can they get better? How much upside do we have in that role?
I think we have several mid types that may step up (MAY) , Cockatoo , Lang , Menegola should be better. SS if fitter ...who knows maybe even Parfitt may show something. We have options if they are able to step up. Im not sure we have that in the ruck role. Just how many players do we have over 200? Abbott had to be doubtful even if fully fit.
The finals performance for me crystallised my feeling that wins thru the season are only valuable in the sense that they place us in the finals and looking good or better thru the year has less relevance than finals performance , not only in importance but as a true indicator. Too often an opposition can go just short of all or nothing thru the season , players are rested , game plans are altered or finessed. Weakness is exposed. Status is defined.
Question. Have we looked at all the players in the mid group.ie the rucks. It would seem to me that for most of the year we did reasonable well but bit by bit our rucks performance seem to be less influence , and my memory of the Swans game was we really had little to no influence. It was a long year for Smith , it was a big step in spotlight and a lot of games prepared to what he had played in recent years. Stanley seems to have the template that most players would die for height speed leap etc yet there is a chink there somewhere as well. To me , any assessment of how our mid group will perform in 2017 must consider how the rucks as well. Can they get better? How much upside do we have in that role?
I think we have several mid types that may step up (MAY) , Cockatoo , Lang , Menegola should be better. SS if fitter ...who knows maybe even Parfitt may show something. We have options if they are able to step up. Im not sure we have that in the ruck role. Just how many players do we have over 200? Abbott had to be doubtful even if fully fit.
To me it's simple. We've got two ruckmen in Smith and Stanley, and Blicavs is the backup. Can't see there being anyone else right now.
One thing Smith did do is showed he could handle the workload. Last year was the most games he'd ever managed in one season. For Stanley it's purely inconsistency. Has the tools to be one hell of a player, but whether we'll ever see it consistently is another matter. They're still our best two options though.
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
Agreed.
That has always been Stanley's issue, and whether maturity, development, luck, and knowing he is needed may bring out his more consistent best- we can only hope.
Smith has also shown great examples of why he was so sought after originally.
That he survived our long season with hardly a physical issue is a bonus for 17.
I certainly believe these 2 are more than "all we have", and in fact, IF they can only improve on 16, we have weapons.
Pretty much as I see it Partridge. Best options , yes , but Im not convinced either have the upside of underclass of mids. And last year both managed to play full seasons ..which was unusual for our rucks. 44 games out of them as duo. Just how much better can they get.
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
Consolidation of their fitness- last year they just got there= you could see the decline during the season.
Getting to know each other and the team- there is a learning curve.
I think we saw signs in 15 and 16 that make me happy we have both these players ready to pounce.
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They have been underwhelming at best and neither would come close to figuring in the top dozen or so ruckmen in the league.
When we needed them to stand tall in the finals they were conspicuous in their inability to make any real impact.
Hoping for some genuine improvement over the off-season.
dazbroncos
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Regarding Rucks, we have come from a base of Walker and Blitz with nothing over 200cm.
Smith and Stanley get us over that hump and both are actually #1 rucks if needed. Another bonus.
I'll take last year as Yr1 as combo - but I want to see more development this year and better consistency. Smith has his first full year after his ACL and seemed to tire at the end. (2015 he played all year but only 1/2 AFL and 1/2 NEAFL) Rucks also seem to not get fully into the role until they are 27-28 or so - at least that's what ive read on here from those than know more than I do - so he should IMO get better this year. Stanley, as Partridge said could be anything. His achilles seems to be consistency. Whether that is belief, confidence, whatever - he needs to get it under control and smooth it out.
If this things happen to both, we could see them move up that list of Rucks.
Granted, after being used to Top 30 rucks sine Otto left, i'll take last year that gave us Top 16 rucks.
Like to see them both make the Top 10 rucks in the game this year.
GO Catters
Smith and Stanley get us over that hump and both are actually #1 rucks if needed. Another bonus.
I'll take last year as Yr1 as combo - but I want to see more development this year and better consistency. Smith has his first full year after his ACL and seemed to tire at the end. (2015 he played all year but only 1/2 AFL and 1/2 NEAFL) Rucks also seem to not get fully into the role until they are 27-28 or so - at least that's what ive read on here from those than know more than I do - so he should IMO get better this year. Stanley, as Partridge said could be anything. His achilles seems to be consistency. Whether that is belief, confidence, whatever - he needs to get it under control and smooth it out.
If this things happen to both, we could see them move up that list of Rucks.
Granted, after being used to Top 30 rucks sine Otto left, i'll take last year that gave us Top 16 rucks.
Like to see them both make the Top 10 rucks in the game this year.
GO Catters
You would hope that the dynamic duo can continue at their high standard - having two of the comps best mids is a huge bonus
I think improvement is possible for the midfield group :
> All of them are fit atm so another preseason and season of gelling together won't hurt
> Rucks faded in second half 2016 - full preseason plus staying durable in season should make them both better
> Menegola and Selwood should be available rnd 1
> A vestless Motlop is a plus , Cocky fit for rnd 1 I like very much
> Hopefully Lang will step into best 22 contention
> Guthrie and Duncan to develop more and provide quality depth
> Parfitt could surprise
To be a threat we definitely need to bat deeper and win games when PFD and the Timbermerchant play mere mortal type games
I think improvement is possible for the midfield group :
> All of them are fit atm so another preseason and season of gelling together won't hurt
> Rucks faded in second half 2016 - full preseason plus staying durable in season should make them both better
> Menegola and Selwood should be available rnd 1
> A vestless Motlop is a plus , Cocky fit for rnd 1 I like very much
> Hopefully Lang will step into best 22 contention
> Guthrie and Duncan to develop more and provide quality depth
> Parfitt could surprise
To be a threat we definitely need to bat deeper and win games when PFD and the Timbermerchant play mere mortal type games
Unless i'm missing something but not alot of has said about the hyphen this pre-season ?
The rabbi
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I think that he is seen as too far down the list of options to inspire much discussion.
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Stanley is putrid as a number one ruckman. I'm not adding a negative spin here, I'm telling it as it is. He's a super athletic beanpole who will never be able to consistently put up big numbers like many genuine rucks do at age 26-27.
The club desperately needs to recruit a highly touted ruckman for the future. A young kid who is already close to 100kg's and standing 6ft'8 tall. We did it with Steven King and we managed to bring in another in Brad Ottens.
The best teams always have one physical ruckman in their side. Someone who can crash and bash.
Geelong's ruck combo are the least physical in the entire competition.
They will never change who they are and because of it, we will never see them leading the charge when the team needs it most. Last years final series highlighted this in bundles.
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What's Abbott like Bobby? Is he a bash and crash? I've never seen him play so I don't know.
Stan The Caddy
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I haven't given up on him yet by any stretch. He is running out of time though. That much is obvious.
Stan The Caddy
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Watch out for Lang this year mate. He'll be the big improver IMO.
In my mind he starts a long way behind the mid group. He's probably depth unless someone stinks it up or we cop injuries
You would think 2017 is huge for him but I'm not sure he'll get a chance to shine
I see where your coming from and agree there are things to fix up and address. I think there was a lot of good things about the way we moved it and went inside fifty, but there is also a lot to work on and improve to take us to the next level.
Our flow and movement from a contest needs to be worked on. We have a very good accomplished short pass game under pressure, but when it comes to run and carry, we didn't have a good flow or structure and just got ourselves into too much trouble and coughed it up. Also our fast paced transition from our backline rebounding. This can be improved on.
I love the short composed kicking aspect of our game, think it is to a great standard and it took us to a prelim and had us beating a lot of quality sides, but we need to work on the balance of our spread run and carry as well as our spread from defence being a bit more dynamic and unpredictable. I feel teams prepared too easily up the field ahead of us coming out of defence.
Be interesting to see how they address the tweaks and changes.
Ray Donovan
Staring into the abyss
Pointing to the fact that we played Sydney in the finals and lost the same way as in geelong. We didn't play the bulldogs in the finals when they were flying when in counts so I was selective on sides we actually played in the finals hawthorn and Sydney. And everyone knows regular season wins mean nothing when finals roll around
Ray Donovan
Staring into the abyss
What it shows is the coaching panels performance should be under the exact same amount of scrutiny as the players. Horse outclassed Chris Scott from the box.
Ray Donovan
Staring into the abyss
I think GWS jumped from 16th youngest last season to top 2 with the acquisitions of deliedio, DB, Mzungu
Ray Donovan
Staring into the abyss
Our ruck department is average at best will be heavily tested this year now the 3rd man up rule is abolished which we used frequently.
Smith, Stanley, Blicavs not a group likely to yield an A grade ruckman.
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It will be tested on the injury front as well given this club rarely goes a full year unscathed. Something will be bound to give in 2017.
