.....HendoMANIA!!!!

[jangofett]

I'm not in the group to treat Reilly, Otten, VB and others as whipping boys and I rate both Reilly & Otten as good AFL players in their own right.

Nevertheless, the fact is that a/the major weakness of our defence was the lack of run and carry ( & pace & composure) and when Hendo went back there (along with Smith) was a revelation.
In 2014, with Smith moving to the midfield, that leaves Rutten, Talia, Brown & Laird in defence with 2 vacancies - IMO we need 2 run and carry players such as Hendo & Shaw.

Despite Reilly & Otten being good players when assessed individually, I believe that as a group (part of our defence), they leave us structurally deficient and a liability to the team as a whole.
This may well be a real test for Sando - can he make the hard calls required for the team to progress or will he stick to the old "public service seniority" type of team selection.

ie My defence would be: FB: Laird Rutten Henderson HB: Shaw Talia Brown

Otten & Reilly as back-up for injury/form but otherwise will have to fight with others to play either midfield or forward. As good as they are, I really think that they would be a better fit in another team which has more pace already around the ground.) In any case, I much prefer Otten as a tall midfielder - he is a ball magnet as is Lynch - hopefully both of them spend the summer with appropriate coaching designed to improve their pace and explosive pace of the mark otherwise they will quickly find themselves superseded in the way the game is going.

The game is going in the direction that suits endurance based players, not fast burst players. Cap will be reduced to 80 in 2016. These two will have no trouble having a long career. Neither is slow either, it seems players on bigfooty are categorised as either fast or slow lol

 

[jangofett]

Otten will not see any forward line game time in 2014

 

[jangofett]

Be warned, Waynes-World has an obsession with playing otten forward.

Otten is a woeful kick
Poor at ground level (if the ball hits the ground, its over)
Applies very little pressure
not a strong tank

Is behind walker, jenkins, lynch, podsiadly, johnston, mckernan as a forward line player

And will spend the WHOLE pre season training in defence, because that is where he will play

Also, on the swingman debate, no one will be playing a 'swingman' role. Sanderson doesn't do it, and the only coaches that do use one are teams that are short up forward.

In pre-empting respones "we had swingman in 2013":

• henderson swang back in the gold coast game when reilly went down, he didnt see the forward line again
• Otten went forward when we had an injury up forward DURING a game, or when we had no forwards left and he had to start there to provide a contest at least. At no time did he play back and forward in the one game without a player up forward being injured

 

[Wilko91]

Otten is a woeful kick
Poor at ground level (if the ball hits the ground, its over)
Applies very little pressure
not a strong tank

At no time did he play back and forward in the one game without a player up forward being injured

Even thought they didn't look pretty he kicked 15 goals and 4 behinds. That's a good percentage.

Your last line is the definition of a swing man. Someone that can play back or forward depending on injuries and/or game requirements.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Be warned, Waynes-World has an obsession with playing otten forward.

Otten is a woeful kick
Poor at ground level (if the ball hits the ground, its over)
Applies very little pressure
not a strong tank

Is behind walker, jenkins, lynch, podsiadly, johnston, mckernan as a forward line player

And will spend the WHOLE pre season training in defence, because that is where he will play

Also, on the swingman debate, no one will be playing a 'swingman' role. Sanderson doesn't do it, and the only coaches that do use one are teams that are short up forward.

In pre-empting respones "we had swingman in 2013":

• henderson swang back in the gold coast game when reilly went down, he didnt see the forward line again
• Otten went forward when we had an injury up forward DURING a game, or when we had no forwards left and he had to start there to provide a contest at least. At no time did he play back and forward in the one game without a player up forward being injured

agree, happy for Otten to pitch hit forward now and then but should not form part of our core forward structure

personally I think his set shot kicking is not that bad however I agree his ability to apply forward pressure would leave us servely exposed and put pressure on others to compensate his lack of ability to apply pressure

 

[Tex200]

agree, happy for Otten to pitch hit forward now and then but should not form part of our core forward structure

personally I think his set shot kicking is not that bad however I agree his ability to apply forward pressure would leave us servely exposed and put pressure on others to compensate his lack of ability to apply pressure

Im in the Otten forward camp, just looked a natural at times last year. If his major weakness as a forward is application of defensive pressure, how can we have him in defence?

If that is a weakness then it needs to be identified by the coaching staff and improved, rather then be a reason for not playing him forward thereby exposing us in the back half.

 

[cmndstab]

I don't think there is any problem with Otten's tank, either. It's always been a strength of his.

 

[King Elvis]

His tank is fine, but I reckon Truck could beat him over twenty meters

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Im in the Otten forward camp, just looked a natural at times last year. If his major weakness as a forward is application of defensive pressure, how can we have him in defence?

If that is a weakness then it needs to be identified by the coaching staff and improved, rather then be a reason for not playing him forward thereby exposing us in the back half.

Don't disagree with you

As per plenty of my post this year I've always struggled to have him in my best 22

 

[conVINCEd]

I'm stoked Hendo has stayed a Crow; he looked fantastic flying out of defence towards the end of this season.

I got to see him live in our smashing of Carlton at Etihad last year and his sheer pace is breathtaking.

Definitely adds much needed pace to our defence.