How good is our forward line?

Oct 12, 2007
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http://m.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-05/who-has-the-best-forwards-we-rank-every-club

I was surprised to see us rated so high.

Not because I dont think we can be that good but because there are a lot of questions for mine. Namely...

1. How will our forward line perform if they actually get some decent delivery

2. How well will Ryder/Lycett go resting forward

3. How much time will Robbie spend forward with Wingard gone.

The one thing that stands out for me is how much depth we suddenly have in small forwards. With a resting ruck taking up one extra space, Robbie in a pocket and Boak playing high half forward that only leaves one spot to squeeze in SGray, Rozee, Farrell, Johnson, Amon, Butters, Drew, Woodcock, Cox etc.

We really need one of these to become a genuine crumbling small forward to capitalise on our resting ruck/Charlie bringing the ball to ground.



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The Rubber Man

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May 1, 2018
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Dixon is so up and down.

Ryder i think makes a good forward option, however i feel like against the better teams Lycett wont cut it, we will send ryder to the ruck and then lycett forward... which is a big downgrade i think.

On potential its good, but still cant see many clean entries being provided to them from our midfield.

I have a feeling this year will be one to forget. Im moving away from just forward line talk, but us on paper up against teams like West Coast, richmond and melbourne doesn't look great.
 
Sep 3, 2002
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The one thing that stands out for me is how much depth we suddenly have in small forwards. With a resting ruck taking up one extra space, Robbie in a pocket and Boak playing high half forward that only leaves one spot to squeeze in SGray, Rozee, Farrell, Johnson, Amon, Butters, Drew, Woodcock, Cox etc.
We have plenty of smalls tried as forwards. S. Gray is not a small forward (come at me), Boak is not, Amon is not. Johnson is, but is inconsistent, Farrell is, but is just starting out. Drew is a midfielder, so no idea if he can play as a small forward at AFL level until he's played there. And of our new recruits, only Butters and Rozee are a realistic chance of getting many games.

As long as we're playing at least two of Dixon, Watts and Marshall, along with Lycett and Ryder rotated forward, with Sam Gray playing the position of Left Right Out, then our forward line will look much better than recent times. As long as they are allowed to be a forward line and aren't dragged up the ground to be the replacement midfield, as our midfielders are dragged back to overload our defense. Bring on the 6-6-6 rule.
 
I love dixon but he doesn't have soft hands and can have the yips at times
Watts is butter
Marshall is my great white hope
A resting ruck is exactly that

I fear rgray's age may start to catch up with him
Boak is a midfielder who we are trying to reinvent
The third small is a broken rockcliff or developing

add to that poor i50 entries and poor coaching

Fingers crossed something clicks
 
Sep 26, 2012
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We now at least have options with Ryder/Lycett, Marshall, Dixon, Westhoff, Farrell.
I am a little more positive about where we are headed, the letting go of Wingard should make any large egos think twice about their approach to their footy.
 
It is a speculation piece and it's not unreasonable to speculate that those players have the potential to coalesce into a threatening forward group. There is great diversity of scoring options and aptitudes there as well as a good selection of key position players.

Funnily enough, what Monty does with the backline will have a great bearing on the success of our forwards. If he develops a quick thinking, intercepting and rebounding backline unit, then those forwards will get plenty of opportunity to hurt opposition defences.
 
Sep 26, 2012
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It is a speculation piece and it's not unreasonable to speculate that those players have the potential to coalesce into a threatening forward group. There is great diversity of scoring options and aptitudes there as well as a good selection of key position players.

Funnily enough, what Monty does with the backline will have a great bearing on the success of our forwards. If he develops a quick thinking, intercepting and rebounding backline unit, then those forwards will get plenty of opportunity to hurt opposition defences.
The return of Hartlett and may be Broadbent could be massive as far as our rebounding goes.
 
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Visenfest

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Oct 3, 2013
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Funnily enough, what Monty does with the backline will have a great bearing on the success of our forwards. If he develops a quick thinking, intercepting and rebounding backline unit, then those forwards will get plenty of opportunity to hurt opposition defences.
That's if the backline has something to kick to of course ;)
 
Potentially it can be the best in the competition.

Dixon and Ryder/Lycett as your KPF focal points, Gray as deep forward when required, Boak and Rozee as your pressure forwards, and Westhoff, Marshall and Watts as your tweeners, with Westhoff and Watts playing on the wings.

But as others have said - it requires a defence that goes for intercept marks instead of shitty intercept spoils all the time.
 
As Monty suggested, Butters could be a surprise packet too. Having familiarised myself with Butters from a 3 minute video clip, he looks to have a clever football brain and looks to create good ball movement and scoring opportunities.
 

JimmyBeerCans

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Looks good on paper as it has for a number of years meh time for actions not dunny paper.
 
Aug 13, 2007
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I think the players down there have the skills and it will start looking pretty good if we get both of the following happening:

a) Quick, sharp ball movement generated by turnovers/intercepts in defence,
b) Better skilled midfielders in the team and/or creation of more time and space for effective entries.

I'm reasonably confident of a) happening with a fit Hartlett, Jonas, a re-educated Doogs, Ryan Burton and maybe Broadbent down there.

Our current mids either don't possess or have not yet demonstrated the skills or the ability to do b) so its probably up to the new draftees to deliver something special.

I think our forward line output will improve (can't get much worse) but not dramatically.
 

El_Scorcho

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It went into an absolute death spiral in regards to supply and performance in 2018 and was absolute garbage. We only scored 100 points 3 times in 22 games.

The ball movement was so poor that half of our I50s seemed to be bombs to nobody or to Boak or SGary one out against 4 defenders, and when we did finally get it in there the lack of service seemed to have generated a huge amount of rust for anyone not named Robert.

The cattle is theoretically there, but it's only ever been theory with this group.
 

Kingfish73

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Mar 24, 2014
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On potential, our forward line is excellent. We have a variety of attacking weapons who could cause a lot of damage. Our coaches have made an art form of squandering this though, through s**t gameplans that make our forward line dysfunctional at best and non existent at worst.
Potential. The word that summarises port since 2014 season. Whether from the coaches box or the players, I think most supporters just want to see it on the park - and with some resemblance of consistency. Our entire group are at best a 8-12 ranked anything until we display results.

But I am excited about Marshall, Butters and Rozee. Robbie will always have those games where he will break a game. Dixon is a confidence player and hope we utilise him under the right structures this year. Hopefully Ryder and Lycett will be a consistent thorn for our opposition when resting. Want to see some career best years like Westhoff last year as a utility.
 

EskimoPAFC

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Surprised that it looks like I'm on my own here, but honestly we are so high because the footballing media doesn't do enough research and is generally incompetent.

Keep in mind the counter article to this rated our defence I believe 12th out of 18. That's right, the defence which had the fourth highest rating in 2018, and second highest rating in 2017 in seasons where they've been slammed because of constantly getting rebounded. The defence which has returning to it a top 5 pick that actually started playing like an elite player before he got injured (Hammer) and one of the brightest up and coming stars being added to it (Burton). The defence with arguably our best player and leader coming in to his prime and a huge amount of depth with actual experience.

The reality is that Port have been a largely irrelevant joke for 4 years now, and so when media pundits look at us they still base theories on the aggressive way we played back in 13/14. They go 'oh hey I've heard of Dixon and Gray and Wingard', theyre forwards right? That must be why Port pushes for finals each year, 'by the way anybody heard of this Douglas Howard bloke who keeps getting booed?'

In reality our forward line has been ****ed for years. Its inefficient, poorly structured and leaks rebounds like there is no tomorrow. Losing the two guys that have actually been able to deliver the ball in there in Polly and Chad makes us even worse on paper going in to 2019.

What is our forward line?
Robbie Gray? Great obviously but has often had to rotate in to the mid
Sam Gray? A short midfielder used as a marking forward
Dixon? Accomplished virtually nothing in 2018 (I'm not blaming him for this)
Ryder? Boak? Slyce? Marshall? Mots? Watts?

And where exactly is the delivery going to come from?

Does this genuinely sound like a top 6 attack?

Look I think the coaching changes and Butters/Rozee coming in could help us out a lot in this area, we might actually go better up front in 2019, but to look at us objectively our defence is unquestionably top 3 and our forward line is in my opinion bottom 5 as we head in to 2019
 
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