It's time to unleash.......

[LC40]

Hello 1990s football strategy, unfortunately for you however the game has long moved past the notion that forwards need to kick goals, defenders need to defend first etc.

A small forward is first and foremost selected for defensive work, for two reasons, firstly to make sure the easiest way to break a zonal defense doesn't occur (which alone is worth much more to a team then them bobbing up for 1-2 goals a game) and to remove a large portion of inconsistency in a position that has been defined by inconsistency. Offensive work is firmly a bonus here, and it's ironic you mentioned us running Cameron as he was one of the best examples of this switch in how small forwards play as he was the horribly inconsistent offensively, gun defensively player (remove Cameron's anomalous game against Geelong and we've gotten practically the same goals per game out of Murphy this year as Cameron in 2017).

The best way to defend in football has always been pin an opponent into the defensive 50 and slowly break them down from there. The double whammy of wasting time and eventually scoring in most cases.

Maybe that's why we haven't won a premiership since 1998.
Football is a simple game, I haven't seen a game yet that isn't won by kicking more goals than the opposition. That's a forwards job and I'm sure whatever era you're talking about a forward who consistently does both will make our team better but hey I just might be a dinosaur in my thinking.

 

[triggyscrewedus]

I know Douglas gets a lot of those pressure act stats but I often see him jogging around nearby the player with the ball not making an actual impact. If he was actually making those tackles he wouldn't have such high pressure numbers. Stengle would offer as much in that space and is a specialist goal kicker.

Spot on.