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Key Forward

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Is anyone else a little concerned that no key forwards want to come to the club no matter how much money we throw at them? Even players from WA like Mitch Clark, Aaron Black and even Harry Taylor. Then you add Cloke and Jack Riewoldt.

Although you certainly have to wonder if 50% of the media reports linking us to players have been complete BS.

Still it is a concern. It's our weakest link and it will be a huge waster if all the spare money in our salary cap isn't utilized.
 

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yakka man said:
Is anyone else a little concerned that no key forwards want to come to the club no matter how much money we throw at them? Even players from WA like Mitch Clark, Aaron Black and even Harry Taylor. Then you add Cloke and Jack Riewoldt.

Although you certainly have to wonder if 50% of the media reports linking us to players have been complete BS.

Still it is a concern. It's our weakest link and it will be a huge waster if all the spare money in our salary cap isn't utilized.
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I am not hugely concerned, as I think a forward line of resting ruckmen, Pavlich, Mayne, Ballas, Walters is one of the strongest in the AFL. Pavlich has 1 or 2 years left in him, so we have that long for someone else to come along.
 
In a way, not having a contested marking key forward monster means that our players can't just lazily bomb it in like other sides who's players do this and just expect their key forward to do all the work, see Geelong in the QF, Sydney do this surprisingly often too considering their gameplan is similar to ours. We on the other hand, strategically pinpoint players leading in and out, or in space with lower, flatter kicking from more disciplined plays which I think is better from a team spread PoV.

So in this sense I don't see it as much of a weakness than in previous seasons where we weren't pushing top 4 and people were looking for a scapegoat excuse as to why not..
 
Nickos66 said:
In a way, not having a contested marking key forward monster means that our players can't just lazily bomb it in like other sides who's players do this and just expect their key forward to do all the work, see Geelong in the QF, Sydney do this surprisingly often too considering their gameplan is similar to ours. We on the other hand, strategically pinpoint players leading in and out, or in space with lower, flatter kicking from more disciplined plays which I think is better from a team spread PoV.

So in this sense I don't see it as much of a weakness than in previous seasons where we weren't pushing top 4 and people were looking for a scapegoat excuse as to why not..
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Even the best teams consistently bomb the ball long up the ground. They do this because they know they have good KP players who will likely take a mark or bring the ball to ground for their small forwards.

In our losses ths year our lack of strong marking and leading forwards has been exposed. It is an issue, Lyon knows it is.
 
Nickos66 said:
In a way, not having a contested marking key forward monster means that our players can't just lazily bomb it in like other sides who's players do this and just expect their key forward to do all the work, see Geelong in the QF, Sydney do this surprisingly often too considering their gameplan is similar to ours. We on the other hand, strategically pinpoint players leading in and out, or in space with lower, flatter kicking from more disciplined plays which I think is better from a team spread PoV.

So in this sense I don't see it as much of a weakness than in previous seasons where we weren't pushing top 4 and people were looking for a scapegoat excuse as to why not..
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Your right, but some times you are forced to bomb the ball in and we (Without sandi + Pav) Lack any threats in the air, meaning players like Harry Tayllor mark against us instead of spoiling. With Pav this changes and with Sandi changes massively.
 
yakka man said:
Is anyone else a little concerned that no key forwards want to come to the club no matter how much money we throw at them? Even players from WA like Mitch Clark, Aaron Black and even Harry Taylor. Then you add Cloke and Jack Riewoldt.

Although you certainly have to wonder if 50% of the media reports linking us to players have been complete BS.

Still it is a concern. It's our weakest link and it will be a huge waster if all the spare money in our salary cap isn't utilized.
Click to expand...

Our club website said "Fremantle recently made the 192cm forward a lucrative long-term offer, despite Black having a year to run on his contract."

Seems to be something behind it, 4 year contract is not something we normally give players.
 
yakka man said:
Is anyone else a little concerned that no key forwards want to come to the club no matter how much money we throw at them? Even players from WA like Mitch Clark, Aaron Black and even Harry Taylor. Then you add Cloke and Jack Riewoldt.

Although you certainly have to wonder if 50% of the media reports linking us to players have been complete BS.

Still it is a concern. It's our weakest link and it will be a huge waster if all the spare money in our salary cap isn't utilized.
Click to expand...



No question its our weakest link and it's disappointing we haven't been able to snag one but I think it just goes to show that these sorts of players aren't very common. Realistically we are only halfway through our list rebuild and we still have a lot of opportunity to pick up a key forward in the draft or trade in the next 2-5 years. We have good depth in the back line with Silvagni, Dawson and McPharlin and I think that Smith will be reasonable injury cover for the next couple of years.

Up forward we are a lot more vulnerable however we have won games this year with Silvagni and Hannath as our key forwards and I think that leaves us in a good position to pick up a struggling mature forward while we draft a good key forward with an early pick. No doubt our best team needs Pavlich against the best but Hawthorn will be the only team this weekend playing with a real tall forward line.

Collingwood, Melbourne, West Coast, GWS all have good - great tall forwards and they were all relative nobodies this year. Plus our midfield is only a couple of injuries away from being ordinary. I really like Sutcliffe, Sheridan, Crozier etc but they are still a couple of years away from being definite best 22 imo.
 
Wigarus said:
No question its our weakest link and it's disappointing we haven't been able to snag one but I think it just goes to show that these sorts of players aren't very common. Realistically we are only halfway through our list rebuild and we still have a lot of opportunity to pick up a key forward in the draft or trade in the next 2-5 years. We have good depth in the back line with Silvagni, Dawson and McPharlin and I think that Smith will be reasonable injury cover for the next couple of years.

Up forward we are a lot more vulnerable however we have won games this year with Silvagni and Hannath as our key forwards and I think that leaves us in a good position to pick up a struggling mature forward while we draft a good key forward with an early pick. No doubt our best team needs Pavlich against the best but Hawthorn will be the only team this weekend playing with a real tall forward line.

Collingwood, Melbourne, West Coast, GWS all have good - great tall forwards and they were all relative nobodies this year. Plus our midfield is only a couple of injuries away from being ordinary. I really like Sutcliffe, Sheridan, Crozier etc but they are still a couple of years away from being definite best 22 imo.
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bloody good post :thumbsu:
 

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willoblue said:
does that no beg the question that who a great key position forward would replace?
surely, both ruckmen keep their place & that guy Pav, & mad Mayney also.
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Absolutely. And consider this: 1/2 way through next year, Clarke, Sandilands and Griff all playing at their potential.

Of course, I am more interested in this weekend...
 
Wigarus said:
No question its our weakest link and it's disappointing we haven't been able to snag one but I think it just goes to show that these sorts of players aren't very common. Realistically we are only halfway through our list rebuild and we still have a lot of opportunity to pick up a key forward in the draft or trade in the next 2-5 years. We have good depth in the back line with Silvagni, Dawson and McPharlin and I think that Smith will be reasonable injury cover for the next couple of years.

Up forward we are a lot more vulnerable however we have won games this year with Silvagni and Hannath as our key forwards and I think that leaves us in a good position to pick up a struggling mature forward while we draft a good key forward with an early pick. No doubt our best team needs Pavlich against the best but Hawthorn will be the only team this weekend playing with a real tall forward line.

Collingwood, Melbourne, West Coast, GWS all have good - great tall forwards and they were all relative nobodies this year. Plus our midfield is only a couple of injuries away from being ordinary. I really like Sutcliffe, Sheridan, Crozier etc but they are still a couple of years away from being definite best 22 imo.
Click to expand...
We have cover in almost every position on the ground and developing midfield players that are stepping up and applying pressure on our established players so in that regard I don't see us slipping in that area.
We have recruited some fine young players last year and Tabberner has come on very quickly but we need the others to start showing improvement during next year or we will be in serious trouble .
The next draft has very few KPP in the top 20 picks so if Buddy is heading to GWS we have an opportunity to offer a trade to then for the number 1 draft pick and I think we should explore that option BUT lets not throw out the baby with the bath water and pay too much.

The last time we traded draft picks for an experienced AFL player we got shafted so lets not go down that path again .

We are on the right path developing our own and a mature age rookie maybe the better way to go since we have been the leader in getting diamonds out of the dust of players who for what ever reason have been overlooked by everyone else .
 

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Wigarus said:
No question its our weakest link and it's disappointing we haven't been able to snag one but I think it just goes to show that these sorts of players aren't very common. Realistically we are only halfway through our list rebuild and we still have a lot of opportunity to pick up a key forward in the draft or trade in the next 2-5 years. We have good depth in the back line with Silvagni, Dawson and McPharlin and I think that Smith will be reasonable injury cover for the next couple of years.

Up forward we are a lot more vulnerable however we have won games this year with Silvagni and Hannath as our key forwards and I think that leaves us in a good position to pick up a struggling mature forward while we draft a good key forward with an early pick. No doubt our best team needs Pavlich against the best but Hawthorn will be the only team this weekend playing with a real tall forward line.

Collingwood, Melbourne, West Coast, GWS all have good - great tall forwards and they were all relative nobodies this year. Plus our midfield is only a couple of injuries away from being ordinary. I really like Sutcliffe, Sheridan, Crozier etc but they are still a couple of years away from being definite best 22 imo.
Click to expand...

Yep. The problem is that they're rare and can take time to develop. It could bite us in the ass that we haven't recruited or developed any sooner. Athough to be fair everyone at the club has done a marvelous job at transforming our team. Thankfully we are now a club that can win home & away games without a key forward but with Pav out we still struggle against the best teams. This years draft crop is also very weak on key position players and we're still a good chance of trading away our first pick.
 
I think deep down we all know it's going to take something ridiculous to happen for us to get a quality or proven KPF in to the club.

Either someone wants to walk from asadadon, or we offer up a big name in a trade in an attempt to have a ping at at Boyd which we know just isn't going to happen.

I've resigned myself to accepting Zarke as our forward tall option for 2014, and looking at this it allows us to have 1 more runner in the team which is vital to the back and forward run our mids are required to put in...it's actually fun now watching teams try and match us or replicate it, they do it for 3 quarters then find themselves out on their feet only to watch a fresher, slightly more rested Hill or DPearce scream by in the last qtr tearing up the subi expanse.

A great contested beast KPF would be awesome but RTB has us working around the absence of one pretty successfully so far...
 
yakka man said:
Is anyone else a little concerned that no key forwards want to come to the club no matter how much money we throw at them? Even players from WA like Mitch Clark, Aaron Black and even Harry Taylor. Then you add Cloke and Jack Riewoldt.

Although you certainly have to wonder if 50% of the media reports linking us to players have been complete BS.

Still it is a concern. It's our weakest link and it will be a huge waster if all the spare money in our salary cap isn't utilized.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's BS, but maybe we're just doing our part in stuffing up the salary caps of other clubs.

A player manager comes to the club and says 'You interested in X, make an offer'. We do, they take that offer back to their current club, and given our well known need for decent key forwards it's going to be taken seriously. It's forced North into giving a relatively inexperienced youngster a 4 year deal, probably on very good dollars. No skin off our nose. No co-incidence that at the end of the 4 years Black will have served 8 - which means he'll be a free agent.

I just reckon we're not prepared to pay over the odds, especially when you have to fork out for a trade as well. And to get those sort of players you need to.

And I wouldn't be too concerned about spare money in the cap. You just front load existing contracts and create the space for next year.
 
I wouldn't be surprised to see us off load someone the likes of Michie and our first rounder for a pick upgrade or a young promising tall from a couple of years ago that hasn't hit their straps yet.

Also I still think there is gold in them there hills with a lot of other teams picking up excess talls. We still have a few targets this off season and we only need one of them to come off before we all are left wondering what we were ever worried about...


Personally, I think it won't be a big name forward but someone along the lines of Gunston, Lisle etc that have been off loaded before they hit their straps. Butcher could be one, Mitch Brown or Kersten from Geelong etc. There will be a fringe / developing player out there we can go after that will suit us fine. At least that's what I hope :p
 
Zaarke, Griff, Bradley, Sandi and Pav as proven tall forwards.

Mayne and one of Crozier/Fyfe/Mello as the mid talls.

Ballas, Walters and Neale as small forwards.

Ma-Ta, Howson and Moeller all have a chance to develop as tall young forwards.

Simpson to come on as a small forward flanker.

We do have a bit of light at the end of the "tunnel", we ain't Melbourne, Bulldogs or Brisbane.
 

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