Toast Lachlan Keeffe

[TheFreshBanana]

Basically a taller, leaner mould of Ben Reid, but not at his level yet.

When Reid, Brown and Tarrant come back, I'd look at throwing Tarrant or Keefe up forward.

No way would I put Reid up forward, he reads the play better than anybody on our team. I'd prefer his work down back compared to him kicking 3 goals every game.

 

[Wooljay]

Keefe develops as a backmen, good. Reid develops as a forward, good. Dawes develops in the diamond valley league, good, its where he belongs. Please nathe try reid as a forward, anything but chris dAwes. Taz, brown, keefe down back. Cloke reid up forward. Make it happen.

Try that again in English?

 

[esc0bar]

Let this be a lesson to all pies fans. Never write a player off. We have the best development coaches in the afl. Now let's wait for Sinclair, shae and mooney to come along

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Maybe not Shae.

 

[Brad Goodman]

You can see he's still learning the game but he's improving at a rate of knots, great to see.

Tarrant or Brown I'd move forward, although Nate has the potential to be the best one on one defender in the game so would probably prefer him down back.

 

[jerry springer]

Doing very well, it still would be very handy if he could help out in the ruck a bit, especially when Reid, Taz Brown return

Is he still eligible for the Rising star?

 

[Dynamics]

It's like that lightbulb just went off in his head and he's realised how to play down back. That confidence is why he's taking those contested marks. The bloke is 204cm!

Has gone from having little idea to actually reading the play quite well.

If he can maintain this trajectory I'd have him, Reid and Brown as the pillars of defence. Tarrant's body is starting to wear so we can't rely on him (we can't rely on anyone to be fit right now, but I'm talking long term). When he's fit, Tarrant resumes his role as the extra man we recruited him to be, swinging forward or back as required.

Brown is first option on the opposition's key big man, with Keeffe and Reid taking up roles on talls as required. Keeffe has shown little in the ruck but he still seems like more of a long-term part-time ruck option than Dawes does to me.

Reid is invaluable in defence. His field kicking is outstanding which we need coming out of defensive 50 with Leon gone. And he mops up far more goals than he could kick up forward. Takes pressure off Maxy and O'Brien - neither are too strong one on one. Crucially it will sometimes allow O'Brien the freedom to play loose like he did this week. That's his game. Shaw is a much better one-on-one player in my opinion.

Once they are fit our group of KP backs look excellent, thanks to the emergence of Keeffe.

 

[TheFreshBanana]

Don't forget that Tarrant can also play on the smaller blokes, not sure if his body can warrant it though.

 

[OniAu]

admit my confidence in him was pretty low, in first few weeks of this year.

slowly started warming up to him , after watching him live yesterday, he was outstanding , body work and nouse to position himself well in the contest is so good.

very imperssed with him

 

[tonkapies]

Re: Lachlan Keefe

Only going to get better once all the Guns are back. Personally when they all do get back, I woudnt mind seeing Tarrant go forward , leaving Brown, Reid and Keefe down back. Pies will be unbeatable when all the pieces are put back in place.

 

[jonesy86]

Only going to get better once all the Guns are back. Personally when they all do get back, I woudnt mind seeing Tarrant go forward , leaving Brown, Reid and Keefe down back. Pies will be unbeatable when all the pieces are put back in place.

I don't mind that.

At this stage Tazza is a much better forward than Paine and Keeffe is quick and agile enough to play on a mid size forward.

 

[Prestigerrycomo]

Re: Lachlan Keefe

I reckon I counted a minimum of 2 times where he save us with a strong mark on the last line of defence, was great yesterday

 

[Old Spice]

Seems to be like his development as a defender at VFL level was going well, but was played well out of position at AFL last year.

I tipped Reid as being a Buddy / Reiwoldt match-up two years ago and its been vindicated. I also reckon Keeffe is a potetial Reid but taller and with a possibility to releif ruck in the back half.

It's a fantastic achievement to date, let's hope he doesn't drink his own bathwater in the next little while and keeps on keeping on. He's been great since round 1. Got in front of Buddy and Waite on a number of occassions.

If he keeps it up and we have all of Tarrant, Reid and Brown fit, we have that option of Reid as a high half forward kicking into Cloke, or Tarrant as FF and Cloke leading up. If he sustains his form, we have so many options.

 

[Old Spice]

Assuming we have a full list of key defenders and Keeffe firing, I love this.

V Carlton

Toovey / Garlett Brown / Waite O'Brien / Betts
Shaw / Lucas Keeffe / Hampson Maxwell / Robinson

Johnson

Yarran / Ugle Henderson / Reid Fasolo / Touhy
Duigan / Tarrant Jamison / Cloke Laidler / Beams

 

[4#Didak#4]

Another great game by Keefe. Once again held the defence together. I really rate that game, considering Port had more indside 50s and he was our only real tall defender versus a number of tall Port players.

His reading of the play has improved out of sight and his confidence and self belief to go for marks and clunk them is very Ben Reid like.

At this point he is best 22, even when Tarrant, Brown & Reid return. I would be inclined to leave him in defence and keep improving when these guys come back - if ain't broke don't fix it. We don't need to be messing with his game & confidence now.

If we ever get all 4 of Brown, Tarrant, Reid & Keefe in the side (have a feeling its the sort of year when this may be a rarity) we can only really have 3 of these in the back 6 - dependent on match ups. Keefe has & will give a whole new dimension to our team. The old knock on effect.

We will need to look at a shift of one of these 4 forward.

Option 1: I think there is a spot forward in our structure - basically the role Macaffer was going to play and Paine is playing now. This is something Tarrant can do. This may be his last one or two years so we need to solidfy our future defence anyway. So its a viable option - a logical one.

Option 2: Dawes is struggling a bit as key forward. Wood & Jolly in the same team doesn't work but Jolly needs a chop out. So far Dawes is the only real option. This is not viewed favourably because its seems a waste of a key forward. But what if we have a spare Key forward in Ben Reid? Although its a risk I think Reid could do some damage forward and Dawes can be Leigh Brown Mark II. Looking at Hawthorn and the way they use Roughead essentially their best CHF playing as second ruck it can work. We might need to take some risks now to win this years flag - a move like this if successful could make us very hard to beat.

 

[Thommo 42]

Regarding Reid, I'd be loathe to ever move him forward - but he'd be a gun there too.

He'd be a better forward than Brown or Keefe could be, so its not completely out of the question that he could go down there. Much harder to find a bloke that can clunk them in packs up forward than it is to find a defender with a good fist.

Just look at Sam Reid, I reckon Ben would be a far better forward than him and Same is bloody good!

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

All this talk of Tarrant going forward reminds me that he was not really a success in the forward line at either Collingwood or Freo. Why else would he have finished in defence? Move Reid forward rather than Taz.

 

[Jelly Bean]

All this talk of Tarrant going forward reminds me that he was not really a success in the forward line at either Collingwood or Freo. Why else would he have finished in defence? Move Reid forward rather than Taz.

Tarrant was AA in 2003, and our leading goalkicker years on end...

Reid was a terrible forward - there was also a reason he 'finished' in defence. He had to go to defence in the VFL and work his way up.

As I have said before, I like the idea of Taz in the forwardline getting the third tall (and allowing Dawes to play second ruck). Alternatively, it would be good if Keeffe could play this role (now that he has more confidence in his hands) and should be able to hold his own as much as Dawes in the ruck.

I would absolutely leave Reid at CHB. He takes a lot of his marks from opposition kicks reading the play - not sure how he would go with a hard marking CHB on his tail.

 

[cfx_1]

I think in all honesty our set-up could change on a weekly basis. This could be a bad or a good thing...

Just for example though.

Against WCE

Darling --- Tarrant
Lynch --- Reid
Natainui/Cox --- Keefe
Kennedy --- Brown

Against Carlton

Kreuzer --- Keefe
Waite --- Brown
Reid --- Up forward
Tarrant --- Betts/Garlett

Against Hawthorn (assuming Bailey is back)

Franklin --- Tarrant
Roughead --- Brown
Hale --- Keefe
Reid --- Up forward

Against Sydney

Goodes --- Brown
Reid --- Reid
Mumford/Seaby/White --- Keefe
Tarrant --- Up forward

 

[doppleganger]

All this talk of Tarrant going forward reminds me that he was not really a success in the forward line at either Collingwood or Freo. Why else would he have finished in defence? Move Reid forward rather than Taz.

Not really a success??

Even in his last year with Collingwood....

Taz avg 1.8 goals, 7.6 marks per game playing as the HF lead up player, with Rocca the deeper target.

That is fecking quality....would be enormous to have Taz providing that kind of output for us in addition to Cloke and Dawes.

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

Not really a success??

Even in his last year with Collingwood....

Taz avg 1.8 goals, 7.6 marks per game playing as the HF lead up player, with Rocca the deeper target.

That is fecking quality....would be enormous to have Taz providing that kind of output for us in addition to Cloke and Dawes.

If Tarrant was so succesful up forward in his last years at Collingwood, why did we happily send him to Freo? And if he was a good forward, why did he end up as a defender?

People say that Reid was a terrible forward, but he has never been given another chance up forward since he was sent back in the VFL. The last game he played up forward, opposed to Waite, he was going well till severely injured in that game.

Leave Tarrant at FB and move someone else forward.

 

[i_hate_scams]

they send him off to freo because of the off field stuff.

today's game is all about being able to play a number of roles, not just one. its about match-ups and how to expose your opposition. There will be times where he would move forward to create mismatches. we didnt do that last year because Brown wasnt available. once there is a surplus i bet this will happen.

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

I thought Tarrant was swapped because he was not kicking goals. Don't remember any off-field incidents involving tazza at the time.

I have no problem with Tazza playing a number of roles, including forward, but do not want to see him permanently forward. He is also still our best Buddy opponent.

 

[i_hate_scams]

I thought Tarrant was swapped because he was not kicking goals. Don't remember any off-field incidents involving tazza at the time.

I have no problem with Tazza playing a number of roles, including forward, but do not want to see him permanently forward. He is also still our best Buddy opponent.

he was leading goalkicker for the club from 2001 to 2005 or something like that. he was kicking goals when he was traded to freo. his goal kicking dry spell was at freo and they moved him into defence in 2009.

he was trade because of off field issues, more his attitude and the like. if i remember correctly he broke the players code of conduct in a barfight in 2006 with Ben Johnson (they were fighting someone else not each other). he only started really growing up during his time at freo.

 

[doppleganger]

If Tarrant was so succesful up forward in his last years at Collingwood, why did we happily send him to Freo? And if he was a good forward, why did he end up as a defender?

You do realise we traded him for pick 8 and ended up with Medhurst....it wasn't as if we let Taz go for nothing.

He was a star in 03-04, in 2005 he struggled as he was the sole target and played deep as Rocca was injured.

2006 he was still a good contributor, but wasn't back at his AA quality.

His off-field issues, and Taz inability to deal with being the Collingwood poster boy meant he was happy to venture to Freo for a new start.

It was at Freo where he struggled to find form up forward and was tried down back, with tremendous success.

If he can play at his 06 level, ie slightly subdued on his best form and can avg 2 goals and 7 marks per game as a high leading HF.....what an absolute weapon.

Leave Tarrant at FB and move someone else forward.

Horses for courses.....Taz can play back when needed, against teams that suit....but if Keeffe can hold a spot down back having the freedom to release Taz forward would be a nice little trick to have up the sleeve.