Lewis Johnston

[alex_is_on_fire]

Allefgib

This...

With Crouch's emergence, spots as an inside mid are pretty tight, he's also shown himself to be quite handy in that wing HFF role. My guess is he'll spend a lot of time in these roles for the next year or two, until we phase Thommo out of the midfield.

With Dangerfield, Sloane, Thompson, Douglas, Van Berlo and Vince all getting midfield minutes before him, his most likely position would be on a wing with Smith on the other.

HB: van Berlo ~ XXXX ~ Reilly/Henderson
C: Smith ~ Crouch ~ Grigg
HF: Vince ~ XXXXX ~ Sloane
Ruck: Jacobs ~ Dangerfield ~ Thompson
Interchange: Douglas ~ Kerridge

That's how I see the midfield rotation looking next year.

The XXXX are not really important for this discussion as this is midfield rotation, not actual team.

 

[azza77]

As ive said before, I would love to see Johnston played in a Gunston style role. With Lynchys huge engine and workrate, he could easily push higher up the wing and still be a very effective link man going forward.

For me in the NAB i wouldnt mind trialling something like

Small forward Jenkins Johnston
Lynch Walker Vince/resting mid

Walker and Vince can bomb them from 60m+ so would be better suited to the HF line. Jenkins the goal square forward who i think is probably the best pack marker in our side, with a small forward at his feet. Jonhston the lead up forward roaming around the 50 ala Gunston.

Obviously this is a very basic view, but its a start. Pace could be a worry, but I see the mobility of Jenkins, Walker and johnston being very similar to that of Franklin, Roughead and Gunston respectively. And as i said i would trial this pre season and see how it goes. If we continuously get killed on the rebound and there is a lack of pressure in our forward 50, then we may have to look at dropping a tall unfortunately.

 

[azza77]

Adding to what I said previously, if teams like Hawks can fit Buddy, Roughead, Gunston, Bailey and Hale into the one side and be top of the ladder then im sure there is a structure there for us that can make it work.

If you look at other teams also...
Sydney play Pyke, Mumford, Tippet, White, Everitt (with Reid still to come in who would probably replace one of everitt or white)
Geelong play Blicavs, Vardy, Hawkins Podsiadly and used to have Walker in the side, with Taylor also going forward at times.

Obviously its hard to compare all these players and structures cos everyone is different in terms of agility, pace, fitness levels etc but there is certainly a case there for us to have a functioning tall forward line.

 

[TheLeftFist8]

The preferred structure must be adapted to suit the skills of the personnel available.

If we had 2-3 dynamic small forwards there would be no space for the 4 tall option.

However, if we had zero dynamic small forwards with those available being grossly deficient in certain areas, but you had 4 quality falls then you would surely structure differently.

(Yes, there are limits to this argument as it wouldn't work to have all talls or all smalls but you get my drift that we tweak it towards our strengths).

Now with any luck Noble will get us Betts...giving us 1 quality small forward, leaving space for mids who are decent up front as well (Danger, Grigg, Vince, Sloane) or those who could play a specialist defensive role to a good level (Kerridge, and imo Riley).

Plenty of space for quality talls if they are contributing (remembering Lynch will be up on the wings)

 

[Tex Support]

My ideal setup (now with added back 6 feature - I couldnt stop once I got started ) looks like this in round 1 next year:

B - Brown Rutten Otten
HB - Smith Talia Henderson
C - Sloane Crouch Grigg
HF - Vince Lynch Douglas
F - Betts Walker Johnston
R - Jacobs Dangerfield Thompson
I - Van Berlo, Jenkins, Laird, Kerridge.

Jenkins has to ruck unless we land a better R/F in free agency. Happy to experiment again, but we must start with Tex and Johnston IMO.

Damn I hope Tex is ready to go.

 

[Schulzycrow]

Would be surprised if Tex was ready to go Round 1. Would expect a few set backs along the way. He did it Round 6 so would expect it to be about round 4-8 if the extra rounds come into play next year.

 

[Vader]

Too much of a threat for Vader

I'd love to be the one to take credit.. but Sidious' departure has nothing to do with me.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Firmly believe Jenkins is one of the most overrated players on Adelaide BF. The guy can take a grab and he's reasonably quick for a tall. Everything else about his game reeks though. His kicking is woeful, his physical presence is about equal to McKernan and his ruck work stinks. He's ahead of Smack and LJ in the pecking order which is fair enough but I think people are seriously overestimating his ability.

Don't really know why but I have this gut feeling that Jenkins is going to stink it up next year.

 

[King Elvis]

I'm the opposite.

Think he's got plenty of tools, just lacks experience and a bit of footy nous - which will come.

 

[hugecannon]

What about Jenkins as a third tall in defence, good athlete, could run and create from there, similar to how the Dons have used Fletcher the past few years.