Libba and the Blues

[Prebble]

What does everyone think of the appointment of Libba as assistent coach?

Hopefully he will bring in a bit of 'mongrel' that was missing in the last half of last year.

 

[Jimmae]

Hopefully that doesn't involve excessive gouging of eyes.

Something tells me he's going to take Franchina under his wing...

 

[Baggers]

I am a fence sitter when it comes to Libba as a player. I admire the hell out of the way he prolonged his career, but some of the tactics he used were very ordinary. As a coach, I think he'll be great for the Blues. Franchina & maybe even Hulmey could learn a lot off him.

 

[Prebble]

Yeh,
I cursed him as a player, but on the other hand, everyone loves those sort of players on your side.

I think he will be a great off-sider to Pagan and help the blue boys move up the lader in 2004.

 

[Blue Fury]

Libba played with a lot of hart. We need the hart back in our club. We got rid of the guys who weren't putting in 100% anyway.

All we need is to fire up Hulme a little more, then we'll have a 170 cm mini hulk Hogan trying to fight everyone ( Nah he does that now)

I think Libba will be great, we had to move away from the Carlton orientated coaching team and bring in fresh ideas and methods.

 

[coffee man]

Im hoping that libba can help our midfielders (campo and stevo) to learn how to cope with the tagging tactics that he used. Both of those guys have a tough time with taggers and libba could give them an inside edge.

 

[Jimmae]

Originally posted by coffee man
Im hoping that libba can help our midfielders (campo and stevo) to learn how to cope with the tagging tactics that he used. Both of those guys have a tough time with taggers and libba could give them an inside edge.

I think Campo worked out how to break tags mid-season personally.

I also think he worked damn hard. He clearly has lower back and hamstring problems, yet he still managed to average a tick over 20 possessions a game, scored 17-4 for the season and just a tick under 6 and a half rebounds 50s a game.

Then there's the fact he also had 37 scoring assists for the year and averaged 4.5 (exactly) inside 50s a game.

*Shakes his head*

I think everyone managed to not notice how sensational Campo was this year purely because he didn't run with his usually roaring pace.

There's a few more impressive stats that I can pluck out seeing that he is a receiver, but I think I've gotten my point across. Camporeale was well tagged a few times in the season but the problem was there was no one to back him up when it happened.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Agree wholeheartedly Jimmae. I certainly noticed Campo's efforts last year. Even when we were getting pounded, Campo was still running and trying to create something from nothing. Definitely had a leader's mentality last season.

 

[Blue Fury]

To be honest I paid close attention to Campo last year because he was a player in a fantasy footy comp at work. Yes he had a good season, especially taking into consideration the support from other players but don't be fooled by his disposals, he and Houla rotated kicking in. They would play on run 10m and boot it out of defence.

It think people calling him soft is a fallacy, he might not be an in and under player like Ratten, Kouta or Hulme but he gets more physical attention then any other player in our team.

 

[Jimmae]

Originally posted by Blue Fury
To be honest I paid close attention to Campo last year because he was a player in a fantasy footy comp at work. Yes he had a good season, especially taking into consideration the support from other players but don't be fooled by his disposals, he and Houla rotated kicking in. They would play on run 10m and boot it out of defence.

It think people calling him soft is a fallacy, he might not be an in and under player like Ratten, Kouta or Hulme but he gets more physical attention then any other player in our team.

Agreed bar the idea that he always played on... he did do a bit, but maybe two or three times at most in a game, just a shame he didn't really turn it on and have some more 30+ games.

BTW I personally think anyone that has the balls to play on a kick out with the confidence in our defense last year deserves a stat

 

[Blue Fury]

Jimmae,

It’s a shame Campo has to kick in, I'd rather see him receiving the ball and creating play. We need to find another Ang Cristou type player with a penetrating and accurate kick from full back.

Houla is okay but I'd rather see him roving the wing/forward flank.

 

[Jimmae]

Originally posted by Blue Fury
Jimmae,

It’s a shame Campo has to kick in, I'd rather see him receiving the ball and creating play. We need to find another Ang Cristou type player with a penetrating and accurate kick from full back.

Houla is okay but I'd rather see him roving the wing/forward flank.

Maybe an idea would be to rotate Kouta and Waite? Waite is booming on the run and Kouta is always penetrating. I guess that depends on Kouta's leg speed this year.

If he's not any faster, we'd only really need him around stoppages.

I can't believe I just said that.

We certainly need a defender to take the kick out.

 

[coffee man]

Why cant Thornton take the kickout? He always seems to be a reliable kicker or maybe it would be too much pressure on the youngster. Sporn is also very reliable but not quite as established yet.

If Kouta does end up at CHB (which i doubt) he would be the pick of them.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Much prefer to have someone like Kouta beyond the 50 trying to mark the kick in. I know he isn't as good over his head as he once was but he is still one of our better options.

 

[Blue Fury]

I agree with The Old Dark Navy's, Kouta is one of our prime targets when kicking out, I think he would be wasted kicking in.

 

[Jimmae]

Note how I said "I can't believe I just said that."