Preview Lions v Suns Sunday 5th May @ 7.10 pm The Gabba

[KissKiss]

The other option to balance the squeeze on small back positions which I was advocating for at the start of the year is to make Zorko sub.

Pros:

• He is flexible in able to fill a role forward, mid or back
• He can impact the game in a short burst probably better than anyone we have at the moment
• His fitness is better suited to bursts than full games at this point
• Helps maintain his fitness across the full year by avoiding burning him out

Cons:

• He's been in good form and we have massively relied on his ball movement out of the backline

 

[Dalions]

The other option to balance the squeeze on small back positions which I was advocating for at the start of the year is to make Zorko sub.

Pros:

• He is flexible in able to fill a role forward, mid or back
• He can impact the game in a short burst probably better than anyone we have at the moment
• His fitness is better suited to bursts than full games at this point
• Helps maintain his fitness across the full year by avoiding burning him out

Cons:

• He's been in good form and we have massively relied on his ball movement out of the backline

What Zorks does really well when playing back is keeping speed on the ball. Makes decisions as though he has already made the decision before he gets the ball sometimes, which really helps to create some much needed drive. Unlike pretty much all of our other back except maybe Lester and Wilmot, but he more often than not just blazes away rather than hitting a shorter option.
It was the worst decision to start him forward in the last game imo.
To me, he needs to stay back for the rest of the year.
If we need to keep Answerth in the team which I am happy to do, I would put him on the wing as opposed to forward in replace of AHChee.
AhChee is a perfect sub when he is back fit imo.

 

[Lionheart182]

I get why the Gardiner experiment is frustrating to watch but IMO it hasn’t been given long enough.

We’ve had one game where the ball barely went forward after HT (GWS), monsoon vs Geelong, a bye, a game where he played back, a game he missed due to injury (I think?) and another game where he only played a half and got subbed. That isn’t enough time to make a decision one way or another IMO.

 

[KissKiss]

What Zorks does really well when playing back is keeping speed on the ball. Makes decisions as though he has already made the decision before he gets the ball sometimes, which really helps to create some much needed drive. Unlike pretty much all of our other back except maybe Lester and Wilmot, but he more often than not just blazes away rather than hitting a shorter option.
It was the worst decision to start him forward in the last game imo.
To me, he needs to stay back for the rest of the year.
If we need to keep Answerth in the team which I am happy to do, I would put him on the wing as opposed to forward in replace of AHChee.
AhChee is a perfect sub when he is back fit imo.

I definitely agree that Ah Chee is a perfect sub option and should be used as such when fit.

But I also want us to be more proactive in rotating our list. Being tactical about our sub choice and when to rotate players for rests or give kids a run of games to develop has not been our strength as a club. We should be much better than trying to play almost the same list against Geelong in the wet then against GWS 5 days later then complaining (or excusing players being tired).

The season is a marathon and we need to better spread the load across the year. Especially to maintain the frantic pace and pressure that is needed to win this year

 

[Nathan Barley]

I definitely agree that Ah Chee is a perfect sub option and should be used as such when fit.

But I also want us to be more proactive in rotating our list. Being tactical about our sub choice and when to rotate players for rests or give kids a run of games to develop has not been our strength as a club. We should be much better than trying to play almost the same list against Geelong in the wet then against GWS 5 days later then complaining (or excusing players being tired).

The season is a marathon and we need to better spread the load across the year. Especially to maintain the frantic pace and pressure that is needed to win this year

Perfect is a bit much. Ah Chee doesn't have the intensity to really impact the game. Might be able to cover an injured player but there's a pretty big sample size of him being subbed on and doing bugger all.

I think the advantage of Zorko would be he can come and get 10 touches in a quarter

We don't have a lot of great options. I'd like for us to use the mid season draft to look for a specialist sub for this season. Maybe a recently delisted midfielder

 

[Grasshopper17]

No chance for mine.

Payne will get King.

Besides a few moments in the Geelong game, he's been getting better by the week.

What if King goes to Andrews as he did last year?

 

[KissKiss]

What if King goes to Andrews as he did last year?

The defender generally picks the opponent as they are following the man, while the forward cant follow their man as they more often need to go for the ball.

But to be honest if that happens either they crowd their forwards together making it a solid 2 on 2 (thats normally to our advantage). Or we switch and then need Payne to take a more attacking role off the weaker forward

 

[Grasshopper17]

Or we switch and then need Payne to take a more attacking role off the weaker forward

That's what happened last year (ie we relented) and King had 5 goals by half time.

 

[Grasshopper17]

But to be honest if that happens either they crowd their forwards together making it a solid 2 on 2 (thats normally to our advantage).

That will mean it's a 2 on 2 wherever Andrews wants to go to intercept the ball. If that's up field it's going to leave their forward line VERY open.

 

[Nathan Barley]

The defender generally picks the opponent as they are following the man, while the forward cant follow their man as they more often need to go for the ball.

But to be honest if that happens either they crowd their forwards together making it a solid 2 on 2 (thats normally to our advantage). Or we switch and then need Payne to take a more attacking role off the weaker forward

Yeah I never understood every saying King played on Andrews.

We tend to play Payne the deepest with Andrews pushing up the ground to get to as many contests as possible and intercept

 

[RoyBoy17]

Gardiner one goal in 5 games as a forward. If he’s forward again then I’m really lost for words. He’s not taking away a dangerous defender either.

We need goals!

If it’s wet again then hopefully he’s a late out or we at least switch him back. But I have a feeling we will play all four of Gardiner, Payne, Andrews and Lester in defence and keep Andrews as the spare all game. McKenna forward.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Yeah I never understood every saying King played on Andrews.

We tend to play Payne the deepest with Andrews pushing up the ground to get to as many contests as possible and intercept

It becomes a battle of wills.

Say Andrews decides to man up on Joe Blow. He's on Joe Blow because Joe Blow is bog average, meaning Andrews can basically do what he likes, roll off, intercept, be amazing, whatever.

But all of a sudden he has Ben King for company, playing him like a tagger. Even before we know if King's actually gonna be any good at this role, WE have a decision to make: Do we really want Ben King being taken by Andrews to dangerous spots where King may (a) outmark Andrews, and (b) if he doesn't outmark Andrews, he might bring it to ground for the Gold Coast smalls to get amongst.

MEANWHILE ol mate Joe Blow is wandering around somewhere without an opponent, because we're stubborn and want Andrews to play SuperInterceptor. He's not going to follow Andrews anywhere because as far as he's concerned, King has him covered.

So Jack Payne or someone else has to go and play on Joe Blow. This might be a total mismatch, and unlike Andrews, Payne might not have the smarts to play on someone who's not interested in wrestling and outbodying.

So they put the challenge to us: "How badly do you want Harris Andrews to be able to float around and pick off intercept marks?"

Now on the flipside, if our answer is, "meh, you know, that's kinda nice, but we don't care that much really", well then now the ball is back in their court. Andrews is simply gonna go and actually play on Joe Blow, King's gonna follow Andrews everywhere, and suddenly Andrews is marking 2 blokes who probably aren't in particulary dangerous spots.

Meanwhile, because of that 2 on 1, we're able to easily generate a loose man, Payne perhaps but probably Lester, and he can go and play that intercept role.

This is also why Doedee would have been ideal

 

[martinson]

Didn't create another role for him. It's more sticking with the 3 tall forwards and he was good enough to win that position

So got it wrong on both counts Nathan.

The 3 talls is an interesting one. The last 2 we've tried for runs of games have been sluggish players , or the second ruck again sluggish.

I'd go with an agile player in that role. An agile hybrid. Closest we have on the list is Rayner.

 

[Sproj]

Didn't create another role for him. It's more sticking with the 3 tall forwards and he was good enough to win that position

Was he good enough to win the position? I thought Morris stood out more in the trials. I also think we’d be better off with 4 small forwards and that was clear even last year but Fagan is stubborn and loyal to a fault and that seems to me to be what has won Gardner the position he really has no right playing.

 

[Nathan Barley]

Was he good enough to win the position? I thought Morris stood out more in the trials. I also think we’d be better off with 4 small forwards and that was clear even last year but Fagan is stubborn and loyal to a fault and that seems to me to be what has won Gardner the position he really has no right playing.

Maybe Dizzys versatility is giving him the edge over Morris

I 1000% wouldn’t play dizzy. Only guessing what is going through the coaches minds

 

[JasRulz63]

 

[Nathan Barley]

So Oscar for Fort, Sharp for Ah Chee and Reville for Tunstill

 

[martinson]

Maybe Dizzys versatility is giving him the edge over Morris

I 1000% wouldn’t play dizzy. Only guessing what is going through the coaches minds

He has a lot of respect amongst the coaches and players for that matter, team player.

 

[Harris Specter]

Poor Tunstill. Never gets a solid block of games to cement his spot. Imagine if he had the same vote of confidence that Rayner got in his career.

 

[rye]

Poor Tunstill. Never gets a solid block of games to cement his spot. Imagine if he had the same vote of confidence that Rayner got in his career.

thought he deserved to start in the 22 over ah chee last week and ah chee looked short of a gallop all night.

weird exposure at senior level giving him 3 appearances as the sub and only 1 start

 

[martinson]

Sub will be interesting. Probably has to be Sharp and if not him Lohman

I never thought Sharp would get there but he 's actually looked a lot stronger in the last couple of games and not as panicky as he seemed to be in his Senior appearances. So hoping he can be up to it this time around. We're screaming out for a pacy winger.

 

[notliondown]

Sub will be interesting. Probably has to be Sharp and if not him Lohman

I never thought Sharp would get there but he 's actually looked a lot stronger in the last couple of games and not as panicky as he seemed to be in his Senior appearances. So hoping he can be up to it this time around. We're screaming out for a pacy winger.

To me Sharp is actually the one that would benefit most of our 2nd tier players from a decent run in the firsts.

I think he has a lot of the right attributes but suffers from confidence and not being 100% sure of his role... a good run of games would let him come up to speed (which he's more than capable of) and we could actually assess whether he's got the ability to hold a spot.

 

[martinson]

To me Sharp is actually the one that would benefit most of our 2nd tier players from a decent run in the firsts.

I think he has a lot of the right attributes but suffers from confidence and not being 100% sure of his role... a good run of games would let him come up to speed (which he's more than capable of) and we could actually assess whether he's got the ability to hold a spot.

Yes , like 2 or 3 others I'd love to give them a few games but we're at a stage where we need to win every time we go out there.

Still how much worse that what we've been dishing up can they be. It's encouraging to see Sharp and Reville named in the 23 at least.

 

[Section 5]

So Oscar for Fort, Sharp for Ah Chee and Reville for Tunstill

Yes, that's how i saw it before the final side.
Reville won't be sub though.

 

[Squizz89]

For the more serious ressie watchers.

Does Reville have the ability to play meaningful minutes in the midfield at senior level? Do we think that’ll be his role in the team?