Morton in defence?

[Rayzorwire]

Very good appraisal. I think you are right on the money with this, although I wouldn't discount either of McGuane and Moore as possible KPP backmen. Both of these guys are taller than Bowden and have shown definite potential to replace him. This season is going to be a significant one for Raines. He will either take that extra step or find himself relegated to that of a 'fill-in'. I hope its the former because he shown a fair bit and I like the way he runs through the lines and takes the game up to the opposition.

I think nobody is going to shift Thursfield from FB, while Bowden remains the best immediate option to play either CHB or 3rd tall on a slower opponent because he's ok defensively and hurts his opponent going the other way when he's on his game. I do include both Moore and McGuane in the bunch of players vying for the CHB and third tall role, but realistically it looks like someone else will claim CHB ahead of them - the most likely scenario IMO is that Rance will replace Bowden when he retires. That leaves some very stiff competition for the 3rd tall role, and my hope is that blokes like McGuane, Moore, JON, Casserley, and maybe even White can put even more pressure on the existing small defenders and Polak.

I don't see much potential in Raines to be honest. Once everybody in the comp worked out he was going to try and run the lines, he didn't have the pace to pull it off when they were expecting it and lacked the good disposal and decision making skills to cope with that. I'd be giving him a list of boxes he needs to tick every week and letting him work on that at Coburg.

 

[polakthetiger]

LOL Razor, your obsession with Raines is getting as bad as MT's with Johnson He's going to play on ball this season and rip it up and really shove it up ya

 

[Rayzorwire]

LOL Razor, your obsession with Raines is getting as bad as MT's with Johnson He's going to play on ball this season and rip it up and really shove it up ya

I don't dislike him PtT, I don't dislike any of our players, I just don't rate him and don't see a long term good AFL footballer when I analyse his attributes and deficiencies.

I hope he proves me wrong, because if he does he'll have improved enormously on past efforts.

 

[smokey_58au]

I don't see much potential in Raines to be honest. Once everybody in the comp worked out he was going to try and run the lines, he didn't have the pace to pull it off when they were expecting it and lacked the good disposal and decision making skills to cope with that. I'd be giving him a list of boxes he needs to tick every week and letting him work on that at Coburg.

Yep, could very well be true. Time will tell but its good to think that finally most of the players have some competition for spots!

 

[Rayzorwire]

Yep, could very well be true. Time will tell but its good to think that finally most of the players have some competition for spots!

Yep, it's been a long while since that happened and it's very good to see.