- Apr 19, 2019
- 10,259
- 31,527
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
With all due respect there's all of 12 months age between Anderson and McDonald. Why is one a has-been stop gap and the other a lock?Alright just had a good 30 minutes to walk and converse with my partner with where we are at.
She’s a crows supporter and likened a lot of what she saw from us yesterday to them in 19/20 and you’ve seen what they now have done the last few weeks with a bit of patience and time together.
Only difference I see is that they’ve got 27 year old midfielders playing the lynchpin roles compared to our younger group of top draftees.
Right now we are at the absolute bottom of the curve, we need to spend the rest of the year working out who can play AFL standard footy in different positions. Yesterday noble commented that they trialled Thomas at half back in the last quarter. That should be his absolute starting point.
The balance is in the structural components from a leadership perspective. Right now we’ve got a mix of older blokes and some real young individuals sub 40games that look talented. The problem is trying to maintain that morale whilst working out who fits at AFL level. We can’t just go alright Turner you’re not the future bring in goater, as we need that balance of older players.
Afaic walker and Turner are the first old blokes to go, closely followed by Ziebell, goldy and corr. But the fact of the matter is we can’t tip this balance too much further because that will erode confidence even further. What you’d kill for Anderson and Cunnington to help add a little bit of extra leadership right now, with the caveat that they don’t play those key roles, we have to find other positions to help blood the midfielders.
This will take 2 more years until we can finally say fu** look how far we’ve come, and in the meantime they need to keep the balance right and keep the guns focused on the buy in so we don’t lose any of that top end talent, but we need to get the mix right.
Plethora of small forwards so let’s look to building the defensive pieces.
Locks:
Mckay
Mcdonald
Perez
Thomas
They are my starting four - mcdonald and McKay are playing the best footy they have, Perez looks very comfortable at the level, and every other side has an elite distributor off half back. Tarryn has the aggression and physical attributes as well as the silk to do this role.
Potentials:
Young
Bonar
I like what young does defensively, it’s just that he’s susceptible to cooking it ball in hand occasionally, but there is a lot to work with there, and we need versatility for the mix of small and medium forwards that most teams run with now. Bonar I like defensively but needs a consistent run at it.
Older stop gaps:
Corr
Walker
We can’t play with both of these blokes in the side - fu** one of them off and that has to be walker.
Defensively we need 3 more players that can play at AFL level - clearly at least one key position and then depending on the opposition mix either 2 smalls or an extra tall. We aren’t quick enough or skilled enough to have 3 talls every week.
Opportunity here for some of the young fellas to come through if they want it!
Mids:
This is a real interesting dynamic, we lack defensive runners on the outside, whilst we have enough ball winners on the inside. Key is getting the mix right so we can attack the inside of a stoppage and defend the outside. Look at the runners Melbourne have that get back defensively and work the other way to help out. We seriously lack that.
Locks:
Inside
JHF
LDU
Simpkin
Outside:
-
Really lack AFL quality on the outside here. Need to draft or find two hard running wingman that can help us on the outside. Overall need to get fitter as a group. Noble stated our side are the worst and slowest 50-50 running side in the comp when he arrived and nothing has changed there.
Potential:
Inside
Phillips
Outside
Powell
Taylor
Stephenson
Goater
Lazzaro
Loads of potential here - Phillips will be a lock in no time and I’d argue that with Taylor’s last few weeks he has his eye on that defensive wing role - pushing back and being an outlet. I’d look at both powell and goater and say hey lads this is your opportunity, train them to be high intensity running mids and get them busting a gut and working hard on the outside. Stephenson has all the tools to be an AFL standard wingman but I do wonder if we opt to play him more as a forward.
Older stop gaps:
Cunnington
Anderson
Greenwood
These blokes provide a stopgap for the next two years whilst the midfielders step up and take it all by the scruff of the neck. This is where the dynamic is hard for us currently. If cunners and Anderson were fit you’d easily have them protecting the young ones while they develop, over a Turner or someone like Atu. It sucks but it would help our development drastically if these blokes were around to instil some much needed confidence.
Ruck: really difficult one, as goldy needs to be in the side to chop out Xerri but is no good forward. X is the number 1 going forward but just needs to keep getting the km’s under his belt. His stoppage to stoppage running will be the thing that holds him back, and if he’s fitter you’ll see those grabs start sticking.
Goldy is a real difficult one, I’m in the camp that he’s never been a leader as such more of a do it on his terms and work as hard as he can solo. We are at a time where we need a versatile ruckman who can play forward and then chop out when X needs a break. Unfortunately goldy doesn’t do this well enough up forward. Tough call to make but we need to transition him out of the side to make sure we can get the mix right, incredibly difficult way to handle a champion but we’ve done it worse in the past.
Forward line:
Locks:
Larkey
- only bloke that is an absolute lock is Larkey, put him in the square and anyone else that plays with him needs to learn how to either crumb or decent leading patterns to work together. Right now we’ve got goldy, Ziebell, Zurhaar and Larkey all competing for the ball in the air.
Potential:
Zurhaar
Ford
Curtis
Comben
CCJ
Mahony
There’s so much unknown here but some genuine potential talent. Zurhaar plays taller and works better when it’s just himself and larkey, they get in and out and actually create space for each other. He’s getting stifled with Ziebell and goldy down there and having to get up the ground which means when the ball actually hits the deck that pressure that he would regularly bring is non existent because he’s too far up the ground. Ford and Curtis look excellent at both ground level and in the air, play them now for the rest of the year and just ask them to pressure and move all the time, get in and out and create space for each other.
I’d argue we need one more key forward that can ruck. CCJ is a better ruckman than comben, conversely comben and Larkey are a better forward combo. Can comben ruck? Who knows but if he can then he just needs to stay fit. His aggression and follow up is huge. Alternatively, does Chom have a role at CHB? CCJ looked pretty decent one out as a ruckman, so does he then have to battle X for the number one spot. Lots of potential here.
Mahony I was all for as a pressure linkup mid forward - patch Adam’s esque, but he’s fumbling and doesn’t hit the scoreboard enough. If you can tackle 8 times a game and kick 1-2 goals a game that’s more dangerous than where his game is atm. We seriously lack crumbers right now as we have to work so far up the ground because the defenders can’t move the ball with skill, and then when we finally get an entry - the oppo defenders have held their depth and we are often outnumbered.
An extra zippy small forward wouldn’t be out of the question in the draft.
Overall this is where I’m at with our squad and seeing who’s up to it and who isn’t. Blokes named are locks at the moment when you think about where we need to be by the end of the year. This core need to play every week together
Berez Mckay ????
Chb: Thomas ???? McDonald
C: Taylor (on his last two weeks) LDU ????
CHF ???? ???? Zurhaar
FF Ford Larkey ????
R: Xerri JHF Simpkin
INT: Phillips ???? ???? ????
I’ve got literally 9 spots here for players that aren’t injured and are either potentially AFL level or are older stop gaps.
Back pocket - Bonar vs Young vs corr
CHB - Chom vs corr vs walker
Wing - powell vs goater vs Stephenson vs lazzaro
Half forward - 2 of Curtis vs mahony vs Stephenson
CHF - Chom vs CCJ vs goldy
Interchange - two mids, one defender, one forward
Then the likes of Goldy, Cunners, Anderson, Greenwood, Ziebell fit in around these blokes to add the support.
Haven’t included some of the younger fellas like Bergman, edwards, archer, spicer because I haven’t seen enough of them. Atu, Kayne, Scott, and walker I’ve seen enough.
Lots to unpack but we’ve got to find out sooner rather than later if the likes of powell, lazzaro, CCJ, Comben can make that a core of 14 players that are up to scratch. Then we trade and draft for the remaining spots.
