My backline for 2012

[theyear2012]

What backline would you start with 2012

Back--- O`brien brown Tarrant
half b---maxwell Reid Shaw

what about toovery goldsack clarke buckley johnson.

good depth. ??

 

[Bianconerri]

Johnson Brown Tarrant
O`brien Reid Shaw

Maxwell will fit right in as skipper for the Collingwood VFL team

Depth is Goldsack,Keefe,Young,Buckley and Clarke.

 

[Lockyer24]

B: Luke Rounds, Nathan Brown, Chris Tarrant
HB: Harry O'Brien, Ben Reid, Nick Maxwell

Heath Shaw - wing
Alan Toovey - tagger (I think it's time we finally had one)

 

[Jelly Bean]

B: Luke Rounds, Nathan Brown, Chris Tarrant
HB: Harry O'Brien, Ben Reid, Nick Maxwell

Heath Shaw - wing
Alan Toovey - tagger (I think it's time we finally had one)

You do realise that if Toovey is a tagger (midfield I assume) that is cutting our available midfield time for our stars (Pendles, Swan, Thomas, Ball, Shaw, Clarke, Wellingham, Beams, Sidebottom) by 20%.

So if you have Rounds in, and Toovey in the midfield, which of the above have you not selected in your side? And are you comfortable with the reduced midfield time spread across the above?

 

[blaze036]

Toovey would get chopped to peices against judd... no idea how to play in the midfield

 

[mattys123]

My backline would be;

Tarrant, Reid and Brown as the key position players.

Shaw, Toovey, O'Brien, Maxwell, Clarke, Johnson and Goldsack rotating as the small/medium defenders.

The days of a 6 man backline are dead and buried.

In every game you go in with at least 8 players capable of playing in the backline throughout the game, and at least 2 of those obviously have to be versatile enough to play other positions.

Having the 3 talls in the backline will also make us more versatile, look at Geelong in 2011, they had Scarlett, Taylor and introduced Lonergan as their 3rd tall, which basically released Scarlett most games to play as an attacking defender, which is what we want Reid to do IMO.

You can add names like Rounds, Buckley, Young and Seedsman as possible depth players in 2012 and beyond also.

 

[Jelly Bean]

My backline would be;

Tarrant, Reid and Brown as the key position players.

Shaw, Toovey, O'Brien, Maxwell, Clarke, Johnson and Goldsack rotating as the small/medium defenders.

The days of a 6 man backline are dead and buried.

.

Hmmm, let's see... Yep - you managed to name all 10 players who would conceivably play backline minutes for the Pies in 2012 (although curious to know why you left off Keeffe..? ) Think you may be missing the point a little, Matty?

To be fair, it is hard to ask someone to name a fraction of their best 22 team without the rest... It is too easy for someone to name a series of players who they actually wouldn't be able to fit into their best 22 (all other things considered).

I don't think the 6 man backline is dead. In fact, the backline rarely rotates players (except based on match-ups). The concept is to try to have a very settled group of players who play back there.

For the sake of the exercise, mine would be:

B: Tarrant Brown O'Brien
HB: Maxwell Reid Shaw

Clarke would be playing up the ground through the midfield. Toovey unlucky to miss out, but would be next in the backline.

 

[eth-dog]

From an outsiders perspective, this is the back line I'd be most worried about facing Collingwood:

Shaw-Brown-Tarrant
O'Brien-Reid-Clarke

And Goldsack on the bench

 

[mattys123]

Hmmm, let's see... Yep - you managed to name all 10 players who would conceivably play backline minutes for the Pies in 2012 (although curious to know why you left off Keeffe..? ) Think you may be missing the point a little, Matty?

I left off Keefe because I can never seeing him becoming a consistent, reliable AFL senior defender, if he is to have a future at senior level it will be in another position, because I just have not seen him play well enough at VFL level in the backline, let alone at AFL level to see him developing into that role.

And yes, the 6 man backline is dead, it may only be 7, or 8 for some teams, but no team enters a match with just 6 men in their defensive makeup, you need rotations, especially for the small to medium players, and as Geelong showed, if you can have tall backup also, it makes you so much better.

And yes, I named just about every player who will play more then a handful of games in our backline, because the heading of the thread is "my backline for 2012", not "my backline for round 1, 2012", and there's no way we will go through an entire AFL season with just 6 players in defense, in fact, as my argument states we won't go through one game with just 6 defenders.

 

[Number 10]

From an outsiders perspective, this is the back line I'd be most worried about facing Collingwood:

Shaw-Brown-Tarrant
Maxwell
O'Brien-Reid-Clarke

And Goldsack on the bench

This is mine too + Maxwell. I think Tarrant can take Toovey's place, Clarke take Johnson's place and I think Goldsack can have a good year.

The fact is, we have too many small-medium defenders. Toovey comes back in in 2013 with the departure of Tarrant. Young may overtake O'Brien in 2013.

So 2013 we could have:
(Assuming Maxwell is close to retiring. Johnson definitely retired.)
Shaw - Brown - Toovey
Goldsack
Young - Reid - Clarke

But still have quality players waiting in the wings like Rounds, O'Brien, Buckley, Keeffe, Hartley, Yagmoor, (Maxwell).

I would really like to see Rounds back in the forward line though.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Yeah, I agree - I think we did interpret the initial question a little differently... In that case, I agree that those 10 players will play in Collingwood's backline for periods during the year, and would probably add Young and Keeffe as others I think will get time there. Although, if that was the intent of the question, I would be questioning the initial poster (and the others who responded as well) who only named 6 people he thought would play in the backline for the year, as (like you) I don't think that would be all that realistic.

In terms of 6 man v 7 man v 8 man backlines, we will have to agree to disagree. I am just conscious though that it is easy to name 8 players on the ground at one point to have an 8 man backline, but there needs to be an acknowledgement of where those other two have come from, i.e. have you taken them from the forward 6, and if so, what does that mean for Krakouer? Or Second ruck? etc.

It is hard looking at these things in isolation.

 

[iGNITER]

B - Tarrant Brown Toovey/Clarke
Maxwell
HB - Shaw Reid O'Brien

 

[shawthing09]

I think having all three of Tarrant Brown and Reid in the defence will more often than not be too tall and top heavy and take away from our defensive run which is a strength of ours.

 

[doppleganger]

If trying to portray the options in a traditional structure would be as follows

Tarrant - Keefe/N.Brown - Toovey
Maxwell
H.Shaw - Reid - Goldsack

Tarrant has the ability to play on medium/smalls, and think he will be used more in this role next year....it will also release Harry to a more attacking role on the wing.

N.Brown, hopefully he comes back and can claim the main shutdown job on the gorilla's....but if not they may opt to give Keefe a go.

Toovey is a terribly under-rated part of the team.

Maxwell will be the player they try to get 'loose' as he reads the play and helps out better than most in the game.

H.Shaw the backline general, will take even more responsibility now that Leon has gone.

Reid, if we can introduce N.Brown/Keefe, can try to free up Reid a bit more to use his tremendous rebounding skills.

Goldsack, I like his versatility....can pinch hit on a tall, has pace, can also run with guys like Embley....hopefully he finally gets an extended run in the ones.

M.Clarke I think will be used either on the ball or in front of it trying to score.

B.Johnson will still get plenty of games, T.Young and L.Rounds could be groomed as defensive stoppers also.

I still have a funny feeling they may experiment with a guy like Didak or even Steele or Yagmoor, as an attacking defender to try and replicate what Leon was offering.