I'd rather attack.
Worrying first about what the opposition will do is old school bulldog thinking.
Moving Naughton to defence would work to some extent because he's a great player, but its classic robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Opinion Naughton is a decent forward
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I'd rather attack.
Worrying first about what the opposition will do is old school bulldog thinking.
Moving Naughton to defence would work to some extent because he's a great player, but its classic robbing Peter to pay Paul.
CarnTheScray
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We are wasting our midfield right now by not having a quality KPD to help with the eventual forward line turnover and training them to kick above Naughtons and the rest of our forwards heads expecting them to take a specky with three guys up their backside.
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Surely our gun midfield which generates a huge amount of supply to the forward line can learn to hit Naughty on the lead. Just because he’s a better mark than Bruce doesn’t mean we have to sit it on his head
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In 2016, our leading Goalkicker was Stringer with 42 (only 37 from H&A, then the extra 5 from finals). We need a team of contributors, not one star
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And we don’t have anyone near 42 atm. You need a team of contributors sure but most of the best teams have someone who kicks 50 odd, it may not be Absolutely necessary but it sure does help
CarnTheScray
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We just need English and Bruce to chip in a couple goals each week. We have a bunch of goalkicking mids in the side as well just like 2016.
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- #158
Not sure those numbers are really fair. Will probably kick 2 a game sure, how many does he create by not being out marked almost ever and bringing the ball down for our smalls. How many does Bruce/Schache/English now kick getting to play on the 2nd and 3rd talls instead of 1st and 2nd, with literally all the attention going to Naughty. How many does his elite pressure and ground level work create? How many does his marks on the wing and then getting inside 50 create when usually we probably don’t take that mark or get the ball inside 50.
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Has anyone considered the impact of our high defensive press on this debate?
Does it accentuate the need for a good intercept mark like Naughton? Or would the high press mean he'd be wasted because it would just zoom over his head when he's hovering just back of the centre? Or is an intercept mark no value against a swift rebound because that is often a chain of passes to loose players rather than a high ball coming into the 50?
On the other hand does the high press mean that our forward line is more cluttered because its purpose is to lock the ball (and hence the majority of players) in the forward half. Is Naughton a better option up forward when there's less crowding in the f50?
This line of thinking suggests that if we want to keep the high press we might need to send Naughton back where he'll be more useful. But if we're prepared to ease off a bit on the high press then he can stay forward and possibly have more space to work in.
I really don't know. I'd be interested in people's thoughts.
Does it accentuate the need for a good intercept mark like Naughton? Or would the high press mean he'd be wasted because it would just zoom over his head when he's hovering just back of the centre? Or is an intercept mark no value against a swift rebound because that is often a chain of passes to loose players rather than a high ball coming into the 50?
On the other hand does the high press mean that our forward line is more cluttered because its purpose is to lock the ball (and hence the majority of players) in the forward half. Is Naughton a better option up forward when there's less crowding in the f50?
This line of thinking suggests that if we want to keep the high press we might need to send Naughton back where he'll be more useful. But if we're prepared to ease off a bit on the high press then he can stay forward and possibly have more space to work in.
I really don't know. I'd be interested in people's thoughts.
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Let's say do we push Naughton back and replace him with Schache. Schache is the exact type of forward who's going to struggle with the large amount of clutter that always seems to happen. Schache needs far more space to operate than Naughton.
You also consider Bruce or English would get the number one defender. Might impact their game also. We also need KPF's who provide defensive pressure. Jamarra will be useful in that regard to when he gets his fitness base.
I'd strongly argue that 4 to 5 games this year is the timeframe we need to look at Naughton forward. Not making a judgment call after 20 mins on the best key defender in the game (May) imo.
I'm super confident he kicks a bag in the first 4-5 games and has some solid contributions in the others.
I think he would get caught out a bit (just like our other KPD's do) when we press so high up.
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Let’s also be real here.... we could have Naughts, Hawkins, Lynch and Cameron all playing in our forward 50 and we would still be having this argument! Our forward 50 structure and our inside 50 ball feed is a bit of a joke really. Practice game or not this was a major issue that I seen on the weekend along with a lot of you guys having mentioned the same thing. Will we kick it to a hole or kick a bullet to somebody’s chest every time we go into 50 no we won’t and I’m not trying to say that.The main issue is the midfield not kicking it to the forwards advantage and the forwards lead way to early which happened to many times on the weekend as a lot of time the ball went over the head/to high. They have had all preseason to practice this and you still get Naughts and Bruce leading the same lines constantly!! But hey that’s what happens when you stick with the same coaches for 50 years 
I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not but when it was only Bruce inside forward 50 it seemed to work a lot better.
As this ball feed issue is continuously happening I think Naughts to CHB is the best move we can make for team benefit. Replace him with a small....... or should I say “medium” forward it could work a lot better structure wise as Bruce and English are pretty good at bringing ball to ground if they can’t mark it. And another thing that will make 80% of the people here happy is Gardner will become DEPTH!!
But I’m happy to give the current set up ago until round 5 as it will give them more time to gel.
This is just my opinion so let’s have a conversation not bring out the pitchforks
I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not but when it was only Bruce inside forward 50 it seemed to work a lot better.
As this ball feed issue is continuously happening I think Naughts to CHB is the best move we can make for team benefit. Replace him with a small....... or should I say “medium” forward it could work a lot better structure wise as Bruce and English are pretty good at bringing ball to ground if they can’t mark it. And another thing that will make 80% of the people here happy is Gardner will become DEPTH!!
But I’m happy to give the current set up ago until round 5 as it will give them more time to gel.
This is just my opinion so let’s have a conversation not bring out the pitchforks
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Dickson kicked 40 in 2016. We don't need someone kicking 50
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Dicko and Stringer combined for 80 odd goals, our top two goalkickers (without Naughty) combined for 39 last year, even allow 50 for the lesser quarters and it’s still not enough.
whether it’s 40/50/60 whatever it’s irrelevant but we need someone to kick goals, Naughty looks the most, if not the only, likely. Take him out and it only gets harder to find enough goals.
Let’s also be real here.... we could have Naughts, Hawkins, Lynch and Cameron all playing in our forward 50 and we would still be having this argument! Our forward 50 structure and our inside 50 ball feed is a bit of a joke really. Practice game or not this was a major issue that I seen on the weekend along with a lot of you guys having mentioned the same thing. Will we kick it to a hole or kick a bullet to somebody’s chest every time we go into 50 no we won’t and I’m not trying to say that.The main issue is the midfield not kicking it to the forwards advantage and the forwards lead way to early which happened to many times on the weekend as a lot of time the ball went over the head/to high. They have had all preseason to practice this and you still get Naughts and Bruce leading the same lines constantly!! But hey that’s what happens when you stick with the same coaches for 50 years
I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not but when it was only Bruce inside forward 50 it seemed to work a lot better.
As this ball feed issue is continuously happening I think Naughts to CHB is the best move we can make for team benefit. Replace him with a small....... or should I say “medium” forward it could work a lot better structure wise as Bruce and English are pretty good at bringing ball to ground if they can’t mark it. And another thing that will make 80% of the people here happy is Gardner will become DEPTH!!
But I’m happy to give the current set up ago until round 5 as it will give them more time to gel.
This is just my opinion so let’s have a conversation not bring out the pitchforks
I think this is well summed up
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Also looking back at 2019 the last full season, out of the top 6 teams everyone had at least one player kick high 50s or more. Except for Pies whose leading goal kicker was Mihochek with 36. Good teams that don’t have a player kicking 50+ is the exception not the rule. I’d argue Naughty is the only player on our whole list capable of getting anywhere near that number
Boristown
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Bruce actually has kicked 50 in a season and regularly kicked 30+ prior to 2020.
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He’s not exactly on an upward trajectory, I’ll bet you any amount of money in the world he never comes overly close to 50 goals again. Don’t reallly care if he kicked 1000 for the Aints, kinda irrelevant?
Boristown
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Just pointing out there is only one player in the Dogs forward line that has any proven ability to kick 50 goals in a season and it’s not Naughton.
He might get there, sure. But it’s no guarantee. He was made to look second rate against a very good defender in May.
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Fair enough but looking forward there’s one player who looks capable of getting there and it’s Naughton.
Hardly second rate, keep hearing how badhe was actually watch him on the replay.
He had one strong mark on the goal line given to Baz for a free kick, yes missed one shocker that he’d usually kick so could of had 2 goals, burnt a couple of times he’d made good position or covered for Timmys mark which was kicked to him and he would have taken himself, took a couple of good marks up the wing, laid a couple of strong tackles and defensive plays. Yes gave away maybe 2 free kicks when he was out of position, and was out marked on a couple of occasions. In one quarter of preseason footy on one of the best defending duos in the comp.
Was a bit of an almost quarter of footy for him but he did what everyone here complains he can’t do, found ways to have somewhat of an impact when he’s not dominating. If you look at his stats across 4 qtrs you could quite conservatively say he was on track for 15 odd disposals, 5-6 marks and a couple of goals. Hardly second rate.
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May is a brilliant defender. When he's fit he is the best one on one defender in the game.
I think key forwards would much rather play on Harris Andrews/Darcy Moores than May (both of whom are also extremely elite but also play a more team orientated style). It does leave them to become more vulnerable.
Naughton for example got a hold of Andrews twice in 2019.
Playing the lockdown key defender role I'm choosing May out of anyone else in the competition.
Dog 36
Norm Smith Medallist
Why don't we pretend its like the old days at Western Oval where the wind was howling to one end.
I say play Naughton at one end of the ground only.
Confuse Naughton
Confuse Opposition
Confuse Us
Tal about sitting on the fence.
I say play Naughton at one end of the ground only.
Confuse Naughton
Confuse Opposition
Confuse Us
Tal about sitting on the fence.
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Western Bulldogs great weighs in on Aaron Naughton debate
"He’s the type of player that could absolutely tear the competition apart."
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