Strategy Not enough bigs
- Thread starter kp junior
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I'd honestly like this to be true, but unfortunately I just don't see it. Really hope Straundica keeps progressing and Apeness continues to get games at Peel, so someone can put pressure on McCarthy to peform, because there is no way he deserves his spot in our team.Maybe you under rate McCarthy.
- Apr 25, 2011
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It isn't one size fits all.
By your logic, defenders are those that aren't good enough to be forwards. Are you saying that McPharlin was figjam?
If the ball is at ground level, I'd trust Cam to get and kick a goal over Ape - but I'd put my money on Ape to go shoulder to shoulder with a pack in front of goals over Cam, different players with different strengths and weaknesses. Cam could also do a CHF role a hell of a lot better than Ape, but he can do better again if allowed to be a tall goalsneak, it's hard to match up and gives the whole team an advantage - Neither Ape nor Tabs can do the goalsneak thing, unless they had deputy dawg or butthead playing on them.
It wasn't the mighty Buddy (199cm) or Roughead (193cm) or even Hale (from memory he played more forward than Ruck), that got the 4 goals in the 2013 GF against us, it was Gunston (193cm), basically playing as a 4th tall given that they had 2 rucks + buddy + roughead. We tried a few defenders on Gunston, but couldn't stop him.
3rd tall is not to be sneezed at and can be more damaging than your champion forward - it's a team game, not an individual pursuit.
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It is interesting how immune to failure our supporters are , i often wonder if it's our greatest strength or most glaring weakness
on balance it's probably a strength given if our fans haven't checked out by now they never will but the lack of accountability can sure be frustrating some times
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Possibly. But here were some of the main factors to us losing the 2013 GF.
1. Inaccuracy in the forward 50 of goal. Both teams had 22 scoring shots, hawks kicked 11.11.77. to 8.14.62.
2. Having Lachie Neale as the sub considering he was getting more dispoals in 2 quarters of footy than guys like De Boer or Suban could in a game.
3. The lack of a decent 2nd tall to help pav. (Gutted Kepler Bradley did his knee at the early part of that season)
For all the people bagging out Ross Lyons defensive game plan, Its had to attack and kick 20 goals a game with the available players we got. Sorry but Freo doesn't have the forward line of the hawks of 2011-15 or the Crows of 2014 onwards.
Freo doesn't have 1 dominant KPF and one small forward that can kick 60 goals every year.
Not disputing point 1 but I don't think point 2 was important. Yes Neale was possibly capable of getting more disposals but his disposal at the time was not particularly damaging. In contrast, leading up to that game, Suban had been very damaging with his long disposal off the wing and DeBoer brought demonstrated forward pressure and tackling that actually pulled us back into the game. I don't think the Neale sub hurt us much at all.
As to point 3, well Kepler wasn't there but Zac Clarke played a lot in the forward line that day and was largely ineffectual; we can wonder but again not sure it had a huge impact.
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And the umpires screwed us just a tad.
ydraw
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- Apr 27, 2015
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Sorry but this is just massively taking the piss and searching for ways to excuse a ridiculously bad selection decision. Neale was superb in the 2nd half of 2013. Had one quiet game in the prelim and got dropped. It was an awful decision and while it's obviously not the sole reason we lost, it certainly didn't help at all.
I never said Defenders aren’t as good as Fowards? Might need to get that Monocle checked mate.
Playing as a third tall Fwd means you get the defensive third tall opposed to you. Don’t put words in my mouth please.
I played as a defender in my footy days and believe me it’s a tough gig and you become a lot more accountable at there.
Well clearly hawks had a long list of talls so gunston could be the fourth and clearly we didn’t have the depth/height in our backline to cover him. That has nothing to do with Cam and our current situation of needing him to step up.
Croad, Tarrant, Anthony and Kingsley Hunter(going back a bit) were similar ages to McCarthy and were dropped for similar form slumps.You can’t just leave him in cause he’s young and say he’ll be better down the track..it’s a performance base industry.
In saying all this he’ll probably come out tomorrow and kick 3. I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens as it’s at home and he’s under the pump. Watch his teammates give him a few easy ones over the top to get his confidence up and the media off him.
McCarthy effort is fine and is out of form due to ball use from the midfield and not having a complete AFL tall next to him.
I don’t see dropping him will do much good and I think their isn’t another option except Kersten.
I'm sorry - please explain how exactly are you arguing it had an impact on the game and why it was a bad selection decision?
Take the names out of it ydraw and look at the facts - you have three players coming into finals that are going to play "a role" probably on the forward flank and needs to apply pressure to give space to a number of midfielders who drive the team's engine room (which is the whole basis of the team's gameplan). Which one are you going to play as the sub?
- Player One is 22 years old with 83 games experience, averages the most goals of the three players, and has come off a game where he has kicked two goals (three shots in total) has had 4 tackles, 4 clearances on 80% game time. He has only missed two games in the entire season. Has played a number of finals time on ground (6 finals) before this game.
- Player Two is 23 years old with 100 games experience, is leading the club in tackles (5.8 per game), has played all games in the season, and is relatively fresh only playing 50% of the previous game. He is a big body (close to 190cm) and has played every game this season. Again experienced in finals (6 finals).
- Player Three is only 19 years old with 22 games experience, is averaging reasonable possession numbers (19 disposals a game, bolstered by some large numbers on full game time earlier in the season) but has the lowest of the three in terms of tackles even though he has been playing as the sub and is fresh. Only played half the season at a senior level. He is coming off a game where he was on the ground for 20% where he kicked a goal but had no tackles . The least experienced in finals (2 finals).
I find these quotes and our selections this week really frustrating. I feel we have comprehensively proved this year that, with our current structure and game plan , if we play Mundy forward we lack physical presence in the midfield against good sides. If we play Mundy in the midfield we lack physical presence up forward.
We have options to do something about this, although not necessarily great ones. We could play Kersten, Apeness or Strnadica up forward and leave Mundy in the midfield. Alternatively, we could play Mundy forward, Nyhuis, Duman or Hughes down back and release Blakely or SHill to the midfield. My preference is to release Blakely to the midfield and Mundy forward.
This weeks selections look like continuing with the same structural issues we have displayed all year against good sides. The only hope is to play Danyle across half back and release a midfielder to the midfield. I hope this is what we do.
Structure is a major problem, balance, sure injury is an issue, but every team will have concerns. Spreading the load of
goalkickers as a unit?
Darling, LeCras, a 2-3rd tall and a medium, so its not the bigs hitting the scoreboard.
LeCras is averaging 2 goals a game, we would kill for that.
Darling might only be the height of a 2nd/3rd tall but he is playing like Carey. Could easily be no 1. Also Waterman is the 3rd tall. Lecras is 4th.
Wizard
Brownlow Medallist
Gonna be fun watching Ape, Meek or Jones get absolutely demolished by Grundy next week...
- Apr 25, 2011
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Not looking for a fight. I reacted poorly and spoke in haste and flippantly.
I was incensed at your casually labelling McCarthy a coward, thought I'd wind you up a bit - but, I should not have - it was poor form. The enemy wears blue and yellow (and 16 other sets of colours), it was poor of me, my sincerest apologies if you will accept them.
If he is in your Supercoach/fantasy team put the C on him.
Reckon they have to bring 2 in else it will be a bloodbath rather than just carnage.
I just want us to win the flag, I never take offence to the casual banter in between.
- Apr 25, 2011
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Grundy got 48 hit outs as Apness got 17 and Jones got only 8. your are correct
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