Our forward line in 2022

dergert

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Jun 17, 2014
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What will our structure be? Where will our goals come from?

Josh Bruce is gone for the year which places a heavy load on Naughton.

Will Bevo make the board happy and have English play more time inside the 50?

Mods, please merge this if it's a repeat thread.
 

weltschmerz

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May 23, 2019
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Surely Schache comes into calculation

My guess is that he'll be spending more time in the back line.

Depth: McNeil, Hannan, Wallis, Schache if needed, Bedendo, Darcy, Jones.

Bont, Weightman, and JUH all capable of kicking 25. Naughton can kick 50. English needs to find his form.
 

Doggy

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Where is this notion that Bruce is out for the entire year coming from?

He won't be

He'll be back later in the year

In the meantime time we can cover him
 
Nov 29, 2018
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Where is this notion that Bruce is out for the entire year coming from?

He won't be

He'll be back later in the year

In the meantime time we can cover him

His form this year was in part due to a great pre-season where he made sure he was in the best shape he could be. Coming back from a long term injury probably gets us more of the 2020 Bruce than the 2021 version.
 
His form this year was in part due to a great pre-season where he made sure he was in the best shape he could be. Coming back from a long term injury probably gets us more of the 2020 Bruce than the 2021 version.
Why wouldn't we see it as an extended pre-season? I know he can't put heavy work into his legs until the specialist gives him the OK but he could be doing a lot of other work to keep in shape.

IMO the main risk would be if our forward line wasn't clicking and we brought him back too early out of desperation. However if we took our time with him it should almost be like a full-preseason.
 

Doggy

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Why wouldn't we see it as an extended pre-season? I know he can't put heavy work into his legs until the specialist gives him the OK but he could be doing a lot of other work to keep in shape.

IMO the main risk would be if our forward line wasn't clicking and we brought him back too early out of desperation. However if we took our time with him it should almost be like a full-preseason.
Exactly
 
JUH will explode like no other 2nd year forward ever has, seeing those two leads and marks against Melbourne plus the other game against GC tells me with a full pre season he will go awesome.
He might also benefit from Sam Darcy drawing away some of the media attention and the pressure that comes with it.
 

Golden_6

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The potency of our forward line will strangely enough come down to if Sweet can elevate his game to be an acceptable standard as a ruckman. English remaining in the forward line makes us a lot more dangerous with no Bruce

Smith Naughton VDM
Weightman JUH English

There is an absolute ridiculous amount of potential there. All are super young but at the age where they could produce consistent AFL footy. It’s a very exciting group.
 
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The potency of our forward line will strangely enough come down to if Sweet can elevate his game to be an acceptable standard as a ruckman. English remaining in the forward line makes us a lot more dangerous with no Bruce

Smith Naughton VDM
Weightman JUH English

There is an absolute ridiculous amount of potential there. All are super young but at the age where they could produce consistent AFL footy. It’s a very exciting group.
There’s just so much upside - most of those guys could legitimately be in the top handful in the league in their positions.
 

bobs head soup

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Aside from all the players mentioned, with all of the mids available we will need more forward rotations - I can't see Bont, MacRae and Libba all attending nearly every centre bounce again as we did through a lot of 2021.

Bont in particular took his forward game to a new level in the GF (when opportunity arose). With all the mobile aerial options already available, his addition on rotation will really stretch any opposition defence.
 

TiAn_

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I'd like to see more Libba and Treloar and less Dunkley and JJ forward next year.

Would also love to see West barge his way into the team as a forward next year.
 

dergert

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I'd like to see more Libba and Treloar and less Dunkley and JJ forward next year.

Would also love to see West barge his way into the team as a forward next year.
West is the final missing component for our forward line. It's a big ask to have an inside midfielder play one of the hardest positions on the ground.

Still undecided about JJ up forward. I don't think it suits but he did play well in the grand final.
 

TiAn_

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West is the final missing component for our forward line. It's a big ask to have an inside midfielder play one of the hardest positions on the ground.

Still undecided about JJ up forward. I don't think it suits but he did play well in the grand final.

I’m not a JJ hater and I was hoping he’d go really well this year, I just think we need a goal kicker/pressure player in that role.
 

Golden_6

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I’m not a JJ hater and I was hoping he’d go really well this year, I just think we need a goal kicker/pressure player in that role.
JJ as a forward is fine IMO. He's not too bad around goals and it was his first year as a full time forward. It certainly won't be worth his salary and he isn't starting 6 for me but I still think he'll be best 22 on the bench with his ability to be a little flexible. He may surprise us all and become a 25-30 goal forward.
 
I'd like to see more Libba and Treloar and less Dunkley and JJ forward next year.
I agree.

Speaking of Treloar, I watched the first half of the Semi Final last night in its entirety. Apart from watching the match live, I'd only seen the highlights until last night.

It has been well documented that Treloar didn't have the greatest Semi Final. The media had a field day with their criticism of his match. Bevo obviously stuck up for Treloar when he bounced back in a big way in the PF...

However, I noticed on three separate occasions in the first half where he was in miles of space. His teammates (Macrae and Dale to name a couple) kicked to Treloar but missed their targets. Treloar would have been in goal scoring range on two of those occasions.

Had those kicks hit their target, it would have made a huge difference to Treloar's confidence. Had Dale hit Treloar in the first quarter, he would have gone back for a set shot. It would have got his confidence up. As it was, he didn't touch it until the second quarter.
 
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