For most of the year we have had a different forward line compared tom 08-09. Hall has replaced Welsh, Grant has replaced Hill and Murph and Hanh have, at least in the second part of the year, spent the majority of their time down back with Harbrow and a rotating cast of others spending more time down in the forward line. Is it time that we shift those two guys permanently back down into the forward line for the rest of this finals series. We are so down on confidence that a bit of familiarity back up there could give us a bit more fluency going into our forward 50.
In 08-09 it was basically a case of pick your poison for opposing backlines because we had so many viable options going forward. Basically at least two or three of of Welsh, Hill, Aker, Johnno, Hanh, Gia or Murph would kick 2-3 goals while one might get 4-5 goals. This year it seems as though its just Baz constantly getting 4-5 with maybe one or two others getting multiply goals. Our key was the unpredictability of our forward line, in part due to the creativeness of players like Murph and Aker. Now it appears as though the idea is to have Grant play the Murph role, while using a clearly injured Johnno and an underdone Higgo playing the Aker role. As good as a player Grant looks to be turning into, we cannot afford to have an inexperienced player playing in a role that doesn't suit him. We should be using him in the same way we used Hill in the past. I think our best chance to progress from this point onwards is to have a forward line of:
Grant, Hall, Higgo/Johnno (If they are going to insist on playing these two. One would need to rotate through the middle/bench)
Gia, Hanh, Murph
That set up gives us a bit more unpredictability than what we have at the moment. However, if we are going to persist with the lineups we have been using for most of the year, we need whoever is down in the forward line to not get sucked up the ground and for the gameplan to be tweaked. At least two forwards should never really venture outside of the 50. As more and more teams play zone defences throughout the middle of the ground, the forward players need to be diligent not to get sucked up the ground into the middle or in front of the zone. The key to defeating zone defences in most all sports is to either find the hole in the zone or to go over the zone. Our mids and half backs need to run the ball through the backline, and use our half forwards to find the hole inside the middle of the zone, and then to hit up a leading target over the back of the zone. The key to this idea is obviously we need to use quick precision ball movement. If we can move it quickly through the zone, it does not give the opposition to then roll the zone down back and give our forwards a chance. The fact is, as long as most teams use this sort of defensive structure, it lessens the impact of missing personal on our end as it does not necessarily plays to the opposition strength (Obviously however for some like Maxwell it does), but rather it hides their deficiency's. If we can somehow implement this next week, it could at least give us a chance against the Saints in the Prelim the following week.
In 08-09 it was basically a case of pick your poison for opposing backlines because we had so many viable options going forward. Basically at least two or three of of Welsh, Hill, Aker, Johnno, Hanh, Gia or Murph would kick 2-3 goals while one might get 4-5 goals. This year it seems as though its just Baz constantly getting 4-5 with maybe one or two others getting multiply goals. Our key was the unpredictability of our forward line, in part due to the creativeness of players like Murph and Aker. Now it appears as though the idea is to have Grant play the Murph role, while using a clearly injured Johnno and an underdone Higgo playing the Aker role. As good as a player Grant looks to be turning into, we cannot afford to have an inexperienced player playing in a role that doesn't suit him. We should be using him in the same way we used Hill in the past. I think our best chance to progress from this point onwards is to have a forward line of:
Grant, Hall, Higgo/Johnno (If they are going to insist on playing these two. One would need to rotate through the middle/bench)
Gia, Hanh, Murph
That set up gives us a bit more unpredictability than what we have at the moment. However, if we are going to persist with the lineups we have been using for most of the year, we need whoever is down in the forward line to not get sucked up the ground and for the gameplan to be tweaked. At least two forwards should never really venture outside of the 50. As more and more teams play zone defences throughout the middle of the ground, the forward players need to be diligent not to get sucked up the ground into the middle or in front of the zone. The key to defeating zone defences in most all sports is to either find the hole in the zone or to go over the zone. Our mids and half backs need to run the ball through the backline, and use our half forwards to find the hole inside the middle of the zone, and then to hit up a leading target over the back of the zone. The key to this idea is obviously we need to use quick precision ball movement. If we can move it quickly through the zone, it does not give the opposition to then roll the zone down back and give our forwards a chance. The fact is, as long as most teams use this sort of defensive structure, it lessens the impact of missing personal on our end as it does not necessarily plays to the opposition strength (Obviously however for some like Maxwell it does), but rather it hides their deficiency's. If we can somehow implement this next week, it could at least give us a chance against the Saints in the Prelim the following week.
