Good thread so far, no BS. It's kind of reassuring...
There is never anyone moving up the field like there are for the dogs, Swans, Cats.....we rarely have an option to hit up as the mids are not working hard enough to present. Need to improve in this area to help the ball carrier out.
I might get crucified for this (excuse the Easter pun) but I reckon Rance might be effective up the ground a bit. He will present all day and his marking ability is underrated. He's obviously not a long term solution (I hope Griffiths and Astbury are being groomed as our 2 hardest working players) but to sure us up so we aren't chasing tails the whole game, he might work in patches. I didn't like Post's game tonight tbh.
Re. Deledio - I have high hopes he will turn into a top 20 player in the league. My only gripe with 'Lids in his career so far is that he didn't work hard enough and perhaps was a little soft. Tonight I thought he tried his backside off and imo Hardwick is starting to have a really positive effect on him. Cotchin was really impressive today, and Martin showed some really good signs.
The only thing that really got me in a spin today was our lack of intensity straight after half time. I don't think there's an excuse for this. Right after the break, and at this level, you have control over intensity, and we lacked it big time, and accordingly got crunched.
I thought we defended Hall exceptionally well. We were really disciplined getting back and Moore, McGuane and Thursfield gave each other a chop out really well. We just need to find a bloke capable of defending a Hahn type size/player (I guess this is where I hoped Rance would be good). I'm not sold on Farmer yet, but have only seen him play twice so will reserve an opinion.
Our rucks need some attending too, I just don't know that Vickery can turn into a number 1 option. We don't need a Cox, Sandilands or Nicky Nat, we just need someone to give our mids first option, and cause a contest. That's my take anyway, I'm not saying we'll win 3 flags in the next 10 years, but I don't think we're a total disaster like the average neutral would think.