Toast Smedts up forward

[dazbroncos]

Especially when he fits the bill almost perfectly:

- Quick
- Evasive, very evasive
- Good goal sense
- Right age now to play every week

And let's face it, his defensive efforts have gotten better. Bagging him after yesterday is pointless.
Thought he was reasonable at times and all at sea at others but he was far from alone in being wet.

Put him up forward and let him play. He won't be a game charger but if he gets a few chances he might snag a couple.
Go Catters

 

[ButterMill]

And let's face it, his defensive efforts have gotten better. Bagging him after yesterday is pointless.
Thought he was reasonable at times and all at sea at others but he was far from alone in being wet.

Put him up forward and let him play. He won't be a game charger but if he gets a few chances he might snag a couple.
Go Catters

Agree. He actually tried hard. Confidence of all involved dropped after half time, ignoring that, he got badly out positioned with that ball over his head he failed to face, and his man left him behind twice on leads in the fifty (one word in his favour when it spilled to him), but I didn't see him as significantly worse than anyone.

There is enough there to be on a list. I'd like to see him tried up front.

Or we persevere. Take some more losses and let people learn their craft.

M Loyd on Scarlett mentioned he thought he wasn't going to make it after two games on him. Takes a while these things

 

[meto]

Five pages of praise of Smedts playing as a medium forward in a team that struggled to contend for much of the year.

We've barely had a medium forward capable of getting a kick since, and this former first round draft pick is like a fish out of water playing on the last line of defence.

How to Kill a Football Career 101.

I've been saying the same all pre-season but everyone takes it as an anti-Kersten manoeuver or anti Lang, nothing to do with them just a better fit for the team and Billie. As you said a 1st rounder.
And Walker now has to get a game he's just turned 23 and starring in the two's, we need to moved forward with our youth or we will bottom out.
GHS 26 disposals and Blease 29, a linking runner who'll take on the opposition and goes inside no trouble.

 

[Partridge]

Agree. He actually tried hard. Confidence of all involved dropped after half time, ignoring that, he got badly out positioned with that ball over his head he failed to face, and his man left him behind twice on leads in the fifty (one word in his favour when it spilled to him), but I didn't see him as significantly worse than anyone.

Completely agree. The one big criticism I had of him prior to this season was showboating and not respecting the game enough; to me that's disappeared. He's not doing it at all now. It shows how important our perception is when assessing performance. If he was someone universally adored on here, he'd be easily defended - with things like "he's trying hard", "he's being played out of position", and "he's still relatively inexperienced". All of which are true.

I can certainly agree that he hasn't been great, but to me he was far from the worst either. Can't question his efforts now.

 

[SJ]

Completely agree. The one big criticism I had of him prior to this season was showboating and not respecting the game enough; to me that's disappeared. He's not doing it at all now. It shows how important our perception is when assessing performance. If he was someone universally adored on here, he'd be easily defended - with things like "he's trying hard", "he's being played out of position", and "he's still relatively inexperienced". All of which are true.

I can certainly agree that he hasn't been great, but to me he was far from the worst either. Can't question his efforts now.

I just see it as a lamb to the slaughter. There are certain defensive aspects that come naturally to some - he is just not strong in those areas. It's like asking a right-hander to play golf left-handed. You can try as hard as you'd like, but it's never going to work.

 

[The 747]

After a couple of poor moments early I thought he looked easily the most comfortable he's looked as a defender today. Actually of the 3 small defenders I thought he was definitely the pick of a bad bunch. Now is the time to back him in and give him that role for the next month at least.

I do love to hate on Billie but wasn't that bad yesterday. A glimmer of hope for his career perhaps.

 

[The 747]

This board is currently rampant though. Billie is really copping the brunt of it all.

Well, we traded Varcoe............

 

[dazbroncos]

Completely agree. The one big criticism I had of him prior to this season was showboating and not respecting the game enough; to me that's disappeared. He's not doing it at all now. It shows how important our perception is when assessing performance. If he was someone universally adored on here, he'd be easily defended - with things like "he's trying hard", "he's being played out of position", and "he's still relatively inexperienced". All of which are true.

I can certainly agree that he hasn't been great, but to me he was far from the worst either. Can't question his efforts now.

I posted earlier as well that whilst its infuriating to see us get smashed up forward for lack of a small/medium, and him down back, his efforts have improved IMO. And with a better understanding of defensive play, whilst not excelling at it, he could make a better forward for the run back there. Especially with the effort increase. Agility, goal sneak, better effort across the board and a little self belief.

Now if CS would just get him up there. …

GO Catters

 

[Daniel McL]

Sometimes coaches just need to accept they got a player's position wrong.
Scotty actually got it right in 2012.
If his move to defence was to work on his defensive game then I guess you could say that has worked a bit.
But now, move him back up forward & see him put more offensive pressure on as well as kicking a couple of goals.

 

[Lager]

Fair bit of overreaction on here (as usual). He was far from the worst yesterday, and IMO he is a young player showing a lot of improvement from last season - where he broke his leg. Lets hope that the improvement continues.

 

[Rainfall]

Either we play him every game possible and hope to see improvement or we trade him to Carltank, The Saints or Bulldogs

 

[Spazz Cat]

Two players everyone's hating on.
Smedts: In defence but would make a good small forward. Preety agile, can find the goals and definitely has some silk and class.
Murdoch: Playing forward but could make a good defender IMO. Quick, could play small or tallish, and could provide dash and beautiful long kicks out of defence.

 

[Partridge]

Two players everyone's hating on.
Smedts: In defence but would make a good small forward. Preety agile, can find the goals and definitely has some silk and class.
Murdoch: Playing forward but could make a good defender IMO. Quick, could play small or tallish, and could provide dash and beautiful long kicks out of defence.

Agree on Smedts, not sure about Murdoch. That is to say, I think he can definitely make it as a forward, not at all sure as a defender. Doesn't seem to have the awareness or mindset to mind an opponent.

 

[Cosmic Energy]

Agree on Smedts, not sure about Murdoch. That is to say, I think he can definitely make it as a forward, not at all sure as a defender. Doesn't seem to have the awareness or mindset to mind an opponent.

It's a bit troubling that we don't seem to have much consistency with who we play as small backs or forwards, even the mids really. We're in a different stage obviously but I feel like in the Thompson era we had a fairly settled line up, and guys who came in to the side would play fairly set roles with time to learn. It felt like we used to use guys with attacking tendencies up forward, and I can't think of any attacking smalls we turned into stopping defenders (Milburn might have gone from a mid to defence perhaps). There were probably exceptions and the game has changed a bit.

It also seems a bit odd we gave up pretty quickly on Burbury as the small defensive forward, but didn't give Billie a run there when he came back into the team last year, and no one else really owned that spot. Mitch Duncan is another guy I don't think is very assured down on the last line of defence, and nor should he have to be on a regular basis, he's one of our best users of the ball and finishers in an attacking sense. I get very nervous when Steve Johnson & Jimmy are down there also. I guess it's the because of the older guys being so successful that while we have been in regular contention there hasn't been time or room to develop the guys in these positions as we'd like.

With our ruck woes, maybe the next stop for Billie is the ruck. Robert Walls would be happy.

 

[Vdubs]

Two players everyone's hating on.
Smedts: In defence but would make a good small forward. Preety agile, can find the goals and definitely has some silk and class.
Murdoch: Playing forward but could make a good defender IMO. Quick, could play small or tallish, and could provide dash and beautiful long kicks out of defence.

And Simpson is the 3rd.

 

[Grimoz]

One thing you need when playing in defence is to be a very good user of the ball, preferably left and right footed as Guthrie is and Murdoch is so one sided it's a concern.
He's also shown very little composure when winning the contested footy as it's very much . . . . .

. . . . . with young Jordan Murdoch.



The one player who would make a hell of a good defender is Darcy Lang.

Not sure about Lang Bobby, he had a touch of the hot potato's on Monday too. I think he's better suited to the midfield, his tackling is great.

 

[catempire]

Not sure about Lang Bobby, he had a touch of the hot potato's on Monday too. I think he's better suited to the midfield, his tackling is great.

Yep, got to be very assured in your handling deep in defence. Early days and Darcy is showing some nerves with the bobbling ball in front of him. Maybe when he finds his feet he can go back for a try.

 

[Munich]

Two players everyone's hating on.
Murdoch: Playing forward but could make a good defender IMO. Quick, could play small or tallish, and could provide dash and beautiful long kicks out of defence.

I would love to see Murda back out there, who is hating on him??

He's far more valuable than Smedts, no comparison.

 

[Grimoz]

I would love to see Murda back out there, who is hating on him??

He's far more valuable than Smedts, no comparison.

You obviously didn't watch any of the preseason, he was atrocious and is where he belongs in the 2's, like others have said Smedts wasnt our worst on Monday so give the guy a chance.

 

[catempire]

no he isn't. You have been mentioning this a lot lately but he's actually looking better than many of our other 1st or 2nd gamers. The kids a special talent and only going to improve with each game he plays.
Thought he was one of the better players for us, along with Blicavs. Even seasoned heads like Enright and Taylor had more issues than Lang.

Yes he is. He has fumbled the bouncing ball with unnerving regularity in the past two games. It's understandable given his inexperience but there's no point pretending it hasn't happened.

 

[Partridge]

I would love to see Murda back out there, who is hating on him??

He's far more valuable than Smedts, no comparison.

Not sure about that. Murdoch may be more valuable up forward, although of course we can't see Smedts there at the moment. But I'd have Smedts in defence ahead of him every day.

 

[cynical]

Murdoch doesn't have the footy smarts for a defender I'd prefer him on the wing. He needs to be the outside player kicking it into our forward line. We really only have Duncan who is a good kick running through the midfield.

I prefer Smedts up forward his errors aren't punished as much.

Lang for me looks to be the one I'd have in defence, he was very jittery against the hawks but his decision making is very good as well as his tackling. The sort of guy you'd want on a Ballantyne type player.

Would also like Guthrie back also, don't think he is big enough to be a mid.

 

[turbo0010]

I remember when Rooke and Mackie to name a couple, were once rubbish and i bet everyone was saying they'll never make it and should never play again. Rooke used to fumble the ball all the time early on in his career.

The other thing is, we don't see these blokes at training every day. Maybe they show a lot there, it's just getting them to show the same in the games.

 

[Daniel McL]

Yes he is. He has fumbled the bouncing ball with unnerving regularity in the past two games. It's understandable given his inexperience but there's no point pretending it hasn't happened.

It's true.
He did fumble quite a bit.
First time he did I am pretty sure he went in again, and got the handball out to a player on the Wing.
And I guess the good thing about Darcy is that if he fumbles it & the opposition picks it up he will 99% of the time tackle them very well.
Also completely understandable to be fumbling against that Hawthorn pressure as everyone was pretty much.
Remember NAB1 against the Suns when the ball was really slippery but Lang seemed to be the only one who could handle it fine.
Once he doesn't fumble that ball he will get even better considering he is such a good ball user, especially with that sidestep of his to give him some more time.

 

[ATSAM]

Yes please, the forward line or at least awing for Smedts.