It seems to me that with Hibberd likely to be available again after the bye and the rest of our defenders available we have some opportunity to restructure our team to inject some extra pace and run through the midfield, which is particularly crucial right now due to the loss of Zaharakis for a significant period of time.
Right now I see our defence as something like this (with the bolded players being automatic inclusions when fit and not really able to be played in other positions).
B Fletcher Hooker Hardingham
HB Hibberd Carlisle* Dyson/Heppell/Dempsey
*Can swap Carlisle for Pears or Hurley if required.
The trio of Dyson/Heppell/Dempsey I think could be part of the solution for our midfield/wing. I think all 3 have played football of a high enough quality that we don't really want to drop them even though we only have so many spaces in defence. Dempsey in particular could really inject some pace through the midfield playing a role a bit like Lewis Jetta does for the swans and I think we now actually have the depth in our backline to cover his rebound run. Right now I think we have an abundance of HBF's and inside ball winning midfielders with a lack of pace. So the challenge for us is to find the right balance.
In our midfield right now the selection looks like (bolded being automatic inclusions when fit):
Watson Stanton Hocking HowlettZaharakis Lonnergan Melksham Monfries Myers**
Potential options currently at Bendigo: Reimers, Colyer (ignoring the less realistic chances ie the young fellas).
**I know Myers has only played a half in the mid this year but I'm going early on this one.
Now I'm sure every single Bombers fan that looks at that midfield is going wow, that's really slow and that's definitely true. There hasn't been any sign that the coaches will drop any of the bolded thus far regardless of form so I'll take them as safe. Right now we definitely don't want all those unbolded guys playing together in the same area.
If all of Watson, Hocking, Howlett are fit, I think ideally we would really only want one of Lonnergan/Monfries/Myers playing in the midfield. My preference would be Myers to stay in (giving us an extra big body and big kick), Monfries to go back to the forward line and Lonnergan to the 2nd's until further opportunity presents itself or he finds great form. Then we could balance out the midfield grunt of:
Watson Hocking Howlett Myers
with the outside run/skills of:
Stanton Dempsey Heppell/Colyer/Reimers/Dyson/Melksham (2-4 of this group depending if they also get picked for other spots and rotate through)
So what do people think, who should be in our ideal midfield now that we're getting a lot of players back? I think the question of pace will be particularly relevant given our next game is at Subi as well and a lack of pace and spread will really hurt our cause over there.
Right now I see our defence as something like this (with the bolded players being automatic inclusions when fit and not really able to be played in other positions).
B Fletcher Hooker Hardingham
HB Hibberd Carlisle* Dyson/Heppell/Dempsey
*Can swap Carlisle for Pears or Hurley if required.
The trio of Dyson/Heppell/Dempsey I think could be part of the solution for our midfield/wing. I think all 3 have played football of a high enough quality that we don't really want to drop them even though we only have so many spaces in defence. Dempsey in particular could really inject some pace through the midfield playing a role a bit like Lewis Jetta does for the swans and I think we now actually have the depth in our backline to cover his rebound run. Right now I think we have an abundance of HBF's and inside ball winning midfielders with a lack of pace. So the challenge for us is to find the right balance.
In our midfield right now the selection looks like (bolded being automatic inclusions when fit):
Watson Stanton Hocking Howlett
Potential options currently at Bendigo: Reimers, Colyer (ignoring the less realistic chances ie the young fellas).
**I know Myers has only played a half in the mid this year but I'm going early on this one.
Now I'm sure every single Bombers fan that looks at that midfield is going wow, that's really slow and that's definitely true. There hasn't been any sign that the coaches will drop any of the bolded thus far regardless of form so I'll take them as safe. Right now we definitely don't want all those unbolded guys playing together in the same area.
If all of Watson, Hocking, Howlett are fit, I think ideally we would really only want one of Lonnergan/Monfries/Myers playing in the midfield. My preference would be Myers to stay in (giving us an extra big body and big kick), Monfries to go back to the forward line and Lonnergan to the 2nd's until further opportunity presents itself or he finds great form. Then we could balance out the midfield grunt of:
Watson Hocking Howlett Myers
with the outside run/skills of:
Stanton Dempsey Heppell/Colyer/Reimers/Dyson/Melksham (2-4 of this group depending if they also get picked for other spots and rotate through)
So what do people think, who should be in our ideal midfield now that we're getting a lot of players back? I think the question of pace will be particularly relevant given our next game is at Subi as well and a lack of pace and spread will really hurt our cause over there.
