Team Mgmt. Talk about the makeup of our list - midfield balance, height profile, endurance runners

[fairbump_playon]

Would only disagree with Ambrose being delisted as I think he is in, or is close to being in the best 22.

Yeah if not best 22, definitely best 30. Not going to be delisted.

Brown could go either way this year. Will be an interesting one for him. He's actually pretty slick, just needs an extra 10% of physicality and intensity.

 

[vass44]

Ambrose is an interesting one - hes our 4th best tall defender and in possibly in a similar situation to our 4th best forward - James Stewart. Both need good years to lock in a new contract. Others who are in danger of being not on our list at the end of 2019 are Dea, D.Clarke, Long, Baguley, Myers, Hartley, Brown, Stewart and Houlahan


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[eth-dog]

Ambrose is an interesting one - hes our 4th best tall defender and in possibly in a similar situation to our 4th best forward - James Stewart. Both need good years to lock in a new contract. Others who are in danger of being not on our list at the end of 2019 are Dea, D.Clarke, Long, Baguley, Myers, Hartley, Brown, Stewart and Houlahan


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Stewart is contracted for 2020 already so that blows that theory out of the water. He'll be on the list next year and will be best 22.

 

[vass44]

Stewart is contracted for 2020 already so that blows that theory out of the water. He'll be on the list next year and will be best 22.

Contracts mean nothing these days - Stewart can still be traded if he has currency at years end or paid out his final year if the club wants to make space on their list. He’s also a fair way off best 22 right now


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[BrunoV]

Contracts mean nothing these days - Stewart can still be traded if he has currency at years end or paid out his final year if the club wants to make space on their list. He’s also a fair way off best 22 right now


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Contracts mean nothing and yet a club can choose to enforce the contract and the player can do nothing about it?

 

[rusman]

According to these recent articles (http://m.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-12/who-has-the-best-onballers-we-rank-every-club)
we were ranked:

Defense - 4th
Midfield - 7th
Forward - 4th

Surely that is a top 6 team

 

[Red Black and Blue]

According to these recent articles (http://m.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-12/who-has-the-best-onballers-we-rank-every-club)
we were ranked:

Defense - 4th
Midfield - 7th
Forward - 4th

Surely that is a top 6 team

Our midfield is very underrated there. Probably not that strong a starting three but it bats as deep as any. Have a look at GWS, they have De Boer as their seventh mid and then the likes Shipley and new draftees. For us those positions are made up of Langford, McGrath, Parish and even Fantasia running through.

 

[Bjchan13]

Mitch Brown, Hartley and Ambrose are all great depth. Id hope we'd keep all 3 if they're happy to play on 1 year contracts and mostly in the VFL until they're needed. How much they'd want to be paid would also have to be taken into account due to the fact we've got genuine guns that will have to be paid somewhere near market price when they come out of contract. Holding the list togther now as it starts to take shape will take some selflessness from players and some smart moves by list management.

 

[eth-dog]

Contracts mean nothing these days - Stewart can still be traded if he has currency at years end or paid out his final year if the club wants to make space on their list. He’s also a fair way off best 22 right now


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Brown and McKernan are 28. Stewart is 24. How is he "a fair way off best 22" when he kicked 1 less goal in the AFL than the player most people have as a starter in McKernan from a similar amount of games, hmm? He'll be best 22 by the end of the year, bookmark it.

 

[blitzer]

Mitch Brown, Hartley and Ambrose are all great depth. Id hope we'd keep all 3 if they're happy to play on 1 year contracts and mostly in the VFL until they're needed. How much they'd want to be paid would also have to be taken into account due to the fact we've got genuine guns that will have to be paid somewhere near market price when they come out of contract. Holding the list togther now as it starts to take shape will take some selflessness from players and some smart moves by list management.

There is probably only 1 best 22 spot between Brown, Hartley, Ambrose, Stewart and McKernan but they all have some pluses in their favour and something to offer an AFL side in the right circumstances.

I'm most partial to Ambrose and Stewart out of the above list. Ambrose has great versatility and his athletic profile is ideally suited for shutting down players. Brown and McKernan outperformed Stewart in 2018 but they are both 4 years older and I don't have any particular faith that they will maintain their career best 2018 form for the remainder of their career. Stewart to me will end up a slightly better and younger version of these 2. Being the same age as Daniher is just a much more appealing pairing and I think ultimately will prove the difference for him.

Despite my preferences if you can keep these sorts of players on your list as genuine depth for key posts I think that's a very, very good thing. All have shown AFL level attributes at times, so if they are willing to stay at budget price then I could easily see us keeping 4 out of 5 of these blokes on the list going into 2020.

 

[rusman]

If Daniher is back to full fitness I would try a best 22 without brown Hartley mckernan Ambrose and Stewart.

We play our best being smaller in the forwardline and focusing on pressure.

A defense of Hurley hooker Francis can take any big 3 fwds. You can also move hooker forward to mix things up on match ups for 5 minutes.

 

[blitzer]

If Daniher is back to full fitness I would try a best 22 without brown Hartley mckernan Ambrose and Stewart.

We play our best being smaller in the forwardline and focusing on pressure.

A defense of Hurley hooker Francis can take any big 3 fwds. You can also move hooker forward to mix things up on match ups for 5 minutes.

I think none of them is a bit much. Does that mean Daniher goes into ruck to spell Bellchambers and we have no tall forwards during that time? I'm not really a fan. I still like the standard 2 tall forwards then somebody like a Stringer as a 3rd tall/medium sized marking option.

 

[BelleJames]

Pretty solid read.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl/2019/01/07/ifsbutsbombers

 

[rusman]

I think none of them is a bit much. Does that mean Daniher goes into ruck to spell Bellchambers and we have no tall forwards during that time? I'm not really a fan. I still like the standard 2 tall forwards then somebody like a Stringer as a 3rd tall/medium sized marking option.

Yep Daniher would have to Ruck.

It’s similar to Collingwood / Richmond. Definitely worth a trial. It give us an extra player to apply manic pressure and run over teams.

 

[Bjchan13]

Teams are always trying to figure out the best balance of talls in the forward line and winning combinations are changing all the time. Richmond added Lynch which changes their setup. Collingwood had some success with only Cox which no one saw coming but lost to WC who play a lot of talls. Collingwood were close but lost the aerial battle. We were playing 3 talls in 2017 with some success but obviously had to mix that up last year. I think our best combination if all 3 are in form and fit would be Joey, Horse and Stringer as a 3rd 'tall'. Horse in because of his rucking ability and 2018 form but wouldnt be upset to see Mitch or Stewart in if he goes cold.

 

[blitzer]

Pretty solid read.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl/2019/01/07/ifsbutsbombers

I enjoyed it for the most part. A few things I disagreed with, in particular a suggestion for Myers at half back. It was a pretty typical neutral's pros and cons summary where they pick out a few notable things about a team and then try to show the negatives and positives.

 

[owen87]

Myers at half back

He's one of those players where you look at what he has; size, good above the head, huge kick - and think, gee he'd be ok at half-back.

Until you remember we've tried him there many, many times, and he's consistently been terrible anywhere other than the midfield.

He's also not as bad a player as people try to make him out to be, he's just been extremely injury prone. When he's on the park he's a fairly standard C/B grade midfielder.

 

[Bombers36]

We have so much depth on our list - more than I can remember for the last 10 years - and that's a good thing given our performance over the last 10 years!

I think we have 16 locks on our best 22, with 6 spots up for grabs depending on injury/form. Daniher is of course a lock if fit - but no games and modified training for nearly 9 months with his OP issues has us all nervous - so CHF up for grabs right now. My 16 locks in positions are;-

Francis Hurley McKenna
HBF Hoooker Sadd
Zakka Heppell McGrath
Smith CHF Tippa
Stringer FF Fanta

Bellcho Shiel ZMerrett

Myers Bench Bench Bench

For the vacant half back flank position we have many options in: Gleeson, Ridley, Guelfi & Redman come to mind. Ambrose & Margaret could also potentially play the HBF role, but are more key position type defenders and pretty decent ones at that

The centre half forward and full forward spots would be McKernan's and Brown's to lose right now, Daniher is an automatic selection when fit, and Stewart is the back up

Competition for spots on the bench will be fierce - you'd think Myers takes one spot - I'm not his biggest fan but he is in the leadership group so will get games, he does offer some grunt out of the middle and last year was one of his better years.
Langford and Laverde will play a lot of games, as will Parish, Guelfi, Begley, and Ridley so it will out of those guys you'd think to fill the remaining interchange spots.

Then we have guys that will likely play lots of reserves but can all play roles and bring lots of AFL experince: Zack Clarke, Hartley, Baguley, Dea, McNeice
Plus exiting new and emerging talent in: Mosquito, Draper, Gown & Jok

Theres a host of other players who will also be primarily reserves - Mutch, Long, Mynott and others I have forgotten, and you never know with these guys - one of them could smash it in the reserves and jump up and demand a senior spot.

So much to look forward to in 2019 - and so much depth - I really cant wait for the season to start!

 

[Ambrosia]

Pretty solid read.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl/2019/01/07/ifsbutsbombers

Not bad. Things that stood out to me that's wrong with it:

- It reads like Myers is our main clearance midfielder even though we use him as a blocker/defensive mid and share the clearance load between the rest of our mids.

- Our potential improvement players he listed (Long, Mutch, Guelfi) aren't the guys likely to guys making much difference to our side next season. The fringe young players who could break out and make a big impact are the likes of Redman, Ridley, Laverde and Begley imo.

 

[BrunoV]

Bruno is getting kinda giddy thinking about what is on offer from the likes of McGrath, Parish, Langford, Francis, Ridley, Laverde, Begley, Redman and even McKenna (who is still very much developing his game) this year as 3rd to 5th year players.

You could make an argument that 75% of the players around the best 22 mark haven't really tapped their potential but I am thinking about the guys who are not even close to delivering on their potential (primarily due to age).

It's an extremely exciting generation of the list that, as a collective, we really haven't gotten anything from yet.

Hopefully they can get through the rest of the year healthy. These are the guys that will make the difference between just finals and winning a premiership. We know what we can and will get from the senior core.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Most talented list we have in over a decade there will be some serious issues if this current list cant win finals or flags in the next few years.

 

[rumply]

Most talented list we have in over a decade there will be some serious issues if this current list cant win finals or flags in the next few years.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

What's wrong with what I said?

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Francis
Tippa
Parish

Out of contract surely we lock them away asap

Tippa 3 years
Parish 3 years
Francis 2 years

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Francis
Tippa
Parish

Out of contract surely we lock them away asap

Tippa 3 years
Parish 3 years
Francis 2 years

If Francis justifies another contract this year I’d be hoping we lock him away for another four as the offers to peel him away will come thick and fast if we low ball him.