Strategy The case for a third tall forward

[*PAF]

The time has come to either play Butcher or delist him.

 

[PatientMental]

I don't care who, but ken has ****ed us for too long, I don't care who, but bring in a tall.

 

[raman]

I don't care who, but ken has ****** us for too long, I don't care who, but bring in a tall.

We will. Because Schulz is injured.

 

[bomberclifford]

We will. Because Schulz is injured.

Don't be so sure of that.

There's still Hitchcock isn't there?

 

[PJ Power]

Hinkley is stubborn and it will cost him.

 

[tribey]

Points lost: 8

 

[El_Scorcho]

There are a few arguments that can be absolutely thrown in the bin never to be seen again in this thread or any other after that performance.

Moronic argument 1)

Our structure is fine. ****ing lolle. We got dominated in the air by Richmond today, Essendon the week before and Adelaide the week before that. Playing too short has cost us 3 games.

Moronic argument 2)

We shouldn't play another tall because none of them are "ready". Guess what. Sam Gray isn't ready. Kane Mitchell isn't ready. If anyone tries to make the argument this week that Butcher or Shaw aren't ready then i'd like them to back up that argument by explaining to me how Sam Gray or Kane Mitchell offered more against Richmond than a tall (ANY tall) would have.

Moronic argument 3)

Kenny knows what he's doing. He ****ing does ****ing not, unless he secretly has put the cue in the rack this year and is preparing for next year or something. It's been bleedingly obvious all year that we're playing short and in the last few weeks it's absolutely killed us. I'm sorry, but i'm not going to accept a loss to ****ing Richmond who were equal bottom a few weeks back because "Kenny knows what he's doing" when we could all see the glaring problems on Thursday night. He and the other coaches have absolutely left us fighting with one hand behind our back for 3 weeks because they refuse to play anything resembling a conventional forward structure.

 

[FallingLiefs]

how about that time schulz marked it on the HFF, 1 or 2 spare port players over the back but couldnt kick it to them because their combined height was about 5'11. meanwhile westhoff is playing O'Shea's role for 3 quarters.

 

[raman]

Maybe we're tanking to get Hugh Goddard?

 

[PJ Power]

There are a few arguments that can be absolutely thrown in the bin never to be seen again in this thread or any other after that performance.

Moronic argument 1)

Our structure is fine. ******* lolle. We got dominated in the air by Richmond today, Essendon the week before and Adelaide the week before that. Playing too short has cost us 3 games.

Moronic argument 2)

We shouldn't play another tall because none of them are "ready". Guess what. Sam Gray isn't ready. Kane Mitchell isn't ready. If anyone tries to make the argument this week that Butcher or Shaw aren't ready then i'd like them to back up that argument by explaining to me how Sam Gray or Kane Mitchell offered more against Richmond than a tall (ANY tall) would have.

Moronic argument 3)

Kenny knows what he's doing. He ******* does ******* not, unless he secretly has put the cue in the rack this year and is preparing for next year or something. It's been bleedingly obvious all year that we're playing short and in the last few weeks it's absolutely killed us. I'm sorry, but i'm not going to accept a loss to ******* Richmond who were equal bottom a few weeks back because "Kenny knows what he's doing" when we could all see the glaring problems on Thursday night. He and the other coaches have absolutely left us fighting with one hand behind our back for 3 weeks because they refuse to play anything resembling a conventional forward structure.

This deserves thirty likes, people. Get on board.

 

[tribey]

There are a few arguments that can be absolutely thrown in the bin never to be seen again in this thread or any other after that performance.

Moronic argument 1)

Our structure is fine. ******* lolle. We got dominated in the air by Richmond today, Essendon the week before and Adelaide the week before that. Playing too short has cost us 3 games.

Moronic argument 2)

We shouldn't play another tall because none of them are "ready". Guess what. Sam Gray isn't ready. Kane Mitchell isn't ready. If anyone tries to make the argument this week that Butcher or Shaw aren't ready then i'd like them to back up that argument by explaining to me how Sam Gray or Kane Mitchell offered more against Richmond than a tall (ANY tall) would have.

Moronic argument 3)

Kenny knows what he's doing. He ******* does ******* not, unless he secretly has put the cue in the rack this year and is preparing for next year or something. It's been bleedingly obvious all year that we're playing short and in the last few weeks it's absolutely killed us. I'm sorry, but i'm not going to accept a loss to ******* Richmond who were equal bottom a few weeks back because "Kenny knows what he's doing" when we could all see the glaring problems on Thursday night. He and the other coaches have absolutely left us fighting with one hand behind our back for 3 weeks because they refuse to play anything resembling a conventional forward structure.

He seems to have been overly seduced by the best-case scenario that going small with run & carry can bring.

Problem is, it's not week 3 or 4 anymore.

Our runners have clearly got wear and tear to deal with and other teams have had a few months to respond to our gameplan. Ergo, we're not finding the outlet kicks with anywhere near as much ease - hence panic handball at stoppages and blind alley D50 running - and whereas ordinarily we'd go for a percentage deep relieving kick we don't have a tall to take that mark or bring it to ground further afield.

I lost count of how many times we went deep to an outnumbered Sam Gray, Ollie Wines or Tyrion Polec only for the predictable rebound to hurt us the other way. The midfield responded to this by overcommitting forward to provide surgical options because the logical outlet kick was invalid.

Surprise surprise, Deledio, Cotchin and Martin repeatedly skin us out the back and what's worse is, they had the luxury of banging it long - not unlike Essendon did the week before - because they had a surplus of options over 5'10". Then you've got the whole loss of Westhoff's versatility going on months. We're doing opposition coaches' jobs for them.

The Showdown I'll cop because Trengove went down and we blew our second quarters dominance, but we threw 8 points away this past fortnight purely with pigheaded or even fanciful selection.

 

[PJ Power]

This patch of form is a mirror image of our five rounds last year without Trengove. We will lose the next three without him, and then hopefully scrounge 1-2 wins from the last three matches to make the eight. From there, anything will go in the finals as we know our best footy can beat all comers.

 

[Forzaport]

Win and you look like a genius. Lose and you look like a chump.

The loss of Trengove and Carlile, particularly Trengove and the stubborn refusal to play Clurey, Butcher or Shaw has made a bad situation a shit load worse. We have 3 fit KPFs running around in the Magpies. Pick the best one.

Sure Clurey still would've given away height to Vickery but surely giving up 7 cm isn't at bad as giving up 12 cm!

Our forward structure has been cactus since round 4.

 

[tribey]

Win and you look like a genius. Lose and you look like a chump.

The loss of Trengove and Carlile, particularly Trengove and the stubborn refusal to play Clurey, Butcher or Shaw has made a bad situation a shit load worse. We have 3 fit KPFs running around in the Magpies. Pick the best one.

Sure Clurey still would've given away height to Vickery but surely giving up 7 cm isn't at bad as giving up 12 cm!

Our forward structure has been cactus since round 4.

That 130 point annihilation over Brisbane supplied a rainforest's worth of wallpaper.

 

[bomberclifford]

Richmond by 13 pts

One thing worse than being wrong is being right and wrong with the same post.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Kane Mitchell could be a third tall forward.

Yeah you'll laugh.

Wait until Thursday night...

 

[tribey]

The time has come to either play Butcher or delist him.

That's been the state of play all year.

Scapegoated him in the narrow loss to North and have been intent on inferior options ever since.

 

[Power_boy89]

Time for Hinkley to take a bloody risk and play a damn tall forward instead of this Lord of the rings forward line. I would go as far to say, play both Butch and Shaw see how they go in the deep end. this is seriously costing us big time now, and the only way they can truly develop is in the AFL. Play butch or delist him.

 

[I Dont Care]

Kane Mitchell could be a third tall forward.

Yeah you'll laugh.

Wait until Thursday night...

I know what you are saying....

 

[cj_09]

Don't be so sure of that.

There's still Hitchcock isn't there?

Neade will be playing FF next week if Schulz doesn't get up.

 

[I Dont Care]

Hinkley's Hobbits. I wonder if PREDAT0R can change my avatar....?

 

[bomberclifford]

Our forward structure has been cactus since round 4.

Coincidentally, around the time John Butcher was dropped and never to be spoken of again.

Not related though. Couldn't be.

 

[tribey]

Coincidentally, around the time John Butcher was dropped and never to be spoken of again.

Not related though. Couldn't be.

Maybe he's not meeting some standard during the week or at the Maggies beyond getting 15 touches, 8 marks and 3 goals incessantly, but if Lobbe went down and Renouf had only won 8 hit-outs against some broken down SANFL hack the week before we know who'd be coming in.

 

[El_Scorcho]

That 130 point annihilation over Brisbane supplied a rainforest's worth of wallpaper.

Yep.

Butcher had been servicable in the first 3 games, and we faced a truly awful team with a severely undermanned defence. Seems like the perfect game for Butcher to get a bit of confidence up, and we ****ing dropped him for Sam Gray, who has gone on to play what, 7 or 8 games without ever really having an impact on the result?

That decision to drop Butcher after round 3 torpedoed our entire season, and despite the few of us who were saying it looking like insane street-corner doomsday prophets at the time, it's now become bleedingly obvious that we were right all along.

 

[bomberclifford]

Maybe he's not meeting some standard during the week or at the Maggies beyond getting 15 touches, 8 marks and 3 goals incessantly, but if Lobbe went down and Renouf had only won 8 hit-outs against some broken down SANFL hack the week before we know who'd be coming in.

Maybe he's as pissed off as some of us are that he seems to be held to a much higher standard than others getting games.

It would **** with my attitude as well.