I'm not quite sure what the recipe is. all I know is for us to be able to have an impact in finals we need to sort our forward line out and that's the bottom line. Our backline is settled, plus we have decent depth as well to cover injury, our midfield is performing well, we have good midfield depth and have a good understanding of which players are our best midfielders, the midfield is sorted. Our ruck situation is settled for the most part, we just need mumford back in the squad, lrt's probably second choice, with seabs/pyke about equal 3rd at this point.
The only concern is our forward line, the only thing we really knew about our forward line was that Reid was our main target along with goodes. Goodes is on the sidelines and Reid has been underperforming. We also have midfielders who are capable of resting forward and having an impact. Tdl's looked good with limited opportunity, Walsh looks like he could develop into something special, white & everitt have been.underwhelming. spangher & Morton are somewhat unknown quantities at this point. There are just so many question marks at the moment.
If I was coach, my main priority would be to settle the forward line. We've got the next 10 games to try a few different combinations, to try and test guys like tdl, Walsh & Morton, and to adjust for goodes coming back into the side. I think stabilizing the forward line is paramount to our changes of winning the flag in 2012 & beyond.
Come finals, hopefully the forward line will consist of Reid, goodes (70%), 3rd tall of spangher/walsh/possibly the resting ruck, tdl/morton in the 4th position, with the last 2 positions being taken by resting midfielders/semi-permanent small forwards eg mcglynn, rok. I'm not sure what the best combination is, but we've got time to figure it out, but I think we really need to settle on a few key players who will he there week in week out so that everyone knows their roles, because our structure has been poor all season.
3 players that I want to see in the forward line are Reid, goodes & tdl. I wanna see what Morton can do as well. However I'm not sure if we can carry 3 talls AND a resting ruck, time will tell. I'd like to see Walsh hold his soit, but he'll have to preform to keep spang from taking his spot.
One thing I did want to mention regarding our midfielders shouldering the scoring load. While its true our talls haven't been performing, the midfield goal tally is inflated due to the simple fact that we have so many midfielders capable of resting forward and kicking goals, so they're part time forwards really, not pure midfielders. But, if we're to have an impact in finals we need our talls to stand up and contribute. The other reason why our midfielders are kicking goals is because of our forward pressure. We've managed to scramble goals through constant pressure in our f50, and that's a small man's game, which leaves our talls out of action a little bit. The talls come into play when we're working off half back or through the centre. Once we pin it on our f50, the midfielders take centre stage. So no need to panic, but definitely something we need to improve going forward.
Lastly, I'd like to give massive props to horse. It's taken a couple years, but I can see his philosophies really starting to take shape in our gameplan. He's been able to address weaknesses and we're better for it. His focus in versatility has been rewarding thus far, I do however think that we need a couple specialists in our forward line in addition to the resting midfielders just to get that structure right. Im loving the f50 pressure, we've really improved in that aspect of our gane whereas in the last few years we were well behind teams like st Kilda & Collingwood. Is say we're right up the atm.