What next...? (over the next two weeks)

[PieLebo87]

It's fair to say we've put ourselves back into winning form, so I guess the strategy needs a minor twitch.

With Melbourne and GC coming up before the bye, and Collingwood having the worst defence and attack of all teams in the top 6, the focus needs to become percentage before the bye.

Hopefully this is something Buckley can address and resolve before the West Coast clash because percentage can end up being a big factor come round 23 and we may not find ourselves playing two more fragile opponents this season.

A couple of 100 point wins will do the job

 

[jonbe54]

We need to get our twin towers into form, the 2nd ruck experiment with Dawes has worked - sort of, but it has had serious repercussions on our forward line. Dawes seems to have gone backwards having to do his turn in the ruck and it also seems to be having a serious effect on Cloke. With the second tall threat absent at times now opposition teams seem to have taken on the chance to monster Cloke by double and triple teaming him.

We need to bite the bullet on the 2nd ruck and put Dawesy back in the forward line, giving him a license to roam upfield at times.

 

[Giant Sphinx]

With the bye coming up we don't really need to rest anyone for the sake of resting. Sure if they are injured then give them the week off but we can work on our percentage by playing strong teams and not mucking around with the ball like we normally do. Cloke and Dawes can have a few easy kills and come back after the bye with some confidence.

 

[Tbone McGraw]

The one thing the players can't do is become complacent, especially against Melbourne. Although, they are seriously a rabble.

However i don't think that will be a problem with bucks leading us. In fact the only positive with the injuries is young/fringe players having to step up and a lot of them in new roles. Young players and fringe players are generally never complacent.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Cloke and Dawes need to do something STAT.

Dawes has been basically horrible over the year, and Cloke is well down on his dominant 2011. He started ok enough but has really dropped off.

All this contract talk is clearly getting to him. He's either signed somewhere else, or he's really struggling with the decision.

Ablett was struggling with it too, but at least he still played amazingly well in 2010.

I'm amazed we beat Adelaide with Cloke and Dawes basically not present. Imagine what we could have done with them contributing. We really really need to get to at least 120% by the bye.

 

[rhys_22]

I didnt think cloke did one thing right and then i watched the game again.The way he taps it down to the smaller players advantage is huge.And even just his clean hand balls to players (aka sideys last goal).

I do not believe he has signed anywhere else,he's just getting frustrated coz he wants to play with collingwood and no where else.Where else would he go???honestly. I think collingwood are just sick of david cloke and holding it up deliberately so that they are the ones calling the shots.He'll be signed in a few weeks.

 

[Copeland]

No injuries would be a nice change.

 

[Mame]

I agree Cloke is in horrible form but I hadn't considered the effect of Dawes as second ruck on our forward line. I think we play two rucks the next two games at least. Wood comes in (unless it's wet). After the bye we play West Coast too so it could be the ideal setup for that game but needs some more match practice.

 

[4#Didak#4]

I would like to see Wood back in this week & next. Stabilise the forward line and maybe give Cloke & Daws some confidence. We will need some height (weather permitting) anyway with our talls being cut down quicker than the indonesian rainforest.

If Wood is in some sort of form coming into the West Coast game that would be great as we need to combat their twin towers.

 

[Temploar]

They should draft me next year, i'll shield anyone that falls over.
Easy solution for less injuries.

 

[jonbe54]

They should draft me next year, i'll shield anyone that falls over.
Easy solution for less injuries.

Lol 13 scrambles when the DEWS send out the alert, only to be left fielded by sinkers on another kamikaze tear at the ball

 

[ipswichpies]

No injuries would be a nice change.

The injuries a bastard no doubt they have stopped a lot players having any sort of continuity but there is a silver lining here'some of the players are having plenty of rest and should be cherry ripe for finals time and the best one is that we are seeing plenty of kids coming in and not looking out of place,the more I see of our youngsters the more confident I am about our next few years.

 

[Soul_Pie]

Defence and attack stats are usually boosted in these games and can often skew the statistics. Nothing much will be proved over the next few weeks.

The pleasing thing for me is that with such an undermanned defence we've conceded very little over the last 6 rounds, the fact that we only allowed Adelaide 49 points was an incredible sign although a lot of that did come from excellent midfield pressure.

That being said our attack does need a bit of work, we are getting plenty of inside 50s but not much from our KPFs or our designated forwards for that matter. Strangely enough our most dangerous looking forward at the moment is Goldsack. Would love to see Dawes and Cloke really become a dynamic duo again.

 

[Thommo 42]

Cloke is not in good form, but he covered 16km according to Bucks and still had an influence on quite a few goals.

In the first quarter he crashed a pack, split it up the middle 1 v 3 that lead directly to a Goldsack goal. In the last quarter, he single handedly set up Pendles brilliant snap goal with 3 ground level repeat efforts to get the ball going forward, and at leadt 3 other times he went up for marks 1 v 3/4 and our ground level players then whisked the ball away up field because Adelaide committed 3 blokes in the air to make sure he didn't mark it.

 

[Temploar]

Lol 13 scrambles when the DEWS send out the alert, only to be left fielded by sinkers on another kamikaze tear at the ball

Yeah that would be the most likely thing to happen.