Who would we use?

[rustyg70]

Who would you use if Pendles and Swan, or Cloke and Dawes went down with injuries at the same time??

In the guts,Wellingham is the obvious one but who is his partner in crime?
As far as the forward line goes,I have no idea.

Sorry for the ignorance,but being over in WA I dont get to see any of our up and comers.

 

[blaze036]

Witts and j.paine for cloke/dawes. need a few years in the gym though

 

[TheGreatGrundy]

Throw Reid forward and replace him with Keefe in defence, and perhaps play Tarrant forward if Nate Brown is available, and depending on our opposition. Not much else on current form.

Thomas might be able to play Swan's role to some extent. Wellingham as suggested is a candidate for the Pendlebury role.

Let's just hope the 2 scenarios never occur.

 

[Ed D]

There's also Sidey & Beams who can step into the midfield, possibly Krakouer but I don't know how he'd go. It's a worry if Cloke & Dawes go down although like pointed out above, the club can rearrange it's players. Defenders seem more easy to replace with Nathan Brown returning, plus Goldsack, Keeffe and guys like Tom Young there to fill in. The ruck situation would be interesting without Jolly & Wood but I think most clubs would look a lot weaker with their top 2 ruckmen out.

 

[Swooop]

I think we're blessed with an abundance of mids so there'd be any number, and yes Wellingham would be ideal ( think his BOG performance when Swan and Thomas were out last year / Queen's Birthday game iirc)

Cloke and Dawes would be harder for sure.

When Macaffer was going OK in 2010 he played FF I think when Cloke got outed for two weeks for a silly incident.

Keeffe might be a pinch hit at CHF.

Maybe they could plonk Witts in the goal square if he goes OK though I think he's got a bit of body positioning skills to learn from what we saw last year.

Even Blair has been used as a small FF at times with some success, so the way we play with all the multiple goal kickers, it's somewhat notional who is named at FF and CHF.

 

[rustyg70]

There's also Sidey & Beams who can step into the midfield, possibly Krakouer but I don't know how he'd go. It's a worry if Cloke & Dawes go down although like pointed out above, the club can rearrange it's players. Defenders seem more easy to replace with Nathan Brown returning, plus Goldsack, Keeffe and guys like Tom Young there to fill in. The ruck situation would be interesting without Jolly & Wood but I think most clubs would look a lot weaker with their top 2 ruckmen out.

I agree with Sidey though Beams still fills me with a bit of doubt.
That could change IF he was given a number 1 or 2 roll in the guts.
He does have the talent,but I still think he needs to get his head around being an AFL player.
You have picked up on why I left out KP defenders because we seen to have a lot of them.
I just worries me that there are no ready made(or any thing close to it) KP forwards.
AND please don't bring WITTS name up again Blaze.
Lets just get him playing good VFL footy please.

 

[Ed D]

I think the club would have to look at Tarrant, Keeffe, maybe even Maxwell into the forward line if we were desperately short on tall forwards, perhaps even play Wood & Jolly in the ruck & forward. We would have to look at playing Witts as well, as much as he probably wouldn't be ready for it. Perhaps a guy like Tom Young could play up forward too, the club would have to test out all the tall players available, kind of like how John Anthony played as a forward for us a few years ago.

 

[Zahki]

maybe even Maxwell.

That...didn't work so well last year. On a number of levels.

 

[lozza63]

As stated if Swan and Pendles were down - welcome in Beams, Wellas (as primary setup), JT and say Sinkers step up out of the vfl. Guys like Dids/Krak could have minor stints in there too. Sidey a rotating role.

If Cloke and Dawes went down - no answer is right or wrong essentially but Keeffe and Maxy in there would be quite ugly on paper anyway.

I think i'd like to see Wood resting up there with Taz out of full forward - i certainly remember him chiming in with 2 goals against Adelaide, proving he has still "got it".

Just to elaborate in this thread we are looking a little thin of bona fide AFL experience depth. I think kevd mentioned same in the "changes" thread.

The loss of Brown and Neon i think highlights this fact - 400 odd games experience.

As i see it, no particular order, we have the following as AFL standard (10 games plus) currently:

1. Cloke - 149
2. Pendles - 127
3. Maxwell - 159
4. Jolly - 208
5. Swan - 175
6. DThomas - 132
7. Reid - 53
8. Tarrant - 256
9. Shaw - 132
10. Beams - 59
11. Sidebottom - 61
12. Ball - 190
13. Didak - 202
14. O'Brien - 135
15. Toovey - 87
16. Johnson - 224
17. Dawes - 48
18. Krakouer - 125
19. Macaffer - 30
20. Brown - 50
21. Wellingham - 72
22. Wood - 58
23. Fasolo - 13
24. Goldsack - 69
25. Blair - 36
26. Clarke - 46
27. Buckley - 34

So around 27 senior guys really able to mix it - 13 blokes with 100 plus games is very handy. Hope we get some continued improvement out of the guys with 30-80 - we need that in order to maintain a premiership contention/spot in the 4 for coming seasons.

28. Keeffe - 5
29. Young - 2
30. Rounds - 5
31. Sinclair - 4

4 guys with a taste. This is where we (dont tell me any side could 'cause i'm thinking about our solutions) could come completely unstuck should injuries be as rife as last year - last year we had at least 5/6 with long term (missed 4 games+) problem - Brown, Didak, Shaw, Jolly, Maxwell, Beams, Wellas. How adequately could we cope if that was the case again?

32. Witts - ?
33. Yagmoor - ?
34. Paine - ?
35. Elliott - ?
36. Seedsman - ?

the rest of the kids with queries

 

[Quicky]

Agree totally on the Wellingham and Beams suggestions. I think Krakouer would get a look in too.

The Cloke and Dawes scenario would be much more difficult to cover. And it wasn't exactly a situation that was hard to spot. I wanted us to draft Eddy as a mature option in case this happened.

Really as I see it our only option would be a big shake up. We would be calling on Tarrant (FF) and Reid (CHF) to go forward and play Brown and Keeffe in defense.

That might seem pretty drastic but Tarrant is a proven forward and Reid showed some great things with very little experience. Brown is a proven KPD and Keeffes best AFL and VFL form has come at CHB. It might leave us a little short of cohesiveness but I don't think it is short on talent and ability. You could certainly do worse.

 

[Ed D]

That...didn't work so well last year. On a number of levels.

I agree, but we'd have to play guys like him in there if the other options didn't work out, and he has played the role before so he could step in for a game or two. Long term no way you'd want him as a forward.

 

[TradeDraft]

If those 4 Go Down forget winning the Flag.

Swan I would Replace with Sidebottom who I reckon can do as good a job as Swan.

Pendles would be harder as when he not played we struggled. Remember the 2008 Final Series?

Dawes and Cloke replacments would be out of Witts,Ceglar,Keeffe,Tarrant,Brown and Reid

 

[Optimax]

So what your saying, is what would we do if we lost 3 of our best players and one structure player? I would suggest panic

 

[vjknight]

So what your saying, is what would we do if we lost 3 of our best players and one structure player? I would suggest panic

why these types of threads ? does the OP want it to happen ? i know they dont, and maybe its the way its worded.

losing pendles & swan, in our current window, for a week or two in the H&A, would be irrelevant. we saw last year how our depth could step in to fill the void when swan & thomas went missing, and those replacements are approaching their peaks now.

key position forwards & backs are a different proposition altogether. cloke is still young and quickly building himself into a once in a generation forward for collingwood, and maybe more. dawes proved himself to be a very good foil for cloke, and dawes absence last year didnt effect clokes ability. we have nothing on our list currently that is a replacement for cloke, but theres probably nothing in the whole game either.

we have the depth to adequately cover most common, normal scenarios, and naturally we have problems if 2 or more of our AA players go down, whether for extended periods or during finals.

end thread.

 

[Visions]

If it is for an extended period of time.

Step 1: Pray for some sort of miracle
Step 2: Once step 1 doesn't work, start preparing for the following year as it's season over

 

[Ed D]

If it is for an extended period of time.

Step 1: Pray for some sort of miracle
Step 2: Once step 1 doesn't work, start preparing for the following year as it's season over

What if they're only missing for 2-3weeks and we have a top 4 spot sewn up? Which players would you look at playing then?

 

[Visions]

What if they're only missing for 2-3weeks and we have a top 4 spot sewn up? Which players would you look at playing then?

In that case it's no different to resting players before finals so any of the 1st year draftees to get some game time. See if they can swim.

 

[Knightmare]

Reid probably could go forward if Cloke/Dawes go down, which just brings N.Brown back into the team which isn't terrible.

If both Cloke and Dawes are injured then bring Tarrant forward also and play Keeffe as a key defender. (Having Tarrant+Reid and Keeffe+N.Brown would still be more than competitive and probably better than most).

Witts or Jackson Paine could also be potential options if VFL form ok. Gault I think might surprise a few, though he will take time.


Through the midfield Seedsman and J.Thomas would be the next two in line. Both ready to play and play good footy.

 

[TradeDraft]

Witts or Jackson Paine could also be potential options if VFL form ok. Gault I think might surprise a few, though he will take time.

Why Do you think Gault be a Surprise Knight?

 

[sr36]

As others have said it's pretty obvious what would happen if we lost Pendles and Swan - we'd become a significantly lesser team, but we have a very deep midfield. Most of our flankers are really midfielders who can't get an extended run in the middle.

If we lost Dawes and Cloke, I'd like to see Reid moved forward. I think that he is a fantastic prospect as a forward; however, he is so good down back that we'll probably never see him have an extended run there.

 

[Knightmare]

Why Do you think Gault be a Surprise Knight?

Late bloomer. Development very strong over past year and I see no reason why it will suddenly stop. Very coachable.

All these things to me indicate upside.

Might be a late pick and certainly has a long way to go to develop a complete game. But I think there is something to work with.

 

[TradeDraft]

Late bloomer. Development very strong over past year and I see no reason why it will suddenly stop. Very coachable.

All these things to me indicate upside.

Might be a late pick and certainly has a long way to go to develop a complete game. But I think there is something to work with.

That is very True and being very Coachable does willy help his Chances. Imagine how good Witts go by how much he Improved this last season